If he thought the forest was silent before, you could hear a pin drop now. His and Glimmer's body hit the ground at the same time. He felt pain rip through his arm as he smashed into the leaved below. Glimmer was bleeding out next to him. Her emerald green eyes bore into his, betrayal swimming through them. Unfortunately, he did not mourn her in the slightest. He knew it was an act of mercy to die in the arena.
All at once, the sound began. The cannon went off, signaling the end of Glimmer's life. He heard Peeta charge Marvel, his long blade slamming into the spear that blocked it. Clove started to scream in anger, grabbing a knife and aiming it at him. She had seen what he did. His body reacted instinctively, pushing himself off the ground and just narrowly missing her knife. He felt it graze against is ribcage, slicing through his jacket into the flesh below. An arrow came flying through the air, embedding itself into her shoulder. He felt his hands wrap around his sword as the girl in front of him screamed in frustration.
"Why would you do that? You've been allying with her this whole fucking time?" She growled at him; her knuckles were white as she gripped her knife. She reached up with one hand, wrapping her fingers around Katniss's arrow and pulling it from her chest with a spray of blood.
The pretending is over.
"Something like that… she is better than you, you know." He smirked at his district partner. It was a bad idea to egg her on, he knew that. But after all the screaming fits, her constant hatred for Katniss, the glass shards that had found their way into his chest, he was sick and tired of Clove.
"You son of a bitch!" She screamed, throwing herself at him and slamming into his chest. They crashed to the ground, his foot coming up against her and kicking her off him. She swung her knife just as he swung his sword, both dodging the other one. He felt a body slam into his side his arm reaching out to catch his fall. He was distracted by the pain shooting up it when suddenly he was pinned down. Marvel was on top of him, about to bring his pear down when Peeta wrapped his arms around the boy and threw him off in one swift motion. The two boys had beaten each other badly, both bruised and bleeding as they resumed their fight. Cato barely had a moment to breathe before he was dodging Clove's knives again and forcing himself to his feet to swing at her.
"You're going to regret this, you dumb shit." The girl in front of him sneered as she took her aim once more.
"You're wrong about that." He said simply, slashing his sword at the girl and nipping her in the shoulder. He smirked at her for a moment.
In the next few seconds, three things happened.
1st- Cato heard Peeta scream, the sound of metal hitting flesh echoed around his cry of pain.
2nd- Katniss had thrown herself from the tree, landing a few feet behind him.
3rd- A hive full of angry insects hit the ground in front of him, separating him and Clove with a swarm. He felt the first few stings just as he felt Katniss dragging him away, her hands dug into his shirt as he was pulled backwards. He heard her voice, yelling at him to run. But all he could hear was screaming, Clove, Marvel, Peeta, even himself. All of them scattered in different directions as the hive assaulted them. He turned then, his sword gripped tight in one hand and his other finding a way to link with Katniss's as they ran. The pair stumbled through the forest, still screaming and swatting at insects that were no longer surrounding them.
His vison started to blur just as he felt the venom working its way through his system. He knew then what the bugs were, he was familiar with tracker jacker venom. They had used it on him many times within the walls of the Academy, millions of painful, shining memories forcing their way into his brain. He heard the sound of Katniss's voice next to him start to distort as the colors crept into the sides of his vision.
"Cato! Cato!" She was calling to him, but he was too busy. He wished he could see her, but everything was cold. He felt his grip on reality start to slip as he staggered through the foliage. His eyes were switching between the green trees and the shifting dirt below him. It threatened to swallow him whole as it wrapped around his ankles. It was raining then, crimson red blood pouring down on him as he swayed. He heard Alice run past him, her big gummy smile, and the sound of her laughter as she toddled through the forest. Away from him, away from her.
"Of course, you're the obvious choice for the volunteer this year… you're a shoe in to win." Enobaria whispered in his ear as he felt a body smash into him. Katniss was dead, her body covered in vines as they crashed into the ground. The dirt swallowed him finally, muddier now from the incessant, pounding force of the rain. Solid green thunder struck above his head as he screamed for Katniss, begging her to move.
"Protect. Protect. Protect." He heard his voice crying as they circled the drain, his arms wrapping around her, pulling her limp body to his chest. She was covered in flames now, burning his entire body and everything around them.
"Run! Cato, we have to go! They're going to come back!" She was still pulling him back.
"Peeta!" He heard himself crying as the scene in front of him shifted again, the boy crumbled to the ground. Marvel's spear was lodged deep within his leg, piercing it completely. The rain had picked up again, blocking his vision. He brushed the lose hairs from Katniss's forehead, tucking her burning body into his chest and keeping tornadoes of dirt from harming her. One clap of neon green thunder, and then everything went black.
They always met this way. Out of anger, both on edge, both trying to break the enemy. Not once, in his entire life, had he remembered feeling love from the man that sat in front of him. Not once had he experienced a softness, a redeeming quality, anything to make him feel anything other than pure hatred. One might think that when they become a parent, their body would naturally respond in some way. Regardless of what a horrendous person they might actually be, their children are their children. They would love them, or at bare minimum care for them. But of course, not his father, that instinct was missing from the man. He had never even hesitated before beating his only son, torturing him, insulting him. It took a special kind of monster to treat your own blood this way.
And so there they sat at a table deep within the walls of the Academy. Both full of rage, seeing their own face staring back at them. His father's green eyes were lined with more wrinkles than his own blue one… but his hair, his chin, his nose, his frame, his stature, all of it was shared between the two.
"You have to eat something, boy." The man spat at him, annoyed with Cato's incessant defiance.
"Why? Don't want me to starve to death before you get a chance to electrocute me again? Or maybe it's the whippings you're looking forward to?" He sneered at the man in front of him, his chained hands balling into fists.
"Do you think I enjoy this? Having to come here to teach my son a lesson? Do you think this bullshit is fun for me?" His father pounded on the table, rattling the dishes set there.
"As a matter of fact, yes I do." He cocked his head to the side as he spoke.
"You're a lot of things boy, but you aren't stupid. I'm certainly not pleased about the fact that my son is wasting all his talent, sitting on some moral high horse, acting like a pussy, just jumping at the bit to bring disappointment and shame to his district." His father's face was growing redder with every word.
"Oh, I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment. What a bummer that must be." He rolled his eyes at the man's short temper.
"Don't you speak to me that way boy! I made you!" He slammed his fist into the table once more, and Cato cursed himself internally for his uncontrolled wince. "You could have everything! You're a natural talent! I gave you that! You could win the games, bathe in glory and riches for the rest of your life… and you would rather bitch and moan about violence! Every single day, I regret letting your whore of a mother be within 10 feet of you!"
"Don't fucking speak about her that way." His rage bubbled over, ripping through the room. "You don't get to talk about her. You don't even get to mention her you bastard!" He screamed, fighting against the restraints holding him in the chair.
Then, his father's hand cracked against his skull. So hard that it blurred his vision as he took the blow. A cold, clammy hand wrapped around his throat squeezing all the air from his lungs and replacing his rage with fear. "Oh look, little mommy's boy defending his mother's honor." His father spat at him. The hand around his throat turned green, his father transforming into the serpent he emulated. "You have no idea. No clue, how much I hate the whore that birthed you. I doubt that other spawn she has is even mine. Marrying that weak bitch is the biggest regret of my entire life. And the second regret is not wearing a condom the day I made you." He hissed at him, pupils narrowing. His lungs burned with a need for air, barely hanging onto his consciousness as the room transformed slowly into a nursery. He felt himself fading, nodding off for a moment. When he opened his eyes, the snake was gone. He gasped, falling to the floor as the chair he was strapped to disappeared. He breathed heavily, sucking in as much air as possible as he tried to soothe the burning in his chest.
His mother was in a rocking chair in the far corner of the room, a small child wrapped in her arms. She was singing softly to the baby, tears rolling down her cheeks as the melody flowed throughout the room. He crawled, dragging his body across the floor to be closer to her. But the fire in his chest was not satisfied, no. It spread beyond his body, catching on the soft flowing fabrics that lined the room. The crib behind him burst into flames, and the light from the fire filled the room with a brilliant red glow. The blazing light revealed the woman in the chair was not his mother, but Katniss. The child in her arms was his own. He knew now. He remembered now. He knew when the child in her arms opened its eyes, it would mirror his icy blue ones. The baby had one chubby little hand wrapped around her braid, her soft voice quietly soothing the child. The fire was spreading faster now, he gasped, trying to calm it with air. Her tears fell faster now, but her eyes did not have the heartbroken look they usually did whenever she cried. They held nothing but love, joy, obliviousness to the inferno that was currently lapping at her feet. He tried to scream, tried to save them, his family. But it was as if he, and the destruction of the fire that surrounded him, was nonexistent to her. She just kept singing the soft tune, even as all three of them burned away to nothing. He writhed in pain as the hot flames consumed his body, but she just kept singing.