Here's Chapter 6!

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I woke up, yawning. I jumped when I remembered where I was, and what had happened to me. Tigerstar was gone, and those guards were still guarding the entrance to the den. It was daylight outside, and I guessed that I had been asleep for a while.

I forced myself to get up and pad over to the guards.

They blocked my way. "Tigerstar ordered us not to let you out yet."

I lifted my lip up to show my teeth. "Let me out," I growled. I unsheathed my claws and dug them into the dirt.

One of the guards, a smoky black tom, looked at me with vicious amusement. "And you think you can get past us?" He looked at his companion, another tom with ragged dark ginger fur. "She thinks she's so high and mighty, doesn't she, Blood?"

Blood smirked. "Yeah, Maul ." To me he meowed, "Do you want to go outside?" He meowed that in a mocking voice. "Does the little kittypet want to go outside and run back to your Twolegs? Do you? Aw, poor little kitty!" He swiped his claws down my face and I fell backwards.

Maul sank his claws into the base of my tail. I yowled.

He let go and hissed in my ear, "If you knew what was good for you, you'd go curl up in your nest and stay there like a good little prisoner. Because if you don't, we'll give Tigerstar a bad report and he'll be angry." He paused. "So if he's angry he'll tach you again. And you don't want that, do you?"

I stared at him, and then backed away and lowered myself into the nest. Ow. I'd forgotten that my nest was made of spiky bramble. I tried and failed to get comfortable.

Suddenly a wisp of scent floated past my nose. I gasped. It was Graystripe's scent, and Cloudtail, and Longtail! Had a ThunderClan patrol come to rescue me? I raced to the den entrance. "Graystripe!" I yowled. "I'm here! Me, Sandstorm!" The guards blocked me.

"Where do you think you're going?" Blood sneered.

"Graystripe! Help me!" I tried to push Blood and Maul away, but I was thrown back against the wall. "What kind of ShadowClan warriors are you?" I yowled.

Maul laughed. "We're rogues who work for Tigerstar, you stupid kitty."

"What's Tigerstar promised you? Leadership of the Clans?" I spat.

"Hunting rights in his territory for three moons," Blood sneered. He forced me back into my nest. I squirmed under him, and he put his face next to mine so that I could smell his putrid breath.

"Get away from me!" I screeched.

"Yes, Blood, leave her alone," a smooth voice ordered. I froze. Tigerstar.

Tigerstar padded up to me. I flattened my ears and unsheathed my claws again.

"Settle down, Sandstorm," Tigerstar meowed. He pinned me down with one massive paw.

"Would you like to see some of your miserable friends?" Tigerstar asked me with a sneer.

I blinked. "What?"

"Are you stupid or something?" Tigerstar snarled. "I've captured Graystripe, Longtail, Cloudtail, Cinderpelt, Onewhisker, and two new additions, Ravenpaw and Princess."

I was speechless for a moment. "You—you captured a medicine cat?"

Tigerstar hissed. "Yes, I did."

"How did you find Ravenpaw?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh, I had some help tracking him down," Tigerstar drawled, flicking his tail at Blood and Maul.

"Come on," Tigerstar continued. "Do you want to see your friends or not?"

I nodded numbly.

Tigerstar flicked his tail at Blood, and Blood grabbed me by my scruff and hauled me out of the den.

"Wait!" Tigerstar called. "Use the leash!"

"What?" I meowed.

"Oh," Tigerstar answered smugly. "When I was a rogue I learned a thing or two from Twolegs."

Before I could reply, Blood tied something breathtakingly tight around my neck. It seemed to be the same kind of tendril Twolegs attached to their dogs. Blood grabbed the other end with his teeth and roughly dragged me to another darker den. As we entered it, I smelled many familiar scents. "Graystripe!" I exclaimed. I tried to run to my friend, but the 'leash' kept me back.

"Sandstorm?!" a voice from inside the den cried.

"Is that Sandstorm?" another cat asked.

I was shoved inside and I felt the leash being tied around a stick in the ground. My eyes adjusted to the light, and after blinking several times, I saw the cats Tigerstar had listed; also tied with the leashes. I saw guards stationed in the corners.

"Talk," Blood meowed, "but if you start talking about things Tigerstar doesn't want you talking about, you'll be separated and tortured."

"Sandstorm," Mistyfoot asked me, "where have you been? All of us have been in here together, but we haven't known where you were."

"Yeah," Princess—Firestar's sister, if I was right—mewed. Her eyes were huge with fear, and I saw half-healed scars all over her body. "We were so worried!"

"Princess is Firestar's sister," Featherpaw—who was sheltered under Princess's belly—mewled. "She's really nice, almost like a mother. She and Mistyfoot both are."

I heard one of the guards laugh.

"Sandstorm," Cloudtail meowed. "Are you okay?"

I looked at the fluffy white warrior, who was sitting beside his mother, and nodded. He looked relieved.

"Longtail?" I meowed. "I thought Tigerstar was your ally. Why would he capture you?"

Longtail sighed. "Not anymore, Sandstorm."

"Oh." I looked at my paws.

"Hey, where have you been, Sandstorm?" Stormpaw asked me curiously.

"Yes, tell us," Stonefur meowed. He looked weary, as if he'd fought a thousand battles since he was captured.

I glanced at Blood. He made no movement. "I've been with—with—with Tigerstar," I admitted.

A low growl came up from Blood's throat, but he did nothing.

"What!" Cloudtail exclaimed. "If that crowfood-eating—" He was cut off when one of the guards ripped down his flank with his claws.

"Has he hurt you?" Ravenpaw—who had just emerged from the darkness—meowed seriously.

"I—no," I lied. Eager to change the subject, I asked, "Where's Cinderpelt?"

"Right here," a voice mewed. I turned around—as far as my leash would let me turn—and saw Cinderpelt beside Runningnose, the ShadowClan medicine cat.

She padded up to me and nosed the leash that was around my neck, sorrow in her eyes. "Tigerstar has been kind enough to allow me to help Runningnose and Littlecloud with their duties." Softly she added, " I know what Tigerstar has done to you, and I am sorry."

"Thank you," I meowed.

"StarClan spoke to me," Cinderpelt whispered in my ear. " Bluestar told me they cannot help us, and we must help ourselves."

"Hey, no whispering!" Blood yowled. He dragged me away from Cinderpelt. "Time to go," he growled.

"Can't she stay?" Featherpaw wailed.

"Leave me here!" I pleaded to Blood. "Please!"

"No, Tigerstar demanded that you stay with him again," Blood hissed.

"Stay with him?" Graystripe echoed. "He's not…" He shook his head.

"Sandstorm!" Ravenpaw yowled. "Be careful!"

I was dragged out of the prisoner den and across the border into Tigerstar's.

The dark tabby was sitting calmly in the bigger nest with his tail wrapped around his paws. Blood threw me down on the ground and went back to guarding the entrance with Maul.

Tigerstar got up from his nest and hovered above me. "Maul tells me that you've been a bad little prisoner today."

I hissed at him and flattened my ears. "I will never be afraid of you."

"Is that so?" Tigerstar flipped me over and I braced myself, knowing I could never fight back.

Tigerstar violated me for the second time. I gasped as he did it, and I remembered what Cinderpelt had told me. " 'We must help ourselves' "

I began to think of a plan for escape, and Tigerstar seemed another world away. Until he was finished and my stomach began to growl.

"Am I allowed to eat and drink?" I asked.

Tigerstar smirked. "Drink, yes. But you cannot eat for three more days, for I can't have you grow too strong." He waved his tail at a pool of water in a corner. I drank gladly from it, and it softened my hunger pangs a bit.

After that I curled up in my bramble nest, but I did not sleep—and not because of Tigerstar's snoring.

I was thinking of an escape plan.

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