why’d you only call me when you’re high?
“Greetings,” a slender, pale brown she-cat with thick soft fur and amber eyes, meowed from around Splashtail. He couldn’t exactly locate where the she-cat’s voice came from, but he braced himself if she so dared to attack him. He had only been in the gloomy and depressing forest that wicked cats called home for a few days. His stomach dropped every time he heard the she-cat’s voice. She spent every long day in this dreadful place torturing him. Even after death, she wouldn’t leave him alone. He could still feel the pain from his recently inflicted wounds on his heels, nose and stomach that Frostpaw had made. His heels surprisingly were the ones in most pain, maybe because he had to run on them every second.
“What do you want, Curlfeather?” He growled as he spun his head around multiple times to see if he could spot the scarred she-cat but saw nothing other than the familiar fog surrounding him.
“Just the joy of scaring the nine lives out of you. Or, my bad, you never even got them!” She snickered.
“From what I remember, you didn’t either.” He retorted, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction as he heard her let out a low growl. He whipped around as he heard bushes rustle and at last saw the she-cat. Her torn pelt and deep wounds dripped with blood as though the dogs had only just finished ripping her apart. He fought the urge to look away, bile rising in his throat.
“You look like you’re just dying to see me again!” Her eyes shone with amusement.
“How funny,” the tabby tom narrowed his eyes. She took a few steps forward and Splashtail tried to lift his paws to flee but felt as if his paws couldn’t move. Move! Run! He tried to tell himself as the she-cat came into his space and was now muzzle to muzzle with him.
“You killed me and then tried to kill my daughter.” She meowed cooly, her tone icy. Splashtail should have been caused enough pain by the she-cat to know better than to reply to a comment about her daughter. But Splashtail didn’t know better, after all, it was what had gotten him stuck here in the first place.
“Your daughter was lucky I didn’t have dogs maul her to death just as they did you.” Splashtail smirked, though his heart was pounding so hard he was almost certain she could hear it. Curlfeather’s eyes lit up with rage as she scored him across the face, claws extended, blood splattering on the dry grass beneath them.
“Speak about my daughter in such a tone again! I dare you!” She hissed, her breath hot on his muzzle as he looked her in the eyes. Splashtail once again tried to lift his paws and run but his paws refused to obey him. She raised her paw with her claws extended and as she was about to strike him, another familiar voice came from behind Curlfeather.
“Curlfeather! Stop!” Curlfeather put her paw back down and faced where the voice came from. Splashtail recognized her, a black and white she-cat with amber eyes. The wound on her neck inflicted by Owlnose glistened with blood.
“Why?” Curlfeather snapped in reply, though her tone was not nearly as aggressive as it had been with Splashtail. He didn’t dare ask why that was, it was an obvious answer. The black and white she-cat whom he knew as Berryheart fought beside him as any loyal warrior should until he discovered her plan to betray him. Curlfeather seemed to like her just for that reason, but Splashtail could tell there was a lot more to it than she was letting on.
Berryheart padded up to the pale brown she-cat, “It won’t be much fun here in the Dark Forest without torturing him. Killing him would be pointless. Besides, doesn’t he deserve to suffer just as he made our daughters suffer?”
Splashtail would never say it out loud, but she wasn’t entirely wrong. He had been the root of Frostpaw’s trauma and wounds and also the reason Berryheart was here, who had died protecting her daughter. Perhaps he hadn’t been the she-cats’ direct killer, but he was the one who ordered Owlnose to kill the black and white she-cat and the one to set the dogs on the pale brown she-cat’s trail as she was on her way to get her nine lives. Curlfeather seemed to agree with Berryheart, because she stepped away from him and closer to the other she-cat.
“You get to live another day, but I will find you again tomorrow and every other day you are stuck here to rot in this cursed place until there is nothing left of you.” Curlfeather declared, a threat hidden deep within her words that he knew she would one day act upon. Finally, he could feel his paws again and dashed off in the opposite direction, not caring where he ended up so long as he wasn’t to be bothered by those she-cats for a good few hours