CLOVE'S POV
I woke up with my arms wrapped around my pillow, my knife clenched in my fist. I stared around my room looking for the noise that woke me up. I started in my bed as I realised today was reaping day and it was only 1 more year before I was going to volunteer. My knife hand crept closer towards my chest and I loosened my death grip on my pillow, jumping out of bed.
I rushed to get ready listening to the sound of the empty house, ever since my mother and father had died in an explosion at the old training centre caused by the rebels; I had been left on my own.
At the age of twelve they deemed me old enough to live on my own. My parents were both victors so I had both their fortunes and the money the Capitol gave me for their deaths.
No one in training hell no one in the entire district knew they were dead I just pretended they were at the capitol for most of the year and with me for only a few days as a family, I didn't want their pity. I didn't need it I was Clove Astrid Sterling and I was just fine by myself.
After a few months of being by myself the district 2 peacekeepers decided I still needed to have some sort of job even though I already had enough money, so it did not look suspicious. Most kids in my district get jobs as apprentices in cooking or engineering but I was always a special child. I was adopted into the force, sort of like the peacekeepers of district 2.
They take care of rebels, criminals and traitors, as soon as I was told to get a job the force requested I join them and I accepted, wanting to have something to do. My first mission was in an old abandoned factory.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -FLASHBACK- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I crept into the building with my squad, 2 knife belts strapped across my chest, another round my waist, 1 in each boot and a couple strapped onto a holster by my thigh. I saw the leader signal for the other to take the downstairs rooms and me to take the upstairs. Rebels tended to hide in the lower levels where they could escape from. I rushed up the stairs, my carefully mastered tread making no sound.
I slipped around the corner and somersaulted up on a pipe on the ceiling as a group of men tiptoed by. In a matter of seconds my hand had slipped to my knives and the 5 men fell with a knife in the back of their neck, they had all severed the windpipe so screaming was silenced.
I slid along the pipe on my stomach and spotted another 3 squads running past. My wrist flicked out in an intricate motion and 2 of the squads fell. The rest looked up in surprise and once seeing me there began shouting and arming themselves with swords and spears. I flipped of the pipe and landed behind two men. Within seconds they were dead with slit throats.
I laughed cruelly and began flipping around the room, slitting, cutting and stabbing at anything that came near me. More and more people showed up and I just kept killing, I felt several tears and gashes on my body but I rejoiced in the pain, it was the most alive I had felt since my parents were ripped from me. Soon I stood amongst a huge heap of bodies they had stopped coming and I noticed that they were probably all of the rebels that had been holed up here but I didn't care, they were traitors and they had to be punished.
Footsteps echoed around the room and I turned my head slowly towards the stairs, watching as the rest of my team came rushing up the stairs. "Holy crap Clove what happened her," my team leader Calvin shouted as he stared at the masses of bodies. I leant my head to the side and observed them before lifting up my hands and examining the blood.
"Lovely isn't it, the colour blood is, I wonder if my parents bleed before they died, do you know Calvin do you know if my parents bleed before they died?" I asked turning my head slowly back to meet his eyes, an insane grin plastered on my face. Calvin took a step back his hands over his heart. I smiled wider and turned back to the bodies, setting about pulling all of my knives from the dead men.
I turned back and beckoned to Calvin, he crept forward and I pulled him the rest of the way. "I will be going home and no one in the district will know about this okay," I smile sweetly and let go of his shirt, sending him reeling back. I push all of my knives back into my holsters and skipped merrily down the stairs and onto the street.
The next morning in class a group of men showed up and stood at the door till the teacher finally acknowledged them. "What Calvin?" I sighed turning to the leader. I could see the classes awed looks out of the corner of my eye, it was a great privilege to even talk to the leader of the top band of the force and I had just talked to him like he was below me. "Come on Clover we have to get to the Capitol," he sang. I groaned at the nickname but followed him anyway.
I noticed that Cato King the leader of the most popular band of kids was watching me with interest I was taken back he normally hated me because of what happened on the first week of training.
I walked into the doors of the new training centre and breathed in the fresh clear smell of the air conditioned room. A smile crept onto my face but suddenly dropped when I felt someone behind me. Within seconds I had them pinned to the floor with a knife to their throat. It was my mother's knife and I never left it at home except for on reaping days.
Reproachful eyes glared up at me from under blond hair and I realised I had pinned Cato King, fighting prodigy; I smirked and leapt off him turning my body effortlessly in the air to flip facing him. "What do you think you are doing newbie?" a light haired girl hissed, helping Cato to his feet. I giggled insanely and rolled my eyes, grinning widely.
They took a step back as the blond one Casey I think stepped forward. "You think this funny little girl, what you got there a little knife how cute, I think I'll have it," she snatched my mother's knife out of my hands and stepped back smirking at me, daring me to fight here.
I growled and launched myself at her, throwing her to the ground. I applied pressure and felt her leg snap under my weight, making her scream in pain. I twisted her right wrist till she let go of my knife then straddled her waist, my legs pinning her arms to her sides.
"Listen here bitch, number 1. You ever touch my knife again and I cut off parts of your body bit by bit till you die a slow painful death," at this I traced the edges of her eyes, lips and nose. She whimpered and I giggled again. "Number 2. Call me little girl and I make personally sure you never speak again think of yourself as an avox of sorts except I won't cut out just your tongue I take your teeth to okay," I hissed and stepped of her somersaulting over to the knives, I needed to clear my head.
I tied my hair up in a high ponytail and strapped on some of the belts, taking notice of the people watching, I smirked and decided to scare them just a little more. I put on about 4 belts of knives and lined up my targets, pushing the button to make them start moving. I saw people snickering out of the corner of my eye and smiled inside.
My hands fell to my knives and I heard the siren go. Knife after knife thudded into the targets and about 20 seconds later all 50 knives were embedded in the heads and chests of the dummies. I hit the stop button and went to get the knives ignoring the sudden silence in the hall.
I smiled as I thought of my first day of training, the fear had only grown especially with the rumours of me joining the force, helped along by my occasional absences. I showered and dressed in my reaping outfit. My hair was brushed and kept back from my face with a lilac headband. I was wearing a strapless knee high dress that flared out at the waist starting a very light purple then deepening to indigo. My feet wore purple ballet flats but I could still feel my knife in my hand. I hated leaving it behind but I would be back to get it after the reaping only one more year and I would be off to the Capitol.
I smoothed down my dress and stepped out of the house, joining the large crowds thronging towards the district centre.