Seducing the Careers

Clove

We run into a cave, where Clove rips off a piece of her shirt to apply a tourniquet around my wound.

I sharply inhale from the pain. "Smarter than you look, Kentwell" I mutter.

"Who would've thought Cato would wind up Marvel's ass-kisser" she complains about her district partner.

"Why aren't they sending anything? Bandages or medicine for infections. It's a deep cut. They've sent you stuff for worse reasons" Clove says, worriedly.

"I don't know" I respond, truthfully.

Clove exits the cave. "Hey she needs help! Please!" she says, loud enough that the cameras could hear her but quiet enough that it didn't draw the attention of other tributes.

"Hey, hey, hey. Come back, it's okay. I'll be fine" I say, softly.

She sighs and comes back in.

"What if it gets infected?" she whispers to me.

"It's okay. Come here. Give me a kiss" I say.

She looks confused and sad but comes over to kiss me.

It ends quickly and I whisper in her ear, "Get the cameras off of us".

She seems confused at first but then seems to realize what I mean.

She takes her shirt off and gets on top of me.

She grinds into me and kisses my neck.

"This is what you meant, right?" she whispers.

"Not at all" I whisper back.

She tries to get up but I pull her back onto me. "I'm just messing with you" I tease.

"You're not funny, Three. What did you want to talk about?" she whispers.

"If we both make it to the end. And that's a big if. Are you gonna kill me?" I ask.

"I don't know, I don't want to think about that. Why are we doing all this just for you to ask me that?" she asks into my ear.

"Well first off, I know you're enjoying yourself right now" I tease.

"And secondly, I have an idea" I say.

After a second, her lips find their way back from my neck to my ear. "Go on" she says.

"If we make it to the end. We make it clear that we'll kill each other at the same time. Slit each others' throats simultaneously. Jump off a cliff together. Something like that. Maybe the Capitol will stop us and let us both win. They can't have a Hunger Games with no victor, right?" I whisper to her.

"You really are a genius, hmm?" she hums into my neck.

"But that's if we last to the end. And then there's our families. If we play the capitol into letting us both win, who knows what they'll do to our families. My odds aren't looking too good right now with my leg. If you kill me now, I won't hate you. I mean I'd probably still be offende—"

Clove interrupts me, breaking away from my neck. "Don't think like that. We're both getting out of here" she whispers, going back down to my lips for one final peck, before getting up and putting her shirt back on.

Time skip:

It was dark outside and my thigh was awful, as before.

"What's wrong with the sponsor gifts? I don't understand how we're not getting anything. Not even food" Clove complains, twirling her knife in her hand the way I noticed she always did.

Suddenly, a voice comes onto the loudspeaker.

"Attention Tributes. Attention! As some of you may have noticed, the sponsor gifts have been temporarily paused" it says.

"What the hell?" I groan in annoyance.

"Commencing at sunrise, there will be a feast tomorrow at the Cornucopia. This will be no ordinary occasion, each of you needs something desperately. And we plan to be generous hosts" the voice says.

"This has all been a plan to lure us all there" I say.

"Your medicine" Clove realizes, collecting her stuff to leave.

"You're not going alone" I tell her.

"Yeah, you need it and you can't walk" she says, matter-of-factly.

"Clove, you're not gonna risk your life for me. I'm not gonna let you" I tell her.

"You would do it for me, wouldn't you?" she says, rhetorically.

"Yeah, of course I would. But that's me. I'm not the one who volunteered" I say.

"Yes, Toni. I remember I volunteered for this. You don't need to bring it up every two seconds. I just—" she argues.

"Please" I interrupt her. "Just stay"

She looks at me conflicted, before ultimately softening her eyes and sitting back down next to me.

"Okay" she says. "I'll stay"

Time skip:

I wake up just before sunrise and groggily try to collect myself.

That's when I notice that she's gone.

"No!" I say to myself.

I pick myself up, try to ignore the worsening pain in my leg, and head out to the cornucopia.

As I struggle to get closer, I suddenly hear something. Something I was dreading.

It was Clove. Screaming.

"Toni!!" she yelled out.

I ran faster, but by the time I got there, it was already too late. I hear her cannon go off.

There she was. Dead on the ground under an angry Thresh.

He looked at me as my eyes began tearing up. Part of me wanted him to kill me, but he didn't.

"Just this time, Three. For Rue" he said, before running off.

I collapse onto the ground where Clove lays dead.

"No, no, no, Clove" I mutter, holding her body in my hands.

"Clove!" I say louder, shaking her limp corpse.

"Please! Please don't leave me. Come back! You're okay now, baby. I'm here. Just come back" I cry, caressing her face.

It wasn't like Rue, where she was at least conscious enough to say goodbye. Clove was truly just gone.

I cried out a louder sob and wrapped my arms tighter around her, not wanting to let go.

I wasn't just sad. I was angry. Angry at Thresh, angry at myself. But most of all, angry at the Capitol, the Gamemakers, President Snow.

"Fuck you" I grit out through my tears, knowing the cameras would be on me.

"Fuck all of you" I softly cry, cradling Clove and rocking her as if she was a baby. As if she was alive.

Just like that, all my hopes and dreams for a life outside of this arena were gone.

In fact, without her I'm probably not even gonna make it to the end.

But I was sure as hell gonna try. No more pretending. It's time the Capitol learned what Toni Hart was truly capable of.