Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
A/n: This is a series of oneshots. Each oneshot features, in order, a person from the character list on this site as well as a few i felt should be there (Boggs, Coin, Caesar, Cashmere, Gloss, and Marvel) each with a randomly picked prompt (or as random as i could manage without throwing actual darts at my poor old dictionary!). Updates will be one a day (hopefully) though when i go back to uni, this might change. Anyway, i hope you enjoy! As always, any criticism, just shout it out. Any advice on law, shout it out louder!
8) Cato – Anti-hero
You probably think you're here so I can train you to be a hero. Kill the bad guys and save the day, right?
"Cato! Cato!"
"Clove!"
Get those thoughts out of your head now, Cato. To win the Hunger Games, you have to be ruthless. Anything goes. You're not the good guy here. You're the one everyone fears.
Run. Got to run. Screw the other tributes. Screw Lover boy and Everdeen. They're not important. I have to get there. Get to Clove.
I don't care what you think, Cato. Those bedtime stories you like? Bull. The hero never wins. It's always the villain. So just listen to my advice and you'll get out of that arena alive.
She's been knocked down by Thresh. No. No. She's alive. She's got to be alive and I'll prove it! We're going to win and get out of this arena. Both of us.
"But heroes are smart and brave and talented. Just like a winner."
And so are anti-heroes, Cato.
So close to the feast. She's just lying there. Should she be lying there?
"Clove, stay with me!"
No response. But no cannon. She's alive.
"Well, if both are smart and talented and brave, why can't I be a hero anyway?"
Because the hero will always lose. No good people win the Games.
She's barely breathing. I check her pulse. Almost nothing. A dent in her head.
She isn't dying, goddammit!
"Stay with me, Clove," I growl. "We're winning this thing. I told you I'd save you and you said you'd save me. So stay here!"
You want to know my last reason for telling you not to be a hero? Heroes do stupid things, Cato. They get themselves killed. More than that, they feel they have to take revenge. And that's because they get themselves involved with people. You feel something for someone, you end up dead. You're your only friend in that arena.
The cannon fires. I let go of her hand. What's the point? She's dead.
"Thresh," I growl. I imagine all sorts of things I can do to him. But none of them seem enough. How can I make him feel how I feel right now? "Thresh!" A yell, loud enough to scare birds from the trees over a hundred metres away.
I know you're listening, Cato. Trust me, it's all for the better.
I pick up my spear and run towards the corn field. I don't give a damn about what my trainer said – about not caring for people, about only thinking of myself. Trying to ignore Clove made me miserable. Thinking only about victory got her killed. I'm sick of being the bad guy. Time to be a hero.