Love is not a game (Hunger Games Fan Fiction)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20: 

When I finally become conscious, the sun is just setting. I sit up, ignoring the aching pain in my body, and attempt to stand. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Clove says from somewhere behind me. I swivel my head around to see her lighting a fire, preparing for the long night ahead of us. I ignore her advice and sit up anyway, immediately grimacing in pain. 

Clove smirks knowingly. "I warned you." 

I roll my eyes, gazing around the campsite questioningly. "Where is everyone?" I suddenly ask, resting my head on the ground to prevent my pounding headache from worsening. 

"Marvel went for a walk, armed of course, and District 3 boy is sleeping. He needs to rest so that he will be alert tomorrow." Clove answers, staring intensely at the campfire. "Why do you want Katniss dead so much?" She continues, turning her intense stare towards me. 

I fidget nervously under her stare and find myself looking into the fire, deep in thought.  

Should I just tell her? 

Maybe I should; she'll understand. That's when I remember that I can't tell her; everyone is watching us right now. I can't just tell her something without letting the entire population of Panem know. 

"She just really irritates me," I say instead, not completely lying. She gives me a look of pure disbelief as if she knows that I'm lying. I quickly change the subject before she can further pry into the subject. "So where's Glimmer and Peeta?" 

Clove sighs, obviously irritated at that question. "You must have hit your head pretty hard to not remember." She answers, looking up at me quickly before suddenly looking away. "Glimmer is dead. Peeta is gone, not dead but gone." 

Suddenly everything comes back to me, causing anger and sadness to overtake my face. This is all Katniss' fault! I can only imagine how Marvel is taking this. 

I try to mask my emotions, suddenly remembering the large audience that could possibly be watching our every move. It terrifies me, the fact that Panem is watching our every move. The pressure is overwhelming, so overwhelming that I sometimes wonder if death would be the better option. 

It probably is. 

"I have to go find Marvel," I tell Clove, standing quickly and causing my head to pound painfully. Clove simply nods in response, pointing in the direction that he left before facing the fire again. 

I think we're all taking this pretty badly. Marvel will be the worst of us though; he and Glimmer were friends long before the Games. 

I make my way through the trees, ignoring the searing pain that coursed through my body with each step. Eventually, I find Marvel, pacing through the trees and muttering lowly to himself. As I make my way closer, I manage to make out some of his words. 

"It's my entire fault. I could've saved her. Katniss Everdeen should suffer like I am now." He murmurs angrily with each step. I slowly reach my hand out to him and place it on his shoulder, forcing him to face me and stop walking. 

He reluctantly looks up into my eyes and I am startled to find them filled with tears. He sees the shock registered on my face and turns away, shaking his head as if angry at himself. 

"I could've saved her, I should've saved her." He tells me, letting tears fall onto the grass below us. I know how he feels; I was right next to her. I tried pulling her with me but let go as soon as the tracker jackers got angry. 

"We all should've saved her; we were just following our instincts." I tell him, attempting to calm him down. He looked up at me angrily and shook his head. It was clear that his anger was directed at himself, I would've preferred if it was directed at me though. 

"You don't understand, Cato!" He was shouting now, not caring who heard him. Death is a hard thing to deal with, even for Careers. We aren't just heartless robots that want to kill; we care for other people just as the other tributes would.  

"On the train," he was sobbing now, letting out large and shaky breaths. His shoulders shook with each word that came out of his mouth, making him look weak. "I promised her that I would keep her safe. We made a pact!" 

I couldn't handle watching him cry anymore so I said the first thing that popped into my head. "Tomorrow, we will make Katniss Everdeen suffer. We will make sure that anybody that she gets close to in the arena will die. Then she will know how much she made us suffer." 

He looks up at me as the tears slowly dry up, leaving him with a hopeful look on his fade. 

"Really?" He asks, already sure of the answer. 

"Of course."

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Author's Note: 

I hope you liked this chapter. I feel as if I made Marvel seem too weak though. Well vote and comment anyway! It makes my day when I see that people have voted and commented on my story! :D 

This story is only just 3 pages on word yet it came out as one page on here... :/ Oh well!

Thank you for helping me reach 2000 reads on this story! If you haven't checked out my other stories, I recommend that you do. I would love to hear some feedback! 

-Emily