The Moonlapse [ABANDONED]

VI

Shadowsight gasped for air.  The world he knew was falling from his paws, his state of living torn from his spirit. His soul was shattered as he dropped upon an icy ground, and even though his mind wailed, all that stood around him was deafening silence. The tom's eyes were closed, but the way the pure vastness of the empty air stretched around him told him that this was a dark place. A place he was not supposed to be in.

He raised his sluggish head, every bone in his body petrified. But even when he tried to peel open his eyelids, he still saw nothing. It was the absence of light, of life, or existence. He was surrounded and suffocated in an abyss of choking blackness.

When he stared down at the floor of this void, he was stricken. Rootkit was laying here, eyes shut and ears flat, breathing softly. Everything was senseless here. 

Shadowsight began shaking Rootkit. "Wake up!" he hissed. They were alone here, but he knew that they had to escape soon no matter what.

-

"Who are you?" 

The way the night-pelted molly stared blankly at her was Bristlefrost's omen that this cat was simply another hallucination. She brushed past her, but instead of phasing through, they touched pelts. Bristlefrost's fur was left ruffled, and so was the molly's. Maybe she really was here.

"You're not real," the nameless cat spoke, her voice quiet and holding no emotion. Her eyes were dull and sunken as she stared at her. And yet, despite her empty eyes and vacant form, Bristlefrost could feel a mind of agony hidden somewhere beneath beneath this blank veil.

"When I brushed past you, it ruffled your fur. Cats who don't exist can't ruffle your fur," Bristlefrost said. 

"Oh," The quiet word floated on the air, like a whistle of wind. "You are real. I'm not alone."

"I'm Bristlefrost. Who are you? " she asked.

The molly stood staring at her in silence, a statue for a few moments. She seemed dead, drained and left as vacant as the void she lived in. After a silent eon, she finally replied. "Hollyleaf."

"Hollyleaf?" A wave of confusion grabbed her, pulling her down too deep to surface in wakefulness. Maybe she really was a hallucination after all. "But Ashfur killed you! How are you here?"

"He didn't," Hollyleaf replied. "He never returned. He never fulfilled his promise. This place became my mind."

"What do you mean?"

Hollyleaf sighed, before suddenly the scenery changed. The smooth, flat ground beneath her paws melted and turned into blood-toned grass, and mist began to rise like ghosts floating upwards and turning into a storm. The skies sunk into a black night sky, with trees standing like mighty predators in the endless mist. 

"What's going on?" she questioned. "Why are we in this forest now?"

"Follow," Hollyleaf ordered. Bristlefrost walked alongside the smaller she-cat in confusion, trekking through the labyrinth of fog. They stepped around a mosaic of rocks that lined a rushing, moonlit river, staring down the edge of one of the cliffs. A swarm of mist circled a group of three cats, and she stepped closer to the edge. Rootspring, Shadowsight and Hollyleaf stood in the blanket of ghostly mist. 

"Rootspring!" Rage surged through her body as she stared down, lighting a flame within her heart. As she looked down, a swarm of mist overtook the other Hollyleaf, causing her to sink away into the sea and disappear completely. 

"Quick! Over here," the real Hollyleaf yelled. The two bounded into the fog, blinded again, and burst out to see Hollyleaf hissing and battling as she was dragged by the scruff by a group of ebony-eyed souls. They dropped her in the fiery grass and Ashfur stared at her in malice, before looking away.