Katniss POV
As I watched Ebon silently leave the room, I stood up from the chair and sighed. I leaned my back against the wall and averted my gaze depressingly towards the ground. What am I going to do..? Cato's an injured mess, Prim is crying her eyes out because she thinks I'm dead, Gale's furious with Peeta, and Peeta's lost with grief. But he loves me….and the horrible thing is that he thinks I love him back. I never even got a chance to tell him that it was all pretend. For the camera, all of it. The kisses, the hugs, the comfort.
I'm so sorry Peeta….I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I'm hiding in this District, away from everyone I love, I'm sorry I'm helping our worst enemy…I'm sorry I like Gale more.
I cursed myself as I felt my eyes water, and quickly shook my head.
But I'm coming back, right…? I'm going back to District 12. I have to. I don't care if their President, or Ebon, or Miss White tell me not to, I'll escape anyway.
I looked up from the ground and shuffled my feet towards the room where Cato was in. No use feeling sorry for myself now, all I can hope is that Cato gets better so we can both leave.
I open the door and nearly crawl back in the room, because of my depressed mood and sleepiness. I close the door behind me and sit on the floor, facing Cato in front of me.
He merely raised an eyebrow at me.
"Should I sleep here tonight..? In case you need my help and all? Anyway, I don't know the way back to my room." I asked him, almost in a whisper. I couldn't believe I was actually asking him this. I half-expected for him to lunge at me and strangle me to death for even suggesting it.
"I could care less where you sleep." He begrudgingly stated, his voice dripping with menace.
"So is that a yes…?" I asked again, trying to avoid his gaze.
"I don't need your help, Firegirl. Sleep here if you want, but don't except to be in one piece when you wake up."
"I'm just trying to help, you sadist." I glared at him, not appreciating his tone of voice.
"Well stop trying. I said I don't need your help. Least of all with the rat sewer District you live in." He replied, and I noticed his heart rate slightly increasing because of the heart monitor nearby.
"Why would I ever want to help you..! Your just another one of those conceded morons from the career Districts!" I nearly shouted, wanting to throw something at him, but I knew I couldn't.
"Listen, you fucking rat-" He started to move from his position on the bed, but as soon as he did he inhaled a sharp intake of pain.
As soon as I realized he hurt himself, my face expression changed into a sympathetic one. "I'm sorry..I'm sorry." I approached him, bending to his level to softly stroke his hand.
He started to speak, but his voice instantly wavered. His hate-filled stare soon turned into one filled with pain, hurt, and innocence.
"Are you okay..?" I asked him, trying to remain calm.
He gave a slight wince, but soon turned back to normal as his heart rate started to decrease. "I'm fine.." He merely answered, but with slight annoyance. I knew it probably bothered him that he was in this weak state.
I continued to stroke his hand, which seemed to calm him down, like it always does. I placed my head against the mattress, near where he was laying. I slowly began to close my eyes, until I heard a voice calling for me.
"Katniss…" Cato let out a small grunt, trying to manage to say my name without the slightest bit of distaste or menace.
I blinked, bewildered by the fact that he said my name. "Yeah?"
He was silent for a few moments, just merely staring at me with his cold gaze. "Nothing.."
I let go of his hand and walked across the room to go pick up some pillows that were left in a pile of some blankets and sheets. I dragged one of the blankets to place it on the floor, next to the bed, while I held a few pillows under my arm.
I turned off a few of the lights inside the room before I crawled back to my spot near the bed. I slipped under the blanket and placed my head against one of the pillows, sighing in relief when discovering how soft they were.
"Goodnight, Cato." I smiled to myself, not really expecting him to answer back.
"Don't push it…" He warned.
I fluttered my eyes open, but as soon as light cracked through them, I proceeded to hide under the covers again. I slowly rolled out of the covers and sat up on the floor. The floor was comfortable, unlike most floors. As I began to glance around the room, I discovered Cato's empty bed.
I instantly stood up from my position on the floor and stared at the empty bed again to see if it was just a hallucination. But it wasn't. Cato's not there… Where is he?
I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. I felt my hair and my braid was still in place from when I braided it yesterday. When I walked towards the table area, I instantly saw Ebon, Miss White, a man I've never seen before in a hulking figure. That must be Boggs. I stared up at him as he focused his stern gaze towards me. He was much older than Ebon, he looked about in his 50s I'm guessing, since his grey hair.
"That's Katniss, the girl I was talking about earlier." Ebon stated, referring to me.
"Hello, Katniss." Boggs respectfully dipped his head. Weird, since I thought he would be the type to murder anyone he sees. "I've heard a lot of things about you."
"Hi.." I replied, surprised by my innocent tone of voice again. I have to stop doing that.
"Where's Cato?" I asked them, staring at the smiling face of Miss White.
"I'm right here.." A cold voice answered from around the wall. I stepped completely inside the room and shockingly discovered Cato standing in the corner of the room with crutches.
"You're walking..!" I gasped, nearly beaming with joy.
"I guess." He raised an eyebrow.
"He should be off those crutches within a few days, I'm guessing. His wounds are recuperating in an amazingly fast rate." Miss White stated.
"That's good." I remained in a calm state, although I was gleaming with joy on the inside. Cato's getting better, which means we'll be leaving District 13 much sooner than I had hoped.
"Oh, by the way Katniss, Mason will be coming here within a few minutes. He wanted to show you around more again." Miss White explained.
"What about Cato?" I turned to glance at him, and he let out a small sigh.
"Don't worry about me, Firegirl." He said with both reassurance and annoyance at the same time.
"Cato can go look around the District one he can completely walk. As you noticed, there's a lot of rocky areas and steps around our District. We wouldn't want him accidently falling." Miss White continued.
I smiled, trying to hold in a laugh. The thought of Cato tripping and falling over a rock is just too funny. He avoided his gaze to escape the glare that was coming my way.
I made my way towards the bathroom to find my new set of clothes that was left for me inside. This time it was a green blouse and a long white skirt. I hate skirts even more than shorts…I bitterly changed clothes, and thought about asking them to leave me pants next time.
I walked out of the room and nearly ran into Mason who entered the hospital. He quickly stepped back and nervously smiled. "Hey, Katniss." He blushed.
"Hi Mason." I greeted back.
"Where are we going today?" I asked him, as he dragged me towards the exit where he entered from.
"I was thinking maybe the park. That's a real sight to see. They have this huge fountain and artificial grass, since well, we don't get much plants to grow down here. Or we could go to the training room." Mason explained a little too fast.
"Training room?" I silently asked, the name catching my interest.
"Yeah, training room. It's mostly for the really elite kids and their mentors to go to. Some kids train to fight really good. For protection of our District, or just to enter the Dome. I'm not one of those kids, though." He gave off a slight chuckle. "I can't fight for crap."
"Me neither." I shrugged, trying to make him feel better.
"Are you kidding? I've seen you on TV with that bow and arrow. You throw killer shots."
"That's what everyone says, I guess." I admit, instantly thinking about Gale. If I was back at the District, we would've gone hunting by now…
"Well, the park then?" Mason asked.
"Sure." I shrugged, continuing to walk beside him along with rocky path.
He led me down the trail again, the way we went to go visit the markets. As he stopped he pointed towards a large building with wiring around the top. It looked somewhat like a jail.
"That's the training building, with all sorts of training rooms. Speed, agility, endurance, balance, weaponry. It's really cool, I've only been there a couple of times, though." Mason followed my gaze as we both stared at it with awe.
"It looks cool. We should go see it next." I smiled.
"Yeah.." He froze in front of me, stopping me in my tracks, as we faced a group of kids about our age in front of us. Two girls and three guys, kind of reminded me of a career group, in a way.
"Hi Jana." Mason hesitantly greeted, referring to the red-headed girl who we saw yesterday.
She rudely ignored Mason, and focused her gaze onto mine, while letting off a know-it-all smirk. I already knew I wasn't going to like her very much.
"You must be the District 12 girl. Everyone's been talking about you." She then frowned, crossing her arms at me.
"Who are you?" I asked, in a not so sweet voice.
"I'm Jana. One of the best trained elites in the District. If I went into the Games, I could easily beat you. I don't care how good you are with a bow and arrow. It's not enough to impress me." She let off her stupid smirk again, while the other girl incredulously chuckled.
She instantly reminded me of Glimmer. The pretty blonde from District 1 allied with Cato and the other careers. But even Glimmer wasn't this snooty as this girl was.
"I don't want to impress you. I could care less if you were one of the elites. Now get out of my way." I stepped in front of Mason, who was staring at me with a dropped jaw.
"We'll see about that, District 12. I dare you to go to the training room. Show me what you're made of." Jana simply tossed her hair aside.
"Fine. I will." I seethed with anger, Mason nearly having to hold me back to keep me from punching her face in.
She let out a small giggle. "I'll be looking forward to it."
As soon as her little posse left in the other direction, I kept myself from glaring at her. Mason continued to stare at me with a shocked expression on his face.
"Wow. I cannot believe you just did that. No one would've had the guts to stand up and face her like the way you did. You're amazing."
"I don't like her." I merely stated.
Mason silently laughed. "Man, I am so looking forward to going to the training room, now. Should we go tomorrow?"
I turned around and let him lead me towards the direction of the park. "Lets."
Happy New Years everybody! :) Hope you liked this chapter, sorry it took longer than the other ones. Thanks a bunch, anyway! REVIEW! Pretty please? :D
