I'm being bad and ignoring my school work again... But I got some of the nicest private messages and couldn't leave you all hanging. So I finished this up and now it's back to school work.
Who knows how long I stared at the screen after it went blank. So many things ran through my head. Could this be real? How are Peeta and Clove handleing this? My thoughts then took a darker turn. Could I ever kill Peeta? No, I couldn't. What about Clove? Could I honestly even try to kill either of them? What about sponsors? How would the Capitol citizens bet on this? There was nothing to base our skills. Would anyone even pay to save one of us?
The door opened, and the previously orange haired woman who reaped me and Clove walked in, only now her hair was blindingly white, blending with the room.
"Hello, Cato." She spoke, walking towards me. "You must have a ton of questions, so I'll just cut to the chase."
"The Capitol has been watching the tributes since the beginning. Everything you've done in the tower was monitored. This is what everyone is basing the skills off of. Because this year's games are different, the method of sponsoring changed accordingly."
They've been watching me the whole time? The whole WORLD knows my most intimate moments and watched as I struggled? Then it hit me, how could I have not seen this coming?
"Both me and your mentor were removed. Because we were allowed to leave the tower whenever we wanted, the Capitol felt it necessary in order to keep up the false sense of security that began to blossom between all of you."
I was to busy with myself that I never noticed the two's disappearance. I only stared at her, hating her even more than I thought possible to hate someone. Knowing she knew the twist all a long and said nothing as we all danced around like fools.
"I really am sorry, Cato." She started, "I watched you fall in love with Peeta. At least you have that going for you, the Capitol seems to love it."
Who said anything about love? I just accepted that I liked him, nothing more.
She sighed, watching the worry on my face. "He's okay, you don't have to worry."
Speaking for the first time, "Are you kidding me? Worry? You are throwing me into an arena where everyone will wait to see which one of us will kill the other first! Will I kill Peeta, or will he kill me? All I can fucking do is worry!"
She looked defeated, and decided to drop the subject. "There isn't much time left, I was sent here to fill you in and help you ready yourself." She directed me towards a white cabinet I didn't notice earlier. It contained a heavy jacket and pants, boots, gloves, and a face mask: all a light grey in color.
"What is this?"
"They say the arena is going to be a cold one this year. The capitol wanted to even the odds a bit more since no one was forced to use the training center. Many of the poorer districts have hard winters, giving them the edge in a colder climate to counter the other districts more prepared tributes. They don't want any of you dying off right away, so they provided everyone with these."
Pulling the heavy gear on, I felt constricted. It was harder to move with all the bundle. Hand to hand combat would be even more difficult, not to mention how hard it would be to keep hold of a sword with these gloves.
"Do you have a token that you would like to take?" She broke my thought.
I turned, not thinking of anything at first. Then the black marble came to mind, 'it always will remind me of you.'
"Yes." I reached into the pants I had discarded in exchange for the ones I currently wore and pulled out the marble. "This."
"Interesting…" the woman said, eyeing it. I handed it to her so she could expect it more carefully, making sure there wasn't anything about it that could give me an edge in the arena. It must have passed the test because she handed it back to me with a smile. Possibly, she suspected the meaning behind it.
The anthem started playing, signalling it was time for me to enter the tube that would carry me to the nightmare awaiting. I walked over, still hoping this was all a bad dream.
"Cato," she whispered as I stepped onto the platform. "Keep yourself alive. Stay warm, the cold will be your greatest challenge."
The tube started its ascent, and I watched her disappear from view. What was I going to do when the timer went off? Would I run into the bloodbath? Or would I try to find Clove and Peeta? There was to much to worry about it, and the arena's mystery was something I couldn't predict.
The tube opened up to a blinding white land. My eyes slowly adjusted to the drastic increase of light caused by the snow. It wasn't as cold as I expected it to be, but then again it was also midday, or at least that's what the arena's sun, perched in the middle of the sky, said it was.
The cornucopia was infront of me, it appeared to be at the peek of a small hill. We tributes were scattered equidistant from it in a circle. I looked behind me, only to find that this wasn't a hill, it was a mountain. There were cliffs and steep ridges. At a few points it seemed to level off, with a thick forest that appeared to surround the zenith we stood on. But who's to know it was a forest? Everything was covered in snow; it could just be jagged rocks.
I looked up at the timer, telling me I had 30 seconds left to prepare myself. Go for the cornucopia? Run to the safety of the forest? The old Cato would have laughed at the second thought, but the New Cato thought it might just save his life. Wait, what about Clove and Peeta? Should I find them?
20 seconds on the timer, I searched the other tributes, noticing that the light grey clothing helped us blend in against the snow, looking like a rock or a shadow. It was hard to make out who was who with the masks covering our faces. The best I could do was find out their district since we all had our district number on our shoulders. I noticed, District 3, that could be Surge, but I didn't really know the female tribute. District 6: Did I even bother to get to know anyone in 6? District 11: Judging from the size, it was Tresh. Avoid him if possible.
I turned in the other direction, the circle made it impossible to see everyone and I ran out of options on my right. Left of me was District 7: Dammit, I don't know any of them either… District 10, or was that a 12? I couldn't tell, the number was turned at a strange angle and I couldn't make it out. I moved to the next only having a few seconds left. District 2. Clove! At least I knew where she was.
The gong sounded. But what about Peeta?
Everyone was sluggish jumping off their platforms, the snow making it difficult to run. I noticed Thresh running towards the cornicopia, his strength overpowering his disadvantage to the frozen landscape. I pushed myself to move faster, hoping I could at least grab a weapon, or a pack, or anything before Tresh could attack me.
I pushed through the snow, looking to my left and catching Clove who nimbly ran, her lighter frame making it easier for her to run. She was closer than I was. I tried catching her attention, but she kept running.
The track was uphill, which made the snow that much more difficult to overcome. I was closer than many of the other tributes, noticing that district 3 and 6 had run off in the opposite direction towards the 'forest'.
I saw that Clove made it to the cornucopia, grabbing a pack and some knives. Thresh was close, but she wasn't in any danger that I could see, until I saw her hit the ground, someone ontop of her.
"Clove!" I shouted. I was helpless, forcing myself to move faster. I only hoped that Clove would be able to fend her attacker off. Afterall, she was just as much of a killing machine as I was.
Tresh was the third person on the scene that I could see, he grabbed a few packs watching Clove struggle with whoever was trying to kill her. He watched for a moment and began to run off in the same direction as District 3. He probably thought it was Surge, a good friend of his, and ran off to join him.
I was only a few feet away from Clove when I noticed her attackers District. It was 9, and from the sounds of it, female. Cassie. This might be more fun than I thought.
I barrelled into her, feeling a spark of pleasure as we both fell to the ground, me on top of her. I pinned her to the ground, my hands around her throat. This would be so much easier if I had a weapon, but I could easily strangle her to death, but it would take more time.
Clove must have regained her composure, because she was standing next to me, surveying the area, knowing that my kill would require time. Cassie's struggle was making things difficult; the gloves I wore kept slipping, allowing her a second to gasp for air. I picked her up and slammed her back down.
It stunned her enough for me to pull one of my gloves off with my teeth, the cold bit at my exposed skin, but it gave me a better grip. "Just die, you cunt!" I shouted at her.
Clove moved into action, I heard her hussel, followed by a pained groan some distance away. I turned to watch an unknown person drop to the ground, a knife lodged deep in their chest.
Cassie was still struggling, but my grip on her throat wasn't breaking.
"Cato!" Clove shouted. "We can't stay here much longer." I heard her knives clink together, and could picture her hurling another into someone else.
I looked down into Cassie's eyes, watching the terror in them. I smiled down at her, knowing it wouldn't be much longer. Her struggles were weaker. I almost got to see her eyes glaze over when Clove pulled me off of her.
"We have to go now!" she shouted "There's to many of them, grab a pack. There's a sword over there, if we go now, we might still be able to get it."
"She's not dead yet." I said. I vaugely noticed the change in my voice before Clove turned and watched the slowly recovering Cassie gasp for breath. She grabbed a knife and heartlessly threw it at her. It sank deep into her throat, instantly she was gasping out blood, trying to scream at the pain.
"She is now." Clove ripped the knife out of her throat, her blood painting the perfectly white snow a dark red.
I turned approaching the sword that Clove had pointed to. I pulled it free with my still ungloved hand. The balance of it was magnificent, and it fit perfectly in my hand like it was specifically made only for me.
"Done admirring you're fucking sword?" Clove shouted. "We have to go!"
I turned, noticing a large group of tributes; they must have taken the time to seek each other out before deciding their numbers were enough to storm the cornicopia by force. I wanted to stay and fight. I could take them.
My sword danced in my hand intimidatingly. Clove grabbed a third pack, throwing two to me. "Are you insane?" She shouted, "We'll never live through it. It's two against six! Grab those damn packs and let's go."
I didn't move, feeling the familiar urge to battle build up in me.
"Cato!" She shouted at me. It didn't matter, she was nothing anymore.
I prepared for the carnage, my body knowing exactly what to do as I found my fighting stance. I was ready; this is what I was born to do.
A/N: I'm a sucker for icy climates...
Apparently I had anon reviewing turned off... I turned it on for those who don't have an account. Again, thank you to everyone for making this so much fun to write and for all your love.