Gorsepelt's Insanity

Chapter 6

"Umm...Pebblelake?" Gorsepelt mewed. She followed him into his den, despite the fact he looked extremely busy. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"One minute," Pebblelake mewed. He snatched up a plant with crinkled blue flowers, Gorsepelt assumed it was borage. "Stay here."

He rushed out, and Gorsepelt was left alone again.

Gorsepelt's heart pounded as he returned, jaws empty.

He motioned with his tail for her to sit down, which she promptly did. The thick-set grey and white tom's ears twitched. "What's the matter?"

"My..."Gorsepelt swallowed dryly and looked around. "My visions...they're getting bad."

Pebblelake said nothing. There was an unreadable gleam in his eyes. Gorsepelt went on.

"Look, you gotta help me Pebblelake, I'd ask Hawkcry, or maybe Shadestar but you're the only cat who knows how to heal wounds," Gorsepelt went on, her voice starting to quiver.

Pebblelake didn't answer her plead. "Have you slept well recently. To be honest, you look awful Gorsepelt."

"No," Gorsepelt snapped. She hadn't been getting much sleep since she had been made a warrior, and she felt dreadful.

"Umm...Gorsepelt I'm sorry," Pebblelake began. Gorsepelt felt a cold, heavy feeling in her stomach, like she had swallowed a river stone. "But I'm afraid I can't help you."

"W-what? Why not?" Gorsepelt stammered.

Pebblelake's eyes turned cold and metallic, a new look that Gorsepelt had seen very little of before. The fur along his spine raised. "I have no idea what your curse is, or why StarClan gave it to you. I'm sorry Gorsepelt, I truly am, but this is not my problem to deal with. Get out and deal with it yourself."

He just turned his back on me! Gorsepelt stared at the medicine cat, her jaw hung open in disbelief.

The grey and white tom prepare to leave but hate was forming inside Gorsepelt. A burning, dark hate.

She snarled at him, venom dripping from her words. "How dare you! You have no idea what I have to deal with! You...you...you die a horrible, violent death!"

There was a long silence. Pebblelake stared at Gorsepelt as if she was a badger cub: pity, but also a glimmer of hatred.

Gorsepelt ran outside. She ran out of camp, feeling the wind tug at her fur was exhilarating, and she could see rabbits darting about in the grass, but she was looking for one thing and one thing alone.

Hawkcry.

"Hawkcry!" Gorsepelt yowled, looking out at the moor, her gaze searching for his dark tabby fur among the heather.

Finally she spotted him down by the SeaClan border, stalking a rabbit. Gorsepelt forgot her hate as she hurtled down the slope towards him.

The brown tom blinked in suprise as Gorsepelt flew towards him. The rabbit bounded away, and he angled his head in suprise. "Gorsepelt? What are you doing here?"

"Look, Hawkcry there's been something I've wanted to tell you for a long time," Gorsepelt panted.

The handsome tom's face lit up. "Are you saying that you like me?"

Gorsepelt felt her heart melt. She nodded. Hawkcry rushed forward to lick her cheek. "Oh that's great Gorsepelt! I-"

"No, wait." Gorsepelt stopped him. She felt the warm part of her heart suddenly harden when she saw Hawkcry's bewildered expression. "Look...I have a power...actually, it's more of a curse."

"Curse?" Hawkcry mewed quietly. He looked at her with such a hurt expression that Gorsepelt felt she could have wailed.

Gorsepelt's ears flattened. "Since I was born, whenever I meet a new cat, I get a vison of how they die, Moontail, Blackfrost, Shadestar everybody. Dead."

Hawkcry looked at Gorsepelt, his eyes were as wide and expressionless as round yellow stones. Gorsepelt longed to see what was going through his head, too see how he accepted her.

She leaned forward to lick his cheek when suddenly, she felt claws hit her across the face.

Gorsepelt yelped as she tumbled backward. Rolling head over tail, she lay sprawled in the dust. Her nose stinging, she stumbled to her paws, and turned to Hawkcry.

His face was screwed up with a combination of anger and fear. Gorsepelt realized with an awful sinking feeling that he was the one who hit her.

"You kept this from me the whole time!" Hawkcry hissed. "Why couldn't you have told me this sooner!"

Gorsepelt could feel her heart starting to crack. She cringed, "Hawkcry-"

"Don't Hawkcry me this time Gorsepelt!" There was a cold look in his eyes, a look Gorsepelt had never seen before. "You're an ambomination!"

Gorsepelt felt a sharp blow to her already cracked heart. She gasped, feeling it shatter into a million tiny fragments. The last thing she cared about was gone.

Eyes darkened and stinging, she looked up at the cat who she had once known so well. "Why are you saying this to me? This isn't you Hawkcry, you're a whole new cat."

"I could say the same about you," Hawkcry hissed through gritted teeth.

He looked up at the moon, it was a half moon tonight. Pebblelake would be at the Moonpool with the other medicine cats.

Hawkcry unsheathed his claws. They dug into the earth and caught moonlight on their curved surface. His muzzle split into a cold smirk. "Tonight is the night you end."

"Hawkcry! This isn't you!" Gorsepelt called out after him. But it was too late, he had already ran off.

At that moment, something inside Gorsepelt snapped. Something that had kept her sanity and her calm, shattered. She had nothing that was important to her anymore, and the last thing that was important now was about to ruin her life.

Gorsepelt shrieked and clawed at the earth. We all die anyway! All of us! All! We can't do anything about it! Gorsepelt lifted up her head and wailed, "StarClan! Why have you done this to me! I've only wanted help, and now every cat hates me!"

She saw Morningpelt out of the corner of her eye. "You! You turned me into this!" she screamed and threw herself at the hallucination. Lying in the dirt, Gorsepelt fell silent. Then she started chuckling. That chuckling grew louder and louder, till it was a laughing scream.

"Hawkcry will pay," Gorsepelt laughed, unsheathing her claws. "They all will."

Yup, this is the part where the title suddenly makes sense.