Clato: Cuts Beneath the Surface

Chapter 52

CATO

I make it out of that cursed field and collapse inside the cornucopia. Fading in and out of consciousness, I clean and dress my wounds. The rain has washed away most of the blood and dirt from my hair and face. I am numb as I work, as if this is happening to someone else. The cut isn't going to kill me but I lost a lot of blood. I eat and drink, then remember the dent in Clove's skull and throw it all back up.

Inside of Thresh's backpack I find vitamins and a salve to heal wounds quickly. I manage to hold down a few pills and apply the salve to my stomach and arm. In my pack are two full body suits. I've seen these before. They can stop any blade, knife or arrow. It reaches to the ends of wrists and ankles, leaving only my hands, feet, and head exposed. I strip down and walk outside, letting the rain pour across my back. The last remaining blood and mud are washed away. I yell into the storm, not caring if someone hears me. When I am so cold my fingers turn blue, I go back in, dry off, and but my clothes back on.

Shivering and heartbroken, I fall asleep. That is how I spend the three days of rain; sleeping, throwing up food, and wishing these games would end in one way or another.

On the fourth day, the rain abruptly stops. The ground is dry in a matter of minutes. In late morning I hear the canon blast.

BANG!

It must have been the red haired girl, Finch? Or maybe Finley? Either way, one canon means she is the one gone. If Red head had won the fight there would be two deaths. I force myself to jog around, stretch out my muscles. It's coming. The sky turns dark even though it is mid afternoon. Then I hear it, the horrendous sounds of a beast that should never has existed. The mutts are coming for me. I clamber onto the cornucopia and watch as an army of massive feral dogs drives Katniss and Peeta towards me. This is it, this is the end.

Katniss breaks away, leaving Peeta behind, and I know in that moment their so-called love is a sham. I would never have abandoned Clove. Katniss eventually stops at the base of the cornucopia and helps Peeta up. When she herself is also up, I come out of the shadows and attack. Throwing myself at Katniss, I tackle her to the ground and force her head over the edge. The mutts jump inhumanely high, nearly reaching her. I get a good look at them and freeze. They're eyes are human. The color of their fur matches the color of human hair. These mutts are the dead tributes. I don't know how, but they are.

The darkest, biggest mutt jumps up and nearly gets Katniss. She struggles beneath me and screams for Peeta. Then I see her: a smallish but muscled mutt with chocolate fur and breathtaking green eyes. Clover. They have turned her into a beast. Her eyes find mine and she snarls with hatred. That does it for me. If this is what the game makers did to the girl I. . .to Clover, then I don't want to win their games.

While I am distracted with the Clove mutt, Peeta manages to drag me off of Katniss and punches me. I attack him viciously, punching with my left hand and slashing with the sword in my right. I have Peeta in a choke hold before Katniss gets to her feet. She draws her bow and aims it at me. My feet hit the edge of the roof, and I realize exactly how this will play out.

"Go ahead, shoot. Then we both go down and you win." I tell her desperately. Little does she know I don't want to win anymore. Katniss looks horrified, her gaze dancing between Peeta and I. "I'm dead anyway, right?" I tilt my head back and shout to the sky, "You never meant for me to make it out!!" It feels like such a great lie, that Clove and I trained our entire lives for this. They told us we could win. They told us there was hope. Well there isn't. There is no hope.

Katniss fires the arrow. It embeds in my hand as Peeta stamps on my foot. I release him and tumble to the ground with a thud. My body is jarred by the fall. Then the mutts attack. Their teeth shred my armor, ripping into me without mercy. I scream in agony. The mutts tear through my flesh like tin foil, a million knives stabbing at once.

One of the dogs climbs on top of me and tears open my chest. It is the one who looks like Clove. "Please," I beg Clove to kill me. Katniss leans over the edge of the Cornucopia. She fires her arrow at my head just as the Clove mutt rips out my heart with her teeth.

The pain is wiped away. I can feel myself evaporating. And the last thing I think before I die, before I join the girl I love: Favian wins, he always does.

A/N THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY!!!!
There will be an alternate ending AND a sequel!!! Please continue reading, as the story is BY NO MEANS FINISHED. Thanks!!!