UPHILL BATTLE (Cato)

Eleven: Tell my father...

I shoved through the corn fields, fuelled by my anger, yet dwarfed by Cato's. Whatever front he'd been putting on at the Cornucopia was gone, and he slashed through the corn like a wild animal.

I watched him, the rain dripping from his hair and nose, his tongue flicking over his lips, his gorgeous sapphire eyes dark with anguish and rage.

I wiped rain from my eyes, my hair sticking to my forehead and flattened. The storm was strong, and somehow felt perfectly tailored to the current mood.

To be honest, though the last time I'd seen Cato he'd tried to kill me, this boy was my only ally, and I was his. I stuck close by him, following the path he created as his muscular shoulders shoved through the plants until we came to a stop in a clearing. There, a tent was set up, and we knew that there was only one tribute camping in the corn fields.

I looked at Cato, and he looked back at me.

For a second, his face seemed to soften, but it was gone in an instant, his anger too strong to retain. I felt a pant of sadness and almost fear overlap the rage in me, and I winced as he turned away.

Cato threw himself at the tent. Immediately there was a scrabbling fight as Eleven burst out of the fabric, swinging a crescent shaped sword in panic.

"Rhea!" Cato yelled, and I swung my sickle straight at Elevens head.

He ducked at the last second, hurtling into me and sending us rolling into the corn. Eleven stabbed at my head repeatedly with the curved sword and I managed to escape him, shoving my fingers in his eyes to get away. I wriggled out from under Eleven, bringing up my sickle to stab him only to be kicked sideways by his leg.

I thudded into the ground in time to see Cato stab his sword into Elevens head, and blood covered both of us.

I wiped the thick, red liquid from my eyes. Cato pulled his sword out with a cracking sound, and Eleven's body collapsed forwards.

I got to my feet as the blonde brought his sword down repeatedly on the boy's back, taking out his anger on Eleven's corpse. I watched in silence as Cato yelled and roared, until finally I stepped forward.

Cato swung round to gave me in a sudden movement, eyes wide with manic rage, and I stepped back so that his sword only gashed my face instead of cutting my skull in half.

He froze, realising what he'd just done, and his face crumpled in horror.

Slowly, I reached to my cheek, feeling a bright, stinging pain. I pulled my hand away to find it covered in crimson.

"Oh God! Rhea! I'm sorry!" He made towards me, and subconsciously I flinched. He froze again, with a look of pained anguish.

I blinked once, before stepping forward as he began to cry, huge heaving sobs, a moment of weakness in the pouring rain. I had never seen him cry before, so I pulled him into me, and he buried his face in my shoulder.

We walked back to the camp where he and Clove had stayed in silence.

A canon boomed at some point in the next few days, and the girl from Five's face appeared in the sky. I wondered how she died. Cato said that Fire Girl and Lover Boy probably killed her. I said she was too smart for that. We went back to silence.

The rain poured for a while, stopping a day before the river dried up.

I looked up, "Cato!"

" What? "

"Cato, the rivers dried up! It's completely gone! "

His hulking form neared and he crouched down beside me.