A New Life (warrior cats fan fiction)

Chapter Five

Needlebanger's POV

It was a chilly day consisting of dark clouds, strong winds, and occasional rainfall. Most of DrugClan had stayed in their dens, only leaving one to enter another. Whether it was a storm outside or a beautiful day, through the past quarter-moon the majority of the Clan was quiet and reserved. Twitch's death had hit the Clan hard, especially his siblings. Many were simply embarrassed... how were we supposed to party if the Party Place was off limits?

In the drug nest every cat was silent. Hazecloud, Chickenwing, and Munchbelly passed around a thick blunt without sharing a word while Crackheadstar and Cocainenose shared lines. Bone and the wide-eyed white she-cat had taken Twitch's death just as hard as LilPlump and Chickenwing, though Bone was taking it a bit better than Cocainenose. He realized, just as I did, that the tom was going to kill himself eventually. 

LilPlump had barely moved from his nest since we had returned home from the disastrous party. Meowmeow was still trying to get him off of the Xanax, but the distraught tom wouldn't even talk; he had even started to lose his extra weight from lack of eating. Even Pouncepaw was dramatically torn over Twitch's death, as if she thought the two would one day be mates. She had taken it upon herself to venture through the forest. Few of us had seen Pouncepaw since his death, but every now and again you could hear the pitiful she-cat wailing into the wind.

The eerie silence in the drug den was too much for my sober mind and when Munchbelly sighed and stood up to leave, I awkwardly followed in behind him. No cat looked up, no cat said goodbye, they only continued to get high.

Standing at the entrance to the den, I gazed around at the deserted clearing. I watched Munchbelly head over to Crackheadstar's den and disappear into it. It only took the deputy a few heartbeats to exit the den and when he did he had some sort of pouch slung over his flank. Curiously, I padded over to the tom. A shiver crept down my spine as the cold raindrops seeped through my pelt. "What's that?" I asked, gesturing with my tail to the ugly pouch. It had dark brown and light brown checkers with a shiny LV logo plate in the middle.

Munchbelly jerked his head toward me, probably shocked that I had followed him out so quietly. "Oh, this?" He glanced toward the bag and, though his shoulder fur briefly bristled with awkwardness, raised his chin defiantly, "This is my Louis Vuitton pouch... I- uh, use it to transport the Clan's drugs."

My whiskers twitched with amusement and I tried to hide my purrs as I snickered, "Why did you choose such an ugly one? Out of all the colors you could have chosen... and you chose that?"

With a humph, he turned to walk away before adding, "I'll have you know this ugly pouch is worth more than Madam Lillian's stash, I assure you!" He whipped his tail and padded off, muttering more to himself, "Ugly pouch... don't you listen to that nasty she-cat, Louis... beautiful, you are, and they all know it."

Snorting, I hurried after the tom until I was at his side again. He narrowed his eyes at me and swung the pouch onto the other side of his flank self-consciously. "What do you want? To degrade Louis some more? I will cut that tongue out of your mouth, you inconsiderate bastard!" Munchbelly looked more offended than angered.

I continued to try to swallow my purrs as I replied, "Oh, Munchbelly, hush about your pouch. I couldn't care less. I was just looking for something to do, something that doesn't consist of sitting in every other cats' grief."

Munchbelly nodded, and for a few moments, was tranquil. It was only until we came to a slope that he halted and finally looked at me. "Well, if you're interested in meeting our drug supplier, then come along," Munchbelly murmured as he dug underneath a boulder in the slope. Uncovering a mouse and a fat pigeon, he stuffed them into his bag and started to pad off. "I'm in a hurry, he doesn't like to wait... and don't say anything when we meet him. He's a sketch-bag and barely trusts me."