The Moonlapse [ABANDONED]

VIII

Night had possessed the land. The darkness of the skies was chaotically entwined with a garden of the lunar glow and the cosmic glimmers of the bleak heavens, camouflaging the labyrinth of pines in a taint of gloomy shadows. Bristlefrost wandered along with the wild moon, trekking north into the wilderness. Winds howled towards the sky like agonized wolves, crying silently through the midnight atmosphere. 

She didn't know what had happened, but she knew for sure that Shadowsight and Rootkit were still trapped. But the void was infinite, the darkness of it endless. How were they supposed to find them? 

Then something wafted through the nightfall, making Bristlefrost freeze in place and begin searching around. There was something, a cry, a whimper, and she knew it hadn't just been another autumn breeze. A familiar scent was staining the wind. Something was in the bushes.

The perplexed she-cat turned away, knowing how foolish it would be to follow the unknown stench. But then a shadow crawled out before her eyes, dropping down into the grass in front of her. Bristlefrost stared in confusion. The cat had stumbled drunkenly as if they were trying to dash through water, and they'd swayed and dropped as if stricken with sudden death.

"Who are you?" she hissed. As she stepped closer, claws unsheathed in hostility, the moonlight gleamed down on the silhouette to unveil a paralyzing sight. This cat, he held all the features of someone she'd known before. His cream pelt, spotted in fiery ginger. The spiky, puffy shape of his fur. His amber eyes were deprived of emotion, they were windows to an empty soul, an ocean holding nothing but one, drifting emotion that floated in the waves: pain. 

"Rootspring?" she spoke. His eyes darted around, jaws falling open. He looked like a living corpse. When she reached out to touch his shoulder, a shudder of panic ran through him and he flinched in clear terror. 

"Speak to me," she commanded. She couldn't believe she was seeing him. For moons, he'd simply been a memory that was gradually burning away in her mind. She never saw his face, or heard his loving voice, or seen his amber eyes glow. Now he was sitting before her. It felt like some kind of delusion floating through the night. 

The tom simply whimpered and turned away in a wordless fear. Bristlefrost stared in disbelief. He was just a pale corpse that had staggered from it's grave and tried to walk on the earth. Unsure whether to hold on to him, she picked him up and began to carry him to the camp. 

Needleclaw wept in a joyful disbelief. "I can't believe he's back," she cried, tears of mirth cascading down her face. Her amber eyes shimmered like fire from the emotion as her ears pinned back against her head. "Why aren't you happy?"

"I can't know that he'll be back forever just because of this one happy moment, can I?" she growled, turning away from the image of her mate. "I know he'll leave me again, soon."

"Do you not love him anymore?" Needleclaw asked as she stared at her, dumbfounded.  The word "love" pierced her soul, stabbing deep into her heart.

"The cats you love the most are easily lost. Have you not learned that, after what happened to your son and to Rootspring?" Bristlefrost hissed, causing Needleclaw to flinch in terror. "Sometimes not everything goes right for you."

"Do you not have any hope?" Needleclaw hissed, her bushy tail lashing.

"And have you know sense of acceptance? The world isn't always happy sometimes," Bristlefrost snarled.

"But-" the smaller she-cat's voice was weak now, shivering and trembling. "I went through so much and yet I marched on. Can't you do the same?"

Her teeth clenched and she turned away, her tone softening from furious and commanding to sombre and serious. "I was forced to watch as cats died at my claws, unable to do anything about it. I was nearly lost to eternal darkness and was forced to slaughter a cat in order to escape. When it all finally ended, I never had a chance to be happy. All I felt was grief for the ones who'd been lost. How do you think it left me?"

Needleclaw stared in shock, and sighed. The fury rising in Bristlefrost's heart seemed to morph into monster, clawing at the cage her soul had trapped it in. Her claws slid from her sheathes without her control. Something was inside her, awake and wrestling to get out. The realization dropped in her heart, filling her with terror.

Her friend stared in confusion. "What's wrong with you?" she asked, and Bristlefrost began wrestling to hold onto her form and break the shackles that tried to hold her in place. But the malicious curse only held onto her tighter, keeping her in place and taking over. All she could do was choke out a scream before Mapleshade finally possessed every inch of who she was and a darkness suffocated her mind.

Without her even moving them, her legs were pulled towards Needleclaw. The black and white she-cat stumbled back in shock, and Bristlefrost was frozen, nothing but a spectating soul that could not do anything but watch as the silver strings dragged her closer. Her jaw fell open, teeth bared, and her head fell forward for her teeth to sink into Needleclaw's chest. Terror swept over Bristlefrost's trapped soul in tremendous waves, drowning her thoughts in an endless sea. A scream broke out from the she-cat, bursting through the night, before finally she was pulled away from her throat and blood exploded from the sudden tear.

Needleclaw staggered back, gasping, blood gushing from her throat. The crimson burnt like fire against the shade of the night, its intense red not held by any shadows. The quick surge splattered into several scarlet splashes on the earth as Needleclaw dropped to the ground, covered in crimson as she splashed into the pool. Every feature upon her was ripped apart by an intense agony and terror until, finally, her head dropped down and she lost the vibrance of life.

Needleclaw was dead. 

She had killed her.

The thought-bending evil lost its grip on her mind, the darkness slipping away from between her claws and leaving to rest in her soul. But now the grief was what paralyzed her. She was frozen in shock, her mind drifting out and reality blurring. A deafening howl echoed through the cavern, and she turned to see Rootspring staring in pure terror. He'd seen it all.  She doubted he even recognized her anymore but, judging by his sorrowful scream, her love still felt all the grief anyway. 

Pure panic tore apart every inch of her being, her heart burning with the dread. That guilt Bristlefrost had known all too well was flooding her spirit and drowning her consciousness. Rootspring had just watched his sister be mercilessly slaughtered. Rootkit would come back, if he ever returned at all, to find that his mother had been brutally slaughtered by the she-cat he'd trusted. 

And, through all this, a pure darkness now held the Clans. A shadow loomed over them, threatening to tear them apart and destroy their lives forever.

Mapleshade was back.