Cato and Clove

By Rachel and Louie

I plunge my sword into Katniss's heart. She stares at me, her grey eyes cold with hatred. As she drew her last breath, her face paling and her features contorted in agony. She looked at me one last time before letting go of life.

I had finally done it. I had killed our best rival.

Clove smiles, deadly and merciless as she watches Katniss's limp body slump to the ground. She looks so sure of herself. She then turns and says to me, a smile still on he her face, "We should go find Peeta now, while the sun is still up."

Peeta's POV

I was so hungry. The earth felt unstable underneath my feet, threatening to pull me to it. Finally, I looked to my right, and a bush appeared in my line of vision. It had dozens of red berries on it, glinting in the sunlight, tempting me forward. I think they were edible, for something that beautiful couldn't possibly be deadly. I weakly reach out to it, grasping for the source of comfort I encountered in days.

Katniss left me three days ago, in search of food. She never came back, and the next night I saw her face in the sky. By then I had abandoned all hope and decided to search for food by myself.

I finally managed to pluck a berry from the bush, the slight surface of it smooth against my skin. A raise it onto my lips and took a bite, swallowing the sour flesh.

Suddenly I hit the ground, and I saw red and nothing else.

Cato's POV

As dusk fell, I heard the sound of a cannon. I decided that it had to be Thresh, Foxface, or Peeta. Clove and I were hoping it was Peeta.

Suddenly, I heard the hiss of a snake, and shortly after, a feminine scream. Driven thoroughly by instinct, I spared a glance at Clove, whose eyes widened in surprise.

"It must be Foxface," she said, and I nodded. I motioned her to be quiet, hearing the hissing noise again.

Run, I mouthed to her, and we both broke into a sprint. We ran blindly through the forest, not thinking of the direction of where we were going. Since there were only three of us left, this had to be the final challenge.

I see Thresh bolting towards us. Just before he reached us, a giant, scaly tail collided with him, forcefully throwing him into the nearest tree. I heard his cannon boom.

Clove whips out a knife and throws it, hitting the serpent mutt's eye. While it was blinded, I took out my sword and slashed it into multiple pieces. We then ran away from the clearing, and stopped when we reached the Cornucopia.

"It's just you and me now," I say to Clove. Clove nods, taking a knife and pointing it towards herself. I panic, quickly reaching toward her hand before she could stab herself.

"No," I say, "I have a better idea."

"What is it?" Clove asks, frowning.

"We could kill each other at the same time, at the count of three," I explain.

"Alright," she says, her knife still positioned. I then take out my sword and point it towards her heart, and her knife towards mine.

"At the count of three," I say, "Three, two-"

Clove suddenly turns her knife towards herself and plunges it in.

"No!" I shout, tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I can't believe she killed herself. I knelt by her side and gently brushed the hair from her face. She then spoke her last words, "Don't kill yourself. Promise me that you won't." I was about to respond, but she then expired.

Then I heard the hovercraft.

Epilogue: 3 Years Later

Three years after her death, I still hallucinate about her last words to me. Would I have had made that promise? I suppose, since I'm still alive, I had. The Hunger Games are still occurring every year. Sometimes I break down crying, thinking of how I could have saved Clove. But what has been done is done, and I can't change that. I'm fingering the knife in my hand. Someday we'll be together. That day should be now.

I plunge the knife into myself and smile.