"Don't touch me." I growl through my teeth and "jerk myself forward, away from him. I chuck the photo, slightly carelessly into the box again.
"Clove..." Cato begins helplessly. "I'm trying here. Can you stop being such a jerk." I spin around and glare at him.
"I'm being a jerk? You're the one who'd never spoken to me and then all of a sudden we're getting married?! I don't even know what's going on." I sit down on the bed and put my head in my hands in desperation.
"Clove, I love you. Why can't you see that?" I stare at him. My fathers words come back.
'he's been asking to marry you for nearly a year'
I try my best to stop myself from crying but a tear or two escape my eyes, much to my horror. Cato sits down on the bed beside me and, using his thumb, wipes away my tears. This is what Callie used to do when I cried. Callie. More tears run down my face although I try to stop them. Cato wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to his chest. He really is well built.
"I know it's a lot to take in Clove. I know your lifes been rubbish. I know it must have been horrible being hit by your Dad. I know it must be destroying you having lost Callie. I know you probably feel hurt and confused and angry.I know I've been completley confusing. And I know that I love you Clove. Just let me love you Clove. Please" I don't know what to think anymore. Everything rushes through my head and before I can register what I'm doing, I'm clinging to Cato, sobbing my heart out. He holds me to him and kisses my head. Eventually I stop crying and feel weak and pathetic. What had I just done? I pull away and wipe my face, before standing up hurriedly and walking away. I hear Cato following me and I inwardly sigh. Cato. What was going on with him? One minute hes throwing me around and almost killing me the next he loves me. What IS he playing at? I wrap my arms around myself protectively.
"Clove..." Cato starts "I'm sorry for how I've been isn't fair to you at all. I know it's all a lot but trust me when I say that I love you." He's behind me now and he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him. He rests his chin on my head but not so that it hurt. I sniffle and know that right now I seem weak. Thats how I feel.
"If you think you're weak, your not. Your the strongest person I know." Is he physic?! "You tired?" I nod slightly. He lets go of me and in a moment he's back with my PJ's. A red top of Callie's that was two big and some shorts that just stopped being worn. I go to the bathroom to change. I look at myself in the mirror. The girl I see is not me. She's scared. She's crying. She's weak. I change quickly and brush my hair. I stare at myself in the mirror and tell myself to calm down. theres a knock and Cato walks in. He takes me hand and I flinch slightly. He sighs slightly, sadly and leads me into the bedroom. Thats when I realise. We're sharing. I breath carefully, in case I forget. Cato climbs in casually and I stand there not really wanting to join him. He looks at me.
"Come on Clove, I don't bite." I raise my eyebrow.
"What about district 7?"
"Excluding district 7." He says. He'd been sent a note by his mentor, telling him to seem more animalistic so he practically ate the poor district 7 sighs again and climbs out of the bed. he walks over to me and I chew my bottom lip. He picks me up in his arms and carries me to the bed. He lays me in it, gets in himself again and wraps his arms around me. I feel uncomfortable. It just feels weird. i really wish I knew what was going on. I don't know why but a few tears fall down my face and the room feels cold. Cato holds me closer to him and kisses away my tears. It feels strange, having another person touching me, especially with their pulls up the covers tighter and with in a few minutes of getting in Cato starts snoring lightly. I wonder what he'd do if I ran away. I wait for about an hour before untangling him from me and carefully climbing out. I think I hear his breathing change so I grab a knife and coat and run downstairs. When I get to the door it takes a good 5 minutes to open the lock due to my lack of experience.
"Clove?" I hear and run out of the door. Where will I run? This was a stupid idea. I go to the outskirts of 2 and scale a smaller mountain. Its a pretty good achievement without equipment and in the pitch black.I sit there and run a hand through my hair. How did life get so complicated? I hear shouting and lights from the centre of the city. Please don't be cato trying to find me. I don't want to go back, I don't know if I even want to stay alive anymore. I wipe away the tears I didn't know had fallen. I sit at the top of the mountain. About an hour or 2 later a small gaggle of men appear.
"She was last seen coming this way, we'll be rich with the reward." I inwardly groan. Damn you Cato.
"Do you think she climbed a mountain?" another asked.
"It's too dark." The first concluded.
"Did something just move up there?" A third asks and the leader holds up a lantern that illuminates me.
"We're gonna be rich!" One sings. they come forward. One grabs my hair, another my wrist and the last my leg. While I'm fighting they get out some rope. they tie up my wrists and ankles so that I can't escape.
"What he want with this squirt anyway?" The first one asks as the other two drag me along to the justice building. My knifes in my shoe so I can't get to it. the others shrug. It takes about 20 minutes to get there but when we do some other small groups of people are standing about worriedly.
"Ring the bell!" someone calls and the loud noise sounds out. People begin to gather roud as I kick and scream,etc. More people hold me down and someone gags me. Theres a noise and disturbance somewhere in the crowd. My father storms over to me and hits me round the head, hard.
"YOU STUPID, DIM WITTED, IGNORANT COW!" Screams my father. He kicks my shoulder. "You just said goodbye to any freedom that you still had, young lady. Do you hear me. that was the FINAL straw." He kicks me hard a good couple of times in the places that'll hurt the most. Then he punches me in the face.
"Their here!" Someone calls and on que Cato storms through the crowd.
"Is she here?" Cato shouts, anger and worry evident in his voice.
"Here." the guy says. "But hand the cash over first." He throws a bag of cash to the storms over and pushes my father out of the way. He brings a palm down on my face and I cry out in pain. My fathers done worse but maybe this is because this isn't my father, it's Cato.
"Don't you EVER do that again!" screams Cato. He throws off the rope and gag and drags me off to Victors Village.A crowd of people follow, hoping they'll be able to hear my punishment threw the walls. They make me feel sick. I do actually feel sick. What is he going to do to me. Tears stream down my face. He opens the door and like when I first came in I'm thrown to the ground. He locks the door and turns to me. He's seething. I tell myself to calm down. The worst he can do is hit me right? And I've been hit a lot in my short life. He picks me up by the throat, practically strangling me and throws me up against the wall. His icy blue eyes have turned green from anger.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU RUN AWAY?" He screams and tears run down my face "HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME AND YOUR FATHER! YOU ARE NOTHING. YOUR JUST A GIRL, YOU DON'T MATTER." I breath heavily and feel more tears splashing down my cheeks. He slaps me again. "YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT MORE TO CRY ABOUT, TRUST ME." I take gulp and try to stop more tears flowing. "YOU WORRIED ME SICK. I THOUGHT SOMEONE MIGHT'VE ABDUCTED YOU. YOU SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH. YOU'RE SO STUPID CLOVE. DO YOU HEAR ME. HOW DARE YOU DO THAT." I feel more tears fall. I'm suddenly hit with a new pain in the chest. I jut left, after how we'd both acted that night. I was in the wrong. I deserved every word.
"I'm sorry." I whisper hoarsely "Go on, hit me. I deserve it." I'm met with another slap.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. BUT YOU'RE RIGHT ON SOMETHING. YOU DO DESERVE IT." he hits me again and then throws me to the floor. He kicks me,punches me, hits me, scratches me. Anything that would cause me pain he does. He does all of this for about an hour or 2. Everywhere hurts. He stands up and rakes a hand through his hair. I curl up on the floor and bite my hand to stop my sobs echoing through the house. Cato groans and turns back to face me. his eyes have returned to their normal ice blue. he looks at me. The cuts, already forming bruises, everything. I turn away from him and brace myself for another hit. My eyes scrunch up and I breath heavily.
"What have I done?" I hear. I cautiously look at him to see tears stinging his eyes. "Oh my god, what have I done to you?!" HE rakes a hand through his hair again and a few tears slip from his eyes. He wipes them away angrily. "I'm so sorry Clove." He walks over to me cautiously and gets down on the floor beside me. he runs his hands over every inch of visable flesh. More tears leak from his eyes especially when I tense up at his touch.
"What have I done?" He says sadly, looking at my broken figure on the floor.
"I ... I des...deserved ...it." I stutter. He looks at me with his tear filled eyes and shakes his head.
"No one deserves this. I can't believe that ...I did that to you." More tears fall from his eyes. I can't stand it. He stands up shakily and looks at me nervously. "Can you stand up." I get into a sitting position, wincing in pain as little as possible not wanting to make Cato feel bad, I'd deserved it. I try to stand up and end up falling back. Cato catches me before I hit the ground. More tears run down his face. He pulls me up into a standing position. He looks at me and I can't stand it anymore. I clutch his waist and burst into tears. It's like earlier as I sob into his chest. He cries too. he holds me close to him.
"When I get like that get as far away from me as possible." Cato says. I dare to look up at him. "I can't believe I did this to you." He cries. I hold onto to him tightly and he gets me carefully and lifts me into a bridal style lift. He carries me upstairs and places me on the bed. I try to sit up but end up falling back again.
"Please just stay still. if you injured yourself anymore..." Cato trails off raking his hand through his hair. He goes to the bathroom and gets a medical kit. He cleans me up and then tucks me up before getting in himself. I feel cold and I notice that Cato's distanced himself from me. I feel terrible. I manage to slide over a bit and snuggle into his chest. He seems shocked but after a while places an arm around me protectively and pulls me closer to him. I fall asleep almost instantly. he makes me feel so safe. I honestly don't know or understand what happened today.