Chapter Twenty: Broken Promise

It was night again, usually the most peaceful part of the day. I almost laughed at that thought. Almost.

I rested in Berrystripe's den with Nightwing's shattered body by my side. Her strange wheezing breath was a song in my ear, a sign she was alive. Our fur brushed and for once, I wanted to see her future. To see what will happen up ahead. However, when I would brush my muzzle against her shoulder I saw nothing except the fur under my nose. I was thankful Nightwing was asleep.

The night made me terrified. If what Berrystripe had said was true: that I was a threat to the Clan, I was shunned from StarClan, and even if I glaze at Silverpelt, I turn into a monster. The half moon was out and I was scared of the clear night. I wish the clouds would cover Silverpelt.

Bubblepaw and Icypaw were apprentices now and the Clan was outraged with the fact that I wasn't exiled. Only Berrystripe and Nightwing were on my side.

As the night continued I received a strange feeling. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but I recognized it. It made me was to bristle, doubling my size. An uneasy feeling made my claws unsheathe and me shift side to side.

Suddenly I remembered the night I attacked Nightwing. At first I would bristle and shuffle uncomfortably, then when I look at the stars… My eyes widened with shock, making my claws slide out even farther with alarm, and bristle in denial.

I won't walk outside, not a paw will be placed out of this den!

The feeling tempted me, becoming almost unbearable and then disappearing at times. However, I would never move away from Nightwing.

I will never look at the stars again.

Now, it was easy to ignore the prickling under my skin, the urge to sink my claws into skin. I would stay here until dawn, not a cat will be hurt tonight.

Suddenly, my claws extended as far as I could allow them, digging into the dirt below. I was bristling. My ear erected back and lips drawn back over my teeth as though I were threatening something. I smelled something in the air, tension?

It is not as sweet as fear…

My whole mind snapped that very moment. The world opened up around me welcoming new sour scents. My eyes narrowed into tiny black slits as I saw the dim starlight outside the den. Forcibly, I stood to my paws and backed away.

I will not take one-step toward the entrance!

Color that washes from wounds, rusty scent of blood.

My mind was intruded by these thoughts.

What it would be like the fell skin ripping apart by my claws. Warm blood under my pads and the yowls the cats would give out as they try to fight back. To see the light of life leave a cat's eyes, watching it fade to the point that only darkness lingers.

"NO!" I caterwauled fearfully.

I was horrified. I was losing this battle!

The eerie cold I felt when I killed Frostwing came back, making me weak. I could feel a vengeful emotion crawl under my pelt. I could feel my eyes tingle as they changed color from icy blue to stone gray, with a trace of scarlet lingering. My fur bristled to their tips, making me look twice as big as before as my dog-like ears erected back as I could hear even better that way.

"Lostsong?" Nightwing murmured. She must have awakened when I caterwauled. "What are you yowling about?"

Berrystripe seemed to have woken up too. She padded out from her nest and arched her back with tiredness but then threatening. It took her two seconds to realize what was happening to me, that I was losing the fighting instinct to kill.

"Come on, Nightwing," Berrystripe called calmly, however, her eyes blazed with full-blown fear. "Get out of here."

I began to struggle against the urge to sink my claws in Berrystripe's throat to destroy the frosty coldness that made my body weak, and the instinct that made me uncontrollable. The fear that brought life to her eyes was too much though. Even though she tried to hide her fear-ridden voice, the smell that poured off her, I saw it in her eyes.

I lunged.

Disappearing from the world, and with that, I knew the death of many cats would follow.

xxxxx

I didn't know where I was. One moment I was in the medicine cat den, in the next I was surrounded by darkness. This place was frightening for I could hear caterwauls of fear, see light fading in a distance, even feel the warm, sticky blood under my paws. The cats dying in my mind called out to StarClan for help, but the ones that did this were the first to die.

"Great StarClan," I gasped when I heard a choking cry and her green eyes flash with pain. "What is happening?"

Another voice answered; one I haven't heard for many moons.

This cat was Snow. She had grown as I did. Her white pelt was longer now, glistening with the stars in her pelt. However, only four stars shinned in it. I blinked and two more stars added to her pelt.

"You may have heard you are killing your Clanmates," Snow meowed sadly. "The stars in my pelt show that you had killed six cats so far: Frostwing, Mellowkit, Timberpaw, Yewpaw, Birdfeather, and Berrystripe."

Snow, the kit I used to play with in my dreams, purred softly. She stood to her paws and rested her nose on my shoulder. "I can see dozens of more stars joining Silverpelt, Windkit. It will all be because of you."

I blinked and felt her touch no more. At first I thought I was seeing her future, she had touched my shoulder.

I was down at the ThunderClan camp, looking from Highledge.

I could see blood staining the ground scarlet, teeth gleaming in the moonlight. I saw myself attack Groundfoot, the deputy, as another warrior, Rubynose, jumped on my back. He didn't have time to hook his claws into my pelt as I pulled off a move no other cat could have done. I reared up and managed to grab the tom's scruff, killing him faster then I had even known it could have been.

I gasped as I saw how much I looked like a monster.

Two apprentices leaped at me, I couldn't tell who they were. I was too focused on my face.

With a slash of my claws, both cats fell to the ground withering. My claws had slashed their throats. They had no hope of living with those deep gashes.

"Stop it!" I cried as I fell to my paws. "Stop this!"

"I can't," Snow murmured as three more stars blinked in her pelt. I was back with Snow now.

When she took a pawstep forward again I pulled back. "Stay back!" I warned, hysteria rising in my throat. "Don't touch me again! I don't what to see any more!"

Snow bristled, her lip drawn back into a snarl, "Every time you see the stars, Windkit, your power grows! Now you cannot control it, you had seen too much, killed too many. The stories StarClan had told your mother were all lies, to cover up the past. You are StarClan's shunned kit, yes, but that is the only truth in this story.

I tried to understand her words, that what StarClan said was a lie, what was the past that they were trying to cover up? What StarClan had told Amberstar and Berrystripe a lie?

"How?" I spat. "What is the truth? Are you apart of StarClan?"

Snow's eyes flashed for a moment, from light, into darkness. Even her snowy pelt disappeared to show a ragged white she-cat. Her eyes shredded nothing, as though they were soulless. She looked sick, ears erected back in fear, paws blacker then shadows, but what made me gasp. Her pelt was long and matted, as though she hadn't washed herself in moons.

It was her face that sent a pang of fear into me. It had black markings around its face so dark it seemed as though the darkness it lived in carved into its pelt, never to be erased until death.

Just like me.

"Windkit, you do not understand my past," she growled darkly as the past figure of Snow reformed back to normal. "I am not a cat from StarClan, nor the Place of No Stars. I come from the Pack of Snag and Lure. I am a mere follower. Seeing the future of cats I touch because of Orza's eyes, Eniz feeding on the corpse left behind by the Pack. I lived in deeper shadows, hovering on life for I lived even past my time. When I actually died, no StarClan cats greeted me. I hover over the line, just like you."

Snow gave a rumbling growl as she spat, "We are not talking about my past, Windkit! I was born to be a rogue! You had a choice; you came out even after our warnings. I tried to stop you. Now the monster within you will never stop now, even if the clouds cover the stars."

I let a growl rumble in my chest as she stepped forward. "I'll find some way. I promised Nightwing."

I blinked and gasped at how more stars gathered on her pelt. "Nightwing is dead now."

"DON'T LIE!" I caterwauled. I unsheathed my claws and bared my teeth in anger for her cruel lie. "SHE'S HEALING IN THE MEDICINE DEN! SHE SURVIVED!"

"How can you keep secrets with a dead cat, Windkit?"

I didn't answer.

"Amberstar and I had warned you of this. The next night the same thing will happen. You can't escape it now. Every night cats will die." She stopped and spat darkly, "Until the day you die."

I am making a story based on the past before Lostsong was born from Snow's P.O.V. Watch out for it after this story is done; I have a sneak-peek on my profile.