Warrior Cats As Humans AU

13 REASONS WHY: FROSTPAW CH:3 PT:2

Mistpaw yanked out the tape and resisted the strong urge to throw it at a wall, leave, and pretend it didn't exist. Or throw it away.

Owlnose gave Greypaw this? Why?

Mistpaw held it safely away from her as if it might burst to life on its own. 

Frostpaw recorded these? About her death?

Mistpaw looked a little closer at the tape. The small number '1' was scribbled on the top in Frostpaw's handwriting with a red marker. Mistpaw thought it over for a few seconds then stuffed the tape into her pocket and got up, going to the right side of the RiverClan dorm rooms.  She'd been to Owlnose's room before to ask about some homework she'd forgotten, although she couldn't remember if it was the 17th or the 27th.

She decided to try both.

Hopefully it'd be the 17th to save from an awkward explanation Mistpaw didn't want to go through. Sneezecloud was leaving the 16th room and gave Mistpaw a 'what in StarClan's name are you doing here' flat look before leaving. 

She ignored Sneezecloud and knocked on the 17th door twice. When nothing happened she knocked again. After someone yelled a decidedly rude 'get lost' to her Mistpaw moved on to the 27th room.

Nothing happened.

Mistpaw crossed her arms irritably and turned back to walk to the apprentices' dorm rooms. If Owlnose wasn't in his dorm room then it meant she had mistaken his dorm number, he was on patrol, or he was in the main building.

Mistpaw did not want to have to go all the way there through the snow and then spend possibly hours looking for him in crowded school hallways.

That left Greypaw to ask about the tapes, but upsetting her brother even more after she'd just managed to moderately lighten his mood wasn't really something she wanted to do.

Mistpaw trudged back to her dorm and locked it behind her, sitting down to look at the tape again. There was a number one on this tape and Frostpaw had called it the 'first reason why she died' so there were probably more tapes.

Part of Mistpaw wanted to listen to Frostpaw's tape. Another more reasonable part of her didn't want break down crying.

Mistpaw put one hand on the tape and looked at the writing on it. When had Frostpaw even recorded these? When she'd been gathering herbs? When she'd been recovering? How long had her sister been planning to do it? How long had she known?

She sat quietly staring at the tape sitting innocently on her desk. From how the beginning of the tape sounded Frostpaw had recorded it quietly, enough so that Mistpaw could hold it up to her ear without anyone else hearing.

 She could probably listen to it without Greypaw or Floatpaw hearing her from the rooms next to her. Her fingers twitched to the play button. She hesitated for a few more seconds then got up and picked up the tape gently, as if it were a fragile toy that could break from even a loud noise. 

Sitting on the bed, Mistpaw pulled a blanket over her head to block out any noise, just in case. She lifted the tape up to her ear.

Then she pressed play.

❄❄❄❄❄

Greypaw left the school building with Rapidpaw in the afternoon after they'd had a walk through the forest. It had gotten too cold to stay out, so Rapidpaw had suggested they go back to the dorms.