Chapter Seven.
"Ahh!" I hear my own hoarse scream escape my lips. I am sat up on my bed, my hands holding my weight, the covers and blankets are entangled in my legs and my hair is falling out of my bun. I gently touch one hand to my cheek to feel the salty tears are still slipping from my eyes.
I thought they were gone, over with two years ago.
Nightmares. I haven't had them in two years. They usually consist of my mom's death or my dad beating me. I remember the cold nights where I woke up sobbing and screaming and one boy that lived next door would climb through the window and hold me in his arms till I fell asleep again.
Back then that little boy and I had been closer, he helped me deal with my mom's death, my dad's beatings, and the nightmares that came with them but that boy has faded. He has become the piece in the capitols games that I refuse to be.
I didn't need to the hunger games to bring torture in my life; the capitol already gave me that.
I don't expect anybody to come to visit me, in a private meeting I had with Enobaria earlier after dinner she said that I had screamed and thrashed around in my sleep previous nights. At first the two mentors came to wake me but soon found I would need to be sedated to stop my screams of protest.
I hear the door crack open and see something in the blackness move, my eyes search for the glint of a needle that will come and sedate me back to sleep and I won't remember anything the next morning but I don't see it.
That is what alarms me.
Slowly I start moving back on my bed, moving everything in my way until I hit the cold surface of my wall. They wouldn't kill me now would they? They couldn't everyone has already seen the reapings they couldn't do it, not without rising suspicion. I haven't done anything wrong… Okay maybe a little but nothing big enough to kill me.
The blackness has stopped moving.
"Clove?" The soft voice comes from the shadows, I almost don't even recognize it as I haven't heard it in years.
"C-Cato." I say trying to sound as I usually do but I know he notices the slight tremble and hesitation in my voice, I hate how weak I sound. I can't be weak, especially in front of my top competitor, not now.
He doesn't say a word, just starts walking again and I see the blue footprints light up dimly behind him as if he is a ghost, it feels like he is. A ghost of the past.
I feel myself slightly falling over to the right as he climbs on my bed. I can barely see his face so I can't tell if he thinks of me as a coward or just a broken little girl but frankly I don't want to, it would bring to much shame to me. His hand gently unclenches my fist that I didn't notice were holding so tightly to the sheets of the capitol bed. He slowly brings me back into his arms, cradling me and playing with my hair like he used to.
At first I am hesitant but as he holds me closer I finally rest my head on his chest and watch as he plays with the ends of my hair like he used to when we were merely children.
Years of training finally caught up to us though and we drifted away from each other slowly. Sure we were granted as training partners but it wasn't like it used to be. If I awoke screaming and pleading for them not to kill another person I loved I wouldn't feel the warmth of his arms or the comfort of seeing him playing with my hair in a way almost soothingly.
Things felt so right but I knew, on the logical side of my brain, that they were wrong. This is not how we were supposed to act with our district partners when we knew one of us will be dead in less than three weeks. My head wasn't supposed to fit perfectly in the crevasse of his neck, but it did, and for now I was just going to enjoy the old Cato.
No words need to be said, now I know there is still the Cato I used to know in him, still some part of humanity left… and that is all I need.
VERY short chapter but gives you some background and is a Clato moment. 3