Enjoy this chapter. ;w; I might be updating regularly or not. I don't know.
The Hunger Games doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 12: Betrayal
"Cato, are you alright?" Glimmer asked softly, her voice laced with worry.
The District 2 tribute didn't respond to Glimmer's question and continued to pretend to be sleep with his back facing Glimmer. Glimmer wasn't convinced that he was asleep. She sat up, resting her weight on her elbows and stared at Cato's back.
"Cato, is something wrong?" Glimmer asked more loudly and firmly.
Suddenly, Cato sat up and launched himself at Glimmer. Unfortunately, the tribute from District 1 didn't see him and wasn't able to move out of the way fast enough to dodge Cato's attack. Cato's strong hand seized her neck and the rest of his body slammed into Glimmer's. Cato's body kept Glimmer's pinned to the while while his eyes burned with rage. Glimmer desperately clawed at his hand, trying everything she could to get Cato let go of her neck. She couldn't breathe...
Cato leaned in and although his grip on Glimmer's neck didn't loosen at all, Glimmer found she couldn't breathe for a different reason. Cato's face was suddenly so close...
Glimmer could feel hot, angry breaths on her face that escaped from Cato's mouth in huffs.
"Cato... I can't breathe..." Glimmer whispered.
Cato's grip seemed to tighten on her neck. Glimmer suddenly felt very lightheaded. Her knees seemed to buckle underneath her and then Cato let go. Glimmer fell on the ground of the cave with a heavy slam, hands at her neck, trying to massage away the pain Cato's hand had inflicted upon it. Cato stood over her with tightened fists.
"Cato..." Glimmer rasped.
Suddenly it hit Glimmer like a pile of bricks. Cato was turning on her!
"Glimmer." Cato said in a low, deathly calm voice.
"Y-yeah?" Glimmer managed to choke out, her throat still sore.
"Run!" Cato shouted at the top of his lungs as his fist flew forward towards Glimmer's face.
Glimmer somehow managed to jump back onto the heels of her shoes, barely missing the impact. In fact, her feet were so close to Cato's fist that she felt the ground shake. Cato sucked in a scream he was trying to hold back and then slowly looked up at Glimmer, his suddenly empty blue eyes locking with Glimmer's tear-filled ones.
"Cato..." Glimmer murmured, tears spilling onto her cheeks.
For a moment, Cato seemed hesitant, giving Glimmer a faint hope that he was regretting attacking her. But when his fist tightened again, Glimmer knew she was done for.
"Glimmer, I said, RUN!" Cato screamed at the top of his lungs as his fist flew straight for Glimmer's face. Only this time, it made direct contact with Glimmer's left cheekbone and it sent Glimmer flying into the back wall of the cave with a slam. Glimmer felt the air in her lungs suddenly rush out, like somebody had drained all of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Cato knelt nearby, his whole body hunched over, his shoulders heaving with heavy, angry breaths. Cato clutched his fist with his other hand. He had obviously broken it or had brought it somewhere near that condition.
But there was no time to pity him. She had to run.
Glimmer climbed to her feet as quickly as she could despite the immense pain in her cheek and she ran out of the cave, her vision blinded by tears. Even as she ran further and further from the cave to put as much distance between herself and Cato, Glimmer could hear pained screams echoing from the cave, only being able to belong to the District 2 tribute.
The tribute she had fallen in love with.
For some reason, Glimmer felt her heart begin to clench and tighten. Glimmer suddenly felt out of breath, almost like the oxygen had been ripped out of the arena again but this time, it wasn't because Cato was cutting off her air supply. This time, Glimmer couldn't breathe because her heart was breaking into pieces inside her chest.
"GLIMMER!" That painfully familiar voice screamed in the distance, laced with numerous negative emotions, the most apparent one being anger.
Glimmer placed her hands over her heart and sat down under a tree. She felt defeated, and her defeat had been brought upon by another tribute stealing her heart and smashing it into a thousand pieces.
Then, to further add to her depression, it had started to rain. Of course, Glimmer knew this was Gamekeeper-generated rain but the darkness of the sky perfectly matched Glimmer's gloom.
"You."
Glimmer looked up and found Thresh standing over her, a bloody spear in hand. He looked severely angry.
"What?" Glimmer choked out, sounding utterly weak to her own ears.
Thresh gripped the spear tighter and grabbed Glimmer's neck with his free hand and lifted Glimmer off her feet. His fingers dug into her neck mercilessly. Choking her to death seemed to be Thresh's intention.
Glimmer kicked around desperately in an attempt to hit Thresh and make him let go of her but the District 11 tribute stared up at her with cold, uncaring eyes with the intent to kill clearly visible.
"Your partner killed Rue." Thresh growled.
Glimmer's eyes widened. Marvel? Was he still alive? It couldn't be. Glimmer was sure Marvel was probably dead by now.
Upon seeing Glimmer's eyes widen, Thresh's grip on the spear tightened and he raised it over his head, aimed straight for Glimmer's heart.
"Now you can join him!" Thresh screamed.
Glimmer continued to struggle, even though she knew her death was inevitable.
"Let her go!"
Thresh then let her go and ran after the owner of the voice. Without a second thought, Glimmer got up and ran in the opposite direction, her body aching all over. While she ran, many thoughts raced through her head. Glimmer knew it could only belong to Cato. But he had turned on her. Why did he help her escape from Thresh?
For a moment, Glimmer thought Cato had regretted attacking her and had decided to save her because he wanted her back. Of course, that was what her heart wished was going on. A more gruesome thought followed the previous one and this one nearly made Glimmer's heart stop out of fear.
Cato had saved her from Thresh because...
He was saving her for last.
Then the stunning realization hit Glimmer. It made her feel breathless and afraid, like she wasn't in control of her own body anymore.
From the start of the Games, Cato had been saving her for last.
Hope you guys liked this chapter!
