Chapter 4

Price of being a champion.

I take a quick glance out of the window as the train jerks forward leaving the capitol. The capitol people who look like a swarm of crayons wave like they did when we first came.

"Get some sleep you two, we will be in two by 10am." Brutus says to Cato and I, then leaves to his room.

As we move off past the capitol, full of buildings and rainbow colored people, I watch the sunset. A calm orange with hints of pink here and there.

I rest my elbows on the window sill and bend my back to relax a bit for the first time in forever.

"Hey"

My back straightens and I turn around quickly. It's just Cato.

"Hi." I reply.

"Didn't mean to scare you. Why are you so jumpy? We aren't in the arena anymore,Clove." Cato states with a small smirk, his blue eyes glancing at me.

"I know Cato, I'm just-" I have to think really, why am I so jumpy all of a sudden? "-adjusting to being out of it." I tell him.

"Okay. It's definitely different being in luxury again"

"Yeah it is. Think about it,last week we were hunting down two kids from district 12, eating dried fruit out of a bag and peeing on plants." Cato laughs a little at what I've just said,but why? I didn't really find it funny. It's true, that's what we were doing last week.

"Yeah. I missed indoor plumbing and sleeping in a bed, not on the ground." Cato says gratefully.

"Yeah,well,I'm gonna go to bed." I tell him and walk off. I have the strangest feeling that Cato is watching me while I walk off and I turn my head a little and... he is.

I ignore this. It's just Cato. My life long best friend- no matter what he's my best friend,but then again he's my only friend that's close to my age- training partner and fellow victor;we share the crown. Just, something doesn't seem right since we won.

I enter my room as soon as the silver door slides open. It shuts behind me. Then I get a good look at the room. It was the one I stayed in when we first came to the capitol. The solid blue colored walls, the soft beige carpet around the bed area, the blue marbled floor. I sit on the bed that is covered by the silk sheets and the plush comforter. Such luxury that not even district 2 has.

I run my fingers over the surface of the blanket, soft under my rough skin. I still can't believe people live like this, it's amazing they aren't so fat they practically get everything done by anyone but themselves.

I untie my black boots and pull them off, tossing them to the floor where they land with a thud. I pull my t-shirt off and replace it with a pitch black tank top. I find in the never ending closet and replace my jean shorts with bedazzled pockets with red and gold cotton pajama shorts.

I decide to try to sleep. It's only about 9:00 but I have been tired lately with all the press and interviews.

I return to the massive king sized bed dragging my feet on the floor being to lazy to pick them up enough so they don't make scuffling noises with each step.

I quickly pull the dark blue covers back and lay down pulling the covers up to my neck. I flip on my side and somehow, I quickly find sleep.

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I feel the pain in the back of my head and it hits me hard.

"Did you kill her?!" The boy from eleven yells at me.

"No! No! It wasn't me!" I spit out trying to get out of his tight grasp. His hand around my neck tightening his grip by the second.

"I heard you! You said her name!" He yells at me. His eyes darken to a black. The only thing I can really register is how afraid I am. I cant go like this.

"Cato!Cato!" I scream at the top of my lungs. He doesn't reply. "Cato!"

Nothing. Thresh throws me to the ground and I land hard my back. I am to shocked by the sight in front of me to run. The boys ears turn to points, he gets a snout, razed sharp teeth and claws to match. He turns into a massive mutt.

The mutt growls at me as I try to move away. It pounces on me, biting and scratching, mauling me.

"Cato!" I scream for any hope he will come and rescue me.
"Clove!"

"Clove wake up!"

My eyes shoot open and I sit up too quickly. My forehead hits someone else's, hard.
"Ow!" The voice yells at me and sits down on my bed next to me. Almost on the edge of the bed.

"Damn it, Clove! Seriously?" The voice says to me. Wait, the arrogance in the voice, the annoyance. It's fucking Cato.

"Well, what the fuck are you doing in my room at-" I look over at the small little electronic clock on the bed side table. 3:00 am the red numbers read. "At three 'o clock in the fucking morning!" I yell at him. Its very dark in the room but I can just make out where he is. I rub my sore forehead from banging into his.

"I woke up earlier, maybe an hour ago, and I couldn't fall back asleep-" He starts.

"So?!"

"Shut up and let me finish!" Cato yells at me angrily. "I was walking through the hallways board and hoping maybe I would fall back asleep and I heard you screaming. I thought somebody was trying to kill you! It was annoying really. I kinda tried to ignore it but then you screamed my name but it wasn't like when your mad at me, it was like you needed my help or something. Like at the feast." Cato tells me. "Why were you screaming like that?"

"Nigh- wanna know what, just forget it. Get out of my room." I say to him demandingly.

"Nightmare?"

"H-how did you know that?" I ask him. My voice changed, almost hushed for some reason.

"It's a guess. What happened? It had to be really bad, right?"

"I am not talking about it, Cato."

"You were crying. I have never seen you cry before." Cato says to me. It sounds almost sympathetic.

"That's because I don't cry." I tell him strongly and it's silence between us for a while.

"Why did you call my name?"

"I-I-" I take a deep breath. I know I really should explain to him. I mean, I should right? "I saw Thresh."

Cato raises an eyebrow at me.

"He accused me of killing that little girl. Rue. I called for you to come and help me but you didn't come. He threw me on the ground and turned into a mutt and attacked me. I called for you again then you yelled my name and I woke up." I explain.

"Well, you were screaming pretty loud. You must have been scared."

"I wasn't scared!" I say to him angrily. "Cato leave. Now."

"Fine. You know sometimes you should let people fucking help you. All you do, Clove, is hide behind a wall. It's just waiting to be knocked down." Cato tells me as he gets up and stomps out.

I shove my face back into the pillow but I cant seem to find sleep again.

I lay on my back and just look up at the ceiling. Cato's words run over in my mind. 'All you do is hide behind a wall. Its just waiting to be knocked down.' Who the fuck does he think he is. If anyone hides its him. He's a malicious, arrogant, playboy, bossy, cocky, vicious, huge ego, bastard.

It's 4:30! Sleep,Clove fucking sleep!
I cannot sleep! This is horrible! Ugh,why!

I swing my legs out of the covers and off the bed. I'm going to walk around like an idiot. Doing nothing.

I open my door and just walk the empty hallways. So dark and kinda creepy at night. The dark blue carpet over the dark wood floor makes the silver walls look blackish at night. As the train swiftly moves through the night, lights flash from the district, or districts,we pass. I take a look out of the darkened window with the black wood frame.

I see an ocean and sand. I can hear the faint sounds of birds starting to chirp. We're passing four. Home of Finnick Odair,a victor. He won the 65th games. The year before Enobaria but he's only 24.

I turn away. I really want to find a avox. I want some food or something to drink,anything really.

"Miss. Kentwell?" A man's voice says and I turn around.

"Yes?" It's only a capitol attendant they are all over the trains. Unlike avoxs,they can speak and are allowed to. They only do small thing or are like security guards almost.

"Could I get you anything?" He asks me. The man looks to be around 20 and has deep blue eyes, dark brown hair, similar to Cato's and is around 6 feet tall.

"Um, yeah. Could you get me some hot chocolate?" I ask him and he just nods and walks off.

I keep walking bare foot through the halls. How big is this train?! I end up finally finding the living room and I plop down on the maroon colored velvet couch. Then I see it. In front on me is a huge flat screen tv. In district two of course we have tv's but they aren't used for anything but news and watching the games. I wanna turn it on!

Excitingly I turn the switch on and it flashes on silently. I pick up the black remote and start to surf through channels. I know they play reruns of the of shows North America played. We learned about it in history class once or twice.

Those people must have not had much to do. They could sit here for hours watching shows about talking cartoon animals, two siblings with ridiculous names trying to solve mysteries, four girls being harassed by their friends killer, a handful of kids who sing songs out of no where, a talking sponge and starfish, woman with fake orange tans and 3lbs of make up on their faces scream at each other, two girls with a web show- whatever that is- , vampire brothers that fall in love with a human girl and something about kids from New Jersey? Doing things no one should watch. They even have shows on teen moms and a lady yelling at a bunch of models.

I turn on the Capitol channel, which usually plays fashion shows about the clothes, shopping network, capitol news and a lot of times, games reruns. Right now its the Nova Hudson. She's from my district. Now almost blind. She was pretty vicious but the boy she was up against,Aaron Carson, he's from four and much bigger than her. She also had no weapons. A boy earlier on in the games reactivated the mines and somehow, she got them to explode setting the forest on fire burning the last tribute to death but paying the price she blinded herself.
It's better than dying.

The capitol attendant I spoke to earlier finds me and gives me a mug of hot chocolate. "Thanks" I say and he leaves after a quick nod.

I sip the drink. A milk chocolate brown with little marshmallows slowly melt, its warm but doesn't burn my tongue. its the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Another reason to hate the capitol their food is delicious.

The games end with showing Nova after the games and now. Long blond hair, tall, slim, fair skin but her eyes are silverish where her the colored parts should be. Shes pretty. Prettier than I am. I think I met her once to.

Another year of the games is up next and I decide to watch it. Im surprised when I see the one and only Johanna Mason. She is currently the only living female from district 7 and for good reason. District 7 is pathetic but with her it has some potential.

Through the games she tags along the careers. One of the boys looks remarkably familiar. Dark brown hair, extremely tall, muscular, deep blue eyes. Vicious in a way I've seen Cato. Johanna kills the boy last but not with ease. He was the toughest of them all and she almost died in the fight. Stabbed in the stomach with a sword twice but it was the axe blow to the head that killed him. Shame too he was a incredible fighter would have made a great mentor.

At the end of the games its about 7 now and the names of the fallen tributes start showing up on screen with their age, name, district, and death including the killer.

When his name comes up, it hits me. Archer Andrew Bale, 16. Born March 2nd 5044. District 2. Johanna Mason, Axe.

If Im correct, Archer is Brutus' son. But he was born the year Brutus was in his games. Brutus is married but I never knew they had a child. I guess none of us knew that. Maybe that's why he is like a father to Cato, when he doesn't seem to have that kind of nature. It makes sense,why Cato and I wouldn't know him we didn't meet any of the older kids in training and you're not supposed to train your kid because it gives unfair advantages to them and not the others.

Just like on cue, Brutus walks in.

"Well, you're up early." He says and sits down next to me.

"I've been up for hours. Watching tv." I tell him.

"Games reruns?" He asks me.

"Yep. Two different games."

"Really? Which ones?"

"Nova Hudson and Johanna Mason." I answer. When I say Johanna,he tenses up.

"It's about Archer isn't it?" I say to him and he turns to me shocked.

"What?!" He exclaims.

"I know Archer's your son. It said it at the end. Who else would have the last name Bale in district 2 and just coincidentally look like you?" I say.

Brutus nods. "Yes, Archer was my son. But I'm not going to talk about him. You don't mention this to Cato. Understood?" Brutus says to me.

I simply nod. I don't really get the big deal about this but whatever, it's 7 in morning. I will wait till 10 to start pissing people off and that person has to be Cato.

AN- I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THIS CHAPTER :( but anyway please review. I wrote this one wrote this one pretty quickly i think. But please REVIEW. it gets chapters faster especially long ones :) also I do have a beta Inklessquills shes also a clato writer check her stories out too :) OKAY YES REVIEW PLEASE!