"Cato! Cato!" Clove shrieked, more than terrified now. She was staring at the huge boy from district 11, who was clutching a rock in his left hand. She forgot all about the stupid girl on fire from district 12 and was calling out to the only one she truly cared about. "Cato!" Panic rose up in her voice like vomit, and she tried to swallow it down. Tears sprang from her eyes, and she cringed. She could only scream out again in horror.
"Cato! Help me please!"
"You said her name, did you kill her? You kill her?" He shouted, pinning the squirming career against the cornucopia. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and he snarled. Clove cried out 'no' over and over, but she knew her time was up. Reality had hit her. She tumbled to the ground and realized the truth. She wasn't going home. She was dead all along. All that training. For nothing. Cato wasn't quick enough. Blood spilled from her head as her eyes fluttered open and closed.
"I'm coming Clove!" The distraught career ran from the trees, shouting as Thresh vanished on the other side of the clearing. His voice was muffled to her, but the fallen tribute would know who it was anywhere. "Stay with me Clove...we can do this...we can go home..." Cato cried out, squeezing her ha. He shook her roughly, but then began to sob over her and he held the now fragile girl in his arms. She blinked up at him, her world fading fast. It was over. She began to speak softly, coughing up blood as she did.
"Clove…"
"I...love..." Clove shuddered, and a canon sounded throughout the arena, marking one of the saddest deaths in the 74th annual Hunger Games. Her hand went limp in Cato's hand, and she rolled onto the soft grass, gone. That once shining, competitive spark in her eyes had vanished forever. Just gone. She was a blank slate.
Cato stood up and screamed. He ripped at his hair, and threw his sword at the cornucopia. It clanged on the metal and fell on the grass, still wet with the morning dew. The grass was also stained with blood. Clove's blood. His Clove. The District 2 career fell to his knees and screamed towards the ground, sobbing loudly. He ripped up the grass, scattering it without a care. He couldn't take it. "We could have gone home!" He shouted to the sky, tears streaming. He was met with only silence, and he bent over his fallen teammate. But she was more than that to him. So much more. The agony was unbearable.
He stood up and began to walk. He left his sword, but that wasn't what he was sad to leave behind. He couldn't look back. Or else he wouldn't be able to leave her side. He wiped his cheeks of the remaining tears, and vowed to make the next death that Thresh from district 11. As he stormed into the woods he spoke 5 words he wished he had said earlier. Much, much earlier.
"I love you too, Clove."