Last one guys ;(
Cato+Clove forever!
Chapter 16 – The Final Three
Cato's POV
3 of us left… just 3… How long have I been here now? Weeks? I've lost count, I think 2 weeks… but I don't know.
I'm still recovering from the injuries Thresh gave me, they sting like hell but I suck it up. What would Enobaria say? I've cleaned most of my wounds, and Enobaria sent me a bandage for my shoulder, which was definitely the worst.
My body armour lies abandoned at the foot of the tree for now, hopefully I'll be able to wear it backwards, it seems adjustable, that way the hole won't be at the front, and I do always face my enemies head on, so it doesn't matter about what's behind me, I doubt Peeta will be able to run properly.
The sack the game makers left for me and- well… the bag they left marked with '2' was full of food after all, thankfully, no doubt they realised how crap we were at finding some for ourselves, especially when we tried fishing, dear snow that was priceless.
CRACK. I quickly grab my sword and turn around watching the area from which I heard it. 10, 15 seconds go by as I watch carefully, why hasn't an arrow come to me yet?
I raise my eyebrow, confused, as a small creature then hops out and hops away. A rabbit. I smirk and lean against the tree closest to me. Just a rabbit… I don't need to fight yet.
I brush my body armour with my sleeve; I tried to wash off most of the blood though some is just stuck to it. Typical. Oh well, it's the blood of a murderer as well as my own, it only shows how I beat him, as it should.
CRACK. I glance to the bush and smile, knowing a rabbit will come out before long.
I begin to put my body armour back on and then I hear…. Growling? The hell? I stand slowly, adjusting the straps on my armour as I do so, as a set of two eyes glow from within the darkness of the bush. I take a step closer and then it steps out, a menacing looking dog with eyes I know I've seen somewhere, and perfect golden blonde fur.
It snarls at me, baring its teeth and I take a second step back. It steps forward. A second dog comes out, this one's fur browny coloured, then from my left, another dog, this one much, much larger, with jet black fur.
I meet the newcomer's eyes and my eyes widen in horror. Thresh's eyes.
More growling, more dogs, mutts, fuck. I grab my sword slowly, I can't hold my ground with this many, where the hell am I going to go?! Have the gamemakers set them on me on purpose?!
Thresh, no, the Mutt, paws the ground, it's growling and snarling becoming even louder. It leaps towards me and I'm gone, simply gone, and running as hard as I can towards where I think the cornucopia will be.
The mutts begin barking franticly as they chase me snarling, spitting and growling as they give chase, trying hard to catch up with me, the closest of them snapping at my heels hopefully though, thankfully, failing to catch me in their jaws.
Fucking game makers! Trust them game to send bloody mutts, and not any mutts, but mutts that look like some of the dead tributes, into the arena to chase me and both from 12, wherever the hell they are, to the cornucopia.
I sprint out of the woods and then I see them, right ahead of me. If the mutts would just get lost I could kill them here and now! But no time now, I just keep running, if I'm lucky they'll be ripped apart by the mutts chasing me. As I charge past I see Katniss has her bow raised but looks confused when I don't go to attack, but to charge past.
I hear her release the string and the twang as her arrow soars through the air though by the sound of it, none of the mutts are really affected by it, but I can bet that both from 12 will be affected by the mutts' teeth, that's for sure.
This is a sad way to win, but this is the hunger games, anything's possible. But I hear them, running madly behind me, straight to where I'm headed, well great.
I reach the cornucopia and force myself to climb it, trying hard to ignore the pain from all of my cuts and bruises given to me by 11.
I glance around to check where they are and they're about 30 metres from me, I glance behind them and the mutts are only 10 metres from them, but the sight of one particular mutt makes me almost fall from the cornucopia. A rather small, menacing and cruel looking mutt with dark brown fur which is almost black barks furiously and glances up at me with two piercing eyes. Clove's eyes.
I grip the cornucopia tightly as memory after memory floods my mind, all of them containing Clove.
She's 8, folding her arms and looking annoyedly at the 12 year old who fought me. Now she's 9, running her fingers through her hair casually before smiling mischievously, tying it up, and then hurling a knife at the dummy in front of us, hitting the head of course. Now she's 10, double digits, and is laughing at me as I step into one of the other kids traps in training, they were practicing with snares.
11, both of us race home rain pouring over us as we go, though all we do is laugh as we slip and slide and even fall over, first me, and then her as we sit in the mud laughing madly as though we could never be happier.
I collapse upon the cornucopia, panting for breath and practically gagging over the side, of all the things to do the gamemakers make mutts that look like the tributes?! I hear someone come up behind about 6 metres away and realise it must be Katniss as Peeta shouts at her to climb. Is this where I die? I hear an arrow being pulled back, but she doesn't let it loose instead she shouts at Peeta to climb and I hear him scramble up the edge of the horn.. I hate them, hate how they still have their district partner, I want that, I want the glory of winning alongside someone else, alongside Clove, but 11 took that from me… at least I got my revenge.
"Can they climb it?" My voice is barely audible as I cough, still out of breath, but I have to know, have to know if it really is safe up here.
"What?"
"He said 'can they climb it'" Okay so at least Peeta heard me. I hear a snarl and a dog leaps up and hangs on the edge of the cornucopia, three metres from 12. I turn quickly, my muscles moaning in pain, and see Glimmer, no the mutt who just looks like glimmer, long silken blonde hair and a collar around her neck which reads '1'. Katniss shriek and I know she's realised too, it's sickening…
"Katniss?"
"It's her!" No shit Sherlock…
"Who? What is it Katniss?"
"It's them. It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and…" Who the hell is Foxface? "all the other tributes…" Yep… even… even Clove…
My eyes drift over the edge and I see her there, scratching at the base of the cornucopia and snarling up at me the collar around her neck marked with an unmistakeable '2' and her eyes… her unmistakeably human eyes look to me with… with hatred.
12 begin talking about what they could have done to them, what if they've put their memories in them? No… if they had Clove, no, the mutt wouldn't be trying to kill me.
I hear a thud and a snarl and turn again to see them practically falling from the edge. "Kill it Peeta! Kill it!" Don't kill it… just hurry up and die.
My breathing starts to slow and I've nearly recovered, if only I had the strength now… I'd push them both off and have done with it, have done with this stupid arena, and go home, bring pride to my district.
I can't let them win… I can't. I pull myself to my feet, trying not to draw attention as Katniss shoots an arrow and what can no doubt be Thresh, or the mutt with Thresh's eyes. I can't let them win together, it's Clove and me who should have finished together, I won't let them have that.
I reach down and grab Peeta, jerking him away from Katniss's side as she turns around and within moments I have him in a headlock, my arm squeezing his airways as he tries to claw at my arm, though I won't let go.
She stands and aims one of her arrows, no doubt her last or second to last, at my head and I just laugh at her. "Shoot me and he goes down with me." I smile triumphantly at her; if she shoots I'll move so she hits Peeta, if I move I get shot. It's like the stalemate with Thresh all over again, but I will win, as soon as Peeta dies I can use him as a shield for her arrows and barge her, knocking her straight over the edge and then throwing his body down onto her and finally being crowned victor, the title I deserve.
He's turning blue and I know I'm moments from winning, soon they'll announce my name, my victory, and take me home.
Peeta, with his last few breaths I don't doubt, points up at my arm, what the hell is he planning? He draws something in the air over… over my hand? An X? What?
Fuck. I know what's about to happen just before it does but too late, the arrow has forced its way into my hand. "Agh!" I can't hold on to him, even I can't fight against the reflex action of dropping him, and now it dawns on me that I can't win, not now, and maybe was never meant to.
Peeta slams into me and I stagger back, trying to reach out for him but lose my footing and fall as I see Katniss yank him out of harm's way.
I hit the ground with a thud and shout in pain as the mutts dive on top of me, clawing me, snarling, spitting, biting. I've dropped my sword but I take out a knife, one I found back at our old campsite which Clove had left and try to fend them off. If not for my body armour I know I'd be dead, but as long as I have it there's a chance I can win, I can't give up.
Pain sears through my body as I slash out at the mutts again and again, yet still howl in pain as, when one falls, another takes its place at my body and begins clawing at me.
Blood clouds my vision as pain, from who knows how many scars, boils within me, practically unbearable.
Against my own will, I let out cries of pain and agony. It hurts so, so much but I'm still alive, why couldn't they be poisonous, why can't they let me die?
I see them properly now, I thought I had when I was running but no, not now, now I properly see them, all of them with their fur the colour of their hair, the eyes, their eyes, and each with a colar, marked with their district. All of them, from the brat all the way to the hulking large dog figure of Thresh. Marvel and Glimmer are there too, and Clove, and all the other kids I killed, 3, Coral, those from the cornucopia, in this spot maybe, where this all started. Is this their way of getting revenge? Perhaps those back in their own districts are cheering right now, cheering my death.
I know I can't win now, what hope I had is gone. All the other tributes… dead, except for me, and 12. Perhaps I was never meant to win, maybe if I'd paid more attention at the cornucopia I would have seen Thresh, I would have saved Clove and then killed them both. Then all we'd have to do is find Foxface and Peeta and then we'd be the victors, but no. No, Clove died. And now I'm going to die as well.
I want to die, right here, right now, and stop this pain, this suffering. I let out another moan as the Mutts begin to drag me into the cornucopia, will they finish me now? Let me die? I can't fight them anymore exhaustion has overwhelmed me and my hand is so covered in blood and bites that it's useless anyway.
They say that you see your life flash before your eyes when you die, but I see nothing of my life, I just see pain.
I hear footsteps above me, and the sound of an arrow being drawn. Is this the last piece of mercy I'll get? Will she save me from dying in slowly and painfully? A feint twang meets my ears as its let loose, straight towards my head, and the memory of Clove, smiling and laughing, drifts to the front of my mind.
BOOM
Yep, it's all over, sorry guys ;(!
As many of you know this was my first fanfic and I never thought I'd write a cato/clove one as I'm really more Galeniss though then i thought, as a first story, maybe I will write a semi-short one on them but now I've become really attached to them as characters so I was so sad when I had to kill them off ;(
However, because I loved them so much, and because many of you were so upset when Clove died as well, I'm going to put up an alternate ending in about a month but until then just put up a couple of oneshots.
Thanks to all my readers and lovely reviewers!:
Elise Gray
SunGirl12
Pinklove21 (check out her stories! They're epic x)
clovehg123
AlwaysForJC
River WolfGirl (Cato and Clove forever in heaven together :) x)
InevitableAbyss
Mel
Livi
AmIWrong
Also reallllyyy special thanks to : AnItalianDuck
She's the one who actually introduced me to this website as we know each other from a different one and both of us love the hunger games, so reallllyyyy big thanks to her, please please check out her story 'born to survive' I'm not sure if she's finished it yet but it is amazing and one of the characters is based on me ;) (Georgia, btw that's my real name lol :P) And so if you see the character 'Rebekah' In future stories (btw she was in this one as well) she's based on AnItalianDuck and is Clove's sister, so keep a look out! x
Thanks again!
-Tara
xxx