A wicked grin splayed across Cloves face and she raised the knife up.
"I see you wanted to help him right?"
Katniss squirmed underneath her.
"Well that's sweet. You know, its too bad you couldn't help your little friend. That little girl, what was her name.." Clove smirked "Rue?"
Katniss jerked against her and Clove had to crush her hand with her foot.
"Well, we killed her, and now we're going to kill you." She laughed
The knife tore into Katniss' flesh like butter. She didn't scream the first few cuts, Clove had to admire that. But soon she grew bored with the silence and the red liquid wasn't enough to satisfy her thirst. So she brought the knife in deeper and this time Katniss whimpered. Deeper again, and this time Katniss screamed. Again and again, quicker and deeper, until the skin was flayed and ripped from her body writhing underneath Clove.
"Please!" Katniss yelled.
Clove just laughed.
"My sister is watching. Please for her. Not for me. Don't make her watch this."
Clove just grinned. "See that's the best part. By making her watch this, I get to take away all your glory."
The knife went down again tearing up the skin on Katniss' chest. Clove whirled around as the screams pierced the air but no one was coming.
"Guess lover boy couldn't make it down here to help you. Pity." She smirked and lifted the knife high.
"Say goodbye lover girl."
Clove bolted upright screaming.
"Clove! Clove!"
Clove couldn't breathe. Where the hell was she? It was dark, all dark. She was in the arena, she was by the cornucopia, she had just killed Katniss...
Katniss
Oh God. She had just tortured her. She whirled around gripping next to her. Where was Katniss? The capital plane couldn't have come already. Katniss couldn't be dead. She had to help her. Oh God she had to help her. She hadn't killed her. She choked on a sob.
"Katniss? Katniss!" she screamed in the dark.
"Clove!"
Clove thrashed around on the bed. No! Please! Her Katniss wasn't dead. Please!
Suddenly warm arms were around her waist and she screamed even louder.
"Clove! I'm here! Clove, listen to me."
Clove whirled around and hazel eyes met her own green coloured ones.
"Katniss."
Katniss gripped her hand tightly.
"It was just a dream Clove. I swear. You're ok. It's just a dream."
Clove began shaking, tears running down her cheeks.
"No...no...it was just as it happened. You were there...and I was..and I..." she trailed off breaking into hysterical sobs.
"Clove," Katniss said stroking her cheek "Its ok."
Katniss knew the exact nightmare Clove was speaking of. It was the main one Clove suffered from since the games, along with the one that involved Thresh slamming her head against the cornucopia. Katniss woke her every time as soon as she started screaming. She wished she could wake Clove earlier because Katniss knew at that point in the dream she was already dead. But Clove was quiet throughout the rest, so Katniss had no way of knowing when Clove was sleeping and when she was back off fighting in that awful arena.
"It's just a dream," Katniss soothed her "It's not real."
"But it was! It was exactly how it happened. I said everything I told you that day in the arena. It ended the same as it always does. I never stop."
"But you did Clove," Katniss spoke softly "You did stop. That dream is not how it happened."
Clove put her head in her hands and said something so quietly that Katniss wasn't able to hear her.
"Clove?"
Clove didn't remove her face from her hands.
"Clove? Its ok."
Clove lay back down and flipped over on her right side so that she wasn't facing Katniss.
Katniss reached over and intertwined their fingers together. This was the worst part, whenever Clove pushed her away. She knew that it wasn't necessarily that Clove didn't want her there, it was all the hell she had gone through in district 2. One year with Katniss and she still couldn't get Clove to believe that she cared for her without limits. In district 2 Clove had never even been told about the emotion of love, never mind understanding about its unconditional nature. Thus, despite her stubborn nature, Katniss did almost everything first in their relationship. She had saved Clove first, she had taken care of Clove first, hugged Clove, kissed her first, held her hand first. It made Katniss smile whenever she thought about that particular memory.
"Are you nervous?
"What if they hate me?" Clove had her eyes downcast.
"Impossible." Katniss smiled. "I don't think Prim has ever hated anyone."
"Even someone she watched as a heartless murderer?" Clove mumbled.
Katniss looked right in Cloves eyes. "She won't see you like that. She'll see the person who saved her sister"
Clove looked at her unwarily. "Well, I suppose you fell for me even after I pinned you down, and threatened to torture you with my knife at your throat."
Katniss laughed.
"You have a weird sense of humor fire girl." But Katniss saw the smile spreading across Clove's face.
Katniss grabbed her hand and wrapped her fingers around Cloves.
"Let's go then." she said motioning to the door of the house.
Clove nodded and raised her hand to knock on the door of the white house. She froze.
"You can let go of my other hand now."
"Why?" Katniss teased "You don't want to hold my hand?"
"Hold your hand? Why?"
"Well..that's..." Katniss struggled for an explanation. Why did people hold hands? she thought to herself
Clove's green eyes suddenly sparked with an understanding.
"Is this like hugging?"
Katniss flashed back to the moment she first hugged Clove. Clove had thrown her to the ground and whipped out her knives quicker than Katniss could respond to protect herself from Katniss' "attack."
Katniss smiled, "Yeah a little bit."
"Oh." Cloves face fell in frustration.
Katniss remembered how embarrassed she was after the whole hugging incident. She dropped her hand from Clove's and Clove watched as it fell away.
"Lets just go in." Katniss said.
Later that night while talking to Prim, answering all the million questions she had, Clove had placed her palm into Katniss' own.
That moment on Clove's hand was always the one to find Katniss' own.
"It was exactly how I wanted it to happen."
Katniss was jolted back to reality due to Clove's words. Clove flipped over to face Katniss.
"That was how I planned it out in my head. That was everything I was going to do to you. I only stopped because Thresh..." she broke off into cries
"Clove. Listen to me." Katniss reached down and grabbed Cloves hand. She pulled it up until it was resting on her chest. "Do you feel that?"
"What?" Clove said shakily
"My heartbeat."
Clove paused and for a minute they just lay there. Clove's hand on Katniss' chest, feeling every beat it took.
"That's because you didn't do it like that. That's because you saved me."
Clove nodded and kept her hand in that position.
Katniss reached down and pressed her lips to Clove's.
"You saved me Clove"
Clove nodded against her chest.
"You saved me too. In more ways than one." Clove whispered.