Chapter 35
Enobaria felt terrible. She knew where Cato and Katniss had been and judging by the way Cato chucked the brown envelope into the fireplace as they returned it hadn't gone well. Then he'd gone down to Enobaria's training room and proceeded to smash up her supply of dummies. Katniss had mutely sat down in the living room and stared into space.
Once the sounds from the training room quieted and the prep team finally stopped their trembling, Enobaria knew it was finally time to go down and talk to him.
She waved to get Katniss attention, a rare privilege when it came to victors as most carried a weapon. The girl looked up at her and took her offered hand. Enobaria pulled her to her feet, surprised as always by how light she still was. Then they went downstairs to the training room.
In Katniss' house this room had just been for storage but in the district 2 houses it had almost exclusively been converted into a Capitol quality training room. Of course they all trained as a group in the mornings but most enjoyed a workout before bed as well.
Enobaria knocked on the door and entered. Inside was carnage. Every single dummy she owned was in pieces across the floor. Cato was stood in the centre of the mess, breathing like a bull with one of the massive swords he favoured held loosely at his side. He raised it in her direction and she knew him well enough to recognise this as a warning that he wanted to be left alone. She ignored it this time though because she had a secret weapon. She stepped aside to let Katniss in and was rewarded by a loud clang as he dropped the sword.
He knew that holding weapons around Katniss often sent her into flashbacks and Enobaria wasn't ashamed to admit that she was using that to force him into hearing her out. She led a wide eyed Katniss across the room, kicking Cato's sword away from him as they got close. He scowled at her but sat down on the edge of the mat as she did the same.
She'd still barely spoken to him since they left 12 and she knew without a doubt now that she'd broken his fragile trust by leaving him for the whole time they were back in two before the tour.
'I went to meet my family only a couple of weeks after I won.' She began. Katniss and Cato's attention snapped to her but she continued looking straight ahead. 'They were still at the same address. My mother, father, my brother and 17 year old sister. I managed to arrive when only my sister was home and she was so happy to see me. She invited me in and we spent about an hour catching up. She didn't mind what I'd done in the arena and had even managed to get accepted into a Capitol college to study medicine. She thought my ideas for training programmes were fascinating.
We were hitting it off so well but then the rest of my family arrived home. My mother saw me first and screamed that she didn't want a murderer in the house. She screamed abuse at me whilst my father hid my sister and brother behind him. She called me sick and said my teeth made me a monster, I tried to tell her it wasn't my choice to have them changed but they didn't listen. My father told me that if I ever came near them again he'd call the peacekeepers.
Of course the threat means nothing but the meaning is still there. I see my sister sometimes and she gives me photos but I'll never be able to speak to my brother. They raised him to hate me.' She knew her voice was hollow. The rejection by her own family still hurt even though it had been years.
'My mother tried to kill Katniss.' Cato said dully and Enobaria froze. She remembered Cato's parents, it was difficult not to remember telling the head peacekeeper that his son had a spot in the academy. His mother had been a delicate, refined woman that would never have hurt a fly. She wondered what had happened to change her.
'What about your father? He was very keen to send you to the academy, always checking up to see how you were doing. He actually only stopped calling when he was deployed somewhere else by the Capitol.' Cato's expression brightened considerably at this.
'He wasn't there. I think him and my mum split up.' The boy answered but he seemed in a much better mood all of a sudden.
She left him to clear up the training room whilst her and Katniss went upstairs to get them all a well deserved hot chocolate and explain to the others what had happened.
She also had some people to call. It was time to track down Cato's father.