Never Let Go (Book 2)

Chapter 18

First Released: 5/10/2020 at 2:43 am
Unedited

I should have gone to sleep hours ago, but between my anger and worry for Cato, it was well into the morning before I was able to sleep. Holding Cato in my arms, fighting off his nightmares, I finally fell asleep, only to be woken up three hours later.

"Children!" Marvel yelled jokingly, before flopping down onto the bed and trying to wiggle his way between Cato and I.

"Marvel, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, but if it is about Glimmer I will not answer, I'm pretty sure my feelings for her are tragically obvious" he replied with a sigh, before noticing that Cato was still asleep.

"It's actually about Cato. He's been having nightmares these past few days," I began before Marvel cut me off, already knowing what I was going to ask.

"His father, yes he abused Cato. I don't know the specific details, he was always very guarded, but when we were younger they were worse, he would wake up screaming and crying, sometimes for his mother, but mainly for you."

"For me?" I was confused, why would I be tied to his nightmares when we were far apart, when he had every reason to be upset with me, or try to forget about me. Had I been a cause of some of his childhood nightmares?

"Yea, I asked him why he screamed for you once. His father kept him, in line, by threatening you, that he could guarantee you would not succeed in the games, be placed back onto the list, pretty much any way he could harm you, he told Cato he would. Cato has always only had love for you, and it may not have seemed that way with Glimmer, but he dated her, in a way, for you. He also thought that maybe, him being with someone else would force you to move on from him, help you forget about all of the horrible things he had said and done to you. Forget about him abandoning you," Marvel sighed, looking at Cato again, "but it is a good thing you didn't give up on him completely, because I have never seen him sleep so calmly, or just be as happy as he is with you."

Through the whole conversation, Cato remained asleep, which was just as upsetting. Being in district one was taking so much out of him, and it broke my heart to see him afraid.

"Marvel, I need your help with something," I paused before taking a deep breath, "yesterday during school, Mr. Hadley punched me, that's where my bruise came from, he slammed me against a locker and basically gave me his villain monologue. I want to take him out of his place. I want him to feel the same fear of me that Cato has had to feel for him," I concluded, seeing Marvel's eyes widen, either from shock at me, or Mr. Hadley's actions.

Marvel continued to not speak for a couple of seconds, most likely trying to comprehend  what I had just said. After the pause, he cocked his head to the side and asked "what did you have in mind?"

It took me a minute to form the right words for my plan, fearful that Marvel might call me a stupid little girl like many others had, before finally spilling my plan to Marvel in its entirety.
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Following my impromptu meeting with Marvel, I attempted to fall back asleep, but with no success. My mind was running a mile a minute, trying to find any hole that may cause our plan to fall apart at the seams. Even though Marvel and I had talked out all of the possible problems, I was still afraid something was going to go wrong.
We were planning to take down the lead Peacekeeper of District 1 after all. Everything had to go as planned.
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It was one of our few days off, a wonderful Saturday, so I let Cato sleep in. While he was still sleeping, I convinced Marvel to go on a run with me. I still wasn't super comfortable with being by myself in District 1. Especially now after Mr. Hadley had threatened me in the hallway a day ago. Who knows what other things he and Glimmer have tried to plan. We've already been here for a week, so there's only one more week left in the academy closest to the Head Peacekeepers offices, and it was crucial that I kept my focus on the plan.