Prologue

"Lost… I'm lost… I have no idea where I am… Misty shadows… Ghosts of my past…

The slaughter! Oh the blood, don't look at it…

Mappy? Where are you? Mappy? Is that you? …

Mappy? … MAPPY?… MAPPY! …

No…He isn't there… Nobody's there… I'm falling…

falling… falling… falling…"

Memories

Scrappy´s eyes shot open and he woke with a start. "AAAAH!" he screamed as he sat up in his bed, "Oh, it was just a dream… a horrible dream…". He heard a thud from another room, and then the sound of running feet. Mappy must have heard me scream, he thought. Mappy burst through the door, panting. "Scrappy! Are you ok?" he gasped "It sounded like you were scared!"

"No, I just had a bad dream, little bro." Scrappy replied "Nothing to worry about". He looked around the small, messy apartment room and wondered if he could have, and probably would have had a better life if their parents were still around. After a few minutes of wondering he got out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen. Lightning clashed outside and rain pounded on the roof of his apartment. "Uuugh…" he groaned as he turned his kettle on to make some coffee "another stormy day...".

His thoughts drifted to when him and Mappy were living in the orphanage, and how the other kids always teased him and the teachers scowled at him.

Ha ha! Scrappy is a whiney baby!

The kids used to call him whiney baby because whenever he thought about his parents, he started to cry. Those days are over, he thought to himself, but still couldn't get rid of the thought that his emotional sickness wasn't gone. He began to drift off again.

Scrappy will never have a future, he is always too busy fidgeting in class to learn anything.

The teachers knew this was not true, Scrappy was actually very smart indeed. But still they insisted that none of the children at the orphanage were going to grow up to get a good life.

Then he remembered the night he heard a scream of pain coming from the main hall of the orphanage. He took Mappy and they both hid behind a cupboard, masked in the shadows. He saw the whole thing, but hid the sight from Mappy's eyes. Shaded figures with weapons were tearing the place apart, setting alight pieces of furniture, ripping apart curtains and blankets, killing orphans and teachers and the headmaster of the place. Although he hated the people at the orphanage, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight. He remembered when they left, he went out of hiding and saw the destruction, and it was too much for him to bear. Blood splattered everywhere, mutilated bodies and body parts lying on the ground, and the headmaster was nailed to the wall with his clothes torn and his innards hanging out.

They escaped that night, the only survivors of the slaughter, until they found an alleyway which they thought was safe and fell, at last, into sleep.

With these thoughts he shuddered and tried to think about better things.

The morning after the massacre he was lying on a soft bed and wondered if it was all a dream. Still hazy, he saw a light brown fox with long orange hair who was about the same age as him, looking at him and then he wondered if he still was dreaming. "Hello?" She said in a soft, pretty voice. "Hello?" the voice came again, but this time, more real. He sat up in the bed and asked where he was.

She explained the whole story of how she found them lying in the alleyway, asleep, and carried them to her apartment block which her father owned. She said her name was Silky. A few days later, she convinced her father, Gruffy, to let them stay in the vacant apartment upstairs, of which he thanked them very kindly for being so helpful, and over a long time they had grown to be good friends.

When Scrappy had finished making his coffee he sat down next to the window and stared out at the distant dark clouds, his eyes full of blank hopelessness.

If only our parents were still around, then we might have lived a happier life. I don't even know who they were, I was too young to remember…

"Big bro?" Mappy's words pierced through his thoughts like a knife through warm butter.

"Hello? Anybody there?" he called again. "Yeah Mappy, what is it?" the wolf asked between sips of coffee. Mappy, who was plainly eager for something (due to the fact that he was jumping up and down excitedly), replied "can we go to Silky's place now? Please?"

Scrappy took another sip of coffee "Okay Mappy, we can go now."

Mappy was only a little baby when all this happened so he didn't know what had happened, which was a good thing, but even if he did know, he wouldn't understand.

Scrappy finished his coffee and put on his jacket hurriedly.

"C'mon Scrappy! Hurry up!" Mappy teased playfully.

"I'm coming!"

Mappy darted out the door and crashed down the stairs. That's my brother, he thought, always crashing into stuff. When Scrappy arrived, he knocked on Silky's door. She answered almost instantly.

"Hi Scrappy"

"Hi Silky, did Mappy go in already?"

"Yeah, he seems really exited."

"He always is."

Silky looked at Scrappy's thoughtful face and decided to ask what was wrong. "Scrappy, you look worried. What's wrong?"

Scrappy bit his lip. Should I tell her what I've been thinking, or not? He thought about this for a moment, and decided to share it with her.

"I was thinking about the orphanage, and the massacre. Recently, it's been troubling me."

Silky looked at her feet, remembering when Scrappy told her about it the first time. But before she had a chance to reply, Scrappy looked at his watch "Err… I have to go now or I'll be late for work" he said quickly. Silky sighed "Okay, I'll see you later." She closed the door slowly and Scrappy walked down the stairs and stepped outside.