Chapter 11: The Victors
Clove
Before I knew it, Cato was kissing me and I was kissing him back, his hands around my waist and my hands on his chest, our eyes closed. I never knew we would end up like this. I can feel him holding me tightly and pulling me close to him. Right now, he's kissing me passionately and I'm kissing him back. I slowly placed my hands around his neck and enjoyed this moment. We kissed passionately to our hearts' contents. Moments later and we broke the kiss. I opened my eyes and so did he. We looked into each other's eyes for a moment and then he hugs me tightly. I hug him back.
"I heard the cannon," he said and I can feel his breath on my neck. "I thought it was you."
"I thought it was you too," I said. "You had me worrying."
"No matter what happens, we should never ever split up again," he said and I nodded.
Right now, I know that he cares for me and I also know that I care for him too. I don't know about the kiss but I know that we did it so willingly and passionately, something that we didn't expect. But one thing is certain, I'm falling for him, and I can't stop myself anymore.
Cato
I wasn't planning on kissing Clove, and I know that she wasn't planning on kissing me either. I really don't know what made us do it. All I know is that I enjoyed it, I enjoyed kissing her, and I know that she enjoyed it too, kissing me back and all. How I wish we could do it again.
Seconds after breaking our hug, we saw the hovercraft appears a hundred yards or so away. What's left of the foxface girl's emaciated body is lifted into the air. I can see the red glint of her hair in the sunlight. They've probably featured Clove and I kissing before featuring her. We decided to hunt for the two others, fire girl and lover boy, and end this thing once and for all, so we could go home, together.
Night falls and we decided to go to the lake, hoping that fire girl and lover boy were there. As we're walking, we heard a certain noise, like wolves. My eyes scan the woods just in time to see the first creature leap onto the plain.
"Run!" I shouted at Clove as I turned away and we run for it, with no thought of anything but to save ourselves. As I'm turning away, I see another half dozen join it.
Muttations. No question about it. I've never seen these mutts, but they're no natural-born animals. They resemble huge wolves, but what wolf lands and then balances easily on its hind legs? What wolf waves the rest of the pack forward with its front paw as though it had a wrist? These things I can see at a distance. Up close, I'm sure their more menacing attributes will be revealed.
After minutes of running, we reached the lake. I can see fire girl, poised to shoot, and lover boy, wielding his knife. We run straight for them. Fire girl shot an arrow at me and hits my chest but it simply falls aside, probably because of the body armor I'm wearing. We made a beeline for the Cornucopia and I saw fire girl following us, with lover boy limping after her.
"Climb!" I yelled at Clove and I helped her get on the Cornucopia. After that, I climbed on it as well, with Clove pulling me up for help.
"Can they climb it?" Clove asked me, gasping to catch her breath.
"I think not," I answered her. We lie on our side at the very top of the horn. Fire girl is already on the Cornucopia, pulling lover boy up, but Clove and I are still too preoccupied with the mutts and didn't attack them yet. Then fire girl shot an arrow at a good-size mutt with silky waves of blond fur.
And then lover boy suddenly spoke, "Katniss?"
"It's her!" Fire girl gets out.
"Who?" asks lover boy. "What is it Katniss?"
"It's them. It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and… all of the other tributes," she chokes out. And that answers my question earlier. After that, they began killing the mutts. "Kill it, Peeta! Kill it!"
Moments later and I regained my feet. I jerked lover boy from fire girl's side, almost at the lip of the horn, holding him in some kind of headlock, cutting off his air. Fire girl then aims one of her last two arrows at my head. I just laugh.
"Shoot me and he goes down with me," I said to her. And right now, she's thinking hard.
As if in a last-ditch effort, lover boy raises his fingers, dripping with blood from his leg, up to my arm. Instead of trying to wrestle his way free, I saw his forefinger veers off and makes a deliberate X on the back of my hand. Before realizing what it means, Clove lunges herself towards fire girl and pushed her out of the way. She must have realized what the two were planning or she was just engrossed to kill fire girl. She managed to pin fire girl on the floor with her knife threatening to slit her throat. I quickly turned around with lover boy still locked up in my arms and pushed him down to the ground.
"Peeta!" Fire girl screams at the top of her lungs. We hear him hit, the air leaving his body on impact, and then the mutts attack him. Seconds later and a cannon fires. I watch Clove threatening fire girl on the floor.
Clove
"Don't worry girl on fire," I said dangerously at Katniss, still pinning her on the floor. "You'll be with him soon enough."
And then I was startled. She managed to unseat me, because of anger, I think, for Peeta's death, and was about to push me down to the ground when Cato drags her away from me and pushed her down to the ground first. I am sitting up on the floor and Cato suddenly locked me up in his arms.
"Are you okay?" he asked me and I nodded.
We heard fire girl's agonized scream for a moment and then a cannon fires.
A hole opens in the plain and as if on cue, the remaining mutts bound into it, disappearing as the earth closes above them. We wait, with me still locked up in Cato's arms, for the hovercraft to take fire girl's and lover boy's remains, for the trumpets of victory that should follow. Moments later and the hovercraft appears and takes their body. Now they will take us. Now we can go home.
The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above us.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Cato and Clove! I give you… the tributes from District 2!"
The hovercraft materializes overhead and two ladders drop. We stood up and made our way up.
The Interview…
Clove
I'm wearing a strapless pink gown, pink heels, about 5 inches, and silver accessories. I'm also wearing my hair down, in preparation for the interview. Lance, me and my prep team take the elevator to the level where we trained. It's customary for the victor and his or her support team to rise from beneath the stage. I find myself in a poorly lit area under the stage. A brand-new metal plate has been installed to transport me upward. You can still see small piles of sawdust, smell fresh paint. Lance and my prep team peel off to change into their own costumes and take their positions, leaving me alone. In the gloom, I see a makeshift wall about ten yards away and assume Cato's behind it.
Moments later and the anthem booms, in my ears, and then I hear Caesar Flickerman greeting the audience. The crowd breaks into applause as the prep teams are presented. I imagine my prep team bouncing around and taking ridiculous, bobbing bows. Then Archie's introduced. Then Lance and Cassandra. Brutus' and Enobaria's appearance brings a round of stomping that goes on at least five minutes.
Right now, I can feel the plate lifting me up to the stage. Blinding lights. The deafening roar rattles the metal under my feet. Then there's Cato just a few yards away. He looks so handsome, as always. We made our way to the victor's chair. Usually, this is a single, ornate chair from which the winning tribute watches a film of the highlights of the games, but since there are two of us, the game makers have provided a plush red velvet couch.
Caesar Flickerman makes a few more jokes, and then it's time for the show. This will last exactly three hours and is required viewing for all of Panem. Two hours and a half have passed and I saw Cato and me, kissing passionately to our hearts' contents, making the audiences scream and cheer. So that's how I looked during that time. Half an hour has passed and the interview has begun, with Caesar asking us about our experiences in the games.
The Train...
I found myself in the train the next day, sitting on my bed in my room. Finally, I'm going home. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door. I stood up and made my way to open it. I opened it to find Cato, standing in front of me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him. He made his way inside my room without even answering me. I closed the door and face him. "What are you doing here?" I asked him once again.
"I can show you better than I can tell you," he said as he stepped closer and closer to me.
When we got close enough, he placed his hands around my waist. I folded my arms and said, "What do you want Cato?" He just ignored me. I rolled my eyes. "If there's nothing left for you to say to me, why don't you just…" Before I get to say anything else, I found myself being kissed by him. I was shocked but I didn't push him away. Instead, I close my eyes and kiss him back, placing my hands around his neck. He's the first boy I've ever kissed and yet it feels so brilliant. I think it's because he's kissing me passionately and I'm kissing him back the same way. I don't know how long we kissed but a knock on my door tells us that it's time for us to stop.
We broke the kiss and heard Archie's voice outside the door. "It's lunchtime. I hope I'm not interrupting something." He laughed a little before we heard his footsteps walking away. I looked at Cato and was glad to see him smiling at me. I smiled back at him. We still haven't let go of each other.
"Let's go. You heard Archie. It's lunchtime," I said as I let go of him. I made my way to the door when he grabbed my hand and made me face him once again. "What?"
"I never knew you're such a good kisser," he said, still smiling at me.
"You're not so bad yourself," I said, smiling at him. After that, he kissed me one more time and I kissed him back. Another knock on my door really tells us that it's time for us to stop. We broke the kiss and sighed. "We'll be right there Archie." I said loudly and turned to Cato. "Come on."
"Oh, I hate to leave," he said, sighing.
"Let's go?" I asked him, smiling.
He nodded and we let go of each other.
I opened the door and walked outside with Cato following me. Archie must have gotten back to the dining room because he is nowhere to be found. I walked on with Cato catching up with me to walk by my side. And suddenly, I felt him filling the spaces between my fingers using his own and we made our way to the living room holding each other's hands. I know that this signifies something, something with regards to our relationship. It looks like we'll be more than friends starting today. Something both of us didn't really expect. Because falling for each other is something that we can't accept. Caring for each other is something that we can't understand. But love is something that we can't ignore. We didn't know what we feel for each other, but right now, we do, because even though we didn't know, love knows...
- The End -
Watch out for the sequel entitled "Love Always Knows."