Dangerous Allies // Cato Hadley

Part 7: The Evaluation

The tributes sat bunched in a small cement room. Dark grey walls and benches only added to the gloomy atmosphere as they waited for their evaluations. Nerves were high for the kids. Well, for most of them.

The room was quiet aside from the careers laughing about their favorite scenes from the past games.

Beheadings, spilled guts, anything that involved an unhealthy amount of gore was gold in their twisted minds.

Cato's eyes met Eve's and she looked away. After the night before she couldn't look at him. Embarrassed was an understatement.

"Eve." His voice left her eyes darting to his and everyone else's on her.

A shit eating grin spread over his face. "How do I taste?"

Of all the things he could have said, that was quite possibly the worse.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Her voice was harsh as she freighted innocence.

"Aww don't be like that." He laughed. "You were all over me last night."

She could feel everyone's eyes on her.

It was in that quiet room that she wished Clove would pull out a knife and put her out of her misery.

"Ohhh." She made an effort of drawing out the word as if she suddenly remembered what he was talking about. "Do you mean when you tried to kiss me and I kicked you in the balls?"

She shrugged, letting her back rest against the wall. "Not that there was much to kick."

The room erupted in quiet laughter and Cato's eyes narrowed.

She knew from the sharp look in them that he wanted to kill her. But she also knew that for now, she was safe.

Glimmer looked at her the same way if not worse.  There was a dangerous look in her eye. One that Eve knew better than to ignore.

"Don't look at me like that." Eve scoffed. "I don't want your man."

"I'm not her-" Cato was cut off by the robotic voice calling Glimmer into the room.

"Good luck." He spoke to his fellow career before his eyes moved to Eve.

District One's tributes were first to go, setting the bar high for those to comes.

Cato Hadley. The robotic voice rang through the room and the huge man stood to his feet.

He grinned while he looked over the lowering eyes of his competitors.

"Don't let her fool you." He said. "She swallowed everything I gave her."

Her mouth dropped open.

"Look at you." He laughed. "Ready for round two?"

He let out another chuckle and walked loudly out of the room.

"We didn't-" Eve wasn't sure what to say to the others. She knew she'd be dead in a few days, but worse than that would be them thinking she...

"Never in my life have I-" She closed her stuttering mouth, deciding silence would be far better than whatever she was trying to do.

Eyes lingered on her and she looked down at her lap.

Clove Conley.

Eve looked up to find the girl already staring at her. Out of all the careers, Eve found her the most unnerving.

It was her eyes. Eve found no other explanation. They were cold. As if all the light behind them had been snuffed out years ago leaving nothing but a ghastly shell.