The Night [5]

Chapter 12: Unexpected Guests

"Now, you wouldn't forget about me, would you, Rebecca?" A sly, chilling voice sounded from behind that made my skin crawl, but as I turned around, I was faced with a small white-furred tomcat with a grinning smirk upon his maw as his tail waved behind him, "I bet you did not expect me to show up tonight, did you?" The first thought that went through my head was 'who the fuck invited him to this event?' because I did not recall talking to this male about the dance. In fact, I had forgotten that he had existed until now, but the distant memory of me creating him to be another character of mine in Riverclan a few months back was slowly returning to my mind. "No, I did not, Icepaw." I simply said to him, showing clear displeasure in my tone, but he kept the shit-eating grin on his face as he replied. "Aw, don't be like that. I'm apart of the family, remember?" He purred and I proceeded to ignore his comment as I now turned around to face the others. "This is Icepaw, the last feline that will be joining us tonight. He's a bit older than Ferret and Newt, but still an apprentice because nobody wants to be his mentor." I heard him give a slight huff of irritation behind me that I saw such a thing, but I did not take back what I said. "He is from Riverclan. Would you like a human form?" I added in this as I faced the white-furred male yet again. Icepaw was a character that I had that was never fully developed because I lacked the time and motivation to do so, but I still had him as one of my characters. I had designed him to be a snarky little shit like this and I was not planning nor wanting him to attend this event, but I decided to give him a chance. "I'd like a combo of the two if you know what I mean." He simply replied, not letting the smirk leave his face as he said this. With a slight wave of my tail, he shifted into a short teenage male with hair as white as snow, two pointy cat-like ears sprouting from his head and a silky, long-furred tail waving behind him as he sported a white-and-blue colored suit. "Satisfied?" I said to him in a flat tone as he glanced at his attire and was already walking away from me. "Ah, yes. Quite." He chuckled, glancing at the other creatures as he passed them, though his chilling blue-hued gaze rested on Henry a bit longer than the others, giving the canine-hybrid a quick once over, "Very satisfied indeed." Icepaw purred with a toothy smirk as he disappeared into the ballroom without delay. The raven-haired male wore a disgusted expression on his face as he silently mouthed the word 'gross' as the creatures looked after the male. I decided to take my chances and look up at my older brother, who had said nothing about this, but looked after Icepaw like the others, but had a look of someone that could kill in his emerald-hued eyes. This would be one hell of a night and I knew that this would haunt me later. "Alright, everyone. Let's get this party started, shall we?" I said and the others nodded as they headed into the ballroom, leaving me alone at my own expense. A lot had already happened tonight and part of me wondered if I would survive until the end of this event. I had gone through worse situations though and lived through it.

"Pssst, Rebecca." Another voice sounded from behind me, once again I did not recognize it and I gave a low sigh as I could only imagine who I would come face-to-face with now that I had already dealt with Icepaw. The dance had hardly begun and I was already stressed and on edge, but I wore a simple smile and for the second time, gave this unknown person the benefit of the doubt as I turned on my paws to face them. I was expecting to be faced with another feline, perhaps a character that I simply did not converse with often, but instead, my eyes met with a pair of black pants. I lifted my bicolored gaze and also did a once over of the short figure that wore a black tuxedo, meeting eyes with a young-looking male with darkened skin and darker brown hair. I did not recognize them at all and it caught me off guard, making me shift into my human form. This person was shorter than me and that slightly surprised me, to be honest, but I still took caution until I noticed the small white mask that rested over the male's eyes and immediate realization sparked within me. I opened my mouth, but he quickly put his hand over my mouth, looking around with alert to make sure nobody else was here. "Don't say my real name." Scruffy whispered to me now, "I don't want anyone to know that this is me, remember?" His tone was deeper, more masculine than what I was used to, but everything that I was seeing right now was something that I was not used to, so I just nodded and the brown-haired male removed his hand from my mouth. "What the hell, man? I saw you sitting with the others wearing a bowtie earlier?" I said to him in a low tone and he simply gave me a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "I hid the mask under one of the side tables in the hall and once everyone's attention was elsewhere, I snuck off and did this." When the male said this, he gestured to his human form and I once again decided to ask a question. "How are you going to get past the fact that Scruffy is missing and you just randomly show up?" I remarked with a tilt of my head and he appeared to already have a plan. "Listen, just tell them that Scruffy told you that he isn't a big party guy and decided to go back to his room. Where I just showed up late because I was a bit lost getting here. I already have an alternate name - Hiro. Just let them believe I'm another one of your cat characters, a kittypet or loner or something!" He now said to me and once again I had that feeling deep in my gut that this would come back to haunt me later. I, being a good person though, nodded and gestured him off to the ballroom with me without another further interruption. It was rather strange, but interesting at the same time to see my long-time companion like this. If I had not seen the mask, I never would have known it was Scruffy and that the complete truth from me. There was no indication that it was him - his eye color, his form, his voice even was entirely different than it had been from before this night.