Chapter 2.
Katniss tossed in bed for over an hour before she gave up on sleep. She was still buzzing with the success of the opening ceremony, she didn't doubt that she had made an impression on the sponsors but she had seen the glares of the other tributes and she knew that a great, fiery target had just been painted on her back. With that thought she gave up on sleep and pulled the silvery velvet blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders before shuffling out into the main room.
No avoxs were present and the huge apartment was eerily silent, Haymitch was probably passed out in his room and Peeta was likely asleep. The only noise was Katniss' blanket dragging softly against the floor. She padded into the lift and pressed a button that she had noticed earlier. The doors slid open to reveal a moonlit rooftop garden filled with silvery flowers and dark leaves. The stars shone faintly above them and the celebrating capitol citizens could be heard beneath.
She wandered between the exotic plants idly, searching for a place to lay out her blanket. She was reaching the edge when she saw a figure with his back to her on a bench through a tangle of trees. The silvery moonlight outlined his well built form and shone off his blond hair. Katniss wondered if Peeta shared her nerves about the private training tomorrow and the impending games, he probably did. She followed the stupid winding path which led her around the flowerbed and towards the bench, approaching from the front.
'I thought you were asleep Peeta.' She called out, Peeta's head snapped up, only it wasn't Peeta. The features were wrong; his chin wasn't as square and his cheekbones were more pronounced. The hair was shorter and a lighter shade of blond. Katniss froze in fear as she recognized Cato Stone, the victor of the 73rd hunger games. Cato's games had been one of the bloodiest in hunger games history. He seemed to lose it after his first kill in the initial bloodbath and he killed 6 tributes before he even reached the Cornucopia. Katniss had stopped watching then, sickened by the mindless slaughter but she knew the rough outline from there. He got hold of a sword from the Cornucopia and the games were pretty much already over; he slaughtered 11 tributes on the first day, the other careers took out 4 between them. The alliance didn't even last the night, and he was declared victor on the third day. Apparently he hadn't been right in the head since; he certainly didn't look sane on the victory tour.
'Peeta probably is asleep.' Cato said. Katniss stood awkwardly, trying to think of an escape route as Cato's ice blue eyes slid over her, taking in every detail. Suddenly he gestured to the space beside him on the bench and deciding that appeasement was probably the safest option she obeyed. She couldn't relax though and she sat on the edge of the stone bench ready to flee at a moment's notice.
'Sorry, I mistook you for my district partner in the bad light.' She apologized awkwardly.
'I know who Peeta is, I'm not that out of it.' He said sourly and Katniss felt a flicker of fear run through her. She wondered if he held the same resentment towards her as the others from his district, she knew if he did then unlike the others he would have no qualms in killing her on the spot.
'Why did you come up here?' She asked curiously. Cato cast her a glance and Katniss shivered slightly, remembering she was in the presence of a murderer.
'Enobaria and Brutus won't look for me here; I'm not supposed to go anywhere in the capitol without an escort.' He laughed humourlessly 'They're probably afraid I'll kill one of their precious sponsors'. He answered surprisingly honestly. She remembered hearing that Cato had murdered a couple of people since he had come out of the games.
Katniss looked Cato over with renewed caution, suddenly noticing the short throwing knife in his hands. He kept turning it over in his hands, watching the play of light along the razor sharp edges. Her mind was swamped by images of him sinking the blade into her, blood spattering his face and chest as it had in his games. Her breathing sped up unconsciously and Cato heard, unsurprisingly. He turned so he was facing her and spun the knife in his hand casually, holding it out for her inspection. It was a similar size and shape to the one that Clove had been using earlier but the blade looked like solid gold.
'You recognize it?' He asked quietly and Katniss nodded.
'It's a throwing knife, Clove was using ones like it earlier.' Katniss shuddered at the memory of the knives slamming into the targets, hitting each one dead centre.
'She that good?' He inquired and Katniss nodded. 'You ever tried using one?' he continued and Katniss shook her head.
'Not really.' She hadn't wanted to try them out with the careers there because it would have showed up how much worse she was than Clove.
'I can teach you if you want?' Cato told her and Katniss stared at him in disbelief, both surprised that he would offer to help her and worried that he might lose control and throw the knife at her. Torn between the idea of learning from a career and wanting to learn to use something other than the bow she finally agreed.
Cato twirled the knife again and suddenly the blade spun out of his hand. Moonlight flashed off it brightly and it landed with a heavy thud, sinking several inches into a false tree trunk several meters away. The hilt quivered slightly from the impact and Katniss couldn't take her eyes off it. Her eyes followed the blade as Cato pulled it out of the tree and returned to the bench beside her. He demonstrated how to hold the knife and how to throw it in slow motion, finally he handed it to her and she took it hesitantly.
The knife was surprisingly heavy in her hands and she weighed it for a couple of seconds before adopting the position that Cato had demonstrated, the velvet blanket pooled around her feet as she did. He corrected her position quickly, finely adjusting the position of her fingers on the knife. His skin was warm despite the cool air and Katniss shivered slightly when he stepped away, wishing that he was still close. Then she mentally scolded herself for wanting to be close to a cold blooded murderer; what would Gale say?
Once Cato was satisfied with her stance he made her go through the motions of throwing the knife until she had it 'acceptable'. Finally he told her to release the knife and she flicked it out of her hand. It spun out of her hand and landed with a heavy thud in the tree, several feet below where it had landed when Cato had thrown it. It was still a solid stick though which pleased her, Cato was also smiling which surprised her; it was a genuine happy smile, nothing sadistic or mad about it.
Katniss threw the knife several more times with Cato making minute adjustments to her stance. The tree trunk became perforated with slices and sap oozed out of the bark. To her surprise Katniss found herself enjoying it; she even laughed when Cato threw the knife 6 times in quick succession, slicing a happy face into the bark. He threw the knife a seventh time and it landed, perfectly in the center making a large nose.
With her arm muscles aching Katniss collapsed onto the bench, still holding the knife. Cato sat next to her and she smiled at him.
'Thank you.' She said, and she actually meant it, not just for the lesson but for distracting her momentarily from worries about the games and her sister back home. Cato was silent and the grin on his face suddenly faded.
'What you did, volunteering for your sister, that was brave.' He said sincerely and Katniss looked at him, taken aback.
'but people in your district volunteer all the time!' she exclaimed.
'Yeah, but we've trained for it all our lives, there's a good chance if you volunteer from 2 that you'll win. You've never trained in your life but you volunteered anyway, knowing that you are likely to die.' Katniss grimaced at the reminder.
'She's my sister, I couldn't let her die.' She said truthfully. Cato opened his mouth to reply but his words were lost in the noise of the ding of the arriving lift. They both spun to face the door and Katniss instinctively slid the throwing knife up her sleeve to conceal it from view.
Two adults rushed onto the roof and caught sight of them quickly. They hurried over and Katniss tried to identify them but they were only vaguely familiar and the poor lighting didn't help. A giant of a man with huge muscles and no hair charged past her followed by a tall, athletically built woman, her dark hair was scraped back into an immaculate high ponytail. The man forcefully restrained Cato, pulling his arms behind his back as if he was fighting and Cato fought back accordingly. Katniss stepped back away from the struggling men but her foot caught in the velvet blanket at her feet and she crashed to the floor. Eventually the huge man appeared to win because Cato suddenly stopped fighting. The huge man snarled something in Cato's ear which Katniss didn't catch and Cato scowled but allowed the man to march him towards the door.
Then the woman stepped forwards and offered a hand to Katniss, she took it cautiously and allowed the woman to pull her to her feet.
'Are you OK?' She asked worriedly and Katniss nodded to signal that yes, she was alright. The woman didn't seem to believe her though because she checked her over anyway.
'No injuries as far as I can tell.' She said and Katniss caught a glimpse of something glinting in her mouth. Katniss suddenly connected the dots; district 2, shiny teeth and the muscled build, the woman in front of her was Enobaria, the person that won her games by ripping out the throats of her enemies with her teeth. Katniss recoiled from her instinctively, then felt awful when the woman's face fell. Enobaria took her arm and guided her back through the door. Her fingers narrowly missed the tip of the knife in her sleeve, the victor stooped to pick up the velvet blanket as they passed it.
To Katniss' surprise the victor accompanied her all the way to her room, Enobaria helped her into bed and threw the blanket over her. She left briefly to get a hot chocolate and returned to tuck her in.
'I've always wanted to do this.' She said as she folded the blanket snuggly around Katniss.
'Do what?' Katniss asked.
'Tuck someone in,' Enobaria sat at the edge of Katniss' bed by the pillow. 'I wanted kids, before the games of course.' She seemed like she was about to continue but there came a crash followed by several colourful curses from next door which Katniss guessed was Haymitch falling out of bed.
Enobaria gave her the hot chocolate and bid her goodnight in a surprisingly reluctant manner before shutting the door and leaving her to her thoughts. Katniss finally removed the throwing knife from her sleeve and turned it over in her hands as she sipped her drink. Once she had finished she used the remote to turn off the lights and she snuggled down in the covers still holding the knife. She had a lot to think about; Cato's apparent sanity, her lesson with knife throwing, Enobaria's kindness and above all her family back at home. She wondered how Prim was getting on without her and she hoped that Gale was managing to feed them. She hoped her mother hadn't already faded out and that she wouldn't when… if Katniss died in the games.
When she finally fell asleep she was still clutching the knife in her hands.
End of Chapter 2. R&R please.
