10
I enter a dream world one from which I wake repeatedly. In the word I keep finding myself, everything is dark; everything is bleak, and blurred. But I can see everything that I dread in the world, everything that evokes all of the strong emotions of pain, and fear within me. Every time I wake I find myself hoping that my dreams are over, but my hopes are soon crushed when more vivid images swim in my mind. How many times do I see my dad walk out on us? How many ways do I watch Taylor die? How many times do I feel the cold stab of other tributes weapons? How many times am I forced to watch Cat turn on me?
This is the cruel nature of the Tracker Jacker stings; the venom targets the part of your brain where fear lives. When I finally wake from my tormented slumber, I lie still on the cold floor. I wait for the next onslaught of images. But I finally accept that the venom has left my body. I am left feeling weak and feeble.
I lay on my side, curled up tightly. I lay in a ditch, which is not filled with brightly coloured balloons as I had believed it to be last night. I look at my hands, there are no signs of spiders and the only thing in my hair is dead leaves from lying on the floor. I take tiny sips from my water, and watch a small beetle crawl along a tree's bark.
My clothes are damp but I can't be sure if rain, sweat or pond water is the cause. I look around me properly for the first time since I was back in the real world. I notice Cat, sat against a tree; she's looking at me and smiling. "Hi" she says relieved.
I smile back the best I can "Hey" my eyes are stinging slightly, and my head feels heavy. My joints feel stiff. My stomach lets out a low growl "I'm hungry, do we have any food left?"
Cat shakes her head "No, we need to do some hunting" she informs me. Cat looks at my cheek and screws up her face "You know, I can help you with your stings" says Cat casually.
"Really? How?" I ask sceptically.
"Come here" Cat instructs I follow her orders. She places a hand full of leaves in her mouth and begins to chew on them. After a few minutes Cat spits the leaves into her hand and rubs the mushy substance on my neck.
"Ohhh" the sound slips past my lips, these leaves work as well as my medicine does. I roll up my trouser leg so she can tend to my knee, and finally my cheek. "How do you know all this stuff?" I ask looking at her
"My mum's a doctor, so I've been around things like this all my life" she says nonchalantly.
I stand slowly, my limbs ache and so does my hip, I use some more of the medicine before handing it to Cat. My stings are no longer hurting thanks to Cat. The sun starts stinging my eyes; I pull my sunglasses out of the bag and place them on my face, I hear Cat chuckle beside me "What?" I ask feeling slightly irritated at the fact she's laughing at me
"Why are you wearing those?" she asks eyeing me with bemused expression on her face.
"Because it's sunny… Not that these help. In fact they make things worse!" I can feel my temper starting to flare.
"You don't wear them during the day" she says "You wear them at night… They help you see in the total darkness" she informs me.
"Oh!" I say. I tug the glasses off of my face and stuff them back in my pack.
Cat and I walk for a few miles we walk through a concealed area, I hear a small rustle coming from a bush beside me. A small rabbit jumps out and hops into our line of sight. Cat draws back on of her arrows, and shoots it perfectly straight into the rabbit's eye.
Cat walks over to her kill gingerly; she slowly picks it up from the floor and tugs the arrow out with her hand. She walks back and hands it to me "It needs skinning" she says "And now you have some knives, you can do it" she smiles.
The knives I think. I had forgotten about them. I look down and attached to my bet are six knives. I hold the rabbit by its ears as we walk. Cat and I walk a few miles more before we decide to stop for the day. We sit under a tall willow tree; we are well concealed by its dropping branches.
I skin and debone the rabbit near a lake just in front of Cat, while she feeds the fire. I wash the knife I used to skin the rabbit before putting it back in my belt. I walk over to Cat holding the meat. "Here one freshly skinned and deboned rabbit" I smile holding the rabbit out towards her.
She fashions a spit out of twigs and dowses the fire. We cook the meat over the hot ashes checking it every so often to see if it is fully cooked. Traces of blood from the rabbit still lay on my hands. I walk back over to the lake to rinse them.
Cat turns over the meat making sure every inch of it reaches the warmth of the ashes. I cut into a section of the meat to see if it's cooked all the way through. We split the meat between us, in case we get separated, neither one of us mentions this, but we know it is nearing, after all there are only ten of us left. We put the majority of the meat away for another day, eating only what we need to.
After we have eaten Cat and I make our way down to the lake, our hands are thick of grease from the rabbit, plus we are both covered head to toe in dirt. I rinse my hands and face, while besides me Cat strips down to her underwear. My eyes wonder around her body, I soak in everything about her.
I don't really understand how she feels completely comfortable stripping down to her underwear when she knows that the entire country of Panem is watching her.
I notice that around Cat's neck is a thin silver chain, at the end of the chain is a small flower, the pendant, is covered in diamonds. I quickly turn my head away from her; I look down into my lap. Out of the corner of my eye I notice her walking into the water, giving her full body a bathe. "Is that your token from home?" I ask, flicking my eyes to her necklace for a second, before my eyes fall back into my lap.
"Yeah it is" she says smiling. She holds the pendant in between her index finger and thumb, she slowly twiddles it, the sun catches the diamonds and reflects them back onto her, and once again her skin looks like it is covered in jewels. "Beck gave it to me on the train before we got to the training centre" she admits. She drops the pendant it lands lightly on her chest.
"Oh" a strong feeling of jealousy fills my body, making my stomach feel heavy. "Is he your boyfriend?" I can't stop myself from asking, especially with the way things have been going between me and Cat.
"No" she says casually "We're just friends" I remain looking down into my knees. "You can look at me you know" she chuckles "Especially when you're talking to me" I turn my head to look at her, I'm glad to see that her head sits just atop the water, and that the rest of her body is submerged by the cool clear water. "Do you have a token from your District?" she asks her voice soft and calm.
I nod "Yeah this pin" I say pointing to the gold pin that Harley had given me the morning of the games.
"It's nice" she smiles "Who gave you it?"
"My mum" I lied. "It's something that's been in the family for generations"
"I like it, it's a mockingjay" she smiles. I hadn't taken much notice of the pin when I had first looked at it, but looking down, I can clearly see what type bird it is.
Mockingjay's are a big slap in the face to the capitol-they are also one of my favourite birds- during the rebellion that started the whole idea of the hunger games, the capitol bred lots of animal's to be used as weapons- like the tracker jackers. One of these was a bird called the jabberjay. They had the ability to mimic human conversations. They were homing birds, and they were only males. The capitol released them into areas where they knew their enemies would be hiding.
They would gather words and fly back to the capitol to be recorded. It took people in the districts a while to realise what was happening. But once people began to get wise to the capitol, they would feed the jabberjays lies. And then the joke was on the capitol. So they left all the jabberjays to die off in the wild.
But they didn't die off. Instead the jabberjays mated with female mockingbirds, thus creating the mockingjay. Mockingjays can imitate both bird's whistles and human conversations. They can also copy songs, not just a few notes but full songs, if you spent time singing to them, and if they liked your voice that was, me and my dad used to sing to them before he left, and then it became something I did by myself. Something I sometimes still do, when I want to get away from things. The only other person who has ever heard me singing to them is Robbie.
I remember when my dad used to sing, they would stop all the birds would just fall silent, and then after a small polite pause the mockingjays would sing back. His voice was so soft, and had such a nice tone when he sang; I have often been told that's where my talent came from, another reason why I always went with my dad. And one day I wanted to hear them sing back to me. So I sang to them once, and the feeling I got when they sang back to me, was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced.
I can imagine the mockingjays flying through the trees. I can feel myself smiling as I think about the small birds that have caused so much controversy within the country of Panem.
"You have mockingjays in District 1?" I ask in slight disbelief.
She nods "Yeah, I sing to them from time to time, just to see if they'll sing back" she admits, her voice full of happiness. She climbs out of the water and gets back into her clothes; she covers her necklace with her top. She comes and sits down next to me, leaving her jacket laid beside her.
"And do they sing back to you?" I ask, I could think of nothing worse than you singing to the birds and not hearing anything back.
She nods with a smile on her face. "Have you ever sung to them?" She asks
"Yeah" I admit with a small shrug.
"And, do they sing back?" she asks.
"Every time" I say, Cat smiles at me, her small dimple surfaces deep within her cheek. The sky begins to go dark, and the air turns icy cold, I feel my limbs begin to ache as the cold wind whips around my body. Cat and I pick a fork high up in the willow tree.
Cat and I lay close together tonight, the warmth within this sleeping bag is verging on uncomfortable, but I don't want to move away from her I can't. "Cat, you know how I only woke up today?" I ask, she nods her head slowly "Well how long was I out for?" I ask.
"A few days" says Cat with a shrug.
"A few days?" I ask stunned, I thought that at the most it would be one day, Cat nods with a confused expression on her face. "Well who's died then?" I mumble I can feel my heart racing in my chest.
"Only two people died" she says in a hushed tone "Tara and then the girl from 9" she sighs, her eyes grow heavy, and I can see tears starting to form in the corner of her deep brown eyes when she says 'the girl from 9' and her voice cracks slightly.
"Cat, what's wrong?" I ask my stomach feels heavy. I find Cat's hand and hold on to it tight. She shakes her head slightly, and looks down, keeping her eyes away from mine. I take a deep breath "Did you kill you her?" I ask I feel a lump form in my throat. She nods. A small tear trickles down the side of her face. "Cat don't cry" I say "Everyone, does it, you said so yourself" it shocked me that I could still remember the convocation we had that night on the roof. Little things like that never really meant anything to me.
She nods "I know but, I can't say that I don't regret it, Jade, because I do" her voice is quiet. I didn't think that killing someone in this arena would take this effect on someone.
"Don't worry about it" I say, trying to calm her down. "If you hadn't killed her she would have killed you, Cat" My tone is still quiet and calm as I try to make her see the truth in it all. "That's why I dropped the tracker jacker nest on Ryder and the others, it was them or us"
She nods again, and purses her lips, more tears fall down her face. I let go of her hand, I wipe her tears away with my fingers before I wrap my arms around her holding her close to me I press my forehead against hers. I can feel her warm breath on my face. She wraps her arms around my neck slowly.
"Have you seen anything of Beck and the others?" I ask, seen as though I have just mentioned them, I might as well.
She nods "Yeah, I've been spying on them" she takes a deep breath "Robbie's not with them anymore he left"
My hearth thuds when I hear his name, I keep remembering the things I saw when I was under the influence of the tracker jacker venom. "Oh" I say "I think he might have saved me, the other night, after the tracker jacker attack, but it wouldn't make sense he was working with them" I say.
"Well he's not now" she says "So maybe he did save you, and then he ran" she says, moving her head away from mine so she can look me in the eyes. She sighs "He cares about you, Jade" she explains "You can see that on his face when he looks at you"
"Let's try these glasses" I say changing the subject, I didn't do well in conversations like this I always end up sounding either mean or stupid so for me it was best to avoid them. I place them on my eyes. Cat wasn't lying about what she said, I could see everything. "I wonder who else has a pair of these" I say.
"Beck, Ryder and Andre have a pair each" she says with a shrug. "They have a lot by the lake" she explains "But they are so strong" she shakes her head slightly.
"Yeah, well so are we" I say confidently. "We can both use weapons, and hunt, just as well as they can"
"Yeah but they don't need to hunt" she starts "They have a whole supply of food down by the lake, like I said they have a lot down there"
"But what if they didn't?" I ask. "What if all of their supplies where gone" a plan comes to my mind, and it's a devious plan, and it will most definitely be effective.
Cat smiles slyly, her eyes wide with excitement. "What do you have in mind?" she asks.
"Cat, where going to destroy their supplies, we are going to make them part of The Hunger Games" I explain with a small shrug. Cat smiles and the places her forehead to mine once again.
"But they know how to hunt" she argues.
"Yes, but if they have no supplies, then they will have to move from their cosy hideaway, and look for food just like everyone else" I explain. I can see Cat's face clearly, through the glasses. She purses her lips. She looks slightly embarrassed that she didn't fully understand the concept of my idea right away, she looks cute… Cute? I think, since when have I ever viewed anything as cute?
I shake the thought from my head, and pull Cat a tiny bit closer to me, I remove the glasses and close my eyes "Night Cat" I say sleepily.
"Night" she replies, with a big yawn. I take a steady breath, and let sleep take a hold of me.
I am woken in the morning by the sound of a cannon firing. Cat is perched on a tree branch not too far away from me, we both listen for more shots but we hear nothing other than the sound of birds chirping above us.
The sky is a slightly pink shade from the sun rising into the sky, "Who do you think that was?" I ask, I can't help but think of Robbie.
"I don't know" shrugs Cat "I guess we'll find out tonight"
"Who's left?" I ask
"Beck, Ryder, Andre" she starts, she is thinking so hard about this, she closes her eyes and counts the people off on her fingers. "Robbie, the boy from 5, the boy from 9, the girl from 10, the boy from 11 and then me and you. Ten" she says with a shrug. A proud smile creeps onto her face.
"I wonder how they died" I say, my voice sounding more interested than I cared for.
"I don't know" says Cat "But that death will hold out the audience, which is good" says Cat "I guess"
I study her for a while, just watching her perched on the branch, she never sways or falters, she just sits, steady as a rock, on the tree's branch. "So you ready to do it then?" I ask.
"Do what?" asks Cat, but the way she is readying herself to jump down from the branch tells me she doesn't care what it is we are going to be doing, she's ready to do anything I say.
"Destroy their supplies" I say.
"Okay, how?" she asks.
"I don't know" I admit "I'll think of something" I say.
As Cat and I walk, we forage for berries, plants and we even try to do some more hunting, but we have no joy on finding animals. We split the plants and fruit we have found, just as we did the meat last night.
As we are walking, I get to know a lot more about Cat, like how she is the younger of two children, and that her older brother- who is called Tony- isn't right in the head. And then she tells me more about her passion in life, performing, be it acting, dancing, or singing, Cat just loves it all. I can see why with that one, I too enjoy singing, and dancing, and everything else, but unfortunately, coming from District 12 we don't have much to sing and dance about.
Cat comes up with simple four note tune to sing to the mockingjays, her voice is amazing, I can see why the birds would sing back, when she sings, the birds fall silent, just as they did with my dad. "It might not work" she says "But if either one of us hears it it means the other is okay and that we just can't get back right away"
I nod in agreement "Are there a lot of mockingjays around?" I ask, making sure that this plan will actually work.
Cat nods "Yeah, you haven't noticed?" she asks
"To be completely honest, Cat I have been more occupied with not dying" I say.
"Fine, so if everything works out alright, I'll see you for dinner" she says. Unexpectedly, she throws her arms around my neck, and kisses me lightly on the lips. She then hugs me for a while; I don't hesitate in wrapping my arms around her. "Be careful" she whispers in my ear.
"I will, you too" I say. Before I pull away from the hug and head off in the opposite direction that Cat has taken. I walk away thinking about what has happened between me and Cat so far, and how the residents of the capitol will be feeling about the two of us. It's obvious that for the time being this is more than an alliance. And that in its self will seem exciting to the audience, the will be sat watching in anticipation of the unravelling of mine and Cat's relationship. I then think about how they anticipate, what I dread.
A/N: Just a bog standard chapter really. No real confliction, oh well I hope you like it anyway, please continue to read and review I love knowing what you guys think, and once again I really do appreciate all the reviews and opinions I get (good or bad) and a big thanks once again to everyone who has already reviewed