Alright, time for Cato. *Sniff he was my second favorite... *breaks down crying *

Pairings: Heaps and heaps of Clato, teensy hints at Catoface (Foxface x Cato)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or anything that you recognize. If I did, Clove and Cato would've won. Maybe Foxface. Sigh.

They Told Me I was Supposed to Win: Cato's Story

It's just us three.

Me and Lover Boy and Everdeen. I've suffered through Clove's death, and Finch's, but I got the boy who killed Clove. I bet Lover Boy killed Finch. I think I'll kill him.

After Everdeen.

Always Everdeen first. That's what I promised Clove, that I'd eliminate the larger threat first. It was Everdeen, we thought. Not the giant, Thresh.

How wrong we were.

Kill Everdeen.

She caused Clove's death. I don't know how, exactly, but she did it. She's the biggest threat. She must've had an alliance with Thresh; he must've been waiting.

Of course you were waiting. She's one step ahead.

They told me I was supposed to win.

That's what I wanted, too. I wanted to win. Then I wanted to win with Clove, when they announced the rule change. We were going to go home together.

They all said I was supposed to win.

I wish I had the pack from the feast. Clove was supposed to get it. I was supposed to guard her.

I was supposed to keep her safe.

Too late, I think bitterly. I need to keep my thoughts away from her. I'm not even going to think her name.

Clove, Clove, Clove, my traitor mind sings.

Well, anyways, I wish I had the pack. At the time of the feast, we desperately needed food. There wasn't even enough for one person. We were starving, all because of Everdeen.

I was supposed to keep her safe. It was her idea to go by herself, and I let her. Now that she's dead, it's easy to see what I should've done. I should've come with her, instead of looking around for someone who was already murdering my…. I don't really know a word for what Clove was to me.

Friend.

Lover.

Ally.

Enemy.

Trainer.

Student.

Dead Heart.

Tell me everything that happened, tell me everything you saw,/

They had lights inside their eyes, they had lights inside their eyes…

I run through the forest. I run from Clove, my dead heart, I run from unseen enemies, I run from all of my old allies. Marvel. Glimmer. Marina. Triton. Finch. And then her, the one with the sarcastic smile and the tapered fingers and the beautiful, beautiful eyes.

Oh, Clove. You said you'd be there for me.

Now she is gone.

She is gone.

I am alone.

I'm at a small clearing when I hear a low growl, not unlike that of a dog. Dogs used to be my favorite animals. Then the spot was taken my lizards, and then bears, because Clove hated lizards. She thought that all they were good for was target practice.

"And lizard stew!" I used to tease her, tickling her stomach until she slapped me.

That's when the first mutt bursts out of the trees. It's vaguely dog-like, but no, it's all wrong. The fur is sort of ashy, which is all right for a dog, and the eyes are hazel. What's wrong is that it's too large, and its eyes… they're human eyes.

All mutts are designed to hurt you. Some physically, some psychologically, some both. This muttation is the boy from District 9, as I can tell from the 9 on his grain collar. Clove's first kill in the arena, as well as the first death overall.

The next to pop up has blonde fur and the weird human eyes, this time in blue. Exactly beside it emerges a large black dog. Its eyes are obscured by the hair, but it's obvious who these two are. They're the pair from 6, also Clove's kills. Their collars have trains on them. Why are the Gamemakers doing this to me? Clove's kills… maybe it'll be a Clove mutt next up. I'd let it kill me, that's for sure. I can't kill her. Not twice.

I'm wrong. A red-furred mutt with amber eyes.

It's Finch.

Before they can advance, I take off, before I remember that I'm wearing body armor. A fat lot of good it'll do me against the psychological torture.

Everdeen and Lover Boy are just kind of standing there by the Cornucopia. I barrel through them, feeling the rush of air as more pop up, until I'm sure that all twenty-one dead tributes have a reincarnation bent on killing us.

I climb up onto the golden horn, and I can hear the pair from 12 do the same. What I can also hear is the scrabble of the mutts' claws on the seamless metal. I only hope they can't jump.

Once I'm up, I scan the ground for Clove's muttation. I can see Glimmer's, though – a beautiful bitch dog with curly blonde fur, a collar with the number 1 inlaid with jewels, and intelligent green eyes. They narrow in hatred at the very sight of me.

There. A slight one, almost as small as the one that's supposed to represent Rue from 11, with dark fur and muddy green eyes, which display no recognition.

She doesn't remember me.

It's not her, Cato, I shout at myself. Not her.

She can't remember me, because she's dead.

Then I realize something. Lover Boy's got this huge wound in his calf, which is making the horn slick with blood. It'd be so easy just to push them off, to let Clove have her last kills...

"When I'm a tribute, I'm going to kill more kids than anybody else," the little girl crows, her dark hair in pigtails. I roll my eyes. I'd definitely kill the most. If I could, I'd kill all twenty-three of them. Nobody would stand a chance against me...

We lay down on the hill, under the willow tree, gazing at the sunset over the old flooded quarry. It's where we go all the time. Our secret spot.

"What would you do if the unthinkable happened?" A fourteen-year-old Clove asks, her hands folded over her stomach.

"If what happened?"

"If we both went in the same year. If one of us was reaped and nobody volunteered. Would you kill me, Cato?" Clove looks at me with complete and utter sincerity. She doesn't seem bitter. Only thoughtful.

"I don't know, Clove, I've never really thought about it."

"I don't think I could kill you." She sits up and moves closer to me. I can see every single fleck of gold in her muddy green eyes...

I stand on the stage, staring into the eyes of my best friend as I shake her hand. My mind flies back to that sunset.

"Would you kill me, Cato?"

"I really hope you've thought that over," Clove whispers, thinking along the same lines as me. I can tell by the way she smiles...

Clove will finally her wish. She'll have the most kills out of all of us, five.

"Can they climb it?" I gasp, my body rendered immobile with grief. Everdeen and Lover Boy probably think it's cramps. They don't know that she caused the death of my best friend.

Katniss suddenly shrieks and fires an arrow into the Glimmer-mutt's throat. She must get it now, get who these mutts are. Or were.

"It's her!" she squeals.

"Who?" asks an oblivious Lover Boy. He's stupid. Can't he see Clove, sitting down there, begging for me to come down, to play with her, to tell her I love her. Why can't I get down? Clove is waiting for me.

But I've got more important things to do.

Kill Everdeen.

They told me I was supposed to win.

"Kill it, Peeta! Kill it!" rings out through the arena, so clearly through the screams of a boy, so clearly through the barks of my best friend and my old allies, my victims.

If you can't kill Everdeen straightaway, get her boyfriend, Clove whispers in my mind. You can do this, Cato. You can win.

I remember her last words to me, when she could barely get them out after the ox from 11... after what he did.

You can win, Cato. And then I smiled. She smiled, too, but it looked all wrong. It was infused with pain. The lips were turned down in a grimace. Clove never grimaced unless our old friend Mason told a bad joke. Oh, that smile... And then, as her eyes closed shut and I screamed, she whispered three words I'd never thought I'd hear.

I love you.

I'd screamed for her to come back to me. She would be alright. I loved her. We would go back to District 2, we would win this, it'd be okay.

Get to her boyfriend...

I jerk Lover Boy away from Katniss' side, putting him in a headlock that I remember Clove used on me one time. It'll cut off his air and he'll asphyxiate. Lover Boy claws kind of weakly at me. Pathetic. If he's so strong, why can't he get me away? I laugh insanely as I picture going home.

Home.

District 2? Is that my home?

I can barely remember anything but Clove's face in great detail, grimacing with pain, begging me to win for her. Then something about honor...

What is honor to a dead man?

"Shoot me and he goes down with me," I laugh. Her arrow's pointed at my head. I should be worried, but all I care about is taking away the one she loves. She took Clove. It's time for me to return the favor.

Lover Boy makes an X on the back of my hand. What's that for?

Then I get it.

The body armor doesn't cover my hands. She'll shoot me, and I'll go down.

She lets the arrow fly, and I stumble backwards, letting him go, my grip's gone, I can't stand, falling, falling...

The ground meets me with surprising force, but that's nothing compared to the mutts. Ripping... tearing...

I leap up, grabbing a knife from inside my jacket. That's something Clove taught me: Always have a trick or two up your sleeve.

The first mutt gone is the boy from District 9. For a while, we tussle, and I give him some good wounds, but eventually I slit his throat and he goes down, screaming like a fiend, still clawing at me.

I don't kill any more for what feels like three hours but is probably only one. It's Marvel's mutt, and he's just as skilled in dog form as he was in human.

I need to make it back to the Cornucopia. It's the only thing that can save my life, and it's not working. In the end, I'm simply overpowered.

They told me I was supposed to win.

This isn't winning.

The mutts drag me inside the golden horn, tearing at my extremities, the parts that my armor doesn't cover. My hands go first, then my feet, and then they try to tear my armor.

Two hours of screaming, moaning, and then begging later, they've made a hole and proceed to rip the armor off of me.

It's Clove. The mutt that makes the first bite into my abdomen is none other than my lovely Clove, my little knife-girl.

She's not Clove. Clove is dead. This is a mutt.

I can almost her her snarling at me.

"You said you'd always come for me. Why did you let me down?"

Bite. I beg her to stop, but she rips away a piece of my arm.

They all told me I'd win.

The other mutts dig in, and I can mostly figure out who they are. There's the boy from 4, my kill, and his district partner. Glimmer called her Fish Girl. The girl from 6. The lame boy from 10. Rue.

I don't know how long it goes on. I can hear Lover Boy whispering to Everdeen, something about the sun, and I look through what's left of my eyes to see that the sun is, in fact, rising. This has gone on for hours. Hours of agony and they've done nothing.

I can see why. I'm a horrible person, at least in their minds. I killed without a second thought and showed no mercy. They won't either. They're going to let me suffer until I bleed out.

Somehow, I manage to wriggle my way up to the mouth of the Cornucopia. It's amazing how I do it with ripped stumps for legs and no arms. I'm a raw hunk of meat now. Stinking. Food for flies and worms alike.

Please kill me.

"Please," I whimper. Hopefully Katniss can hear me.

The arrow flies into my skull and the world goes black, finally.

They told me I was supposed to win.

All along, I knew I was supposed to die.

Sorry if it was a little gory, I think I might make my future chapters a little more kid-friendly, just in case there are some kids my age on Fanfiction. Well, see you in a few days! Don't forget to review!