Lilyspark couldn't take it anymore.

No matter where she went, it felt as if the eyes of every single one of her Clanmates were watching her, judging her every action. Although she made it a point to avoid eye contact, the reproach and disapproval in their gazes burned into her pelt. Even worse, Thistleclaw was still making it a point to follow her around everywhere whenever possible, which Lilyspark knew wasn't doing her reputation any favors.

Worst of all was the constant whispering. They followed her around constantly, to the point where she was starting to have nightmares in which her Clanmates gossipped behind her back. The dreams escalated to the point that in one of them, she was being accused of plotting to seduce every tom in the Clan in order to rise to power–of course, that list didn't include her father, which was about the only thing Lilyspark could be grateful about. But the nightmare was so close to what was happening in real life that it wasn't much comfort at all. Going out hunting or patrolling alone offered some amount of reprieve, but of course, she couldn't stay away forever, so the whispers always found their way back.

Of course, the logical thing to do would have been to confront her Clanmates, but Lilyspark couldn't find it in herself to do so. The entire Clan seemed to be against her, and she knew they would never believe her if she told them that she wasn't interested in Thistleclaw at all. Poppydawn, Thrushpelt, and Lionheart seemed to be the only cats on her side. She couldn't even face her parents or her sister. Lilyspark knew that Moonflower and Sunstar were worried about her, but while she felt guilty for hurting them, she couldn't bear the thought of finding out that they, too, believed the rumors her Clanmates were spreading.

"I hate this Clan," Lilyspark muttered mutinously, dragging a squirrel she had caught back to the camp.

What angered her the most was when Stormtail joined in on spreading the rumors as well. Lilyspark didn't know much about the blue-gray tom since they had never been close, but she did know that he had abandoned her mother for Dappletail while Moonflower was recovering from a life-threatening wound. The fact that he had the nerve to assume moral superiority over her enraged Lilyspark almost as much as the fact that nobody seemed willing to call him out on his hypocrisy.

As she passed by Goldenflower, who was guarding the camp entrance, Lilyspark turned her head to avoid meeting her denmate's gaze. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough and caught a glimpse of the golden-furred molly's disapproving glare out of the corner of her eye. No longer feeling hungry–not that she had much of an appetite, to begin with–Lilyspark padded into the camp and dropped her squirrel in the fresh-kill pile before retreating to a spot far away from the rest of her Clanmates.

And as always, the whispers started up again.

"Look at her."

"What's she doing, waiting for Thistleclaw to come so she can pounce on him?"

"They spend so much time together. I'll bet she's already expecting his kits."

"Moonflower must be so disappointed in her."

"Sunstar too. I can't imagine how he must feel, knowing his daughter turned out like that."

Lilyspark shut her eyes and dug her claws into the ground. Shut up! Just shut up!

Of course, if silent pleas could be ranked in terms of usefulness, they would fall somewhere between greencough and broken claws.

The entrance to the camp rustled, and Lilyspark opened her eyes to see Thistleclaw striding over to her, a large rabbit in his jaws. Hatred such as she had never felt before bubbled up inside of her at the sight of the spiky-furred warrior. It was his fault that this was happening to her. He had obviously started a rumor that she was either in love with him or at least stalking him, and like the gullible rats they were, her Clanmates had eaten up the lies like fat, juicy mice. In a flash, Lilyspark was on her paws, storming over to her Clanmate. She knew that she had promised herself not to start a confrontation in the middle of the camp anymore, but she couldn't stop herself. After spending the past quarter moon listening to her Clanmates spread vicious rumors about her, she had finally reached her breaking point.

"Lilyspark, I–" Thistleclaw began, but she cut him off.

"What in StarClan's name is your problem, Thistleclaw?" she spat. "I know we aren't friends or anything, but what right does it give you to destroy my reputation?"

"What?" The gray and white warrior looked confused, but Lilyspark didn't fall for it. "Lilyspark, I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

"Don't give me that load of fox dung! You know exactly what I'm talking about!" she snarled, barely resisting the urge to slash her claws across the arrogant tom's face. "And if you're really as stupid as you look, then how about you listen to what our dear Clanmates have been whispering about me? And yeah, for all of those of you who have decided to tune into this conversation, I heard every word you said. Word of advice, if you want to gossip about someone behind their back, maybe learn a little about volume control or don't do it right in bloody front of them!"

By now, almost everyone in the camp had turned to stare at her. Lilyspark could see shame and embarrassment in the expressions of some of her Clanmates, but she didn't care. It was too late for them to rectify their mistakes now. Besides, the only reason they felt bad was that they had been caught. They certainly didn't feel any semblance of genuine remorse, of that she was absolutely certain.

Thistleclaw continued to stare at her, then shook his head. "Lilyspark, I didn't–"

She cut him off again. "Don't even try to lie."

"Actually, he's not lying," a small voice meowed from behind her.

Lilyspark turned around to see Rosetail standing a few paces away, a guilty look on her face. "What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.

Rosetail hesitated for a moment, then meowed quietly, "I–I mean that Thistleclaw isn't the one who started the rumors about you. Actually, he didn't really have anything to do with it at all."

"Right," Lilyspark replied dubiously. "So if he didn't do it, then who did?"

"I...I think it's actually my fault," the tabby warrior admitted, staring down at her paws.

"What?" Suddenly, all of Lilyspark's anger toward Thistleclaw transferred onto Rosetail. "So you're telling me that this is all your fault? You're the one who started a rumor that I'm trying to get after my dead sister's mate?"

Rosetail flinched. "Lilyspark, please, I–"

"Save it, fox dung!" Lilyspark snarled, fury burning her from the inside out. "How dare you spread lies about me? I thought you were my friend, but clearly, I was wrong! You're just as bad as your stupid, good-for-nothing brother here! I guess the only decent one out of the three of you was Sweetpaw; it's a shame that she died and you two survived."

"Lilyspark!" Bluefur exclaimed from several tail-lengths away. It was the first time she had spoken to her in days. "That's not very nice. I'm sure–"

"Oh, shut up, Bluefur!" Lilyspark spat back. "This doesn't concern you. Why don't you go back to moping around and feeling sorry for yourself? At least you're good at that."

She saw her sister's eyes fill with hurt, but she was too angry to care. Turning her attention back to Rosetail, she resisted the urge to strike her now-former friend over the head. The ginger-tailed molly's eyes were glistening and wet, and there was a look of utter despair and shame on her face. Lilyspark refused to take any notice. It was Rosetail's own fault that she was feeling this way, she told herself.

"Lilyspark," the older molly pleaded. "I'm sorry, I–"

"You're sorry?" Lilyspark repeated, laughing derisively. "You've cost me my pride, my dignity, the respect of my Clanmates, done probably irreparable damage to my reputation, and all you can say is you're sorry?"

"If you would just let me explain–"

"I don't need to let you explain anything! You admitted to it just now! That's all I need to hear."

"But–" Rosetail protested, but Lilyspark cut her off again.

"Get out of my sight," she spat, lashing her tail. "Get out of my sight and don't ever speak to me again! I will never forgive you for this, Rosetail. You pretended to be my friend, but then you turned around and started spreading rumors about me. Why? Don't even answer that; whatever excuse you come up with won't be good enough anyway. You know, I never thought I would hate another cat more than I hate Thistleclaw, so congratulations. You've officially achieved the impossible."

Still fuming, she spun around and stormed toward the gorse tunnel. Just before exiting the camp, Lilyspark turned around to face her Clanmates one last time. Every single one of them was staring at her with a mixture of shock, disapproval, and guilt on their faces. The only exceptions were Thistleclaw, who merely looked bored, and her family, who were gazing at her with unimaginable sadness in their eyes. Normally, this would have been enough to calm her down, but not today.

"I'm going out," she snarled. "Alone. And if I find out that any of you rotten, worthless heaps of fox dung are following me, I won't be held responsible for my actions."

With that, she whirled around and stormed out of the camp. Lilyspark raced through the forest, nearly blinded by rage. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she would pay dearly for her behavior later. No matter how angry she was, speaking to her Clanmates in the way she had was grounds for punishment. She sent a few choice words in her conscience's direction, shutting it up instantly. It had been getting on her nerves anyway.

A shrew wandered into her path, which proved to be a costly mistake. In an instant, Lilyspark's claws slashed through its throat, spraying blood everywhere. But the white molly didn't stop there. She continued ripping and tearing the shrew until it was little more than a few scraps of fur, imagining that she was raking her claws through Rosetail and Thistleclaw's pelts. Finally, when she was too exhausted to continue any longer, she took a few deep breaths and stared down at the tattered remains of her catch.

Oh, that's just bloody fantastic, Lilyspark thought, growling furiously to herself. The stupid thing is useless now. Can't very well take it back to the Clan in this state, even though it's more than those foxhearts deserve.

She kicked the shrew a few tail-lengths to the side. If a patrol came by and found it lying there, they could figure out what to do with it. Quite frankly, it wasn't any of her concern.

As she began to come back to her senses, Lilyspark realized abruptly that she was standing next to the Thunderpath. When had she arrived here? Apparently, she had been running for a lot longer than she thought. She almost wanted to laugh at that. Slowly, however, another thought formed in her mind.

Snowfur had died here. She was standing just mere whisker-lengths away from the spot where her sister had been killed by a monster. Because of her death, Bluefur was a shell of herself, Moonflower and Sunstar had lost a daughter, Whitekit had lost his mother, and Thistleclaw had taken it upon himself to pursue Lilyspark. For what reason, she still didn't know, but the damage had been done anyway.

"I hate you," Lilyspark hissed, digging her claws into the earth. "I hate you, Snowfur."

She wasn't sure why she continued speaking after that–after all, it wasn't as if Snowfur were around to respond–but she did so anyway. And once she got started, she found that she couldn't stop.

"I hate you!" she screeched, slashing her claws into the dirty gray path. Several of them broke, but she hardly noticed. "You ruined everything! You weren't supposed to die! Did you know what was going to happen? Why didn't you force us to let you stay in the camp? If you were here, none of this would be happening! You're not supposed to be in StarClan, you're supposed to be here! You're supposed to be taking care of Whitekit, telling him stories and scolding him when he wakes up the elders! You're supposed to be making me and Bluefur sick by being all affectionate with Thistleclaw and then telling us that he's not as bad as we think! You're supposed to be here! But no, oh no, you just had to get yourself killed! Because that's exactly the sort of selfish cat that you are! Well, you know what? I will never forgive you, Snowfur! I–I–"

Grief so powerful it threatened to overwhelm her, grief that she hadn't allowed herself to feel since Snowfur's death, rose up inside Lilyspark before she could do anything to stop it. Feeling her throat close up, she shut her eyes as the first unbidden tears began to slide down her face.

"I miss you so much," Lilyspark whispered. "I wish you were still here."

Lilyspark finally reached her breaking point...honestly, it was only a matter of time.

Responses to a few reviews:

Peaklog3727: I'm glad you enjoyed! Honestly, I don't really have a fixed schedule for updates. Most of the time, I just write whenever I have inspiration for a new chapter and whenever I finish is when it gets published. I try to update as frequently as possible, though.

JustToTalk: Yeah...having rumors spread about you is an absolutely shitty thing to go through on its own, but especially when you're also dealing with the death of a loved one and being stalked on top of it.

Kitty-Guardian Hootryd: You pretty much hit the nail right on the head.

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior