A DISTURBING THOUGHT
"Well, well…" said Cato roguishly, unsheathing his sword. Peeta's eyes widened more as he back away slowly from the three of them. "Look what we have here. Little lover boy..."
"Please…" uttered Peeta, his hands up in an act of defenselessness. "I don't want to fight…I'm just—"
"Save it!" said Cato. Peeta started to speak again, but Cato struck him across the face, leaving him stumbling backwards. "Where's your girlfriend, huh? Is she with you? Or is she dead already?"
At the thought of Katniss already being dead, Peeta's face paled slightly before saying,
"She's not dead. I know she's not."
"How would you know?" taunted Glimmer. "We could've killed her ourselves."
Peeta made to get up but Cato raised his sword, pointing the tip of the blade at Peeta's chest.
"What should we do with lover boy, then?" asked Clove, her eyes twinkling with malevolence as she glared down at the District Twelve boy. "He got an eight for his Training Score. Maybe we should just kill him now."
Cato looked intently at Peeta, cocking his head to the side as he tried to come to a decision.
"I can help you," said Peeta hurriedly. His powder blue eyes were hard with determination. "I'm good with the knife—"
Clove snorted.
"I'm good with the knife and I can help you find her!"
Cato's head shot up at this statement, glaring at Peeta. He was already scratched up pretty bad…there were cuts and bruises on his face. Plus, with Cato's last punch, he was already beginning to sport a black eye. He was strong…Cato remembered when Peeta was at the hand-to-hand combat station, he was exceptionally good. And he could help find Katniss Everdeen…their main target. The girl who scored higher than they did with the Training Scores.
"Fine," said Cato in a hard voice. "You're coming with us. But you do everything we say. And you're coming with us wherever you go. Try and attack us? We'll kill you without even thinking about it."
Peeta nodded stiffly and got up, only to have Clove and Glimmer on both sides of him, their weapons out and pressed against his back.
"Go on," sneered Glimmer, prodding him with her silver bow.
As they returned to camp, Marvel jumped up at the sight of Peeta in their group. Spear in hand, he said confusedly, "What's he doing here? Is the District Twelve girl anywhere near?"
"No, he's with us. Found him in the middle of the forest, sniveling behind a tree." said Cato with a smirk. He shoved Peeta over to their campsite. "Go on and sit over there. We'll deal with you after we eat."
Glimmer and Marvel walked away to rummage through their belongings at the pyramid of supplies. Clove walked over and sat on the ground next to Cato. The sun already began to droop down, painting the sky orange and pink. Whether it was the actual sun or something manufactured by the Capitol, Clove didn't know.
"So we've killed about eleven or twelve people at the bloodbath," said Clove for the sake of conversation. "Now we've got lover boy…plus the four of us. So we've just got seven people to kill before it actually comes down to us…"
"Sounds like we've made good time, then," laughed Cato cruelly as he took out an apple and a packet of dried beef strips. "We kill off seven more weaklings and then we're down to us. We either break up the group or just go at each other."
"Marvel and Glimmer are weak," snorted Clove. "They can use a couple of weapons well, but they're dead stupid."
"Glimmer's alright."
"She's pretty, sure. But she can't use a weapon to save her life."
"She can use a hatchet."
"Yeah, but we don't have a hatchet."
"Well, it's nice to have her around. She makes sure that my eyes don't get too sore when I look at everyone's ugly dead bodies."
Cato laughed at his little joke and took a bite of his apple, teeth breaking the shiny, red skin of the fruit. Clove stared irritably at Cato and his snobbish comment.
"She'll end up dead in the end. I could kill her right now if I wanted to."
"We could kill both of them right now if we wanted to. But we need them around for lookouts and stuff. I know it's going to end up as the both of us in the end, but for right now there's four of us and lover boy. I'm not thinking about the end result right now."
"The two of us," whispered Clove as she stared off into the crimson sky and the sinking sun. The two of them, in the end. It was inevitable. They were the strongest. It would be Clove and her knives against Cato and his sword. Who would end up Victor? Who would end up dead? Clove's stomach dropped as she thought about it, her heart overcome with a sudden wave of emotion. She didn't know what she was feeling or why she was feeling it. It wasn't news to her that she would end up having to kill Cato or be killed by him. But thinking about it…
"You're right," she murmured as she lay down on the cool grass and stretched her arms behind her. The orange sky was turning to black and the laughter of Marvel and Glimmer sounded far off near the lake. Her mind was still swimming with the thought of it just being the two of them by the end of the Games. "Let's not think about the end result right now."
end A DISTURBING THOUGHT