"CATO!" I screamed. I saw him. He was alive. And that's when it hit. A fireball came out of nowhere and hit the ground next to him. That ground must have been some roots because they caught on fire. And the fire crept up the tree. And Cato didn't notice. A branch fell, but Cato didn't notice. And then the whole tree started to fall over, fire engulfing the whole thing. That's when he noticed. But it was too late.

"CATO!" I screamed his name one more time as he whipped around to see the tree, and crashed down… with the tree on top of him.

And that's when it ended.

The whole thing.

I stood there for a moment, paralyzed. And then it all hit me at once.

"CATO!" his name rang out through the forest. I was sobbing now.

"Say something! Are you alive? Hurt? S-s-…say something…" I sobbed. I crumpled to the floor. (I vaguely heard Marvel saying, "He's gone, move on. I declare myself leader. Blah, blah, blah. I'm so cool. Blah, blah, blah. And like, by the way, I'm super dumb." …okay, maybe those last few things from the first blah, blah, blah was just my mind…)

Silence. I ran into the ashes of the once-beautiful woods. I saw trees toppled over everywhere. Well, I just couldn't just lift up every single tree and ask myself, "Is he in there?" So I naturally went for the biggest tree trunk, since the one that fell on him was fairly large. I walked around it, and I made a half turn when I found him. He was unconscious, and his right leg was pinned under the tree, and there were serious 3rd degree burn marks everywhere. First I ran over to our camp and grabbed a can of burn medicine. I dashed back and tried to wake him up. After 4 unsuccessful tries, I checked his heartbeat. It was very faint, but definitely there.

I sat there, crying my head off, not knowing what to do, as he still wouldn't wake up. Was he dying right in front of my eyes? I put my head between my legs, closing my eyes.

THUNK. I woke up to the sound of a… well… a thunk. I must have drifted off to sleep while waiting. Amazing that I'm still alive. Anyway, so I looked around, unzipping my jacket and pulling out a knife from one of my hundreds of pockets. To my surprise, all I found was a silver parachute. I ran over to it and tore it open. Inside, there was a little plastic bag, with around 5 or 6…sticks. No, I'm not kidding. They were about the width of a chopstick and were about 5 inches long, each. I picked one up. What am I supposed to do with these? I licked one, and it tasted GROSS. It was like…bitter herbs and smells, and… it hit me. They were smelling sticks. I ran over to Cato, picked up a fresh one, and snapped it in front of his nose. Even from a couple feet away (I backed up after I snapped it), I could feel the effects of the sticks. I focused on Cato's eyes and face. About 10 seconds passed. Suddenly, Cato's eyes fluttered open.

"Cato!" I exclaimed and ran over to him, tackling him in a hug. Cato winced.

"Oh my Capitol, I'm so sorry, really! I forgot about your burns and I just...I just…-" I broke down, sobbing, as Cato took me in.

"It's okay." We sat there, in an embrace, for what seemed like forever when I finally came to my senses.

"Oh! I forgot! Sit up, and tell me where it burns the most." Cato pointed to his elbow area, his ankle, and his stomach. His stomach was the worst. The flesh had melted away, well.. most of it, not all, but it looked so thin that it looked like you could touch it and feel his bone or something. For his stomach, I applied about 45% of the burn medicine and then wrapped it in a thin layer of gauze that I rubbed a bit more of burn ointment on. His elbow was a dark black and red color, which I was worried might have been infected. I rubbed a little bit of ointment on there, and rubbed a bit on his ankle. Together, we rolled Cato from under the tree, and I had to stop and gasp. His other leg's ankle area was seriously hurt, you could see the outline of the bone through the skin. I made a pathetic splint out of some nearby branches and some rope I always have with me. It was pathetic, but it was better than nothing. With the Pathetic Splint and me (mostly me), we slowly, but surely, made it back to camp.

"Cato, that was a seriously close call. I can't afford having another close call like that."

"It won't happen again."

"How do you know?" My voice suddenly grew louder, and I whipped around to face him. I sobbed and slightly yelled the next couple of things.

"How do you know? Did you 'know' that this would happen? Will you 'know' what might happen next? You don't, okay? How can you be so cocky sometimes?"

"Okay, alright, I'm sorry."

My voice grew quieter for this one. "Can't you understand I'm doing this because I care about you? Why can't you just at least TRY to be careful?"

"I am!"

"Really, Cato? Just walking into the woods with no weapons OR protection? Yelling whenever you get the chance? HUNTING AT PITCH-BLACK NIGHTTIME?"

"What's so bad about hunting at nighttime? What could happen?"

"It's the CAPITOL we're talking about, Cato! I know that you know as well that that fire was well planned by them for us. What's next? Freak animals? Rain that can strip you down to bones? You never know, Cato. You never know. And if you keep being like this, then what happens if you… one day… don't get lucky? I can't live under this much stress and pressure (for certain reasons *cough* baby *cough*)everyday . I...-I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think it would be good for both of us if we took just a short break from our love-love relationship. We can be back on in about 2 days, when both of us have had time to cool off and think. But until then…I only want to be friends."

Cato blinked. He moistened his lips and stared at the ground. Finally, he looked up, his eyes stone hard, but softening once more.

"Okay."

Hey everybody! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOO sorry I haven't updated in a HUGE while. I've been SUPER busy with like…8 different projects, and piano, and tutoring, and guitar, and etc. It's just been hectic, and recently I've been sick with a fever of 102.8 … But I'll be trying to update more often, and I hope nobody has grown out of my stories, and I still hope you'll enjoy and review! Thanks, StarShadow.