A stroke of 'Luck', chapter 7: Sponsored

Clove woke up in hours into the morning. She yawned, "Morning Marv."

No reply.

"Marvel?" she asked as she sat up. "Marvel?" The boy with spears was nowhere to be found.

Just in case, Clove picked up two knives from her knife-vest before crawling out of the cave. "Marvel! Where the fuck are you?" She hoped that Marvel was outside of the cave, but he wasn't.

Nothing was there except for his blood-stained, avocado green tribute jacket which was discarded on a log.

She suspected that he was dead, but the sound of a canon hadn't filled up the sky in days. "MARVEL?" Clove called out one last time.

Still nothing.

Clove started to freak out. Where could he be? He couldn't be dead, that was impossible. But maybe he was pulled away by a mutt. Maybe that mutt ripped him apart and prolonged his death to a point where he wasn't dead, but was barely alive either. Maybe Marvel was sitting on the ground, legs torn off, torso bleeding, and arms slashed beyond repair.

She couldn't afford to think like that though. It sounded stupid, but Marvel was the only thing in this arena that was keeping her sane. Everything they shared in that cave; the cuddles, the kisses, the touches, and the sweet nothings, kept her mind in one piece. Without him, she would've probably gone on an insane killing spree. Even though insane killing sprees were encouraged in the arena, it was probably best if she didn't.

Crack!

The sound of a branch breaking was audible. "Who's there?" Clove yelped as she held a knife in a throwing position.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

Someone was in her area. "Who are you? I swear, if this is a joke from the gamemakers I am gonna kill my way out of here and rip your fucking head off!"

Clove made her way into the woods. Whatever she heard, she was going to find out what it was. She ran quickly, stopping occasionally to look around and observe.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

The person was getting close to her as the crunches were getting louder. Clove picked up her pace, "All right you son-of-a-bitch, let's see what happens when you mess with Clove Fuhrman you motherfu-"

Bam!

Clove crashed into something, sending her to the ground. "Ow… What the fuck?" The thing she hit was starting to move. Clove held up her knife, "Who are you cock-face?"

It was Marvel, "Put the fucking knife down Clove, it's me." He put his hands up.

Clove sighed in relief, "Marvel, thank god. Don't you ever fucking scare me like that again."

Marvel stood up, "Scare you like what?" He helped her up.

"Don't run away randomly when we're in an arena fighting to our deaths!" She hugged him tightly. "Don't you ever do that again!"

He lay a kiss on her forehead, "Okay, okay, I promise Clove, I won't."

"Okay, thanks," she said. Clove then realized something, "Hey, Marvel, you're standing." She looked down at his dislocated knee; on it was something that looked a lot like a bunch of metal strips and braces attached together around his calf and foot. "What's that?"

"It's a leg brace, I can walk with it on," Marvel explained.

"Where'd you get it?" Clove asked, still looking at it.

"I think we got our first sponsor Clove," Marvel said with a smile. He kneeled down to the ground to a fallen plastic container; Clove presumed that he was carrying it.

"Look," he opened the lid. "I took the leg brace out, but there's most stuff in here." He searched around and pulled out a small metal rod thin seem in the middle.

"What is that?" Clove wondered aloud.

Marvel shrugged, "I think you have to twist it or something." Once Marvel gave it a quarter turn it extended to at least

Shink!

Clove ducked as the end almost hit her, "Whoa! Watch it!"

Marvel noticed the sharp point on one end of the rod, "It's a spear."

"It's a what?" Clove said as she stood straight.

Marvel quickly chucked it at a tree.

Thunk!

"Oh, it's that," Clove realized. She felt a bit stupid for being that slow.

Marvel pulled it out of the tree, retracted it back to a small rod, and put in his pocket, "This could come in handy."

Clove dug around in the container, what she pulled out was a loaf of bread and a dagger. She ignored the bread and took immediate interest in the dagger. "Whoa," she said amazed.

"It's just a knife Clove," Marvel stated.

"Yeah, but it's a cool knife." It wasn't made for throwing, but Clove enjoyed the ebony and mahogany handle, the brass pins, and the long curved 9-inch blade.

"Wow, you're right, that's cool!" Marvel remarked. He took it out of her hands, "Looks like someone noticed my skills with a knife." Obviously, he was joking around. If anyone intentionally took one of Clove's knives, said person would've faced decapitation.

"Marvel! Give it back! I saw it first!" Clove pleaded.

"But you have an entire vest full on knives," he started. "And I only have my one. It wouldn't be fair Clove."

She groaned, "I see your point, you can have it." It took a lot of willpower for her to say that. Clove Fuhrman giving up a knife? It sounded impossible. But yet, she was letting him keep the knife,

"Thank you Clover," Marvel said with a smirk. He was still joking, but he didn't expect to actually get the knife.

"Yeah yeah," Clove grumbled as she picked up the loaf of bread. She started to walk back to their cave. "I'm going back, you?"

"In a second," he confirmed. Clove shrugged and continued her walk. "You know, this knife's pretty awesome. The end is like a hammer, I could crack a skull with this bitch."

Her knife jealousy overtook Clove at that last remark. Instantly, she dropped everything in her hands, ran back to him, and pounced. "GIMME THE KNIFE MARVEL!"

"EEEP!"

(Later…)

Marvel was literally running around in circles with his new foot. Clove sat on a log eating the bread loaf as she watched her lover run like a 5-year old on acid.

"That thing's gonna break if you keep on running," Clove joked.

Marvel didn't stop, "I don't give a fuck, it feels good to run like this!" He kept running, he even started skipping at one point.

Finally, after over 10 minutes of continues sprinting, skipping, and even twirling, Marvel sat down. "Tired?" Clove asked.

"No, I just need to recharge," he said this as he took a piece of the bread. He bit into it, "Mmm… good bread."

"It's from district 2," Clove explained.

"I can tell, district 1 bread has little sparkles on the crust," he stated. "17 years of eating that and your shit turns into diamonds."

Normally, an average girl would throw up at this joke, call Marvel a disgusting schmuck, and walk away. Clove proved to not be an average girl as she laughed at the joke, choking on some bread in the process.

"That's pretty funny Marvel, you should try stand-up," she remarked.

"Maybe I should," Marvel thought.

As they ate the bread in mostly silence, Clove couldn't help noticing Marvel's hair. It wasn't styled like it was on the first day of the games. It was messed up now, revealing the natural curls and contours. Without thinking, she ran her hand through his light brown hair.

"What are you doing?" Marvel asked after swallowing some bread.

"Why'd your stylist gel your hair?" Clove wondered aloud. "It looks better like this." She didn't take her hand off.

"Apparently it looked better flattened," he explained. "Wandala's a bit crazy though, you know for the tribute parade, she was gonna have me and Glimmer painted silver. Glimmer's stylist saved us though, he insisted on the whole puffy fuchsia scheme."

Clove let out a laugh, "That's good, but you'd look pretty awesome painted silver."

"Thanks," he started. "But what about your costume? You looked pretty hot in it."

She blushed a bit, but recovered quick enough to answer, "Thanks, but that thing was heavy as fuck. It was easy for Cato to wear that 'cause he's like 200 pounds or something, but I'm as heavy as a mouse. I had to balance on the chariot so the chest piece wouldn't knock me off."

"Hey, if you fell off, it'd be one hell of a tribute parade," Marvel joked.

Playfully, Clove pushed him off the log.

He fell backwards and landed right on his back, "Hey! You seem nice for a girl who just last night gave me a-"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The sound frightened the both them. Actually, if you asked Clove about it, she'd say that she was simply surprised.

Anyone could recognize the sound; it was a scream. A scream of agony.

"What the freaking fuck!" Clove exclaimed, obviously 'Surprised.'

Marvel grabbed his sponsor-giving knife which had been strapped to his belt. "Something's out there." He ran towards the direction of the scream.

"Marvel!" Clove called after him, wait for me. She wanted to run back to the cave to grab her knife-vest, but Marvel ran fast for a guy with a leg-brace. "Wait for me!" She took off after him.

Marvel sprinted through the woods. It was fun for him to run like this, but at this moment, fun was the last thing on his mind.

The cannon hadn't fired yet, that meant that whatever died was still alive… if that made sense.

As Marvel tracked the sound, the sound of running water was becoming more and more loud. The sound was at the river.

The forest soon came to a clearing as Marvel's boots stepped onto the rocky bank. His pale-green eyes scanned the banks for the sound. When he saw it lying bleeding and cut up in the water however, he dropped his knife out of shock.

"Oh my god…"

So what I left you at another cliffhanger? LIV IT UP!

Actually, REVIEW IT UP!

Plz?

No?

(Curls up in a ball and cries)