Just Tell Me You Love Me Already

Chapter 22: I Love You

Cato's POV

I don't like Clove's plan, not at all. I should be going down there with her, to fight with her and protect her from harm. But she wouldn't let me, and I have to be some help to her. So when 5 comes running into the forest, I chase after her, and I almost catch 5 when I hear, "CATO! CATO!" Clove is screaming for me at the top of her lungs.

"CLOVE!" I shout back, the only reason that Clove would be screaming is if she knew she was going to die and she needed help. I give up chasing 5, nothing is worth more than Clove's life to me, nothing. I sprint as fast as I can towards the Cornucopia, but I'm too far away, there's no plausible way that I can make it back in time to help Clove. I try anyway. I run out of the tree line fast enough to witness Thresh bringing down the rock and smashing in Clove's head.

Katniss and Thresh are having a conversation it seems. Katniss is bleeding above her eye and around the top of her lip. "Clove!" I yell, my voice is pained; I know that there's no way that she can live.

"You better run now, Fire Girl." Thresh tells Katniss, who flips over and runs away, back into the woods. Thresh is running towards his plain, with two black backpacks on his shoulder, one that says 2 and the other 11. As if I need another reason to have to chase after him.

"Clove!" I call again, she's still alive, no cannon, but she's dying, I can tell. I run to Clove's side, spear in hand and my sword in the sheath. I kneel next to her, "Clove, please, please, stay with me." I beg.

Clove's eyes flutter open, "Cat?"

"I'm here." I tell her, grasping her hand.

"Are you... okay?" she asks.

"I'm fine," I say hastily.

"Tell my family... and Joce...and Shawna.....that I love them..." Clove's breaths are hastening.

"You can still make it back," I tell her. "You have to, there's no way I can go on without you. No way I could win. "

Clove smiles slightly, "You can, you're strong... brave... hot... how could you not win?"

She's making jokes while she's dying. I feel hot tears streaming down my face, a sign of weakness, do I care? No.

"I can't win without you," I tell her.

"You will win," Clove tells me, confidence in her weak voice. "I know you will, you have to, bring honor back to our District.... Make sure my family is okay...."

"You can do that too," I tell her, though deep in me I know there's no saving her. "We are going to win together, remember? Nothing will stop us."

"There isn't a way to heal me, Cat." Clove tells me gently.

"We have sponsors, it's possible for medicine-"

"Cat, you know we never had that many sponsors..."

"Maybe we do, but we just don't know it..." I trail off.

"Since when were you the optimistic one?" Clove asks me.

"Clove, don't leave me..."

"I don't want to... anyone who did would be crazy." Clove smiles at me, her eyes are beginning to fog up. She presses something into my hand, it's a sapphire ring, I guess that was her token. I never really noticed it. "Take it ... back to them... tell them... I'm sorry."

"Clove, you're going to win, we're going to go home, together."

"Home," Clove smiles, "Yes, go home Cat, you can do it, you're going home."

"So are you."

"Yes... I am... but I won't see it." Clove is talking about how her body is sent back to her family in 2.

"Don't talk like that, Clove," I tell her.

"Shouldn't a dying girl be able to talk as she wants?"

"Yes, but since you're not dying I don't see the point in you saying things like that."

Clove gives me a sad smile, "Cato, I'm dying; the sooner you accept it the easier it will be for you."

"You are not dying on me." I growl, "I will be very pissed off if you do that."

"Then I'll face your rage," Clove tells me. "There's nothing we can do, Cat. I, I love you."

My slow stupid brain takes a minute to process this. "What?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I don't know why I didn't, I guess I was waiting for the right moment, but it's now or never so, I love you, Cato and I can't imagine a life without you."

The tears are flowing faster down my face now. "I can't imagine a life without you either, don't leave me, please."

"I'll wait for you," she tells me, "I'll always wait for you...."

"Don't go where I can't follow, please, Clove, stay here with me." I'm begging her now.

Clove gives my hand a little squeeze, "Do me a favor."

"Anything," my eyesight is blurring from all the tears, the hot stinging tears.

"Don't, don't go out for revenge, and don't do anything rash." What is she talking about?

"But Clove," I say, "rash is my middle name."

Clove lets out a short laugh that ends in her coughing. "Please, don't do anything to risk your life, to avenge my death, my life isn't worth it."

"Your life is worth anything and everything; I'd give up anything for you, so please, stay with me."

"I..." I guess I'll never know what Clove was going to say because her eyes glaze over and her breathing stops.

"CLOVE! CLOVE!" I yell, I hear a cannon go off. "CLOVE!" I shake her as if that will bring her back. "Clove..." I lean my head down on Clove's forehead and hold her lifeless body to my own. I know that the Game Makers will want me to move away from the body, so they can pick her up and bring her back to her family. I cry, until I'm all out of tears, and then sob, my body shaking in fits. I have lost everything in these Games, there's nothing left for me at home. My mother has Solis, and Solis will soon enough have his own friends. He'll probably forget me by the time he's five. Solis is too young to remember that he once had a brother who loved him dearly. My mother will get over me, and my father, I bet, won't even notice I'm gone.

After what seems like hours, I step away from Clove's body and watch as a hovercraft picks her up and carries her away, along with my heart.

I stand for a long time not really taking in what was happening, I try not to think, I can't even take in the fact that she's gone, it's too much to handle. After about maybe four hours of standing there I finally take it in, Clove's gone and she's not coming back. I grip my spear tightly, I now have the blue backpack that Clove carried with her everywhere, it's all I have left of her, besides her ring. Clove's gone; she's gone because of Thresh. I hold the spear so tightly it's surprising I haven't broken it in half. I will get him, I will avenge Clove's death, I don't care what she wanted me to do; she was too good for all of us in this Arena. I will win, I will win for Clove.

Alright the END!

Just kidding I couldn't just end there. No it continues on. Now do you see why this story is called Just Tell Me You Love Me Already? Hmmm? -Bookfanic