𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐞 ☦︎ 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐧

𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 ☦︎ 17

I jump violently, dropping my knife. I should be trying to pick it up, but I am not.

Instead, I am looking up at the sky frantically, as if it'll show me the answer to my question.

Was that Cato's cannon? Was that his end?

My mind is plagued with worries long before I start running, and long before the tears start streaming down my face.

"Cato?!" I yell, sprinting back in the direction I had come. "CATO?!"

I skid to a halt upon reaching a jacket, Cato's jacket, with a small pile of berries on it. My worries go into overdrive, because I recognise those berries, and if he's eaten them-

"CATO! CATO!"

I scream wildly as I run round the corner, grunting as my body slams into a muscular chest.

"Whoa- a-are you okay?" Cato asks, holding my arms as he looks me up and down. I can't imagine what I must look like; I am crying, and gasping, and my mind is reeling.

"I heard the cannon, I- I thought-" I panic, my body and voice shaking.

"No," Cato shakes his head, holding out the same berries he had put on his jacket.

"That's nightlock, Cato, you'll be dead in a minute!" I scream, slapping all the berries from his hands. Less than a minute, somewhere in my hazy mind thinks. Because my father used to tell me that you'd be out the second they hit your tongue.

"I- I didn't know," Cato stammers. Despite all the combat training they do in Two, they clearly don't train them very much on survival skills.

"You scared me to death," I tell him, leaning forward and wrapping my arms around him, murmuring. "Damn you."

He pants into my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I'm sorry, Sage."

And for the minute, I decide to believe him.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

It doesn't take us long to find her body.

I was hoping for Thresh, personally. Because he's the one that would be harder to fight combatively.

But it isn't, because when we find it, the body, it has a feminine face, and red hair, and fresh berry stains straying round her lips. The rest of the nightlock lies in her hand, uneaten.

"I didn't even know she was following me," Cato shakes his head. "I- God, I'm so stupid."

"You're not," I shake my head. "You- it was actually really smart, but it was just that you didn't mean to do it. She must've assumed they were safe, because you were going to eat them, so she stole a few. She's really clever."

Cato nods. "Too clever."

I nod, kneeling down and taking the berries from her hand.

"What are you doing?" Cato asks instantly. "Eat those, Sage, and I swear-"

"It's fine," I interrupt him. "I'm not going to eat them, we're going to try and set another trap."

I can't help but smirk, because there's only three left now; only one person between Cato and I going home.

"Who knows? Maybe Thresh likes berries too."