The crowd burst into applause as the curtains opened. Ivy and Ashfur were seated in their respective bean bags.

Ashfur: Do you ever think they get bored of the same entry line over, and over again.

Ivy: I don't think so.

Ashfur: Your right we should mix things up! Hazeltail! Foxleap! Little help!

Ivy: No! I didn't say-

The curtains close and then surprisingly a moment later they open again. Ashfur has a pet tiger, Lionblaze is tied up and hanging by his tail, and Ivy is in a pink tutu.

Ashfur: Next!

Ivy: Ashfur stop-

Ivy's screams are cut of as the curtains close again. When they open Lionblaze, Hazeltail, Foxleap are carrying a throne upon which Ashfur sat on.

Ivy: ASHFUR STOP-

Ashfur: One more thing please!

Curtains close and when they reopen everything is still the same except now Ashfur is eating a donut.

Ivy: WHAT THE-

Curtains close once more and at this point our audience is confused, overwhelmed, and scared. And honestly no one blames them. But finally they open and you see Ivy and Ashfur sitting in their respective been bags.

Ashfur: Hi! And welcome back to the S.L.T.P. with your host and hostess, Ivy and Ashfur.

Ivy stares at him incredulously.

Ashfur: What? Stop staring.

Ivy: I wasn't-no-ew-Ugh. U suck. At least you're done.

Lionblaze screams in the background as Ashfurs tiger chases him around, "He's going to kill me, AHHHHHHH."

Ivy: Yeah, probably.

Ashfur: Anyway, now that I'm happy we present to you Chapter 15: The Vote, part 2

Ivy rolls her eyes but let's the chapter start playing.

"Wait but this is ridiculous?!" Jasmine spluttered out.

Ivy shook her head. "Not really. If we wish to go through with this idea this means dedicating our lives to this cause. All of ours. It has to be a group decision."

Hollyleaf, who had been quiet since Ivy announced her idea, nodded. "Ivy's right. One person's wants are not everyone's wants."

Alfie scored his claws through the grass. "Let's get on with this."

Hollyleaf sighed but held up her head high as she stood by a patch of ferns. "Any cats who wishes to join me will move to this patch of ferns. Any cat who agrees with Alfie will go to where he's standing by the boulders."

Both Alfie and Hollyleaf weren't allowed to vote. Hollyleaf wasn't giving up anything so she wasn't allowed to have a say in what the barn cats were going to do. Alfie was already set with his decision so he didn't have to vote. Therefore, there was no chance the vote would end in a tie.

"Let the voting begin."

Slowly but surely the cats began to choose sides.

Alfie sighed when Jasmine walked to Hollyleaf's side.

He rolled his eyes when Ivy joined them a few moments later.

Hollyleaf's ear twitched when Rose joined Alfie and stood proudly on one of the boulders.

Hmmm Rose took a lot longer to choose sides then I thought she would…

Hollyleaf stared after Emerald as she padded over to Alfie's side with a glimmer of sadness in her eyes.

She really was surprised especially after she honestly considered Emerald a good friend. Both sides stood their ground calmly facing each other. Hollyleaf looked at the divided family. This wasn't how what it was supposed to come down. True, she didn't expect them to jump with first chance they got and they all ride into the sunset with rainbows coming out of their ears and hearts in their eyes but she also didn't expect to break apart an already grieving family.

Then there was Rust. Standing in the middle. His eyes darted from side to side nervously. All the cats had come to a decision except him.

"Come on Rust get over here!" His littermate called from where she was, flexing her claws impatiently. "You better hurry or I'll drag you over here!"

"Rose is right Rust, make a choice."

"Yeah it's not that difficult!"

"Rust you know you would prefer to live like how a clan would. Follow your heart."

"No Rust! Use your head. Cats who want power aren't ever satisfied. Would you follow someone like that?"

"But Hollyleaf doesn't want power!"

"Are we sure about that?"

"How do we know she's not lying?"

"Exactly we don't."

"She broke our trust once, what's to say she's trustworthy enough?"

"Because regardless she's our friend and friends should know each other. Do you really think she is capable of doing something like that?"

"Guys." Hollyleaf called with a calm composed voice. "Stop yelling at each other. You need to let Rust think."

"Why should we?!"

"EVERYONE BE QUIET!"

Silence. Dead silence. The only thing you could hear was the howling of the wind as it blew through the trees and rustled the debris and leaves on the forest floor.

Rust looked at all of them angrily. "Your family! Family does not let one cat divide the bonds they have!"

Everyone looked blankly at Rust. Suddenly it was like a solemn and silent, almost sad, air had descended upon them.

"Hey, Hollyleaf?"

"Yes?"

"I'm so, so sorry."

Then he stepped over to Alfie's side.

They won. And it was then did Hollyleaf realize what was going to happen next.

The howls of victory weren't loud enough to block out the sound of Hollyleaf's heart dropping.

No…no, No, NO

It was over. She lost. She lost some of the only friends she had out here to a stupid mistake.

Hollyleaf willed herself to look away as Ivy and Jasmine let her side and slipped away to join the smug cats. What was she supposed to do now….?

"Leave. Either that or we will actually drive you out." Alfie announced triumphantly. And at that moment it was like a thousand emotions raced through his eyes and his eyes dropped just the tiniest bit. Did he finally realize what he was doing? How unbelievably awful he had been?

It's too late now. She forcefully smiled at Ivy and touched noses with Jasmine. She nodded to the other cats. It's over.

"My offer still stands if you ever change your vote…"

"Stop it, Hollyleaf. What's done is done." Ivy muttered looking away.

So Hollyleaf stopped herself from letting out a cry of frustration. She had difficulty walking away as though her paws had been replaced by stones as she wove away from the cats who she had begun to call friends.

"And don't come back!"

Why had she given this up?

"Bye Hollyleaf!"

Why do you break bonds that you never wanted to break in the first place?

"I'm sorry." I called over my shoulder before disappearing into the thick groups of trees that lay ahead.

Or perhaps the influence each cat has in your life has to end once they've served the reason there in your life in the first place.

Hollyleaf felt a tear fall from her eyes but she silently flicked it away as she continued walking on.

Perhaps she had grown too reliant on them.

Hollyleaf realized how heavy her eyelids felt, after all it was just past moon high and the vast darkness of the forest made her feel something she hadn't felt in a while, loneliness. I have to focus, she reminded herself, I'll need to find other cats, surviving alone in unknown territory is difficult and I've already wasted time.

Maybe it was for the best.

Hollyleaf paused before turning in the opposite direction. If she was looking for cats the best place to search is the place she wanted to go to the least.

Hollyleaf remembered how close the twolegplace was to the barn. Twolegs don't usually come out to often in the dark so it was a good idea to take shelter there until dawn.

Hollyleaf had finally reached the twolegplace and surveyed her surroundings, careful to not make much noise. She was sure because of how dark it was no one would see her especially with her night black pelt.

Hollyleaf leaped up and hooked her claws into the scrapes in the wall before pulling herself up and onto the red brick wall. She climbed on top of the wall as she snaked between twoleg nest. Thankful for how high she was she spotted what looked like a good place to rest, using her tail for balance, she jumped down and found herself in a narrow alleyway, sheltered from view of Twolegs by jagged walls. The walls stood tall against the wind as Hollyleaf creeped through the alleyway. Her stomach hurt as she had not eaten much at sunset. She had only eaten a tiny mouse that Ivy-sorry, that she had caught and that tiny morsel was only a snack.

The alleyway was narrow but looked untouched. From the looks of it looked to uninhibited except for the awful stench floating around. Hollyleaf has seen what it was when she had been perched upon the wall and was disgusted to find a rotting rat carcass. It had been so badly decayed that she could see the white bones pultruding and the hoard of flies that hovered around the body was enough to make her turn away and stick her tongue out in disgust. She would have left to find a better place but the aches she felt in her legs were enough to make her turn and stop.

She yawned and dragged her paws over she found a spot under a ledge of rock ad carefully crept over there avoiding broken pieces of glass. She found a somewhat decent spot and curled up. Shifting somewhat uncomfortably she let her eyes drop.

If only things had been different…

And as she slept she never thought about how bad of an idea it was to sleep when the night was at it's darkest.

HEYO!

So guys I'm back and I'm also done making empty promises of when I'm uploading. I feel like if I put to much pressure to upload then my heart isn't in it which makes for a bad chapter. It feels easier to write now knowing I wanna write for my own sake and because I really want to see my ideas unfold. Personally I think that's a lesson a lot of writers should think about.

Responses:

Darth-Jay: I don't know. You should probably get some sleep. But on the other hand SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!

So question of the day;

How do you honestly feel? Sad? Happy?

~Zap