I promise I'll start writing more often guys

Chapter 24

Salvation

When I came too, the sun cracked through my barely open eyes and I blinked hard. I felt my hair fall into my face and started to reach up to flick it away but felt my hands restrained. That's when it all came back to me. Outside the cornucopia, Gloss's hissing in my ear. My eyes shot open and the light burned.

I was in an opening in the trees, the light beaming through the leaves and casting a strange pattern across the forest floor. Trees swayed in the half breeze, moving and rearranging the pattern. I gasped for air when I told myself to breath but there was cloth in my mouth. I hoisted myself up so I could sit up and look around.

"Hey, look who's up!" Cashmere cooed, although I couldn't see her. She then came around the corner from behind a tree. "Good morning sunshine." she said sarcastically, her arms crossed over her tiny chest. She smirked, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Hey! Clove! What's shakin'?" Gloss appeared from behind the brush. "Glad to see moma's up, now we can start the fun." He cocked his eyebrow as he knelt down and untied the cloth. I bared my teeth, trying to bite at his hand in frustration. "Oh see that Cashmere? The cat bites." he clucked his tongue.

"Bite me." I spat.

"Hmm tempting, but I'll pass." he stood back up, leaving my hands tied. "See, Clovey, if we have you, chained up in your damsel in distress ways, Cato will come running to you and your babies rescue. See Clove, here is what we call a trap." Gloss paused but Cashmere picked up.

"So Cato, entering our trap, ultimately is forced with a choice, he lives and you die, or the opposite." she paused and laughed. "But we all know that's never how it works so eventually you're both gonna die, but for no you're bait."

Holy shit. I thought. They're crazy.

Cashmere and Gloss tied me up to a tree, my arms extended behind me and my mouth gagged again. I thrashed around in protest, but Gloss and Cashmere were perched in the tree high above me. It took about three hours for the group to come find me, and by then I was tired and starving and my stomach churning.

I could hear them in the brush before they came to the clearing.

"Let's go this way." Cato's deep voice rumbled.

"No, why? What possibly makes you think she's that way?" Johanna argued. And for once I agreed with her yes, please, take him far away from here.

"Shut up you two and come on." Mags grumbled, trudging towards the clearing. I groaned.

They came through the clearing, all outfitted in weapons. Cato, his guard down, rushed straight towards me, kneeling by my side and dropping his weapons. Finnick, Mags, and Johanna scoped out the perimeter. Cato removed the gag and thats when Cashmere and Gloss dropped down from the tree tops. Cashmere positioned a knife on my throat, and Gloss did on Cato. "Fuck." I mumbled.

"Jesus Clove, look at what kinda mess you've gotten us in." Cashmere whispered in my ear. Finnick, Mags, and Johanna turned around and quickly positioned their weapons. Finnick with his net, Mags with her trident, and Johanna with her axe.

"Clove-" Cato asked for reassurance, grabbing at my hand which he could barely touch.

"This plan really sucked." Gloss said, nodding his head towards the other careers.

"Your fault." Cashmere replied. I slid my foot towards Cato, whose hands werent tied and he took my signal, he reached for the knife I kept in my boot while Cashmere and Gloss argued. His hand touched the bare spot on my ankle as he slid the knife out and I almost allowed myself to enjoy it.

Cato turned in one quick movement, Gloss's knife hitting his neck and slicing a shallow cut. Cato plunged the knife into the other tributes stomach.

"Gloss!" Cashmere screamed, dropping her knife and wrapping her arms around her brother.. Cato grabbed Gloss's knife and cut my restraints. We were barely out of the target when Mags threw her trident and pinned the two of them to the tree. Two cannons fired.

And then, in the distance, a third cannon.

No.

An explosion of sorts. There was a flash and the world blacked out. Again.