TWISTED // Clato | ✓

Chapter 13: A Ray of Hope

CLOVE'S POV:

Well, I can't say I loved Marvel, but our group feels considerably smaller and emptier without him. Cato and I wait a long time, but he doesn't come back. I feel like there's someone else we should be waiting for, but there isn't.

It's down to the two of us.

Wordlessly, I turn and lean on Cato's shoulder. He puts his arms around me, and we don't speak for a while.

"Thanks for protecting me, Cato," I whisper finally. "Even if I don't need it."

He laughs, tracing my dark hair with his long fingers. "It's what I came to do. The other tributes don't need to know that. They think I'm just another ruthless Career."

"They don't know." 

"They won't." He turns his head, gazing across the field and through the trees. "I love you, Clove."

The warmth of his words vibrates through me. I can feel a tenderness I never knew emanating from his tone. Cato, the ruthless, heartless Career, a lover. A protector.

"I don't suppose they ever guessed," I say softly. 

"Guessed what?" He turns to look at me again. The fading sunlight glints on his forehead.

"That the lover boy I knew who never left home was really you." I put my arms around his neck and leave them there. "Only now you're here. Now I know it."

"Clove, I'm--I'm sorry. I guess I underestimated you. I thought I'd lost you after I volunteered."

"What you didn't know is that I'd still love you, no matter what," I reply, settling into the cozy warmth of his arms. "No matter what happens anywhere or anytime. You'll always be my Cato."

"You'll always be my Clove. And I will always protect you! I swear, I will never let anything happen to you." He squeezes my shoulder, as though he's afraid I'll be pulled from his side. 

I let myself laugh a little. "What can happen to me, Cato?"

"In the Games?" He looks solemn again. "A lot, Clove. A lot."

"I always wanted to be a Career," I say, "but now I realize how much it costs you to come in here and take lives. I don't think I ever knew that until I was in love. And then I realized what it would be like to lose you." I catch my breath sharply. "Cato, only one person's coming out alive!" The last rays of the sunset are burning the sky, setting it on fire. I'm reminded of my fiery interview dress.

Of Katniss's fiery interview dress.

That obnoxious archer girl, from coal-mining Twelve, who somehow managed to scrape up an 11. An 11! She's our biggest threat now. Peeta? If he's not already dead, he soon will be. The beast from 11? He's done a great job keeping himself hidden and not interfering with us. Rue? Seriously, if she is still alive, she won't last. I hear they practically starve them in District Eleven. Marvel? Marvel's dead. He must be, or he would have come back by now. We heard two cannons: one for Marvel and one for someone else. Who was the someone else? It could have been Peeta, finally abandoning the last of his strength and falling victim to Cato's wounds. Or maybe Marvel just finished him off. 

Again, I still feel like I'm forgetting someone. Someone from one of the middle districts. Most of those tributes were eliminated in the bloodbath, but I feel like one was missing...

Oh well, who cares? Whoever it is doesn't seem to be interested in fighting us.

This only leaves Katniss. The girl with the arrows is still out there somewhere, waiting for the right second to pounce on us. And when she does, I'll be ready. I'm not letting that little nothing from Twelve beat me.