A/N: Whoo! My first gruesome story, and here it is featuring Clove! Clove's my third favorite character, I swear she is! Ranking just behind Rue and Foxface, I don't know how you can all hate her. Set during the 74th Hunger Games, let the gore begin! May the odds be ever in your favor...
A knife whizzed through the air, but the District 6 boy ducked, thankfully avoiding the lethal hit meant for his head. He was thankful, but he couldn't celebrate yet.
In the Hunger Games, nobody could ever rest without worrying about dying. Every minute, spent with anticipation, adrenaline, the Capitol simply loved it! This District 6 boy, Rennon was picked, and he was sure he was signing his own death sentence by walking to the stage, but he didn't plan on kicking the bucket just yet.
"Cato! I got one!" the District 2 girl yells, running after Rennon.
Rennon can only run faster. He had seen this girl in training. She never missed her targets, and now, he was probably on her list.
Suddenly, he feels something heavy slam into him, knocking all his air out. The back of his head bashes into a tree, sending little purple spots into his vision. He gathers every ounce of his energy, and focuses on his sight, but he was pinned to the tree.
"Wha-" he mumbles, but he was interrupted by a loud stining force on his face.
The slap makes him come back to his senses, and the first thing he sees was the sadistic grin of the District 2 girl, Clove, in his face. Green eyes gleamed with anticipation as the knife twirls in her right hand.
The dagger...it's patterned, into three scythes that could nearly mimic the claws of a barbaric animal, but these are much daintier. The blade is still fresh, shining, and taunting Rennon, her next victim.
"Let's give the audience a show, shall we?" she murmurs.
Her blade cuts three parallel lines in his throat, opening thin lines of blood that she licks away. She is the monster that feasts on his blood, but she can't help it. The metallic taste fuels her desire for slow carnage. Rennon whimpers, oh how he wishes she would just kill him quickly!
Clove continues carving patterns into his throat, drinking in his growing shrieks of pain. A slash brings on a fresh wave of the crimson liquid, she looks on proudly as it gushes down, bringing Rennon's cries hoarser and horser.
She doesn't care if he will die in pain, she's having the time of her life carving. Another deep slash near his jugular makes him scream, it's torturous. Clove giggles manically. She remembers how she took a short course on the human body at the training station, and she knows how to make them suffer slowly.
Rennon's screams are a silent sceram now, and his face is permanently etched in horror. Clove brings her lips to his neck, nearly shrieking herself on tasting the sweet wine. The drug is her addiction.
Clove thrusts her weapon into his throat, and rips out a chunk of raw meat. Rennon has lost the will to live, and tears run down his face as he silently pleads her to just end it, but she will have none of it. With more accurate jabs, his trachea is sore from the strain, and she can even see the insides pulsing, racing quickly.
She tires soon of this, so she tries a new method that is sure to amuse her. With a naughty giggle, she stops slashing his neck, and he sighs with relief, thinking that she'll just get it over with, but she slams his head up against the tree once more...and begins to saw his neck.
Snap!
Snap goes Rennon's poor vocal cord, just like a rubber band.
Snap! Snap!
The rest also begin to fall just like the first, and Rennon is starting to forget how to live and scream.
After a few minutes, which had probably felt like centuries, his neck is nearly halfway done with Clove humming happily. Rennon had mercifully died, but Clove never stopped the mutilation.
When his head does fall off, Clove rips off his shirt and carves her name onto his chest, over and over. It's a token for the hovercraft coming to collect the body, a feast for the Capitol audience's eyes as they are reminded of the bloodbath held.
What's more, it's for if she doesn't win the Games. It's a reminder for them, the girl with the knives.
"Clove! You coming?" Cato shouts, plunging his knife out of a tribute.
"Yeah, sure!" she yells back.
She's finished doing the last cleave, and sets off to join the other Careers. A hovercraft pulls up to collect the dead body, and Clove actually laughs when Rennon's blood from his chest spills all over the tree, marking it in a deep red hue. The Careers stare at her strangely, except for Cato. He's met her already, and knows what she's like.
But that night, when Rennon's face is projected into the night sky, he seems to be looking at Clove directly with a glare. And at that moment, the blade expert swears she hears a vengeful whisper.
"See you in Hell."
Days later when it's the feast and Thresh is holding the rock above her, Clove can't help but notice that his eyes have changed, looking ver much like Rennon's last look at her in the projection.
As she lays dying, Cato rushes to her, tenderly holding her hand and trying to comfort her in her last moments, she doesn't actually listen and is just looking at the blue sky, mixed with swirls of red.
Her heart beat slows down to nothing at all, but Clove's not entirely gone. She still has the reminders of her carved into her victim's chest and forehead. The girl with the blade will always be remembered, not the girl on fire. Just as Clove's soul is drained from her, she can see fire. How ironic, the fire, this time, is not from Katniss, but from a more omnious fire, the raging flames of Hell.
"Go get her for me, Cato." is her last sentence.
Cato doesn't need to guess who she is. Grabbing his sword, he runs after Thresh first, desperate to avenge Clove.
A/N: So, how was that for a first story? Bad? Good? The review button's just there!