Bad Boy Better Run (Clato)

Chapter Twenty: If I Had Been There

Thresh bent down and picked me up by my jacket collar, my feet dangling off of the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut, anticipating the rock to make contact with my skull.

He brought it back, and then crushed it into the side of my skull, and my vision blurred. I felt a warm, thick liquid slowly dripping down my temple towards my cheek, and then I knew it was really over. Cato wasn't coming. I wouldn't live. Cato would have to win. He'd have to.

Cato was really telling the truth, huh? When he said he'd never come to help me if I was in danger. Man, was I eating every mean thing I'd ever said to him now. I'd give anything for his help.

Bracing myself for another blow, I kept my eyes sealed shut.

But the hit never came.

I heard a grunt and a thud and I was dropped to the ground once again. I groaned in pain and took several deep breaths.

Gingerly opening my eyes, I wiped the grime from my face and watched the scene before me.

Cato had tackled Eleven to the ground, throwing punch after punch to his face. He wa screaming things at Thresh that I couldn't quite make out and didn't try to. After he'd pummeled Eleven, who was still alive and took the opportunity to take off back into the woods, he rushed to my side, gently scooping me into his arms.

"Clove, " he urged in a tone I'd never heard him speak in, "come on. Stay with me now. You can do this."

I wanted to answer him so badly, but my lips wouldn't move correctly. My head was spinning and my vision was still blurred. My words came out as a moan.

"Please, Clove, " he said, softer this time. His voice sounded strained, as if he were about to cry. But he wouldn't ever do that. He was Cato.

Every fiber in my being wanted to tell him to suck it up and move on. I was done. My time was up. He had always been the better one of the two of us and I should have expected it sooner.

A tear leaked out of the corner of my eye and I shut my eyes tightly, determined to be as strong as possible.

Suddenly, a warm feeling flourished through me. ...Was Cato...kissing me?

Somehow, through the pounding in my head, the lack of vision in my eyes, and the blood stemming from the bash on the side of my skull, I relaxed a bit.

I reacted to him as much as I could.

To be honest, I didn't know why we were kissing. What even were "we"?

Friends?

Enemies?

More?

Maybe both?

All I knew was, it felt right. It felt good. Yeah, I know. I sound sappy and ridiculous, and you're all laughing at me.

But Cato was making my pending death a little less scary than it would have been if I was alone.

"You're going to live, " he murmured in my ear. "You're a fighter. I know you, Clove. You don't give up. You keep going. You're the most stubborn person I know. Don't you dare quit on me now."

Despite the bliss I was feeling, I knew I was losing consciousness slowly. Only some of Cato's words registered in my mind, and my eyelids were getting droopy.

He gently shook me, and I felt someone wet lightly hit my cheek. A tear?

"Clove?" he whispered, his voice shaking.

"I'm...sorry, Cato..." I murmured, giving his hand a shaky squeeze.

And that's when everything went black.

CATO'S POINT OF VIEW:

When Clove murmured those last little words, and her hand went slack in my own, large, rough one, I lost it. Tears obstructed my vision and my stomach was twisted in knots.

Why hadn't the cannon sounded? Did they want to torture me longer? Try to make me think she was still alive?

I wasn't an idiot.

Clove had bruised on her neck, no doubt where that big, ugly, behemoth had grabbed her. Her head was still bleeding a little where he'd bashed the rock into her head.

I was grateful there wasn't a full on hole in her head. She should be bleeding profusely right now...but it had stopped.

Taking a few deep breaths, I regained my composure and stood up, still carrying Clove. I would bandage her head and treat her wounds with the little supplies we had.

Thresh had taken our bag with the "2" marked on it after I'd let him go. But I'd get it back. Maybe there would even be medicine in there to help Clove. If she was still alive.

She had to be alive.

Tears stained my cheeks and some managed to land on Clove as I cradled her, walking back to our little unofficial campground near the lake.

If only I hadn't run after Five. Clove would be conscious and well right now. We would have killed Twelve and Eleven easily if I had been there.

But I wasn't there.

Author's note: Yes, it's terribly short. However, I rearranged the story and now I have, like, three chapters left!

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