*I don't own CATS or any of the characters!

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A crisp, cold wind rushed through the junkyard and, for a moment, everything moved as if being tossed around by the wind. And then, all of a sudden, everything stopped. It was quiet and still. Then, slowly, everything became animated again and burst into motion.

"Come on, Demie. Don't tell me that you're going to freak out now. It's just a little bit of wind and besides, we've been wanting to do this all summer!"

"You've been wanting to do this all summer." I corrected. "Why couldn't you get someone else to go with you?"

"Because Munkustrap would tell our father and Tugger and Bomba are too busy making mischief."

"You could have gone by yourself, you know, Macavity?" I groaned, following him further away from the junkyard. "Besides, Munkustrap will realize that we're gone, you know?"

"No, he won't." Macavity proclaimed. "I made sure of it."

"What did you-?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Macavity laughed. "Demie, loosen up a little, won't you? You know that I'd never hurt Munkustrap!"

I gulped, nodding. This seemed to satisfy Macavity and he smiled and surged on, tugging me along. Privately, I thought to myself, "But you would, Macavity. You would. If it meant getting what you wanted, you'd hurt Munkustrap or anyone else who tried to talk sense into you."

"I don't see what you think is so special about going over the wall, Macavity." I muttered. "The junkyard's safe and it's home! Why on earth-?"

"Don't you ever get tired of doing what you've got to do sometimes? Don't you ever want to do something that you're not supposed to do?"

I sighed. "Rules are there for a reason-."

"Mhmm. To be broken. Come on, Demeter. I brought you along because I thought that you could handle it."

"I can. But I don't see why-."

"You're starting to sound like Munkustrap, Demie." Macavity hissed at me. He was starting to get annoyed with me. That much was clear from the tone of his voice.

"It might do you some good to listen to Munkustrap from time to time." I thought to myself but I didn't dare to say it aloud. I'd learned that there was very little that Macavity liked less than hearing about what Munkustrap believed and what Munkustrap thought was best. If you told him that Munkustrap wouldn't approve of something, Macavity's resolve to do whatever it was only hardened.

We'd all been friends when we were younger and I didn't ever want that to change. But with time, I found myself feeling more and more uncomfortable around Macavity. His distaste for rules and his reckless behavior began to worry me and made me want to distance myself. As a kitten, he'd had some sense of what one should and shouldn't do but as we'd gotten older, I saw that understanding start to fade away. His rebellious actions began to go far beyond just breaking rules. As we got older, his grand schemes became less about rule breaking and more about being despicable. But none of us could find it in ourselves to say anything about it. Except Munkustrap and Macavity hated his brother for it.

When Macavity had first presented this idea of going over the wall to us, I was glad that it wasn't something that was altogether insane. And yet, I hadn't thought that it would involve dragging me along. I thought that, perhaps, he'd go on his own. Do his own exploring. But he insisted that I go along.

"Come on, Demeter. We're almost to the wall." Macavity hissed at me, sending me a mischievous grin.

Sure enough, we were almost at the wall. I didn't like the idea of leaving. It wasn't that I was afraid of leaving, precisely. But it was more the fact that for as long as I could remember, we were told about all of the horrible things that could happen outside of the junkyard. The junkyard was a safe haven to me and to the rest of the Jellicles. Of course, I wanted to leave sometime but leaving at night with Macavity seemed like a bad idea in every way imaginable.

"What do you even want to do when we get over the wall?"

"Don't worry about that." Macavity snorted. "It's a surprise. Now, are you coming or not?"

I sighed. Macavity wouldn't let me say 'no' even if I wanted to. Then, suddenly, there was a loud crash from within the junkyard and Macavity stopped walking. "I…" I started. "I want to see what-."

"Demie, it's probably nothing." Macavity snorted. "Come on, let's go."

I shook my head, adamant. "No." I said and ran as fast as I could. I had a bad feeling about whatever had caused the crash and so I hurried to see what it was.

Macavity followed close behind, annoyance and frustration radiating off of him. Munkustrap greeted me with a quick nod.

"What's happened?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"I'm not sure. I thought that something might have happened to you. I figured that you were with Macavity and-." Munkustrap stopped talking as Macavity appeared behind me.

"Well?" Macavity asked. "What's going on?"

A cry for help resounded throughout the junkyard and I ran, following it. I hated the anguished, broken sound and intended to find out what had caused it.

As I rounded a corner, I was met by Bomba and Tugger. "Do you know-?" I started and Bomba nodded.

"It's Cassandra—she's hurt."

"B-b-but how?" I gasped.

"She was walking far up there." Tugger muttered, pointing up at a high ledge. "Can't say that I know why…"

"And we all know that it's unlike Cassandra to do something dangerous like that." Bomba agreed and I gulped.

"Perhaps she didn't think to do it herself." I whispered and Bomba and Tugger shot me odd looks.

When nearly everyone was gone away, I dragged Macavity away from the scene.

"You dared Cassandra to do that, didn't you? You knew she'd get hurt and you told her to-."

"Demie, Demie." Macavity laughed. "You can hardly blame me for Cassandra taking a dare, can you? That'd be simply ridiculous! Besides, I needed to create a diversion so that we'd be able to make it over the wall easily." He shrugged nonchalantly. "It was her decision to do what she did."

"How can you be so apathetic?"

"Listen, Demie. You're being ridiculous. I didn't hurt her. She did that to herself." He replied, putting a paw on my arm to try and calm me down but I pulled away.

"Get away from me." I hissed, fleeing from the spot. I hated Macavity for what he did and I hated myself for being a part of his cruel actions.

"Demeter? Are you alright?" Munkustrap asked and I looked at my friend, offering him a weak smile.

"I'm fine, really-."

I could tell that Munkustrap didn't believe me and I sighed.

"Just… don't worry about it, okay-."

"About what?" he asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. "Demie, I'm worried about you because you're running around the junkyard with tears streaming down your face. And well… perhaps you don't want to talk about it-."

"I really, really don't." I whispered.

"Okay." He nodded. "Here, sit by me." He said, beckoning to me a little.

I sat beside him and wiped at the tears that were running down my cheeks. "You wouldn't want me sitting next to you if you'd known what happened."

Munk smiled weakly and touched my paw. "You're talking about what happened with Cassandra, aren't you?"

I gaped at him. "You know?"

"I made a guess." He shrugged. "You pulled Macavity aside and I figured that it had something to do with him. I don't see what it has to do with you, though."

"You don't understand-."

"No, I don't." he admitted kindly, offering me a smile. "But I know that what happened with Cassandra wasn't your fault."

"But-."

"You know, I heard one of the kittens tell me the most ridiculous story today." Munkustrap said, stopping me before I could say anything else. "Something about a troll who wanted to fly."

Munkustrap continued on with his story and I was able to laugh. And, for a moment, I forgot what horrible things Macavity had done.

When Munkustrap was done telling his story, I said goodnight and walked back to the den I shared with Bomba silently.

As I curled up in my bed, I wanted to believe that everything was going to be alright. I wanted to believe that Cassandra would get better and that Macavity would see his wrongs and make amends. Yet, deep in my heart, I knew it was wishful thinking. The sort of thing that only comes true in dreams.

When I woke up in the morning, the silence in the junkyard told me everything that I needed to know.

Cassandra was dead.