Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in like forever. I've been away at university and just did not have time to write anymore. I also kind of fell out of touch with this story. I have a new idea of where I want this story to go and I'm actually really glad that I had to stop writing when I did because I would not have liked where the story was going otherwise, I've just really fallen out of love with that whole idea. I thought I had already written it and I didn't really feel like writing this story anymore. However, after reading this story again I realized that chapter must still be in one of my notebooks somewhere and it never made it on here. Which is good cause the story was at a good place for me to be able to change directions and write something I will like better. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to be posting more frequently this summer and get this story finished before I go back to school. Sorry that this chapter is kind of short its mostly just filler and thoughts to get us on track for the next part.
"My source shall remain anonymous, especially since they expressly told me to never bring it up and I am going against every order given to me at the moment" Cato stated confidently. Though with the knife so precariously pressed to his throat he was feeling anything but confident. Clove appeared to be having an internal battle with herself. Trying to decide if she wanted to kill him now, find out what he knows about Jonathan, or walk away and pretend like the one name that can affect her was never mentioned at all. Cato watched with interest, the wheels turning inside her brain were nearly visible in her attempt to decide the best course of action. But that wasn't what interested Cato the most, no, it was her eyes. For in her eyes Cato could see genuine emotion for the first time in all the time he had known her. Though Cato wasn't very good at emotions himself, he did believe the emotion he was seeing was pain and maybe even sadness. These emotions were masked behind a thick layer of deadly rage though so instead of commenting on it and pushing his luck, him and his busted-up shoulder and hand remained silent until Clove could decide how she wanted to handle his comment. After what felt like a solid 10 minutes but was really only a matter of seconds, any indication that she was human vanished. Clove was back to her emotionless near robotic self and she shoved him harder into the wall. As she turned to walk away, she muttered "well your source seems to have good survival instincts, maybe you should take their advice. I would hate for district two to not have a volunteer for the 74th games". With that she returned to her knife station as if the past few minutes had never happened. Though Cato knew that she was probably just saying that as a threat, he couldn't help but wonder if her respect for the District 2 system and his status as a future volunteer were the reason that he had not been killed yet. So many times, she could have quickly ended his life like she had with the different trainers, but she hadn't. Perhaps she saw his life as more valuable than theirs, maybe she respected his place in the system just enough to be more tolerable of him. But then again, that was just a guess, he would never really know what was going on in that head of hers. She was a little too far away from human for Cato to be able to read her like the other trainees, she didn't process things in the same way. But that's what comes from being exclusively bred to be a monster from the age of 2, you're just different. A deadly kind of different.
Cato decided he had pushed his luck enough for one day and wandered off to sit back on the bench until the end of training. Though he was done bothering Clove (in person at least), he was far from finished with her. As he sat on the bench a new plan was already forming in his mind. By the end of training that day Cato had decided that he would read her file, and if he could find it, he would read Jonathan's file too. After all, Clove had read all the files which meant it was possible. How hard could it be?
He didn't know why he cared so much about this girl's backstory. He brushed it off a mere curiosity. If anyone asked, he'd say it was strategic; she was the biggest threat in district two and if he wanted to be the best, he needed to be one step ahead of her. But deep down a part of him knew that the curiosity (at least in part) stemmed from a place of envy. Jealousy over the fact that she was chosen to be the district prodigy and he wasn't. Jealous that she had been cultivated into this deadly machine that would win the games without question, meanwhile he was left to train like a normal trainee. A preferred trainee, but a trainee none the less. Now Cato did not doubt his ability to win the games, he could do that with his eyes closed and one of his hands tied behind his back because that was who he was, he was that good. But a part of him would forever be angry that they didn't choose him. Everything he was was on his own merit. Every bit of attention he got was because he demanded it and killed for it. He got non of the luxuries, extra trainers and non-sense that the prodigy was rumored to have gotten. He should have been just as good as her but the district had been playing favorites, and that rubbed Cato the wrong way.
What he didn't realize was that everything Clove was was on her own merit as well. The attention and services she had acquired she got because of how good she was, how scary she was. Though the district may have taught her how to fight through pain and helped rid her of any human parts left in her, there hadn't been much to get rid of to begin with. There wasn't much they could teach her either. She had surpassed all that they could teach her by the time she was 8, everything else she taught herself. She amazed them everyday with the skills they didn't even know were possible until she came around. No, the district hadn't made her great, she was already great. The district simply tried to keep her and her temper under control, that way there would be some of them left to watch her win.
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