The Falling Sky

Chapter 4

"Now kill him Strike!"

Strike closed his eyes, and dug his claws into the cat's throat. The tom went limp, light fading from his eyes, dropping like a stone to the ground. Strike turned away, determined not to look at the cat whose life he had just stolen.

"Good job, Strike!" commented Moth, padding over cheerfully. The tom was a large brown tabby, with chewed ears that he'd had since birth. Strike tried to focus on how the light filtered through the window, and not on what he had just done.

Strike brushed passed him. "Deal with the body." he said curtly. He kept his head away from the body, determined not to look.

"Sure!" answered Moth, trotting over to the body and pushing it slowly out of the barn. Strike padded out of the barn behind him, watching his paws intently. He didn't want to think about death. To please Ebony, anything was worth it.

His training in BloodClan had made Strike powerful and strong. Before, he used to stand on the side, wondering what do do, but now, he mercilessly clawed at his enemies, ignoring the feeling of guilt rising up into his throat.

Strike walked away from the place where he had killed yet another victim. Stop making out it was your fault, he told himself harshly, Ebony makes you do it! But that's not entirely true, he thought, I always had the choice not to kill those cats.

This time it had been worse than before. At least the other cats had stood a chance. This one, a sickly little thing, had been doomed from the start.

"Strike," he heard Ebony call. "Come here, now!"

Strike sighed. Ebony was still in charge of him. He was lucky that he could speak to the Dark Forest - otherwise Ebony wouldn't have bothered. Under Ebony's careful guidance, Strike had grown more confident and ruthless.

But it didn't make him strong. He still looked away every time he dug his claws into a cat's throat, and winced when he scratched someone. Strike was not the killer BloodClan wanted him to be, and it made him guilty when Ebony pointed this out.

Plus, Ebony terrified the life out of him.

Once they got to the forest, Strike hoped that he would improve. Without the constant threat of street cats and twolegs, he wondered if he would still have to murder cats as practice. Maybe he could hunt instead - he'd never been taught.

"Strike!"

Quickly dropping out of his daydream, he ran towards Ebony's voice. Seeing her in the shade of a large oak, he ran over to her, leaning on the hard trunk.

"What?" Strike asked her, out of breath.

Ebony waited silently for him to get his breath back. Then she spoke, her voice soft and sharp. "I want you to tell Tigerstar that I agree. But tell him that BloodClan is always independent, as Scourge showed him."

Strike shrunk against the trunk of the tree. "H-he won't be happy."