O_o; O.o; Really.... REALLY long.... XD Almost 7 pages on Word, single-spaced! WOOT! ^^;

Enjoy! ^^; Evil.... :D XD

Chapter word count: 3,719 8D


Sacrifice

"Hmm…." Thorn was, currently, deep in thought. "We need a sacrifice.... somebody we can give up to Tigerstar at the full moon…." he murmured.

He was in the middle of a BrokenClan meeting—they were a Clan, like BloodClan in the olden days, sort of, but they made sacrifices every moon and usually it was just a kittypet or some random weak loner that they found wandering the streets late at night, just before midnight. At midnight on the night of the full moon, they would take out the cat they had captured and have a ceremony commending Tigerstar for creating their Clan, in which they would torture their chosen cat, and then they would hang the sacrifice by its two front paws—they would tie the paws to strings and dangle the cat over a hole—and then they would slit the cat's throat, and let it fall down into the ruins of what used to be a Twoleg warehouse's basement, and you could hear the screams from fox-lengths away.

But tonight…. tonight could be different. Tigerstar had requested a Clan cat, and not just any Clan cat, either—one of Firestar's kin would be sacrificed tonight!

Tigerstar had decreed that one of Firestar's daughters would be taken and sacrificed tonight—and this was the only order that he had ever given that specifically mentioned a certain cat from a certain Clan. From any Clan, for that matter.

But, anyway, back to terms. Who was this specific Clan cat? Why, it was Leafpaw, Firestar's daughter and the apprentice medicine cat to Firestar's medicine cat, best friend, and advisor, Cinderpelt!

It had been decreed that it would be Leafpaw and not Squirrelpaw or Cinderpelt—because it just so happened that Tigerstar liked the two cats, even though they were pretty close to Firestar! But then again, it seemed like everyone liked the kind medicine cat who had once been training as a warrior, so it didn't really make much difference…. Squirrelpaw was one of Tigerstar's favourites for unknown reasons, though, and the cats of BrokenClan weren't allowed to ask; therefore, nobody did. Tigerstar was dead, so he couldn't hurt them anyways—well, he couldn't kill them, at the very least; he could inflict serious wounds in dreams, however, so nobody tried to provoke him!

Well. Anyways. Thorn was getting ready to go out and capture Leafpaw, so he could complete Tigerstar's task.

It will be great fun watching Leafpaw die. We shall send an image to the Clans and say that Leafpaw is my slave now! Tigerstar's voice purred in Thorn's head.

Sure, Tigerstar; whatever you say, Thorn answered back, now almost entirely at ease. He let out a sigh. I'd better be going.

Well, then, hurry up! I am not about to wait all day for my sacrifice, and you know that I can hurt you! Tigerstar screeched.

Thorn winced. Sure, Tigerstar…. I'll be right on it. Just let me tell the others I'm going, and I'll be back way before midnight!

He could almost see Tigerstar nodding. Good, the dark tabby, once a leader, meowed.

He still has a lot of leader qualities…. like dictatorship…. Thorn shuddered, but got up anyway and went to tell his Clan.

****

Leafpaw wasn't chosen to go to the Gathering. She could complain, but what good could she do? Nothing! She was ready to spend a nice night in her den, but she wouldn't mind having a good night hunt….

"You be safe, Squirrelpaw." Leafpaw nuzzled her sister as Squirrelpaw sat, fidgeting her paws, in the middle of the throng of cats getting ready to go to the Gathering.

"I will. You, too," Squirrelpaw whispered.

"I will. I'll keep safe, and I'll see you when I come back," Leafpaw murmured, and Squirrelpaw nodded. Leafpaw could feel excitement crackling from her sister's pelt like lightning.

"We're going now!" Firestar's call suddenly came from the camp entrance. Leafpaw watched her sister get up and race after the other cats.

She sighed. What can I do now? And then she remembered. Why don't I go on my hunting trip?

She ran out of the camp, hoping to catch a lot of prey…. and not knowing what was actually going to happen to her the minute she got out of the ravine!

****

Thorn hid expertly up in a tree as the group of cats going to their full-moon-meeting or whatever raced up the ravine and out of the camp. He waited patiently for a chance to grab Leafpaw if she came out of the ravine—if not, he would actually have to go into the camp, but that wasn't a problem because you could easily access the healing den from the forest! He would prefer to actually grab her out here, though…. With any luck, she would go out hunting or something!

He didn't have to wait long. His quarry soon emerged from the camp, and he waited until she was right under his tree, and then….

Smack!

****

Suddenly, she heard a yowl from above her and, a moment later, she was squashed underneath the weight of a full-grown cat!

Leafpaw struggled and let out a scream, but she was abruptly cut off as her attacker shoved her muzzle into the ground. She tried to yowl but instead got a mouthful of dirt.

"Ah, yes; this is perfect," hissed her attacker joyfully. He fastened something around her neck and clipped a long string to it. Then, he let her up from the ground. She was about to scream again, but he quickly fastened some silver mesh to her muzzle and that kept it shut! She tried to scream again, or even meow or something, but she couldn't anymore!

Where are you taking me?! her mind screamed, but she couldn't actually ask for real. All that she could do was follow the golden tom with brown tabby stripes and huge claws through the forest as he took her away from her home.

****

Thorn let out a purr as he saw the entrance to his camp up ahead. The cats of BrokenClan were anxiously milling about, waiting for him to return. He smiled.

"Look what I brought! Our sacrifice!" he called out. The cats hurried toward him. Two cats stopped in front of him and began admiring Leafpaw. She will make a good slave for Tigerstar, he thought.

"Hmm…. it has nice fur, doesn't it?" Blood Splash, one of the two cats standing in front of him, meowed. He stroked Leafpaw's fur and she cringed. Thorn laughed.

"Do you think she's very sensitive?" wondered Yellow Tooth, stroking her pussy with a claw. Leafpaw bristled at first; then cringed at the touch. Yellow Tooth giggled, and, nodding to himself, answered his own question.

Thorn looked up at the sky. It was fast approaching midnight. "We must hurry!" he yowled. "If we don't hurry up and sacrifice this cat, whose name is Leafpaw, we will never receive Tigerstar's approval again and then we shall be condemned to scatter!"

All of the cats gasped. "Start the torturing ceremony!" Blood Splash called out.

"Yes, sir! Will do!" Yellow Tooth gasped, rolling out the platform with the bed of spikes and the various other torture methods on it. Leafpaw's eyes widened, and Thorn laughed.

"So? How does it feel to know that we are sacrificing you on the behalf of your father's greatest enemy, Tigerstar?" he sneered.

Leafpaw's eyes widened even more. "Mmmphf!" was the only sound that she could make.

Thorn laughed yet again. "And first is the torturing ceremony! You will only feel the greatest pain of your life! And now, we can take the collar and muzzle off so we can hear your wonderful screams!"

He took the muzzle off and unclipped the collar, and Leafpaw gasped and let out a screech.

"No!" she caterwauled. "You can't do this! Tigerstar is dead! Firestar will never allow this!"

"If Firestar wasn't going to allow this," Thorn purred silkily, "Don't you think that he would be here already? With your sister and your mother and your medicine cat?"

Leafpaw bowed her head in what looked like shame, but Thorn couldn't be sure. He added, just for good measure, "And Tigerstar has the power to send a vision to all the cats at the Gathering so that they can see just exactly how you will die! Isn't that just great?!"

"No, it isn't; it's terrible!" Leafpaw gasped. "Please don't! I'll do anything for you! Anything if I can just…. live! Live and be happy with my Clan!"

"Ah, but it's too late for that," Thorn purred. "We picked you to be our sacrifice, not our slave. But, don't worry; you will be Tigerstar's slave in the Dark Forest! Just you wait; he has all kinds of slave-training techniques, and I know simply because I saw him!" He grinned evilly, and Leafpaw sighed and bowed her head yet again.

"Well? Are we ready?!" Thorn called over to the cats setting up the torturing techniques. There was a fire, and some spikes, and many other torturing techniques, but Thorn absolutely couldn't wait until they finished with that; because once they hanged Leafpaw then he could torture her most of all! She was powerless in the hanging position, because she would be hanging by her two front paws and there would also be a vice on her neck; Thorn had forgotten about that, at first.

****

By now, Tigerstar was sending the vision. All the cats at the Gathering were mentally forced to stop…. and watch…. and listen.

When Squirrelpaw saw her sister with all of these weird rogue cats, and she heard what they were planning to do to her, she stood up on her paws, screaming angrily and yowling her sister's name.

"Leafpaw! Leafpaw!" she screeched.

"We must go and help her!" She heard Firestar's gasp from the top of the Great Rock.

"Oh, but you can't," a voice purred. "I am slowly…. slowly getting my revenge on you, Firestar. And when I complete it, it will not be pretty!" The mysterious cat ended his tirade with a hiss.

And all of a sudden, Firestar was on his paws; he was yowling to the sky and not showing any sign of stopping any time soon.

"Tigerstar!" he caterwauled. "You cannot do this to my daughter! I will not allow it! In fact, I will go and rescue her right now!" He tried to get up to his paws and bound off the Great Rock and go in search of his daughter, but something stopped him. He could not move, he found. Everyone else in the clearing tried, too, but they were spiritually bound by force to be frozen in one particular spot.

"Oh, I will let you move when your daughter is dead, Firestar," he purred silkily. Then he yowled, roaring like a lion, "But not before!"

"Firestar!" Sandstorm yowled in agony. "Our daughter is in pain! Do something!"

"Alas, I can't." Firestar tried to shake his head, but, like all of the other cats in the clearing; he was completely bodily-frozen. "I wish we could, but—"

"Watch and listen!" Tigerstar howled in anger. He turned their vision back to what the rogue cats were doing, and they were all forced to watch.

Even the cats who weren't at the Gathering.

And they hated every. Single. Minute. Of. It.

****

Thorn led Leafpaw over to the spikes. He picked her up and she struggled, but he had a tight grip on her and he slowly lowered her, belly-side-down, onto the bed of hot (because they had just been in the fire), prickly spikes. She let out a yowl of pain, but he held her muzzle shut and began.

"Tigerstar, we thank you for this opportunity to satisfy your peace of mind that you did right in creating our Clan," he began. "Now, we shall begin torturing this cat before we hang it and send it to you so that you can have it as just another one of your slaves. Please watch and be pleased as we prepare this cat to be your slave! Thank you, Tigerstar!"

"Thank you, Tigerstar," the rest of the Clan chorused happily.

"And, now, we shall begin!" Thorn roared; releasing Leafpaw's mouth and letting her scream all she wanted as he shoved her belly into the bed of spikes. He shoved until he could almost feel the very tips of the spikes through her stomach, and then he flipped her over onto her back and shoved the hot spikes through her back. Leafpaw screamed the entire time, and Thorn was lovin' it.

She was then handed over to Yellow Tooth, who pushed her down onto the ground and held her, belly-side-up. He then splayed her paws out around her, and cuffed her paws to the ground so that she couldn't escape. He grabbed a long metal stick with some pointed rubber on the end of it, and he held it in the fire; Leafpaw watched the whole time with wide, scared eyes. Thorn grinned.

"So?" he asked evilly. "How does it feel to know that you, a supposedly 'not-able-to-be-harmed' medicine cat, are being tortured by us, and your Father and absolutely all of the cats in all of the Clans and all of the places around are paralyzed by Tigerstar, and forced to watch your demise?"

She glared at him furiously, but then broke away her gaze as she widened her eyes up in the direction of Yellow Tooth and screamed, the most tortured and terrified scream he had ever heard before, as Yellow Tooth slowly pressed the hot, hot rubber onto her lower belly.

Cats laughed and cheered. Leafpaw must be really embarrassed, Thorn thought.

Another cat, Red Claws, stepped forward. He grabbed a piece of burning metal in his teeth and scraped it down the small tabby she-cat's side. She howled in pain and tried to throw him off, but…. she couldn't move!

What a good thing, Thorn thought, at least somewhat relieved. The paw-cuff thing had only been added recently—they used to hold cats down when they tortured them, but not anymore since a rogue that they'd captured had managed to fight her way out from the grip of the two cats holding her down and injure them! Both cats had almost died, and another cat actually was dead, from when she'd trampled all over it while escaping. Therefore, they had changed their holding methods.

Red Claws's method burned Leafpaw's fur and drew blood at the same time. It was…. convenient, to say the least. It worked very well as a torture device, and sometimes they even managed to kill cats with it!

Next, they set part of Leafpaw's fur on fire. She screeched in pain as her fur was singed and the raw skin underneath was burned. Two cats—Black Lake and Owl Screech—stepped forward with a bucket full of ice-cold water. They were planning to drench Leafpaw with that. As Leafpaw screamed, they slowly crept behind her and dumped the water on her body!

Leafpaw screamed with the shock of cold. She trembled and her struggles started growing weaker—was she in shock? Either way, they were almost done with the torture session; when they were done she could be killed!

Thorn observed as a cat, Tiger Fang, raced up to Leafpaw and began raking claws down her shivering sides. It had practically been proven that cold makes pain worse—hey, it worked for them!

Leafpaw howled in what would be, to Thorn, indescribable pain. He almost pitied her.

Almost.

He knew that Tigerstar would not be too happy with him if he did!

Finally, he decided to let everybody torture Leafpaw before she was hanged. She would feel pain for the last time in her sorry little life, and Thorn was pretty pleased with the thought that her very last memory would be of pain! He let out the call.

"It is time for Every Cat Torturing Time!" he yowled, and immediately cats began dashing toward Leafpaw, yowling in delight and unsheathing their claws. Thorn heard Leafpaw's scream as the cats leaped onto her, and then he heard ripping fur and breaking bones as cats scratched, bit, and broke her.

Finally, they stepped off of her and left Yellow Tooth and Blood Splash to hang her by her two front paws and her neck. She could barely move as Yellow Tooth and Blood Splash grabbed her two front legs and dragged her across to the hanger and hung her over the pit. They had to be careful—they could fall too if they weren't paying attention!

Once they were done, they stepped back and the whole Clan fell silent. Thorn stepped forward and stood in front of Leafpaw's face. She just stared at him, her eyes wide, hollow, and full of defeat. He purred, bringing up a paw to his face. She watched it with fearful eyes, and he just licked it. Then, he unsheathed the claws on that paw, and once she saw how long they really were, she gasped in horror.

Thorn purred.

He was loving this.

Just…. lovin' it.

He slowly poked the claw lightly onto her forehead, and she strained her eyes to watch it as he poked it farther, farther in, and then….

"AUGH!" came Leafpaw's scream as he poked it in full-force! He grinned happily, and therefore proceeded to put two paws on her belly and swing her back and forth. She stared, fearfully, below her as she saw the bottom of the pit—both sides.

He decided to kill her now…. Midnight was almost upon them and, in the torturing of Leafpaw by all of the cats he had kind of lost track of the time.

Oh, well! he thought. At least we are doing this before midnight, and that is what counts!

He stepped carefully backwards, and said the words: "Tigerstar, we thank you for this opportunity to torture a cat and make it learn exactly what you will do to it in the Dark Forest, only your methods make the pain worse. We shall now kill this cat, Leafpaw, kin of Firestar, and send it down to the Dark Forest where it may meet all of your needs. We understand that since it is Firestar's kin and you hate Firestar that you will work it harder. Thank you!"

And with that, he carefully slit Leafpaw across the throat.

"Not too violent, now….!" he muttered to himself. He didn't want to fall in by being too violent in all of this!

He slowly watched as Leafpaw's eyes took on an expression of horror and he watched carefully as her eyes slowly glazed over…. Her heart beat for the last time and then he released her paws and the back of her neck from the chain, letting her broken, battered body plummet down to the cold, hard ground with all the bones scattered around it below.

The cats cheered loudly as they heard the sickening Crack! that told them that Leafpaw really was dead, and that she had reached the bottom of the basement.

"Cats of BrokenClan," Thorn announced, "We have done yet another successful sacrificing to Tigerstar. Feel proud of yourselves!"

The crowd cheered, and pretty soon a chant rose up among the cheering cats: "Long live Tigerstar's legacy! Long live Tigerstar's legacy!"

And they cheered that until midnight, when it was finally time to go to bed.

****

At the Gathering, however, things were in turmoil and in various states of chaos.

"Cats of the Clans," Firestar began. "Leafpaw is dead. We shall grieve for her tonight when we—"

A voice suddenly spat from the crowd, "How could you let her die without doing anything?!" It was Squirrelpaw. Firestar looked down calmly upon her.

"I couldn't," he replied. "I couldn't do anything to help Leafpaw, because I was paralyzed, too!"

"But you should be the fire that saves the Clans!" another cat wailed. Cats were glaring up at Firestar from all directions, and Tallstar and Leopardstar edged a bit farther away from him as if he was a disease, or a parasite, or an exiled rogue, or something.

"But I felt Leafpaw's pain the entire time!" argued Squirrelpaw. "It was real! And, besides, you should be more powerful than Tigerstar; why did you let us down?! Oh, why?!"

"Listen, I did not let you down, and I did not even try to let you down; I—"

Firestar tried again, but now it was Sandstorm who was on her paws below him, her fur bristling all over and her eyes blazing fire as she hissed, "I thought you were supposed to be more powerful than Tigerstar! Maybe more powerful than StarClan, even!"

"Listen, Sandstorm, I—"

"You let us down!" she hissed menacingly. "You let our daughter die and you didn't even do anything about it!!!!" She put a lot of stress on the word 'do'.

"Sandstorm—" Firestar began again.

"I hate you!" she blurted out.

As Firestar listened helplessly to everyone screaming complaints about him and how bad he was for not saving his daughter, he finally thought despairingly, What if Longtail was right all those years ago? And Darkstripe and Longtail, too? What if a kittypet really isn't fit to be leader?

****

Tigerstar watched what was happening below in quiet satisfaction. Leafpaw, one of Firestar's kin, was dead, and now most cats hated Firestar for not being able to do something to stop the death of his daughter, the apprentice medicine cat. And Firestar even doubted his own position as a former kittypet leader!

Tigerstar smiled.

His revenge was almost complete.

Now, all he would have to do was—somehow—get Firestar killed, and his revenge would be complete!

He had chosen Leafpaw as a sacrifice, got rid of her, and now he only had just a couple more things to do; and then, only then, his revenge would finally, finally be complete.