Born to Die
Chapter Ten: A game of cat and mouse
Disclaimer, Point's of View, Characters (including O/C's) and Pairings list:
See Chapter One.
So, as promised, I will write two chapters today! I hope you enjoy them :3
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the deaths of tributes will be in order according to the book – and I have gotten the order from the Hunger Games WIKI website.
SLIGHTLY-IMPORTANT A/N: There isn't really any swearing in this, but there is a bit (Damn. Goddamn it, etc, etc) – so don't hate-review over it, as you have been warned. If you don't read the A/N's that's your fault.
Enjoy! :D
Flashback.
Three.
Two.
Cato nodded to me and I nodded back. We'd discussed this previously; go straight for the weapons and kill our way to the mouth.
One.
The siren blared and I stood off my pedestal – bolting straight forward, intending on grabbing any weapon I could in order for me to battle my way to the knives.
Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-Fourth annual Hunger Games begin.
End of flashback.
My fingers wrapped around the handle of a large, heavy sword. It wasn't my usual weapon, but it would do.
Without hesitation I shoved the sword forward; anyone in my path would me skewered. As expected, within seconds the blade was coated with fresh blood, belonging to a pale ginger girl who was lying helplessly on the floor; eyelids flickering as death consumed her.
Not even gracing her with the gift of a second glance I plunged forward, reaching the thirty beautiful knives that lay between a scythe and a blue backpack.
As the thick set was in my grasp the scythe was snatched away. A tanned male with black hair held a girl with brown hair and a dazed expression masked by fear by the very tips of her locks. With one swift movement he brought the scythe to her throat and drew it across the skin.
A bright red smile dripped across her throat for a second, and she struggled to get away from his strong grasp; till the fight stopped – her knees weakened, and the now-lifeless corpse slid to the ground.
It was my turn to smile now. Drawing a knife from the pack I took hold of the collar of the male's shirt.
"Congratulations on your first kill." I whispered eerily. "You know what your prize is? You get to join her." I finished, thrusting my arm forwards and twisting the knife into his back.
Eyes still open, his limp body collapsed onto his kill.
"Nice one," I heard in my ear – as a reflex action I brought my knife up and slashed it across my attacker.
"OW!" He cried, and – to my horror – Cato stood before me, a shallow cut embedded in his arm.
Per instinct I began apologising. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry I-" he cut me off with a grin.
"Lucky for you this isn't my fighting arm. We can fix it later, right now we have bigger issues." I returned his smile with a wicked smirk of my own – and we ran off in opposite directions.
I swiped up the black backpack from the male I had just killed – who ironically killed the brunette to retrieve the pack, when I noticed something.
A bright orange backpack, thick and clearly bulging with goods, lay amidst other seemingly-worthless objects.
I lunged for it, but clearly I wasn't quick enough as I saw Katniss Everdeen, grappling a male – who I recognised from the odds charts to be from District Nine – over the pack.
Surprise hit me, as I was certain that she would have fled – only fools from lower districts and we careers stay at the cornucopia. Then I remembered her score, she has guts, that much is clear I thought.
District Nine male was about to kill her, which filled me with rage. She was my kill...Or at least one of the careers' kill. The knife that had ended the other males' life was sunk into the back of his head; making the District Nine male cough blood.
Temporarily this action blinded Katniss for a moment, but not long enough for me to get a good swipe in. With a quick, fearful glance towards me – Katniss abandoned the loaf of bread she'd been holding and replaced it with the orange pack, running far away into the woods.
There was no time to think. I lifted the bloody knife out of Nine's head and sent it flying towards Katniss' head.
For a single second I was certain I'd got her, but she could obviously hear the wind as the knife travelled towards her skull – as Katniss flickered to the side, sending the knife into her pack.
Trembling with rage I shouted loudly. "GODDAMN IT!" My blood was boiling. I had just given Katniss Everdeen an extra weapon and saved her life.
"What's up?" Glimmer appeared in front of me. She wore a quiver filled with what I guessed to be roughly twenty-four arrows inside and held a bow in her hand. I smiled at this – at least we have Katniss' bow.
"Nothing. Adrenaline," I lied; thankfully, Glimmer wasn't the sharpest tool in the box and just shrugged.
"Whatever! Come on, there's about five tributes left and a whole cornucopia filled with treasure." Her blonde fishtail plaits were stained slightly with blood at the tips, giving her a ruthless look. If I didn't know the kind of person she was on the inside her idle talk would frighten me.
"Sounds like fun," I lied once more – following Glimmer into the mouth of the Cornucopia.
A ginger girl with unruly curls was smart enough to scamper off with just a blue backpack and a burlap sack stocked with ripened apples. The rest were hunted down as if we were playing a game of cat and mouse.
Marvel managed to skewer two girls at once with a jab of his spear – and Cato had cut the throat of a bumbling blonde who looked about twelve.
Just as we were beginning to search the place I found a curly-haired male hidden in a crate – shivering with tears streaking his bony cheeks.
It took me a minute to work up the courage to kill him, but – as usual – there is no room for kindness in victory sprung fresh in my mind.
"Goodbye, little mouse. This is your time, for the cat has caught her dinner." I took mercy on him and sliced his head clean off with the sword I originally had, knowing that would at least give him a quick end.
-LineBreaker-
Our tower grew miles high, thick with weapons, food and supplies alike. We made camp in the forest, but as close to the cornucopia as we could get; Cato insisted we stayed somewhere familiar – besides, there was a water source here – the next source could be miles away.
Near our goods pile a fire crackled and hissed fiercely. Night had fallen and the temperature had dropped, meaning silence reigned over the camp.
There were only five of us, as the District Four male had fallen.
"Told you he was weak." Kelly had said. "Jake had no reflexes."
Everyone just wrote him off. Another fallen tribute. Only I felt the effects of Jake's passing.
Sure, he was useless – but he was a career tribute, one of our own.
That was when I realised that I was, once again, subconsciously referring to the way my mother had cast me aside when I stayed silent. An Avox, she had called me. As useful and as silent as an Avox.
After that thought I completely ignored Jake's death.
Kelly was sharpening a sword, looking strangely like a blacksmith's daughter or apprentice. She looked as if she was enjoying herself too; it was hard to believe she came from a fishing district.
Then I remembered her first proper words to me:
"...My family hated me too, but you have to let it go..."
Maybe there was more to her than met the eye.
I began imagining her life, why she was hated. For a second I wondered why this never intrigued me before, but guessed my brain dismissed it – believing that she and I both shared the same reason for being shunned.
Perhaps she didn't like fishing. The women's job in District Four, besides training for the Hunger Games, was to make the supplies the men needed for their jobs. Small things from nets to hooks to preparing bait, to larger things like building boats and other equipment.
Maybe Kelly's heart was somewhere else. Crafting, for example – she seemed to know how to sharpen the blade of her sword without ever slipping, making quick darting movements to get the tip to a fine point.
What if her parents didn't like that? Wanted her to grow up a victor and a deckhand to a ship's Captain, rather than a craftswoman.
Did she dare to follow her passion, or – like me – did she crave her families' love so much she gave up on her dream?
"Clove, you alright?" A voice shook me out of my daze, a familiar one at that. Cato.
"I'm good," I promised.
"You kind of zoned out."
"What gave you that idea?" I decided to feign ignorance.
"Well you're moving so far forward that your hair's on fire."
What?
"GAH!" I shrieked, sitting up and patting down the tips of my hair – which were ignited in flames.
Each person stared at me, amusement evident in their expressions, before they resumed what they were doing.
Cato sat next to me, his laughter slowly fading out. "They should call you the girl on fire." I groaned; the moment when I let Katniss Everdeen slip through my fingers like sand in my hands replaying in my mind.
"Speaking of annoying brats, where is lover boy anyway?" I hadn't seen him for a few hours, when we sent him to get more firewood.
"Right on cue." A small, blonde boy walked through the foliage carrying lots of thick, heavy logs with ease.
"He's strong, I'll give him that." I whispered into Cato's ear.
"Yeah, but what's strength against a sword?" He replied.
I gasped. "How's your arm? I'm so sorry, I completely forgot." He winced when I went to touch it.
"Fine. It's fine. We can tend to it later, OK? For now I want to eat, I'm starving."
Throughout the evening I noticed Cato never used his left arm, and winced whenever it brushed against something.
-LineBreaker-
The night sky swallowed the arena, forcing the camp into darkness.
I took first watch, looking longingly at my empty sleeping bag whilst the other careers and lover boy went down for the night.
"Wake me up in two hours," Cato told me – nodding a goodnight and closing his eyes.
As he said this, I noticed how he slept on his right side, careful to avoid contact on his left arm.
Forty-five long minutes passed with nothing but silent snores filling the arena, when a screech emerged from the camp.
Immediately I drew a knife from my belt, which is where I had transferred some of the found knives – the rest were in my jacket – and scanned for danger.
Another shriek. I looked east to see Cato whimpering as he leaned on his left arm in his sleep.
That's it. I can't take this anymore.
He was in this state because of me. I retrieved the first aid kit from our mound of supplies and went up to Cato.
"Wake up," I whispered, shaking his right arm.
I was greeted with:
"I don't care what you say Clove, and I know there's no clock in the Arena, but that was not two hours."
"Hm. Yeah, I know – you can go back to sleep in a minute, but we need to get that arm fixed." Cato groaned, eyes flickering open.
"I told you, it doesn't hurt much."
"Right, well while you continue to lie to yourself I will treat your arm, which will get infected if we leave it any longer."
I forced off his jacket, and he trembled as if he'd received an electric shock from the night air.
"Worst way to wake up, ever."Cato mumbled, rolling up his sleeve to reveal the cut.
Sighing in relief, I pulled some antibacterial sanitizer from the kit. "It's not nearly as bad as I imagined it to be – I mean, it's no paper cut, but it's not deep." Cato didn't do very well at hiding his relief.
"Warning you, this is going to sting a bit," I told the blonde as I squeezed a penny-sized drop of sanitizer onto my hand, then rubbing it onto Cato's arm.
His fists curled into balls as he pursed his lips together hard in an attempt not to scream; though a low his did escape his teeth.
"Sorry," I mumbled – swiping up a bandage and running it over his arm.
"Damn Clove that hurts!" He tried to hide the pain and frustration in his tone, but failed miserably.
"Sorry," Cato apologised; smiling at me.
"Aww does it hurt?" I decided to joke around a little, take his mind of the pain. Cato played along.
"Ever so much, doctor!" He raised his right arm and placed his hand to his forehead.
"Oh dear, we may have to cut it off!" Laughter began to escape my lips, and a small chuckle left Cato's too.
"Dear God! Tell me there is another way!" His voice sounded so mock-dramatic that I couldn't keep up our joke, I fell to my side and collapsed into a fit of laughter.
Cato gave into the humour too, doubling over and grinning like a maniac; for once his smile wasn't smug, but filled with happiness and fun.
"You need your rest," I began seriously when the laughter died out.
"My arm is fine, Clove."
"It's not your arm I'm worried about – you'll be a useless guard when it's your turn in an hour, and boy dodgy limb or not I'm not missing out on sleep." Cato laughed for a second before sighing.
"Fine, but my arm does sort of hurt still – for the record."
I decided to go for the joking tactic again. "Aww poor boo, does ickle Cato want Clovey to kiss it better?" I put on my best baby-coo voice and pouted my lips.
"Pwetty-Pwease?" Cato begged, playing along. I leant forward and pecked his shoulder.
Once again we erupted into a fit of laughter, gasping for air and trembling for a good five minutes.
"Night, Clove." Cato breathed as we quietened down.
"See you in an hour," I nodded towards him as Cato's eyes slid shut – soon his soft snores filled the air, harmonizing with everyone else.
Wow. I thought. That was...Fun. Really, really fun. The best fun I'd had for a while, in fact.
I'm really surprised no one woke up and heard us...
Then again, as I assumed my guard position – I spied Kelly's eye half-open, staring at Cato before flickering to me, but quickly shut it again.
Glimmer, however, wasn't so discreet. Where Kelly's eye was filled with curiosity, both of Glimmer's eyes were wide open and staring straight forward, battling between me and Cato. She had a look of fury and envy about her, which frightened me.
Maybe the dumb blonde wasn't so dumb after all.
Wow. That was my longest chapter yet!
Well, it took me three hours...So review?
I will get to writing another one now! Author confessions:
Admittedly I forgot about Peeta so quickly added him in, pretending he'd gone to collect firewood :/
Also *kind of a spoiler*:
I decided Glimmer would be jealous and we'd have some Glato – which would make Clove realise that she was jealous, and that she really wanted to be more than friends with Cato. AND at some point, probably in the next chapter, we'll have a Kelly-Clove heart-to-heart.
:D Review! New chapter will be up as soon as possible!