Chapter 31

Youth

Shadows settle in the place that you left

Our minds are troubles by the emptiness

Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time

From the perfect start to the finish line

And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones

Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs

Setting fire to our insides for fun

Collecting the names of the lovers that went wrong

We are the reckless

We are the wild youth

Chasing visions of our futures

One day we'll reveal the truth

That one will die before he gets there

And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones

Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone

We're setting fire to our insides for fun

"I have a goat."

What the... did I really just blurt that out? Out loud? For Cato and all of Panem to hear me?

My blushing cheeks tell me yes, I did just say that.

We've been walking now just checking the snares for about half an hour. I didn't realize how many I put up earlier, but it's taking quite a bit to collect them all.

I sneak a peek at Cato to see him smiling boyishly down at his feet, his sword strapped to his waist.

"Yeah?" He asks in amusement.

I could kick myself. How embarrassing!

"Mhmm." God, Prim, don't say anything else.

Filter! Use your filter!

"What's its name?"

"Hm? Oh, uh Lady."

Cato's lips quirk up even more. "And why do you have a goat?"

"They're cute," I can't help but say defensively. "And I sell the milk and cheese, too."

"Do you have any other animals?" Cato asks, that smile still on his face.

"I have a cat named buttercup," I say, kicking a stick out of the way. "Do you have any animals or pets?"

Cato lets out a snort. "Uh that would be a no. Where would we even put them in district 2?"

I feel my eyebrows pinch together in confusion. "Um, your house?"

Cato's head snaps towards me and he stares at me for a long minute before hysterically laughing. "Just imagining my dad's face if there was a pet in our house. He'd go ballistic," he laughs through the words.

The concern I feel over his dad going "ballistic" is overshadowed by his contagious laughter.

"Do you smell that?" I ask, completely distracted by the smell that is now overpowering my senses.

I hear Cato sniffling. "It smells like a fire, or something's burning."

"That's too close for my liking. Let's hurry up and check the snares."

I speed up my pace, going in the direction of one of the snares. But as I'm walking closer to the snare, the charred burnt smell becomes more potent.

I put my bow and arrow at the ready position, and slowly walk forward. I glance out of the corner of my eye to see Cato also ready with his sword.

I walk closer to the place where I set up the snare, and when I see it I can't help but gasp.

I had caught something for sure, but because of it's charred, blackened appearance I can't tell what animal.

"Someone burned it," Cato murmurs from beside me.

"Oh really? How can you tell?" I can't help but snap at him.

"Maybe it was just the gamemakers," Cato says uncertainly, as if even he knows that what he just said can't be true.

"No, it wasn't them. If they didn't want us to eat they wouldn't have put animals in the arena. They wouldn't do this. This must be one of the other tributes."

I place my fingers on the burnt animal only to find it slightly heated. I look to Cato to see him watching me, his eyes on my fingers that were touching the ensnared animal.

"It's warm. They're probably around here somewhere. We should move-"

I scream as something lands in my left shoulder, the force of it causing me to go down.

I can't even hear myself, the pain is so overwhelming, but I know I'm screaming.

My tears are mixing with the dirt, and I can taste the earth on my lips.

I don't know how much time has passed, but my hearing is slowly coming back to me, and I can hear Cato calling my name repeatedly, frantically, but from far away.

I'm still crying into the dirt, half-screaming, half-whimpering and decide to test out my shoulder. There's something lodged in there, and it reinforces how much I don't want to move.

Cato's frantic screaming is getting farther away, and then it's quiet. I wish I could call out for him, do something, but I'm so absorbed in the pain in my shoulder I can't really do anything but scream into the earth and curse President Snow in my head.

Time passes and it's dark and and I'm all alone.

But then... then I'm not.

I'm becoming more aware of my surroundings, despite the pain, and I start to hear footsteps come in my direction.

I'm running through the possibilities in my head. Who's still left?

Could it be Eli, coming to help me? Thresh? Clove?

Or god forbid, Callan.

But I can't look to see if it's a friend or foe.

Not only is my face shoved in the dirt, but I also don't have the energy to lift my head even an inch.

I can only continue to cry as the footsteps get closer.

"That's a nasty axe in the back, aye Primmy?"

Callan.

"I always thought the saying was 'stab in the back' or somethin'. But you... you got an axe!" He laughs, and I can only imagine the twisted look of happiness on his face.

I can do nothing but cry, my fingers clutching at anything I can.

I can feel him take hold of my ankles, and he starts roughly dragging me somewhere, my face scraping along in the dirt.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" I scream as loud as I can, my tears mixing with the dirt on my face.

I scream and scream and scream, hoping someone will hear me. But then I remember I'm in the hunger games, and there's nobody here who can help me.

"No! Stop, PLEASE! Cato!" I cry in a last ditch effort, but Callan just keeps dragging me to god only knows where.

"Please," I whimper, the sound getting lost in Callan's laughter.

A/N: Ooooooooooooooh cliffy!

Sorry the chapter is so short, but holy shit I haven't posted an actual chapter in forever! So I thought I'd give you a little nugget of one to prepare for the next.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! I can't believe how many follows, favs, and reviews this has. I appreciate every one of you who reads this story.

Idk if you guys have looked, but I have a Gadge fic on my page that I'm working on too, and idk if you guys read it, but I have some twi wolf fics too, so if it interests you, check it out!

There will be an update coming soon. My summer class is over, so I'm good to write for a bit! Until fall semester, that is... ):

But there will be an update soon, this I can promise.

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-M