A Love To Die For | Clato FanFic

Chapter 9 ~ Rage

Cato POV

In my desperate scramble to run, I feel an agonising sting underneath my right eye, the stabbing pain paralyses me for a moment, almost making me drop my sword. I will myself to get up and keep running, because I know lying here will only have me in worse pain.

"To the river!" I scream, as I push through the cloud of tracker jackers.

I can feel them stinging me as I escape, but the pain spreads all throughout my body, so I can't even recognise exactly where I'm getting stung anymore. A chilling scream from behind me makes me hesitate for just a millisecond, but I don't look back. I know from the pitch that it's Glimmer. All I can do is hope she makes it out.

As I keep running, I know that I'll make it to the river any second now, as the sound of its flow becomes louder and louder. Clove should have made it by now. She should be ok. The once thick cloud of tracker jackers has now fizzled out to a few ferocious strays, but it's nothing compared to before.

When I feel the fresh, cold water hit my ankles, I collapse onto my knees, bathing my body in the water. The relief I feel is indescribable, but my head feels like its spinning. Haunting voices from home echo quietly, bouncing around in my head, but I push them away.

Clove POV

It turns out the part of the river we've ended up at is much closer to the lake, and therefore the Cornucopia, than I thought. As I pour water over my stings I can look about 300 metres to my right and there's the lake. Hopefully there's some sort of medicine in the Cornucopia.

I look up over to my right to see Cato completely submerging himself in the water. I had gotten stung, but not nearly as bad as him or anyone else.

I knew from all that time we spent studying different mutts in District 2, that with enough stings, it wouldn't be long before we passed out from hallucinations. My mind has managed to fight the worst of it off for now, but with how many times Cato and Lover Boy have been stung, I doubt they'll be able to for very long.

That's when it hits me, where's Glimmer? I flash my head left and right, thinking that maybe I just hadn't spotted her, but no – She's not here. A pit forms in my stomach, as a cannon sounds, answering my question. No way. I'm still for what feels like forever, shocked. Everything suddenly feels real. I feel like shrinking, hiding away from the Capitol. I'm so small and powerless in their sick game. Even though I didn't like Glimmer all that much, she would never go home to see her family again. All because of some stupid game.

Cato, who looks like he was fuming, interrupts my thoughts. "C'mon we have to go back and get that District 12 girl! I'm going to make her sorry!" He was so blinded by his desire to get revenge that he didn't even acknowledge Glimmer's cannon. I've never seen him this angry, he looked like he could kill someone with his bare hands.

"You," he says, pointing accusingly to Lover Boy. "Come with me."

Lover Boy hesitates for a moment, which infuriates Cato.

"Are you coming or not?!" He screams.

"Uh- Yes, of course." Lover Boy says, uncertain. He has a bright red, swollen sting underneath his ear and quite a few along his arms. He trudges out of the water and starts leading the way for Cato, who gives us a look that says - we're killing him next. Cato looks a bit out of it, like his hallucinations were kicking in or maybe it's just sheer anger which is driving him mad; But I miss the sweet Cato I knew from home.

Cato POV

I follow a fair distance behind District 12 boy, who was really getting on my nerves. At least we wouldn't have to deal with him for much longer. As soon as we kill the District 12 girl, I'm done with Lover Boy.