Tales of Panem

The End - Clove

“Cato!  Cato!” I scream desperately.  Thresh flings me on the ground and before I can even think about getting away, he brings the rock down, hard, upon my skull.  The pain.  My vision is clouded with a peculiar white light that seems to engulf all of my previous thoughts and from somewhere around me, I can hear faint moaning.  I think it may be me.

“Clove!” I hear Cato’s strangled cry and I know he sees me on the floor.  My vision has cleared now, my thoughts have returned, and I can see Katniss and Thresh running away in different directions, Thresh with two backpacks.  Cato collapses next to me and takes my hand.

“Clove, you’re going to be okay, don’t leave me!” he begs me.  I don’t even try to believe him, I know he’s only trying to comfort the both of us.  When I first arrived in the Hunger Games, I imagined I would die of dehydration or hunger.  I never thought that I would be killed by another tribute since I spent years training at the Academy in District 2.  Despite this though, I never thought I’d make it out of the arena alive.  Strangely, it occurs to me that this is the first time since I entered the arena that I have been out of danger.  It’s over.  I think of my family back home, my mother and little sister.  No doubt, my death is playing live on every television screen in Panem.  The thought of my family watching me die makes me sick.  Cato’s desperate words bring me back to the present.

“Clove, I love you, I have always loved you, but I just never had the guts to tell you!”

That stops me.  Cato loves me?  Of course I love him, but he is way out of my league!  But I don’t have enough time for that kind of thinking.

“Kiss me,” I whisper, too weak to say it louder.  I close my eyes and feel how soft his lips are against mine and how cool his breath is on my skin.  I have just enough strength left to open my eyes.  All too soon, he pulls away, tears still trickling down his face.  There is heart-breaking pain in his eyes, but behind that, like a dragon awakening from its slumber, there is anger building up.  Although Thresh is the one who did this to me, I feel a shadow of sympathy inside of me for what Cato is sure to do to him and anyone who gets in his way. However, that sympathy is followed by an overwhelmingly strong desire for Cato, the love of my life, to win.

“Win,” I breathe, and this time when my eyes close, I am too exhausted to object.

A.N. This is just something I wrote a while ago and just decided to post.  Please tell me what you think!