"Um… wait hold on I need to… go to the bathroom… over there." I point to the bushes where the gift had fallen and quickly make my way over there.
"Don't take too long, we need to get going." Cato shouts.
With the bushes hiding me I quickly grab and open the package; medicine is inside with a note from Haymitch.
Have him put this on your cut, without it you are dead. Dirt was not the only thing on that knife. Try to do a better job of convincing Panem of your romance.
-Haymitch, and everyone else rooting for you to win
Great, he has to touch me some more! Why can't I just do it myself Haymitch? I don't see how him putting medicine on my wounds is romantic. I give a dirty look and the middle finger to the sky, hopefully Haymitch gets the message.
"Are you done yet?" Clove says with a huff. "How long does it take to take a piss?"
"Uh yeah." I get up and walk back to the group. "I found this when I was there, the sponsors sent me medicine."
"Oh really?" Cato raises an eyebrow. "And it just so happened to be in the bushes where you were taking a piss?"
"Yes," I grit my teeth. "And I can't really reach the spot where she cut me." I nod to the tributes hanging body. "Can you…" I give him a half smile, accompanied by batting eyelashes.
"Sure thing babe." Cato takes the medicine and goes to put it on my neck before I stop him.
"Can we have some privacy?" I ask the others.
"I think I'm going to be sick…" Glimmer pouts.
"Ditto." Clove throws her knife into a nearby tree. "I'm going to throw up."
"Wow katniss, alone in the woods, just the two of us. How romantic of you." I roll my eyes at him as he puts the medicine on my wound.
Instantly my neck is feeling ten times better, too bad it had to be Cato that helped me. He closes up the jar and puts the medicine in his pocket.
"Thanks... for doing that for me." I give Cato a quick peck on the lips.
Cato decides he has other plans, he immediately starts kissing my neck, where my wound just was.
"You're so beautiful." I hold back the impulse to throw him off of me. "I'm glad you… came to your senses." I can feel Cato smile while he kisses me.
"What was I even thinking?" I take a breath and start kissing Cato again. "Trying to run away from this, from us, this?" He forces his tongue into my mouth to keep me from saying anymore.
He quickly starts to take off my top, I press my hands to his chest, and he stops for a moment.
"Not now Cato." He grins and starts kissing me again, hands making their way up my shirt.
Instead of letting him take my shirt off I help him with his; he raises both arms so taking it off is a breeze. He presses his perfect body back onto me. I didn't want to end up like this with him, but if this is what the audience wants… I guess this is what the audience gets. I have a sick feeling that Cato could care less about what the audience wanted anyway.
His hands go to my pants, and I try to move away but his sheer weight alone keeps me under him.
"Katniss stop struggling, it will be quick. You're going to love every minute of it, I promise."
I didn't expect it to go this far, I thought maybe a few kisses here and there… a shirt or two to come off… but I did not expect him to try and have sex with me. I can only pray that Gale isn't watching, or Prim, or Mother…
All of a sudden a loud explosion occurs, from where we came from. And that can only mean one thing…
"Glitch." Cato curses under his breath, and he jumps off of me. "Glimmer, Clove, Marvel, we need to get to the cornucopia now." That explosion just saved me, but I can't expect the consequences will be good for Glitch.
"Why is your shirt off?" Marvels eyes go to me. "Ahh, nice man." He high fives Cato, pigs.
"Do you mind saving that shit for another time?" Glimmer says, with a jealous tint to her voice. "C'mon lets get going!" The group starts running towards the sound.
It's my chance to get out of here, and I take it. Sorry Haymitch, but there has been a change of plans. Instead of running with them I run to the tree where Clove had embedded her knife and pull it out, I turn my body towards the river, and start running. Peeta, Peeta, Peeta, where are you?
"How about no." Clove tackles me, trying to pin me down and get the knife.
"Get off of me!" I manage to get out from under her, and try to get away but she grabs my ankle and I fall back onto the forest floor. "Aghh." Shes clawing her way up and tries to grab my throat, and then a hand is on my face trying to gouge my eyes out.
"Don't think you can try to take my knife and get away with it!" The pressure is getting ridiculous and I feel like my eyes are going to implode any second now, the pain is almost too much to bear. "All you have ever been… is fucking trouble… trust me I am doing the world a favor by getting rid of you…" I don't let her go any further, I grab the knife and pierce her back, right where her heart would be.
Clove slumps over and I push her off. With her last breath she murmurs in my ear. "He'll never love you the way he loved me." A cannon sound goes off and I know she's dead. I take out the knife and stand up, surprised that I had actually killed her. I back away from her body until my back hits a tree.
"Nooo!" It's Cato, and he's running towards me. "What did you just do?" I brace myself for impact but he runs right past me and grasps Clove. Cato does something I've never seen him do, he cries. "Why did you do that?" He's wailing and holding her body to his, as if it will bring her back.
"I… I… I… she tried to kill me… what was I supposed to do?"
They're rocking back and forth together; he's kissing her and saying sweet things in her ear, asking her to come back to him. He said things to her that made me almost feel sympathetic towards them. But he knows that she's dead, she can't ever come back, the Games never let's anyone come back. No matter how much he kisses her, or rocks her, she is just as dead as before. All of a sudden he drops her limp body, and his tears are replaced with pure rage. He stands up and starts walking towards me, and then he starts charging. "You… you did this!"
Stupid me again should had just taken the chance to run a minute ago. I try to escape before he can get to me but he's too fast. He's on me in an instant. Fists are meeting my face and it's getting hazy. I had let go of my knife some time ago. He then gets up and starts kicking me in the side, all I can do it curl up in a ball and try to protect my head.
He's yelling at me, and crying, all he is shouting is 'why' with every punch and kick. Too many 'whys' have hit me and I fear that one more of them and I lose consciousness, which would not be good. God knows what he would do with me, he'd probably keep me alive and do horrible things, the possibilities are endless for him.
And then I do something that probably nobody expected; I decide I'm not going to be his plaything anymore, or his punching bag. He's had a hold over me this whole time but I wont let him do this to me anymore. I throw my first punch back at him.
He is surprised to say the least, probably not expecting me to fight back. I fumble around looking for Cloves knife, and when I feel it I quickly grab it. I backhand him and run with all the force I could gather into his chest, knocking him over.
Cato screams out in pain, because a knife is now inserted into his leg. It's not a critical wound but it will put him to a disadvantage for the rest of the game, unless a sponsor sends him something like they did for me.
"You fucking bitch! When I get my hands on you…" He inches towards me while I try to back away as quickly as possible. I kick him in the face a few times, trying to shake him off of me. He manages to get on top of me again and grabs my throat as I claw at his hands.
I don't know if Cato would go as far as to kill me, surely he knew that I'd have to kill eventually. It seems like Cato will never stop, and that my throat will collapse with all the force he is putting onto it. He is trying to squeeze my life away.
"Cato, I think you'd better... get back to the cornucopia… and see what happened." I manage to say through clenched teeth and rasping breaths. He knows I'm right too; the look on his face is disappointment.
"I guess we're going to have to leave now." He grabs me and throws me over his shoulder. I kick and scream as loud as I possibly could, at this point I am just slowing him down and thats all I'm ever going to be doing for the rest of the games. As he lets go of me, and it gives me immense satisfaction. "I will not forget this Katniss, and I will come back and get you." He's out of sight within seconds.
Why does everyone grab my throat as their go to method of trying to kill me. I scramble to my feet, there's no time to lose. I have to get as far away from the careers as possible. Cato will make good on his promise, and I know he will come back to get me as soon as he can.
I start running towards the river, and when I reach it I walk along its edge. I notice how parched I am, and I can't remember when the last time I had a drink of water was. I cup my hands into the river and just drink for a minute. If I were Peeta where would I be? I have no idea…
I get up and start pacing, trying to think of all the places he could have gone. Peeta could be anywhere by now. He can't be dead though, I would have seen his image in the sky. And I only remember hearing one or two canons go off, one for Clove an one for that girl.
Exhausted from walking for so long I sit down on the ground, as I do my stomach starts to make noises. Great, I didn't eat all day either and now I'm probably going to starve to death.
"Hey… do you think… you could get off of me… I can't… breathe…" A voice comes out from under me.
I jump up, was that… no it couldn't be. I frantically look around my surroundings. I don't see him at all.
"Peeta? Is that you? Where are you?" I look down and see two eyes and smile, his body is camouflaged into a rock.
"You're still... Standing on me…. Can't breathe…. Remember?"
"Oh my God! Peeta! Did I hurt you? Where have you been this whole time? Why are you in the ground?" So many questions, so little time. I jump off of him to let him breathe.
I help Peeta stand up, his leg has been badly wounded. I bring him over to a rock to sit on. I am just about to ask him some more questions, but I am interrupted by the sounds of the careers making their way over. I am surprised they got his this fast.
"What are we going to do?" I desperately search for a hiding place. "Is there any place we can hide?"
"There's a cave… not even fifty feet from here. Its well hidden… it's that way." He nods his head towards some foliage. "Couldn't get there myself, darn leg."
Getting him there was not easy, he weighed a good amount and without the use of a leg it took a little longer than it should have. But we made it just in time, because Cato showed up right as we both hid ourselves.
"Was she here?" It's Cato speaking.
"These tracks are freshly made. Someone was here, I'd say... within the last few minutes." Glimmer starts walking around the river, getting a little too close for comfort to our hiding area.
I can make out Cato, who looks very pissed off. He's got a blood soaked bandage wrapped around his leg, but he isn't limping. He probably used my medicine on it. It wasn't smart of me to not take it back.
"Katniss, or whoever else is out there, and I know there's somebody, you better listen up." A shaking Glitch is pushed in front of Cato, probably scared to death. "If you ever, and I mean ever, try to fuck us over again, this will happen to you." Cato draws out a long, and very sharp sword. Glitch is pushed to his knees, Cato swings back, and cleanly slices Glitchs head off.
I stagger back, holding my hand to my mouth so I don't cry out. Poor Glitch. He probably didn't do anything wrong… I can just imagine it being some tribute setting off the mines, not Glitch.
Marvel throws a spear to Cato, who lodges it into Glitchs head, and then stakes it into the ground.
"What happened?" Peeta moans from the corner. I rush over to him clamping my hand down onto his mouth.
"Shhh!" I whisper desperately at Peeta. "Be quiet!"
"Did you hear that?" Marvel starts walking around. "Sounded like someone talking."
"No, where did it come from?"
"There." He points directly towards where we are.
Shit.