Scars Of Our Love | Cato Hadley X Male Reader | Vol. 1

20 ~ Rue

A few years back, during school, we were given a basic course on health and safety. We learned how to treat most wounds and injuries on our own since working in the forests could be dangerous at times, but I remember most kids completely ignoring the subject. Believing nothing "bad" could ever happen to them. I probably would have ignored them if it weren't for my mom.

She pushed for me to study on my own and learn as much as I could about caring for my injuries. I hated it for the longest time but after she began to take me hunting more I learned how crucial that knowledge was.

Almost every time I went out I would come back home with cuts, scrapes, or sprains I got from my carelessness. My mom helped at first when she was still teaching me, but as I grew older she slowly stopped, forcing me to learn by myself. By age twelve I could have probably come back with a gash in my arm and be able to sew it back up myself. She taught me nearly everything I knew, but I didn't realize it till the games.

Everything from how I tracked down water or food, to how I am still surviving as long as I am. It was all thanks to her. I only wished she was here now to help me or comfort me at least.

I grit my teeth as I slowly lower myself against the base of a tree, blood continuously dripping from the large cut on my arm despite how hard I tried to cover it. "Shit," I whisper while slowly pulling my jacket off, pieces of splintered fabric brushing up against the tear in my skin. I knew I had to stop the bleeding before I passed out, but the only thing I had was the fabric of my undershirt. If I ripped it I would be sacrificing warmth for future nights, but it was a sacrifice I needed to make to live.

My hand traces over the fabric of the shirt, and after a second of hesitation, I begin to pull. It wasn't coming apart easily.

Before I could rip a whole piece off I hear a sound in the distance, it was a quiet pattern of beeps that grew louder the closer it came. I lift my head, looking around for where they were coming from, and spot a small parachute flying toward me. It carried a small gray tin, which landed in a bush next to me within a few seconds. I crawled to get a closer look and quickly realized what it was, I had gotten a sponsor.

A smile grows on my face as I quickly open the silver tin, inside was a small roll of bandages and a card. I look up to the trees above and say "Thank you," knowing very well they were probably watching me right now. I slid the card out of the tin, and all it said  was, "Hope this helps," sent by J. I couldn't believe Johanna was able to get me a sponsor.

The bandage was quick to adhere to the blood that dried along my arm making it easy to wrap. She may have just saved my life.  After sliding my jacket back on I get up, throwing my bag over my shoulder and grabbing my axe. I had to find Katniss and Rue.

"Help!" I hear someone yell in the far distance. My head snaps toward the direction, Rue! I quickly break into a sprint. "Rue!" I yell while pushing past the branches in my way. With each step, her screams became louder. "Rue!" I yelled again as I stumbled through the forest, I couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. Every sound in the forest seemed to echo around me. I tried to follow the sounds of her cries but they faded out through the noises of everything else.

The birds singing their songs, the cracking leaves as I shifted my weight, and the animals calling out all masked the sound of her. I couldn't hear her. She stopped calling for help. Through it all, I finally hear something, but not something I wanted to hear.

Boom! The sound of a cannon rings through the arena. Someone had died, that couldn't be good. I luge forward and run as fast as I can, I had no idea where I was going but my anxiety was clouding my judgment. What if someone got Rue, or Katniss, or both? I couldn't be alone again, I couldn't relive what happened after Jenna's death.