Dead Rose
Chapter 4: Haunted
"Alright, everyone!" Tigerlily called out timidly to the cats in the clearing. "Do I have any volunteers for a hunting party?"
The crowd tittered, and Deadrose sighed as he watched more than one cat pretend they didn't hear.
"Come on," Tigerlily whined, voice pleading. "This needs to get done or else we won't have any dinner!"
"It doesn't work if you ask them to volunteer," Lion whispered to her. "You have to directly assign them or they won't cooperate."
"Uh, okay," Tigerlily mumbled. "Flowertail, you can lead the patrol."
"But I already did the morning border patrol!" Flowertail called out in annoyance. Tigerlily recoiled at once, looking stricken. Deadrose flicked an ear. He knew Flowertail wouldn't dare backtalk the deputy if the deputy was Lion. Lion had a quiet, unspoken authority. Tigerlily may have been given striking beauty and unfathomable loyalty, but authority over others isn't one of her best points.
"Flowertail, you're going to lead the patrol," Lion hissed, voice strong and confident. Then he turned to Tigerlily, eyes wary. "Proceed."
"Uh, okay," Tigerlily stammered. "Um, Lostpaw, you can go... and uh, Littlepaw I guess. Dovepaw, you might as well too."
"And what about more warriors?" Lion encouraged, his voice was kind but Deadrose could tell his patience with Tigerlily was growing thin.
"Oh... right!" Tigerlily closed her eyes and stamped a paw in frustration. "I always forget! Well, Deadrose, you can go. You can help Littlepaw with her hunting. And er, who was Lostpaws mentor again?"
"Here," Blueshade slowly raised a paw, and Deadrose could see the she cats annoyance clearly.
"Oh, uh, right Blueshade," Tigerlily stammered, clearly embarrassed. "You can go on the hunting patrol too. Um, and Dovepaws mentor, Whitefire can go as well."
Deadrose tried not to grimace at the thought of Whitefire and failed. Whitefire was a very strange cat, who claimed to see the deceased and talk to spirits. Everyone thought she was a loon, Deadrose felt sorry for poor Dovepaw.
"Alright everyone, let's go and get this over with," Flowertail beckoned for the others to join him out the entrance. "It's starting to rain and you all know what that means."
"Mud," Littlepaw whispered in Deadroses ear, sounding happy she knew the answer to the rhetorical statement. "We all know what that means. Mud!"
"Good job," Deadrose whispered back, pushing his way out into the forest. He looked around at the territory, unsurprisingly disgusted with what he saw. Plants were trampled to the ground, sprinkled and smeared with dirt and rubbish. The trees were stripped bare, with rotten, moldy bark clinging to the sides. Not to mention it's damp all the time, Deadrose thought in revolt. It doesn't even have to freaking rain, yet it's always damp like we've hit a storm.
"Quite a nice day, don't you think," Whitefire said to Deadrose. Deadrose looked over at the white she cat and forced himself not to react rudely.
"Actually, I was just thinking how lousy it looked out," Deadrose replied, picking up his pace so Whitefire would fall behind. She didn't, and to Deadroses dismay, she quickened her speed to match his.
"Why do you not think it is nice?" Whitefire asked, looking completely offended. "The sun is shining. The moon is bright. And greenleaf is thriving."
Deadrose was completely baffled. "Um, the clouds are covering the sun," he said at last. "There's no moon yet and we are in the middle of newleaf. There's no greens on the trees."
"Oh," Whitefire looked around. "Well, they always tell me to look with my imagination, not my eyes."
"Who does?" Deadrose asked, forcing himself to keep the conversation going in order to be polite. "The elders? They like to spout nonsense, I wouldn't listen to them if I were you."
"No, not elders," Whitefire said defensively. "They will be dead soon anyway."
"That's not a good way to think," Deadrose said after deciding to let that compromising remark slide. "Rainpelt and Icewing have quite a few moons left, and Berrywhisker is in good health."
"Berrywhisker will wander off, and get lost," Whitefire said slowly, an eerie tone catching her voice. "And the others will go out looking for him."
"Nonsense," Deadrose spat, getting tired of Whitefires haunted stories.
"They will fall, one by one, into the fire they call the sun."
"You're crazy," Deadrose hissed, who was by now completely fed up. "Stop talking this trash, Whitefire," and with that, he picked up his pace to a run to catch up with the others.
"Alright, everyone, I expect you will all bring back a good amount of fresh kill," Flowertail was saying. "I understand that preys been a little scarce lately, so we need to do our absolute best."
"Where's my mentor?" Dovepaw asked, looking around for Whitefire. Deadrose looked behind him and couldn't hold back a hiss of frustration. Whitefire was a little ways back, rolling in what looked like a holly bush.
"Whitefire!" Flowertail barked, and then turned to Deadrose. "This was an awful idea," he whispered angrily. "Whitefire needs to be in the elders den."
"No, she needs mental help," Deadrose whispered back, looking on as Whitefire squished a bushel of berries with her head and laughed as the juices rolled down her face.
"Conference with Tigerlily when we get back?" Flowertail suggested. "Redstar won't listen to anyone but her."
"Yes, of course," Deadrose nodded his head grimly. "We'll tell her to talk to Redstar about Whitefire. She shouldn't be allowed out of the camp in her condition."
"What are you two talking about?" Littlepaw asked loudly, butting her head in between the two toms. "And why is no one hunting?"
"We were just talking about Whitefire," Deadrose said, seeing no point in lying.
"Yeah, she's being weird again," Littlepaw agreed, staring at the cat rolling in the bush. Deadrose was about to reply, but stopped when he saw Dovepaw and Lostpaw making there way over to Whitefire.
"Apprentices!" Flowertail called out in alarm. "Come back please!"
It was too late, Lostpaw had already reached her, and Deadrose could see Whitefire open her mouth to talk. God forbid she spouts one more rubbish tale, I swear I'm gonna-
"THEY WILL FALL, ONE BY ONE, INTO THE FIRE THEY CALL THE SUN!" Lostpaw suddenly bellowed at the top of his lungs. Whitefire screeched in delight and clapped her paws on the ground, sending holly leaves flying into the air. Deadrose felt his heart drop out of his chest as he heard the words of the crazy cat come out of Lostpaws mouth. Then to his alarm, Littlepaw pelted over chanting the same thing.
"They will fall, one by one, into the fire they call the sun!" she cried out, oblivious to anything but the fact that she was singing with Lostpaw.
"What the hell is that," Flowertail whispered. "Do you think Whitefire told them that?"
"I know for a fact Whitefire told them that, because she just said it to me not even minutes ago," Deadrose hissed.
"It sounds scary," Flowertail admitted. "I'm getting the chills."
"They will fall!" Dovewing joined in too, after Lostpaw and Littlepaw sang a few verses by themselves. The three apprentices chanted loudly, eyes glazed and staring off into the distance, heads bobbing up and down in a synced motion. Deadrose almost felt as though something was possessing them.
Behind them, Whitefire rolled and laughed, red berry juices staining her pelt.
...
"Why do you come out during the day?" Whitefire asked the ghost. The ghost cat shrugged, his black sunken eye holes looked menacing in the shadows.
"We come out to love you," he replied. "And help you."
"It's not so helpful when everyone thinks I'm crazy," Whitefire murmured. "When you three are around, it makes everything so difficult -"
"We aren't just around you," the second ghost said. "We are you."
"All three parts, in the middle world," the third ghost added.
"Living in shadows, waiting for the correct moment to use our abilities," the first ghost said.
"But... why me?" Whitefire whispered. "Why did you have to pick me to be your body of choice?"
"Well, we do usually use corpses," the second ghost looked over at the first ghost as he spoke. The first ghost nodded slowly. "Yes, yes, corpses do quite nicely."
"Then go find one," Whitefire mumbled. "I'm sick of you three controlling me."
"Oh, but you do not see, what we do for you," the words slithered out of the third ghosts mouth like a snakes tongue. "With us you can do whatever you like."
"How?" Whitefires voice cracked. "No one likes me! Everyone thinks I'm crazy!"
"Ah, but if you were not crazy, what would you be? A dead shell. If you were not crazy, you may as well be a corpse on the ground."
"If you are all me, then you're crazy too," Whitefire said slowly. "You are all insane..."
"I don't like that word, Whitefire," the first ghost leaned in and towered over her. "Insane. You hurt my feelings just now."
"I'm sorry," Whitefire choked.
"You know how much I don't like it when you hurt my feelings, Whitefire."
And with that, the first ghost screamed and dove at Whitefire, who squeezed her eyes shut in fear. Whitefire then fell, and writhed and struggled on the ground, convulsing over and over again. And with one final jerk, she opened her eyes.
"Whitefire, when you make a racket like that, you are going to alert the others," the second ghost scolded.
"I'm not Whitefire," Whitefire smiled evilly. "I am Denver."
The other ghosts smiled as she said the name of the first ghost, who was now controlling her body.
"Denver, we have others searching for bodies too," the second ghost said quietly. "But none of them are responding to our dreams."
"Then make them respond," Whitefire snarled. "Lie to them. Manipulate them. I don't fucking care if you have to threaten them with torture, just get them to agree to what you say."
"We tried," the third ghost said. "But no one will..."
"We got Whitefire to do it," Whitefire smiled demonically. "And all it took was someone pretending they care."
"I will try again tonight, Denver," the second and third ghosts bowed their heads, and then faded into the background.
Somewhere far above in the sky, the spirit of Whitefire cried and screamed.