Hey again, this chapter won't be as long, though we are extremely close to the end now, and after this one, each chapter will have breaks within it, signalling the passing of time as each chapter will be at least 2-3 days until the final day where- well… we're not there yet. I'm so sorry to everyone who was upset by the last chapter, I was upset myself writing it and I hate to tell you that this one won't lift your spirits any further, but future ones I promise shouldn't make anyone upset.

I know I posted one on Wednesday thanks to everyone's amazing reviews so I decided to post it early, and hopefully I should be able to post another one next Wednesday, though if not I am sorry.

Sorry for (wow I'm saying sorry a lot lately) this awfully long authors note, I won't continue to write this silly stuff from me any longer.

Review :D

Chapter 14-Cato's Promise

Cato's POV

Clove leaps forward, knife in hand, ready to throw it at 12. I watch as she runs, powered by adrenaline at the thought of finally getting back at that stupid 'girl on fire' it's just a shame we couldn't burn her… mark her death as irony forever, but, maybe when she's dead we will, who knows. She reaches the cornucopia and doubles around the back of it, the direction from which Katniss came. I see Katniss emerge from the same side and grab the small sack marked '12' before doubling around herself, intending to head back where she came from, and to my delight I watch as she staggers back slightly as a knife skims across her forehead. Nice one Clove. She knocks an arrow and releases it, yet no cannon meet my ears and I know that Clove's alright, even if I can't see her.

Ah, there she is. She's on top of her and I can't help but smile. I glance at the wheat field for a millisecond, surprised to have still seen no sign of Thresh, but maybe he didn't need anything too badly, what could he possibly need anyway? No-one bothers to go into the wheat field, he's got food, and he can get water if he needs to… hmm, oh well.

My eyes flicker back to Clove and I smile cruelly from the bush which is concealing me as she holds a knife to Katniss's throat and I know she's relishing every last minute. We planned whether or not we'd make their deaths quick, but with Katniss we agreed that her death needed to be prolonged, she needed to know how much shit she's caused, and how happy we are that it's at our hands that she's going to finally meet her end. I hear a rustling to my left and spin around grabbing my sword, expecting to see 11 trying to sneak up on me, but no. I pause, waiting, then look back.

Katniss is on the floor panting slightly by the looks of it, but Clove isn't on top of her. What the hell?

Then her screams fill my ears and my shoes seem to entwine themselves with the floor beneath them, gluing me to its dirt covered surface.

"CATO! CATO!" Clove?

"CATO!" "Cato! I-"

BOOM

My face falls, no, NO! I clap a hand over my mouth and collapse to my knees, no… how could, how could she be… Clove… I want to scream, I want to shout her name and call it repeatedly, and hoping that she'll call me back but I know that if I did, she wouldn't. I'll never hear her voice again, not unless I go back a victor and hear her on the TV. Never will I feel her soft lips against mine, never see again her winning smirk, or feel the familiar pain in my groin as she once again knees me there whilst fighting.

My hand balls into a fist as I feel water trickling down my face and onto my hand. Is it raining? I look up yet still see the familiar blue sky, and then I realise that it's me. My tears continue to fall down my face as I look back at the cornucopia in time to see Thresh fading out of sight, two bags in hand. Two? He must have taken mine…

Katniss staggers up now, picking up her bag again and then running off, no doubt thinking that I'll come after her… well she's right about that… but not now… why didn't Thresh kill her?

I have to see her for myself, so I stand and begin to stagger down towards the cornucopia, my feet having somehow found a way to move once more, dragging me across the ground towards her… her body. Her corpse.

I reach the cornucopia and put a hand to it, tears still falling down my face, my other hand loosely gripping my sword. If I just go around the back of it, I'll see her… but now I don't even know if I can bare it. But no, I must, before they take her away and I'll never see her face again.

So I do… I make my way around it, and collapse to my knees beside her as fresh, warm tears spill down from my eyes and I see the body before me, her eyes wide, her head slightly dented, Thresh having obviously killed her by knocking her against the cold metal surface.

Slowly, I wrap my arms around her body, propping her head up gently with my right, my left arm stroking her blood-covered, pale, lifeless face.

"Clove… Clove wake up." I know it's useless, I know she can't hear me, but I don't want to know, I try to kid myself, and begin to scream down at the body.

"CLOVE! WAKE UP!" My voice catches as small droplets hit her face and I quickly go to wipe my eyes, even in death I don't want her to see me like this. I pull her close to me and bury her head in my neck as I try to whisper to her, to will her awake. "Clove… please… wake up."

It takes me 10 minutes before I can finally let her go, and so when I do I place her gently beside the cornucopia, crossing her arms for her. I smile weakly now; Clove always thought it stupid that when dead you cross your arms. "How the hell would you be able to reach your weapon?"

I take two knives from her belt; she'd only taken 3 and left her jacket behind, thinking she wouldn't need it, thinking this would be the last battle. Well… it was the last battle, but it was her last battle… where she died, not everyone else.

Gently, I place the knives in each of her hands, making sure each one has a firm grasp, poking the tips slightly through her shirt so as to keep it more stable for when her body is taken away, back to district two.

"You can reach your weapons now Clove… even in death." I stroke her head again and look up to the sky. "Please… don't take them from her." I don't know if they'll hear me, but I hope they do, if she's going back home to be buried, she deserves to be buried with them.

I know people back home are glaring at my weakness, people in the capitol probably crying with fake sympathy, as if they could ever understand, and everyone in the other districts shocked at the fact that careers have a heart.

Well they do, and mine was just broken. I know it's cliché but so what, it's true.

I tuck a thin strand of hair gently behind her ear, smiling when I remember her with it down, back when she was just 8 years old… have I ever seen her with it down since then? And was it me that made her put it up from that day forward? She always did think she looked fiercer with it up I suppose.

Bending down, I give her a soft kiss on her forehead, and then stand and turn my back on her, forcing myself not to look back. I pick up my sword, though the fights gone from within me, why am I even here? Why are any of us here?

I head back into the trees and I've only gone 100 metres before a dark shadow passes over me and I look up to see the hovercraft going to collect her body. Now I turn in spite of myself, turn to watch them take her.

The usual metal claw lowers down towards her, like one of those games in the amusement buildings back home where children put in money so as to try to grab a toy with a metal claw. The sight sickens me.

It grasps around her body and she's instantly frozen, unable to move so that they can be sure that they won't drop her. She's lifted from the ground and my eyes follow her, it's almost ironic how she's taken up into the sky, as if she truly is going to heaven. But no, she's not going to heaven, she's going to the capitol, where they'll put her in a wooden box before sending her back home on the train where she'll be buried amongst other, countless, failed tributes. Maybe she'll even be buried next to Tyson? It's a shame she never knew him… it makes me smirk really; he died the year before I met her.

He promised to come home to, promised he'd get me and the other two out of training. I was always close to him, 8 years apart yet he was my role model, he was who I wanted to be.

"You're going to win, right?"

"Win? Bro, I'll not only come home a victor, I'll come home with the president knowing me personally." I laugh happily as he ruffles my hair and then bends down to my level. "Seriously though, you wait, I'll come home a victor and then you, me, and the other two will move into a house in the victors' village, I'll even buy our dumb parents a massive apartment to keep them happy, or happy enough, and you won't have to worry about them ever again." I beam at him and wrap my arms around his neck.

He laughs and hugs me back in a nice, brotherly way. "You just keep watching me, especially the interviews; I'll get all the sponsors and may even give you a little shout-out, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

He kept true to his word of shouting out to me… Caesar asked who he'd come home to and I can still remember him saying my name, saying that he'd come home for me, his little brother, who he'd promised to come home for and then joked about how he'd spoil me rotten.

I wish he'd met Clove… she was so perfect… and now she's gone.

My hand grabs the tree closest to me as anger boils up inside of me, my nails digging into the hard bark beneath my touch. Thresh, and 12, they did this to her… if it wasn't for them I would have gone home a victor, and better yet, I'd have gone home a victor with my best friend, no, my future girlfriend, and maybe even my wife, right at my side.

I will get revenge for you Clove; I'll kill them all…. Just wait and when I'm victor, I will make sure no-one ever forgets you, I promise.

Okay guys I'll put the next chapter up next week-end

Review :) and sorry the last 2 chapters were so sad. Not many left and not every day will be acounted for, just the important ones.

-Tara

xx