One less to deal with, I thought. Just then, another branch whacked me on the cheek, and I swore loudly, chopping it down easily with my hand knife. There was a pain on my cheek, and when I reached up to swipe away the blood in my eyes, I felt the gaping hole that the branch left. The darkness was still closing in on me, and I blindly kept on running.
That’s when I heard the first howl.
It came out of no one. It was enormous, with fur that blended into the night. Its black, beady eyes stared straight at me, and I had enough brains to turn around to run the other way. It’s breath was on my neck and I ran with all I was worth. I came to the Cornucopia when I finally turned around to face it. I drew my sword and blocked death blow after death blow the thing was throwing at me. I screamed with aggravation as this fight kept going. This thing was relentless, its breath smelling bloody, like it had been eating something rotten. I managed to slash its paw, and the split second that it goes to lick the wound, I knew I could kill it.
I sliced its throat, and blood poured out. I looked into its black eyes, and I realized I was looking into the eyes of the one thing I had learned to love.
I was looking into the eyes of Clove.
The thing disintegrated before me.
Clove disintegrated before me.
I stood there, long enough to hear a parachute that landed behind me. I turned around, and opened it, quickly. It was some sort of armor. (I know the armor came much sooner, but for stories' sake... xD) I reached for my sword to test its strength, but I realized my sword was gone along with the mutt. I muttered under my breath that I should have remembered to save the effing sword, but I couldn’t do anything about it now. I slid myself into the armor, and it felt like iron on me, but I had a feeling it was safe. With that thought, I smiled to myself. I heard a crash, and my heart nearly burst with excitement to see more of those mutts on the outskirts of the field. I bounded after them, ready for action, forgetting I had no weapon to speak of.
I ran swiftly through the woods, following the loud pounding of footsteps that the mutts made. I passed something shining in the moonlight but I didn’t take a second glance at it. Something hit me in the gut, but it rebounded, not leaving more than tap on me because of the armor.
I didn’t stop.
I kept running.
I had made a full circle by then, and I was back at the Cornucopia. The mutts were somehow behind me, and I sprinted to the base of the Cornucopia to get away from them. I climbed briskly up, and the metal clanked underneath my feet as I heavily made my way to the top of the horn. I leaned over the side, struggling to catch my breath, my stomach heaved but I had nothing to puke up. I heard a scream behind me, and sure enough, there was Fire trying to help Lover Boy up onto the Cornucopia to finish me off. Good luck with that I laughed, but my stomach heaved again, and I was forced to lean over the side. Cramps surged through my body, and I only then realized that some mutts were clawing at me from below. I sunk to my knees, my lungs unable to keep up with the air I so desperately needed. Fire was screeching Bloody Murder over with Lover Boy, shouting that she saw Glimmer. At least you didn’t have to kill Lover Boy’s mutt, I think in anger. When Fire’s back was turned to shoot down a mutt that looked like Thresh, I stumbled over to a disoriented Lover Boy, and yanked him into a headlock. Fire was laughing because she killed one and turned to face us, not realizing that her dear love was about to die. Lover Boy was helplessly clawing my arm, his face blue. I knew he was a goner. His blood from his left calf was cascading out onto me, making my pants wet with it. Katniss raised her air at my head, threatened to shoot me but I just chuckled, my whole body shook.
“You shoot me, and he goes down with me!” Katniss’s eyes shrank with realization. I laughed even harder when she looks at Lover Boy’s dying face. I set my mouth into a grin. Suddenly, Lover Boy took his hand and drew something on the back on mine. I thought about it for a second too long, Fire already figured it out. Her arrow pierced my hand, and it reflex, I pulled backwards and released Peeta, who slammed me off my feet. Fire pulled Peeta away from me, and I lost my purchase on all the slick blood. I went over the edge, straight into the awaiting mutts.
Their growls and snarls surrounded me as they started in. The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt. I kicked with all my might, punching mutts away from me, but there were too many of them, and I had no weapon. I feel a sharp pinch in my leg, and look down to see that there was a knife peaking out. I didn’t care how it got there, or who it belonged to, but I grabbed it, and started to stab. I would make an intermittent kill, but the mutts just kept coming. I tried to make my way around to the lowest part of the Cornucopia, in hope I could climb back up it to safety. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to.
No one would.
I kept fighting, when finally, a mutt bit my arm. I shrieked in pain, and collapsed to the ground, giving the mutts no fight as they dragged me towards the opening of the Cornucopia. The mutts dragged me all the way to the back, from their eyes I thought it might have been Foxface or maybe Marvel.
They continued to eat away at me, and I screamed in pain. The moans that escaped me were inhumane. I didn’t know how long it was, but I vaguely made sense of the anthem playing and then the silence that followed. I started to beg, to plead, and to my horror, to cry.
Then, as quickly as they appeared, they were gone. And I just layed there, missing most of my left leg, both my arms, and my neck. My face was eaten clean, and I had no idea why I was still alive. The sun entered the Cornucopia, and my tears had long stopped.
The pain my body felt was like nothing I had ever experienced. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t breath. I heard a soft padding above me and I could think of one word, clearly.
Fire.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure. I managed to tilt my head towards it, and I could make out Fire. Where Lover Boy was I didn’t know, but what I did know was that I was happy that they would win. They would win, and despite all the odds, they would go back to District 12 and get married and have kids and love each other. If only Clove and I...I thought, but that idea fleeted from my mind before I remembered the rest. Fire stood there forever. The look on her face was enough to break me.
Please. I mouthed at her. A sound escaped my mouth. Please.
And the last thing I saw was Katniss drawing her bow, pointing it towards me, a grim expression on her face, knowing she was doing it out of humanity, not vengeance.
And the last thing I thought as the arrow pierced my head was: Thank you, girl on fire.
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Feel absolutely terrible for it being so short. Again. Sorry.
Anyway, I really hope you liked this story... I shall go back and edit and revise and make it better--- but I really hope u liked at least the last two chapters, both Izzy and I (the people who wrote this story) tried really hard on these... xD They were the first couple chapters we wrote, in fact xDDD
Anyway, thanks so much for reading--- I bet this is short enough to be a short story xP hope you liked this story a lot! :DDD Thank you thank you thank you!
You are awesome :3 (I'm not lol)
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Thank You, Girl on Fire {Cato's Story}
FanfictionEvery tribute has a story. Cato, on the outside, seems ruthless, murderous, terrible. You can't deny he's done terrible things. But it's what drives Cato, and his fellow tribute, Clove, to these extremes is what nobody knows. No one knows Cato's pas...
