(gore warning)
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The pain was like being crushed under the weight of a monster, swift and unstoppable in its path of carnage.
I try to scream, but my lungs refused to take in any air, shrinking back at the burning pain inside my body...or whatever was left of it. I could only writhe in agony as my blood continued to pour out in an endless flow of dark crimson.
I knew I was going to die from this. But StarClan gave me nine lives for a reason.
It would take more than a double-crossing scoundrel to finish me.
Next time, I'll be prepared. I would not let him get the advantage on me so easily. And then, after I had spilled his blood and guts onto the ground like he did to me, I would take control of his underlings and use them to complete my plan.
My vision flickers into pitch-black, and the horrified screams of my Clan began to fade out as my first life slips away from existence...and in an instant, my pain is gone.
I recognize the vast, shimmering expanse of StarClan immediately; a spectacular scene of lush trees and shrubs, bathed in the celestial glow of Silverpelt.
And standing in front of me, are the nine cats that gave me my lives, their ethereal forms blending in with the sparkle of the scenery.
"Greetings, StarClan," I meowed, dipping my head in respect. "I will admit that my first life was lost rather shamefully, but I can promise you that my next one shall not be a repeat of that. I will not let myself fall victim to that piece of foxdung again."
The cats in front of me did not utter a sound. Instead, they merely stared at me with unblinking, slightly disturbing expressions.
Before I could ask them why they weren't speaking, I begin to feel myself disappearing away from StarClan, and back to the world of the living.
Perfect. Now I can give that skunk a piece of my mind...and a taste of my claws.
But to my surprise, I wake up instinctively trying to scream again; for I found myself feeling the same burning, gripping, horrifying pain that I felt before I died the first time.
They didn't heal me at all!
My senses once again became clouded, and I felt myself lose my grip on life for the second time...and I wake up in StarClan, in the exact same spot I was in before, the nine cats staring at me again with the same cold demeanor.
"I...I think there's been a mistake," I stated to them, swallowing down the feeling of panic that tried to creep its way into my voice. "I haven't been healed at all, and I've lost another life already. What is the meaning of this?"
Only silence met my words.
"Are you deaf? Answer me! Why did you not heal me?!"
Still, they sit frozen as ice.
"Fine. Just make sure you get it right this time. I have important matters that must be addressed."
With that, I am once again whisked back to the real world, expecting no more than a mild lingering pain.
But again, I feel my body being torn in half as I awake, completely unable to move out of sheer torment...
And I return once more to those unmoving, emotionless silhouettes bathed in starlight.
"What...What is going on?" I ask, not bothering to hold back my panic this time. "Why? Why have you betrayed me like this?"
Nothing.
"I know you can hear me. And I know you can heal me. I know it's a devastating wound, but what's the point of giving me nine lives if I can't even use all of them?!...ANSWER ME!"
It was futile trying to get anything out of them. I may as well have been talking to the trees.
Then, it happened again. Back to life, and gone in an instant.
Again. And again.
Every time, I was subjected to that same torture. As if my body were being torn apart, then healed, then torn apart again in a sadistic, bloody cycle.
But there was something even more disturbing than that.
I noticed that every time I reapearred in StarClan, my form was slightly more transparent than the last time. I was fading from StarClan, bit by bit, like the last icicles melting away at the approach of newleaf.
And it wasn't until the eighth time, when my form in StarClan was barely even visible, that I realized.
"You...You planned this all along, didn't you?"
How could I have been so oblivious? They had been against me from the very beginning, long before I even became a leader. I should have seen this coming right from the start!
"You think my plans for the forest are cruel and unjust, don't you? Well, you're wrong! I would have brought back the glory days of the legendary Clans! Under my control, we would be an unstoppable force, demolishing all that stood in our way! Yet you fail to see this when it's as obvious as a black squirrel in the snow, and this is how you face your own ignorance?! You give me lives, leadership, power...everything I had wanted, only to take them all away from me at the last moment, right when I'm about to secure my victory!"
My claws unsheathed themselves as I spoke, the panic in my voice replaced with a smoldering hatred, hotter than fire. If there weren't so many cats standing in front of me, nothing would have stopped me from killing them right here and now.
"You think you're so smart, don't you?...I bet you think you've won...Well, don't believe that you're safe for even an instant! I WILL come back, do you hear me?! I SWEAR THAT I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE ON ALL OF YOU!"
They remain unfazed, as if I hadn't said anything at all.
And before I knew it, the cycle came around once more, to strike the finishing blow.
My ninth and final life, wasted like the eight before it.
I catch a glimpse of the traitor standing above me, his smug visage mocking me as I drew my last stuttering breaths...
Even in my final moments, anger and hate continue to boil in my soul. To think that a puny runt like him was able to kill me...His gang is just a sorry excuse for what my Clan should have been...And those teeth on his claws are such a cowardly way of becoming powerful...
Then, it's all over.
I finally depart from this world once and for all, and I break out of the torturous cycle into the afterlife.
But this time, there are no stars to welcome me.
Only darkness, colder than the eyes of the nine traitorous spirits above.
They will regret the day they did this to me.
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