Clove and Death
(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HUNGER GAMES. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)
And when I die, no man shall pity me.
– Shakespeare, RICHARD III
"I think whoever blew up the food left this, and will be back," said Marvel, pointing out the hidden supplies. "And I'm pretty sure it's that bitch from 12, the one that sicced the trackit jackets on us. She's clever; the judges gave her that 11 for a reason. I'd like you to loan me that net you got from the Cornucopia."
"Okay," said Clove. "Then we'll jump her from both sides, and –"
"NO," said Marvel. "Leave her to me. After all – er – Glimmer was from my District. I need to avenge her death."
Clove was not impressed by Marvel's sudden concern for Glimmer. When the trackit jackets fell, he simply ran, without bothering to see if Glimmer was all right. So did Clove, but she wasn't being hypocritical about it. She suspected that Marvel was trying to improve his Killing Count. Doing in the girl with the highest score would be rather a trophy.
Nevertheless she loaned him the net. But she did not leave the area altogether, but hid in a bush nearby. It was possible that the "bitch from 12" would somehow evade his trap and kill him instead. Then Clove could solve the matter with her knife collection, and the girl from 12 would be HER trophy.
At first Marvel's plan seemed to fail laughably, because the first victim to get caught in the net trap was not the enemy from 12, but the little girl from District 11. But then she started calling to "Katniss", the name of the real enemy. Clove got her knives ready, just in case.
Katniss appeared, with Glimmer's bow and arrows slung around shoulder. Then things happened almost too quickly for Clove to follow. Marvel threw his spear at the girls, but it hit the District 11 girl instead of Katniss. The latter swiftly put in an arrow in her bow and shot Marvel in the neck, killing him instantly. So now Clove knew where the highest score had come from. Katniss was a far better archer than Glimmer.
Katniss then knelt over the dying girl, talking to her. The position made her a poor target, and so Clove waited. If she should miss, Katniss could shoot an arrow at Clove, and possibly kill her.
Then Katniss got up and walked to a cluster of flowers nearby. Clove waited again, curious what the girl was going to do. Katniss scattered the flowers across the smaller girl's body, then raised her hand in a salute. Now she was a perfect target, but Clove froze up, overwhelmed by a sudden fit of déjà vu.
0-0-0-0
The 73rd Hunger Games had been won by Minerva, the girl from District 4. She had been trained in the Academy and the school took pride in that. Of course the other five Tributes from the school that year had been killed, but the Academy downplayed that. One of them was the girl from District 2, named Pepper.
Clove had liked Pepper, who was a formidable fighter but also had a tender side. Shortly after Clove started the Academy, she had made a mistake in training, and had been beaten by the teachers. They frequently struck the students, not just as discipline but to toughen them for the arena. But as she cried from pain and humiliation in her room, Pepper had come to comfort her and give her a pep talk. Clove had suspected for a moment that Pepper wanted to seduce her, but it turned out that Pepper was simply being sympathetic to an unhappy girl.
When Pepper's body was returned to the District, the Academy gave her a perfunctory memorial service, as a loser. When they opened the box to reveal her body, most of the students and teachers stood by stonily, but Clove surprised herself and everybody else by starting to cry.
"Stop that!" ordered the headmaster.
"I – I can't help it –"
The headmaster walked up to Clove and slapped her soundly across the face. "There, that'll give you something to cry about. Come to my office."
They reached the office and the headmaster glared from his desk at Clove. "We can't send snivellers to the Games. Once the others think they are weak, they become targets. Give me one good reason you shouldn't be expelled as a useless trainee."
Being expelled was a disgrace. Districts 1, 2, and 4 spent a lot of money on the Academy, and they didn't like wasting it. Clove would be a pariah for the rest of her life.
"J-Johanna Mason. She was a whiner, but she WON."
"You know about her?"
"I've studied past games."
"That's to your credit, anyway." The headmaster seemed to relent somewhat.
"Please give me another chance. I promise, I'll be so good that you'll have me volunteer for the Games next year."
They put her on probation. Then somebody discovered that she was proficient at a particular skill, knife throwing. Then the school psychologist decided on a novel strategy, to compensate for her "tearfulness" by cultivating a streak of sadism, so that she would react to other's suffering with pleasure, not compassion. If it worked they would add it to the curriculum.
By the time the year was over, they were so impressed that they indeed designated her to volunteer for the 74th Games as the Tribute from District 2. Clove was triumphant. But still, she acknowledged internally that it was right for her to weep for a fallen comrade and friend. And so, when Katniss started mourning for the dead girl from District 11, Clove found herself unable to attack. People, even bitches from 12, had a right to cry in peace.
0-0-0-0
Meanwhile the two deaths had brought the total number of survivors down to six – Cato, Clove, that damned pair from 12, the huge boy from 11 and that weird girl from 5 who never fought but always survived. Traditionally, the alliance dissolved at that point and the Academy rules allowed their members to start killing each other. But before Clove could start hunting down Cato, there was a sudden announcement that the Gamesmasters would accept a Victor COUPLE if they were from the same district. Clove suspected that the Gamesmasters hated Katniss as much as she did and wanted the remaining Careers to concentrate on killing her instead of each other. So when she did find Cato, they didn't fight. Instead they climbed up a tree and had some wonderful sex. Even the knowledge that the Gamesmasters were probably watching didn't deter them; they would probably edit the sex scenes before displaying the footage to the public, just as they never showed a Tribute naked or going to the bathroom.
Then came another announcement: that each of the survivors would receive a gift at the Cornucopia. It was an obvious ploy to lure the survivors into one area so that they would start fighting again. In particular Cato, who had badly wounded the boy from 12, suspected that the main motive behind the gifts was to draw Katniss out of hiding to get some medicine for her loverboy.
By this time Clove was regretting her sentimental impulse to spare Katniss, and had carefully hidden that incident from Cato. She urged him to let her kill the girl.
"But I'm determined to kill her in my own way," he said.
"I have ways, too," she said. "Remember when they told us in the Academy about the ancient Chinese ling-chi torture? I'm gonna do that to her face. Lips, nose, ears, maybe eyes, before I put her out of her misery. I'll give the audience a big show. They'll be rerunning it for years."
He thought about it. "You win," he said. "I'll look out for the others."
And so, when the bitch from 12 emerged from the woods and ran for the Cornucopia, Clove was ready with her knives. Unforunately, she made a mistake: she threw not to kill but to incapacitate her and leave alive for the ling-chi. Katniss shot back, and the arrow grazed Clove's left arm. It was agonizing, and did nothing to improve Clove's mood.
Clove grabbed the girl from 12 and wrestled her to the ground, using the wrestling holds they had taught her at the Academy. Then, for the sake of the audience, she taunted her for the failure to save her girlfriend and described what she was going to do to her face, deliberately nursing the sadistic streak as they had taught her. But in the process, she forgot there were still other Tributes around. Suddenly strong arms yanked her hair painfully and pulled her off of her victim.
It was the boy from District 11, and unlike Marvel, he was genuinely enraged at the killing of his District partner. "I heard what you said about the little girl! You kill her? You cut her up like you said?"
She had done neither, but it was far too complicated to explain. "No! Cato! Cato!"
Calling for help was her last mistake. Apparently anxious to finish her off before help could arrive, the avenger rammed the back of her head into the wall of the Cornucopia, twice. She suspected from the pain that her skull had cracked, and that in seconds the damage would ruin her brain. There would be no recovery. The last coherent thing she saw was Cato's face.
"Clove! Clove! Don't die! Please, stay with me."
As she died, her one consolation was that somebody would weep for her death.
THE END