My mother, Lightfur, was always there for me. Well, usually. Okay, not very much. I don't remember who she was before Acorntail left her. I just remember her pressing her face into my fur, whispering horrible truths.

"He's gone. Forever. He never loved me, or you two. No, he just went off and had kits with Dawnstreak in secret, not bothering to tell me he didn't love me. Nothing's ever going to be the same again," Lightfur would whisper. That was all she ever talked about. She moped for moons, always wondering what it would've been like if Acorntail had loved her. She never went on patrols. She just lay in her nest all day. Yes, she hated the sight of Dawnstreak with Acorntail playing with their kit, Flickerkit, but she wouldn't do anything about it. Acorntail and Dawnstreak did that to her. I hate them with all my heart.

I wouldn't give up. I made friends, lots of friends. Some of them originally only felt sorry for me, others were friends of my other friends. Gradually, they all came to like me. That's right. I'm a likable cat, despite what you think. Don't lie to me. I know you despise me. Everyone did, eventually. I'm known as a monster, a murderer. I've been in the Dark Forest so long that I've forgotten what light feels like. Go ahead, call me evil. I don't care what cats think of me anymore.

What's that, you were one of the cats that I killed? Then why are you just standing there? Are you waiting for me to recognize you? I don't remember you. Plain as that. Horrible, isn't it? But you haven't killed me yet. You want to hear what I have to say, don't you? Fine.

Yes, I made tons of friends, but somewhere deep inside, I was lonely. There was one cat I wanted to be friends with. My sister. Yet she abandoned me for Flickerkit. Flickerkit. I hated her. Every time I looked at her, she reminded me of what my life would've been like if Acorntail had loved Lightfur. If he had loved me. So I might not have been very nice to her. But she deserved it, walking around like she was so special because she was part of a normal family, never once giving any condolences to my mother. Never once. But Berrykit liked her, for some reason. We got into fights. Our apprenticeships passed with neither of us saying a word to each other if we could help it. We became warriors, Berryshine and Featherflight, but Berryshine was still friends with Flickerkit, now Flickerpelt. It was infuriating!

I gradually grew used to this, learning to pretend that Berryshine wasn't my sister. But then my world turned upside-down. Tinyflame, a friend of mine who I liked…a lot...joined Flickerpelt and Berryshine. Earlier that day we had a fight. Tinyflame called me a monster for being so bad to Flickerpelt. I thought he knew that I wasn't a monster. I guess I thought wrong. And then I saw him give this look to Flickerpelt, the one that Acorntail always gave to Dawnstreak. I promised myself I wouldn't end up like my mother, who had moved to the elders' den early, promised myself that Tinyflame would pay for what he did to me.

I had yet to learn how terrible promises were.

Time went on, terrible moon after terrible moon. Eventually I couldn't bear it any longer. I sent my friend Silverhawk to break up Flickerpelt's friendship with Berryshine. It worked, and my sister spent more and more time with me.

Then she died.

Flickerpelt dragged her body into camp, acting like she really cared. But I knew she didn't. I knew that she killed Berryshine. She actually did kill her, but not in the way I had thought. But I didn't know that yet, so I promised myself that I would avenge my sister's death by killing her.

A golden opportunity arose when I became deputy. I talked to my most loyal friends in private, telling them that Tinyflame had helped Flickerpelt kill Berryshine, a possibility I had considered in the past. They believed me, of course. They all knew how heartless Tinyflame was. At least, that was what I thought.

I thought wrong.

I instructed them to help me kill him. Yes, a few of them got all squeamish and moaned that it was against the warrior code, but all I had to do was glare at them for them to be silenced. I then instructed Silverhawk to kill Flickerpelt. We planned to bring both bodies to camp and tell everyone that Flickerpelt had killed Tinyflame and attacked Silverhawk, making it seem like he only killed her in self-defense. He was too squeamish to kill her quickly, but he did give her a nasty wound that killed her several moments later.

I, for my part, actually managed to kill Tinyflame quickly. I had my friends circle him to make sure he didn't escape, while I clawed him to death.

I killed him.

Even now, after I've murdered so many cats, I still have trouble getting over that one. I still can't believe that his life ended because of me. After he died, I came to his grave every night for moons, still not accepting that he was dead. He was just so alive, and then he just…wasn't.

After that day, my life slowly declined. Dawnstreak knew I had killed Tinyflame, and some of my Clanmates actually believed her. I suspected that my squeamish "friends" were confessing so that they could avoid punishment, but I never thought one of them would try to tell Weaselstar. Again, I thought wrong. I overheard Suntuft telling Breezythorn that she was going to confess to Weaselstar, and if Breezythorn was executed for murder it would be her fault for not joining her. By the next day Suntuft had "accidentally" fallen into the river and hit her head on a stone, and Breezythorn had "accidentally" wandered into a fox den. I thought I had won. Once again, I had thought wrong.

More and more cats came to suspect that I was a murderer. I managed to kill most of them, knowing that even if everyone knew it was me they'd be too afraid to do anything about it. Eventually, I was taken down. Not by an enemy, but by a cat who I thought was my friend. Rainfeather. I was about to kill Weaselstar, since she was sure I had killed Tinyflame, but Rainfeather pinned me down. She hesitated, unwilling to kill me. Weaselstar told her that whoever joined her in killing me would be given a full pardon of all the crimes they had committed. Creekheart, Minnowblaze, and Rainfeather finished me off. The rest of my "friends" ran off into the woods. Nobody helped me.

I died alone, and it was all because of a promise.

Now, after death, I have learned things that I wish I'd learned earlier. Flickerpelt did kill Berryshine, but only because she had been knocked unconscious by a falling branch. When Berryshine went to help her, she lashed out in her sleep. Berryshine ran off and died a few moments later. The falling rain washed the blood off of Flickerpelt's claws. Acorntail had always loved Lightfur, but he had seen her getting friendly with Thicketpool and had thought that they were having an affair. He only started having an affair with Dawnstreak to make Lightfur jealous, but eventually fell in love with her. If only I had known…

And all to keep a promise.

Author's Note: If you hadn't noticed, this was based on A Promise To Keep, only from the POV of Featherflight. I plan to make one more story like this: Promise Broken, from the POV of Rainfeather.