Interdistrict

Chapter 3: Judgement Day

His hands were gripping her shoulders tightly but she barely registered the way his fingers dug into her skin because his eyes were locked onto hers, piercing through her physical being into her soul. Even though she was trapped, she noticed that his eyes were a beautiful crystal blue like the soft waves back home when the water was smooth, but like the sea, their beauty came with a wild, natural brutality. She was terrified of what he might do but was also somehow calm. She recognised the feeling. She remembered it all too well from The Games. Every day there had been an obvious fear that this day would be the day she would die, but as time passed there came a type of resignation, an acceptance that it would happen and that since she couldn't do anything about it, she shouldn't care.

She felt her body welcome the feeling and she no longer cared what Cato would do to her even though she was still scared.

"Does this make you feel in control?" Coral taunted calmly. "What are you going to do? Snap my neck? Choke me to death? Go on, do it. It's the only thing you know how to do!"

She said the last part viciously and his grip on her shoulders became tighter. She had just thrown his words back in his face from the day he had won The Games. It had been him and the two lovers from 12 who were left and the Gamemakers had changed the rules. There could be two victors if they came from the same district and it was then that he had realised that he had trained his whole life as a product of entertainment. He remembered it clearly.

***FLASHBACK***

Cato's face was bloody from his fight against Thresh. He had Peeta Mellark in a headlock ready to snap his neck. The only thing stopping him was that Katniss Everdeen, "the Girl on Fire" was pointing an arrow straight at him. That and the fact that a part of him actually wanted to die. If he died, he wouldn't have to feel this way. Like a worthless, mindless, killing machine. He looked at this girl before him fighting because she had something to live for. She had volunteered for The Games because of her love for her sister. He had volunteered for the glory. So if he won, what did he have to live for? What did he have back home? More training sessions with his father? Weapons for every birthday present? Were they reasons to live?

"Go on. Shoot! Then we both go down and you win." Peeta struggled against him but he was stronger.

"Go on!" He said to her as his eyes teared up. "I'm dead anyway. I always was right? I didn't know that 'til now." He laughed slightly at his stupidity for not seeing it.

Everdeen's arrow was still pointed at him but he barely noticed.

"How's that?" he looks up knowing the Gamemakers were listening. "Is that want they want? Huh?"

He turned back to Katniss. "Huh?" he asked her. He wanted answers. It was unfair. His life had been stolen from him since the day he had been born. He had experienced nothing. It was then that he realised he wanted more. Mellark struggled against him harder.

"No, nah, nah, I can still do this! I can still do this!" He manically tried to convince himself.

"One more kill. It's the only thing I know how to do. Bringing pride to my district. Not that it matters." What mattered was that if he could survive this, he could return home and live. Actually live. It would be over. He would have no reason to train every single day. He could start again.

He made up his mind. He had to be the winner if he wanted to experience something real. He used all the strength he had left to snap Peeta Mellark's neck and then he pushed the body into Katniss Everdeen's using her district partner as a weapon to knock her down. Her arrow went flying and he wobbly dodged it as she fell down. She hurriedly pushed the body off hers and moved to get up swiftly. Cato was faster. He gracelessly jumped on top of her and choked her to death. He saw the moment her life left her body.

The cannon boomed. He had won.

Not that it mattered.

***END OF FLASHBACK***

"You think you know me because of The Games but you don't!" he hissed dangerously. He looked her up and down and locked eyes with her again. "Are you who they say you are? Did the cameras capture everything about you worth knowing?"

He was right. The image her team had created for her and the edited clips from The Games barely showed any truth to who she actually was, but so what? She didn't have to look at how he acted in The Games to know the type of person he was.

"How you were in The Games has nothing to do with it!" Coral spat at him. "You convinced Crane to send my girl in with a broken leg and I'm still not convinced that you didn't somehow arrange for her to fall down the stairs! All you care about is your district winning. Do you feel anything at all?"

Cato's hands left her shoulders and as they did Coral saw the fight leave his eyes. His expression was blank.

"No," he answered calmly without looking at her. "I'm a robot and an unfeeling whore."

Coral blinked in surprise. He ignored her and simply pulled the lever to restart the elevator. As the door opened at the fourth floor he moved aside to give her room to leave and she did, completely confused about what had just transpired between them.