Gone

Gone is a one-shot written by the author of Every Story Has a Twist, and is written in Cypress's point of view. The ending PoV is *spoiler* different.

The story
I laid my head down and tried to pretend I was still above ground, and nothing ever happened, though I knew perfectly well that would never work. It’s been five days since I was exiled. Five days since I was cast out. Five days since I was declared unworthy of ever being in the syndicate. Five days since the worst day of my life. *** I don’t know how it all began. I guess it was because I saw Shadow, Wave and Flower leave. I wonder where they are now. Or at least, I wonder about Wave. I hope she’s alive. I hope she’s ok. I hope nothing like this happened to her, like it happened to our mother, our father, our best friends, me. I hope she’s not in a mess like I am now.

I guess it was since Branch left the balance between everything began to tilt. When Stone almost killed him, when he was trying to protect me. Me. He was trying to protect  me. Me, Cypress, the one who never needed protecting. The scarred one. The fighter. The survivor. Only now it should be the scared one.

They killed him, almost. There was a fox, and there was a gorge, there was him, and there was me. One of us would get caught, or eaten, or fall to our deaths. I wouldn’t actually have minded dying. It’s what happens after you survive that counts.

He shouldn’t’ve done it. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t still be stuck here. But he did.

They killed him for it. Or they almost did. I was watching, for half of it at least. THe rest of the time I spent running away. Away from what was known as comfort, and love, and hope, and life. And when I came back, trying to hide the fact that the stone I had found was still stuck deep in my paw and blood covered all my fur.

And then I realised. My blood didn’t matter. Their blood was worth something…

***

I don’t know why I did it. Maybe I wanted to. I don’t know why I did it in one night. Maybe I just wanted this to be all over. I don’t know why I did it to them, and not to anyone else, or myself. I guess fate had a lot more twists this way.

Something happened that they didn’t know. They thought it was all smooth, and nothing happened. They woke up, and the guards were dead, the successor was poisoned and the kits were gone. I took them, I told them to run. I mashed up prey for them and taught them to eat kittypet food. Or they would die, but at least they were away from this place.

Two days later the stone came out of my paw, and it was practically useless. They took me out. It was just a paw. Just a paw, which made me lose everything that at least pretended to be warm in this cold, cold world.

***

I ran.

Or I tried to run, at least. But I stumbled, and fell, and starved.

I’m still in the same place. I guess I never had the will to move on.

I know there are cats down here, and I know they don’t know I’m here. It will stay that way.

I closed my eyes. There wasn’t any point in keeping them open anymore.

***

The tunnels are dark, but she knew by instinct it was night. The cat they found was still sick and delirious- or maybe the right word to describe it would be dead. Practically dead, though she could still breathe and open her eyes.

She was the only one who knew who that cat was. Shadow and Flower didn’t recognise the scent she had known since forever. A pang of something hit her, and she realises something must be happening. She rushed over to where the cat was.

Foam. White foam, glazed eyes, twisted mouth. A branch, and berries laid out on the floor of the tunnel, three left. There should have been seven.

She shakes her, and shakes her. She tries to wake her up. She wishes she was still a kit who didn’t know what death was, and what it meant. She tries to believe the only one ever there wasn’t gone. She tries talking but nothing came out. She tries, again and again. A pitiful crackle slid out of her mouth, barely heard but still echoed in the depths of the cave.

“Cypress… Wake up… Come back…”

But she knows she will never come.