Chapter Twenty

Clove's point of view

"So, here we are!" Glimmer's singsong voice spreads down the hallway as she throws a door open. "Welcome home!"

Cato and I smile at each other as I help him take a shaky step through the doorway. After being considered physically stable and fairly well for over a week, District Thirteen policy deemed that it would be alright for him to move in with the rest of the tributes. And since we have stayed together, I guess that means that I'm doing the same.

The district paired us off into groups of two to four, and so the group that we have formed over the last few weeks is staying together in a dorm-style room.

Glimmer closes the door behind us. I can tell that she's worried about something by the way she instantly begins chattering.

"So, I don't know if you were told, but we've got daily schedules now. Ours are modified, since we are here for a different reason than everyone else, and all."

We nod as she keeps telling us about what it's like here. I've picked up enough in the last few weeks that I can do without paying full attention. But eventually, she's talking back to us, and we are forced to listen and respond.

"How have you two been doing lately?"

I glance over at Cato and place a hand over my stomach. "Not yet," I mouth lightly. He nods, and we launch into the details she more or less knows.

"We're fine." I shrug slightly. "Cato's still having some issues, but he convinced them to release him early. I said it was a bad idea, but..."

"I'm doing great, Clove." He beams at me, and I roll my eyes in response. "No, really. Yes, there's still some muscle-type problems, but it's not like I won't have those if I stay in."

Glimmer is smiling as she watches us continue to argue. "You two are so cute about this. I don't know how to put it exactly, but you are." And just like that, she's back to staring out into the blank space between us and playing with strands of her hair.

Then it dawns on me that there should be four of us. "Hey, Glimmer, where's Marvel?"

She blinks hard a few times, and speaks delicately, as if she's about to break hard news, and is scared to upset us. "He went back this afternoon so get his throat looked at again. Do you know what happened? Of course not, what am I saying... Anyway, when he was brought to the district, he'd just had a really bad puncture wound in the side of his neck. There was a lot going wrong in the throat. Artery damage, and stuff like that. Something didn't seem quite right. He went down to get it checked out, and as been there all day."

Oh.

"Glimmer, we had no idea..." Cato squeezes her hand. "But they can do really great things here, alright? Even if there is something going wrong, they'll fix it."

"Promise?" I see it now. Marvel, her only connection to home, is her link to sanity here. Damage the last link, and she starts to slip apart.

"We promise you, Glimmer." My own voice surprises me. It sounds like it is full of gravel, and I have to strain to get it back to normal.

I hope we can keep that promise. But in the middle of that night, when the four of us are back together, silence is shattered by a hard hacking cough. I roll over and switch the light on, instincts shoving me into fight or flight.

"What's going..." Glimmer gasps mid-sentence, and I see what made the sound.

Curled up tightly, coughing hard, and sucking in air desperately, Marvel is coughing up large amounts of blood.