Chapter 12

Shattered

"Brutus if you are kidding I swear I wills kin you in the middle of the night and-"

"He's not kidding, Clove." Enobaria said sternly. She paced and rubbed her forehead, mumbling to herself. "Out of all of my tributes, the ones that are the victors have to be complete and total dumbasses. What did I do for this punishment?"

"Where is he?" I insisted.

"He's at the Justice building. You can't see him until morning." Brutus repeated. I ignored him and stomped to my room. I changed into a pain of jeans and combat boots and a jacket and barged back through everyone, back to the door.

"Where are you going?" Enobaria asked.

"TO go see Cato." I jumped down from the cart and onto the tracks, shoving my hands into my pockets.

"I told you Clove, you can't go now." Brutus jumped down behind me and followed me.

"I don't care." I mumbled.

"Clove." Brutus placed a firm hand on my arm.

"Brutus I swear if you don't let go of me, you will regret it." I said sternly, staring in his eyes angrily. He released my arm and I stomped off again.

I followed the street lamps, hoping to find the Justice building. When I did, I noticed all the lights off in he building except for a room up top. When I tried to open the heavy doors, they were locked, but I picked the lock with my knife. The door creaked slightly as I opened it, spilling a golden thread of light across the marble floor. I walked up the stairs until I found the room with the light on. I peered in and this is what I saw.

Cato was slouched on the floor, his wrists tied to a pole. A lone tall, dark haired peacekeeper whipped him in the back, but by the looks of it, Cato was already unconcious. It took all of my being to not barge in and take the whip and start hitting the peacekeeper.

"Excuse me." I said in my silkiest voice, opening the door.

"Clove? We instructed the mentors to keep you at the train." he replied.

"Yes, I know. I just got, you know, lonely." I walked closer to him and his breath hitched. I smiled menacingly at the fact that I could have that affect on anyone.

"Right, um. Well I'm going to have to ask you to leave." his voice shook.

"Really?" I frowned pitifully as I backed him up against the wall. He nodded but with each nod his face inched closer to mine. When I finally caught him completely off gaurd, I jammed my elbow into his jugular, causing him to crumple onto the floor, unconcious. After I made sure he was out cold, I sprinted to Cato's side.

"Cato? Cato, wake up. You're are the dumbest asshole the world has ever know, you know that? You're screwed over. We are screwed over. Why did you tell them?" I rushed. When I realized he wasn't concious, I picked up a bucket of water ad dumped it on him. His eyes shot open and then he winced, iting his lip trying not to scream. The water must've burned against his new scars.

"Clove. What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Do you really expect me to sit on the train while you whither away?" he smiled.

"Listen, someone is coming to help us. He's going to get us out of this situation." his breathing was heavy and his eyes droopy. "I'm sorry."

"For what Cato? For being dumbass? Oh, you don't have to apologize for that. That's always going to happen." he grinned, wincing a bit.

"C'mon Clove." I turned around and Finnick stood in the doorway. "I talked to the peacekeepers and you're staying in one of the justice building rooms so you can see Cato." he took my hand and helped me get up.

"I love you Clove." Cato peered up at me.

"Love you too." I gave a half hearted smile, even though I could feel myself breaking into pieces, slowly and painfully.

"Clove, wake up" I jumped up abruptly. Enobaria took my arm and led me down the hallway and into a dining room. At the table was a man I had seen before. His shaggy blonde hair hung around his face and his blue eyes glowed brightly. He was the drunk mentor. Haymitch.

"Haymitch, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Look, sweetheart. I want to help your boyfriend, but you;'ve got to get up at a decent hour." he glanced at his watch. "Seven o'clock and I haven't even had a drink yet."

"How can you help us?" I sat down, suddenly very intrigued.

"Look, sweetheart, we can tell the Capitol it was all a misunderstanding. Cato admitted it because he was tired and mentally impaired. I know exactly what we'll tell them, don't worry." he crunched on a piece of bacon. "But until we get to the Capitol, you need some sleep." he slouched. "You look horrible."

"Thanks." I brushed a piece of hair from my face.

"SO CAto, you know what you're going to say, right?" Haymitch double checked with Cato. Cato nodded. "And Clove, you just keep your mouth shut. And when he says it, you need to start crying."

"Says what?" I demanded. Haymitch ignored me. Our prep teams fixed our makeup and then Cato and I took the stage. The Capitol crowd roared as we sat on a love seat, although Cato,s hands were cuffed in front of him. Cato wore an icy blue suit and I wore a flowy white dress. I was so consumed and horrified by the fact that I was in the Capitol again that I didn't even notice we had started the interview.

"do you think he did it, Clove?" Ceaser asked.

"What? NO of course not!" I laughed it off and he just nodded.

"And Cato, if you didn;t do it, why did you confess?" Caesar asked.

"Well," his chains rattled as he repositioned himself. "I was extremey tired, I mean, with what Clove and I have been going through." he glanced at me lovingly and my heart warmed.

"And what is it you've been going through."

"We lost a baby"