TWISTED // Clato | ✓

Chapter 31: Path of Moonlight

A/N: OK, so I am SO sorry it took me so long to update! My mom's been chasing off the computer lately because I have this HUGE research project that I'm WAAAAY behind on, but I'm making progress, so she's letting me back on. YAY!!!! I've missed everybody (lol it's only been like 5 days but STILL!)

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CATO'S POV:

I'm facing a deadly miscolored expanse. All around me, strange colors whiz by. I feel like I've leaped into the great unknown; and I probably have. Falling down a timeshaft is not something people typically do.

My hands out in front of me, my feet in landing position, I shoot downwards. Only, the funny thing is, I barely feel like I'm falling. The colors shooting downward encircling me all look the same. I can't turn my head to look down and see where I'm about to land, or to catch a glimpse of Clove. I just... fall.

Then the visions of passing time start before my eyes; I see the bombers flying out in their planes of destruction, dropping bombs. Buildings go up in flames. Is this something that was already supposed to happen before we changed the past, or is it something in the future? I have no idea.

It's terrible, though. People run around, screaming like maniacs. I see in the visions images of billowing smoke and people falling down dead where they stand. I know where I've seen this. I've seen it many times. Every year, in fact.

President Snow's voice enters my memory. "War, terrible war." I remember the videos of people dying in nuclear wars that was always supposed to awaken fear in us and respect for the Capitol. It never worked in me. Only now, something's changed. This is all real, I discover. While I knew before it wasn't an invention of President Snow's, there was always still a hint of exaggeration and manipulation in his words.

But now I'm seeing it; with my own eyes; and it is real.

I'm still flying--falling, really; but then the visions change.

The war has faded. I'm staring out at a desolate landscape. It's bare and rugged. The sight of the pale flat land under an empty blue sky sparks something inside me. A feeling of... loneliness. Like everything in the world's been swallowed up and I'm the last human being alive on the face of the planet.

A new city appears, but it doesn't take away my feeling of isolation. Because I know this city, and even a glimpse of its white concrete spires fills my mouth with acid and my heart with anger.

The Capitol's formation. I see President Snow's predecessor standing on a platform, his arms raised high. He has long, oily black hair and vengeful eyes. He looks as evil as Snow, but younger. I think his name was President Achies. His hair is slick, his eyes glow black, and his lips are red like the blood he instituted when he started the Games.

Behind him is a large screen bearing the words: THE FIRST ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES. I stare at it for a second, and then my jaw drops when I see the tributes in the next second. They're horrified. They've never seen anything like this. None of them have been trained. None of them even know what types of horrors they're going to encounter.

Wasn't it scary enough for Clove and me? But we knew what it was. We'd trained for it. We'd spent years practicing with weapons and being taught to be sly and cunning. 

But in these Games there are no Careers. Everyone is the same. I think it's this realization that begins to stir up thoughts of regret in my heart. The Games were never what I thought they'd be. They were just... a poisoned cupcake with vanilla frosting.

How could I have been so blinded?

Losing Clove had changed my feelings as well; I remembered how it felt to lose someone I loved. The feeling was completely new; like I was colorblind and missing a part of me. But still, it had had an entirely different effect on me; it had turned me into an animal. Fear and sorrow had turned to madness. Madness had turned to brutality.