Hi! Don't worry i haven't stopped writing this, i have just been very very busy these past few days with work due to it being easter, which i hope you all ate lots of chocolate since i haven't had chance to! Again i'm sorry for the wait, hopefully ill be able to update again once I'm not so tied up at work!
Judy was running. She was running as fast as her legs would allow, the power in her hind legs stronger than they had ever been before. She could feel the burning in her muscles, her heart pounding with so much speed she thought it just might burst free from her chest. Her paws, all four of them, slammed against the ground with the urgency to move, to get away from something, and the pain of it was almost unbearable.
Run, run, run!
She could feel herself struggling to breathe with the demand of her haste, but there was no letting up. She had to keep going. The vibrations on the ground did not just cover her own movements, but also that of something else giving chase.
Surrounded by trees, broken earth covered in fallen leaves and undergrowth, she was doing everything she could to avoid every obstacle that came her way. She launched herself over a fallen log, the wooden rotten and crumbling beneath her paws. She scrambled in the leaves as she hurried to change direction, her claws ripping the terrain as she aimed to get some sort of leverage.
The ground shook, and she almost screamed as she clambered forward in a desperate attempt to escape the unknown. That's when she knew something was wrong.
Judy didn't take to being afraid. Judy wasn't one to run unless it was absolutely necessary.
This was just a horrible dream.
With that knowledge, Judy sprung mid-run, leaping up into the air with her long legs stretching forward, ready to kick the oncoming attacker. But what she saw coming at her had her screaming from the bottom of her lungs, and the terror of what she was seeing hit home all to harshly.
Nick fell down on her, jaws wide, eyes wild, insane with blood lust. She was too shocked and frightened to finish her defensive attack when Nick's claws came slamming down through her fur and slashing her skin, while her back hit the ground with such force it knocked the breath out of her.
Fearfully she covered her face from his drooling fangs, desperate to get away, only to find herself shrieking in terror when he grasped the collar of her shirt between his teeth and began to shake her like nothing more than a doll. The snarls that ripped from his throat were deafening, the ripping and tearing of her clothes gut wrenching, and the dismaying question of why swirling in her mist of horror.
She thrashed beneath him, and painfully managed to launch her legs into his gut, flinging him off of her. She moved, dragging herself along the floor while her bones fell back into place, stiff and worn. She could feel the exhaustion caving in on her, deafening and blinding, keeping her from any kind of escape.
She screamed when teeth latched onto her ankle, and suddenly she was airborne.
She landed as quickly as she flew, only the pain was everywhere. She bounced and topping, her nose in the dirt and grit crunching between her teeth. She winched, trying to gather herself and stand, but she fell hopelessly to the ground, too exhausted and hurt to move any more.
"Poor, sweet Judy."
She looked up, pushing past the pain, to see Ffion leering at her. She, too, was on all fours, with Nick by her side and looking as enraged and insane as a savage. They closed in on her, and Judy could do nothing to save herself.
"Why?" she whispered brokenly, tears wetting her eyes as she gazed helplessly at her friend, who glared viciously back.
"This is what happens when you try to become more than what you are," Ffion replied, licking her lips. "The world will always fight back, Judy, and you are no match for what should be. You are prey, we are predators; you will always be at our mercy, rabbit."
"Nick, please-"
"Kill her."
And with that, Nick lunged for the final onslaught.
"NO!" Judy shot up in horror, tangled in her bed sheets with her body shaking in utter panic. Her eyes darted around the room, seeking any intruder who may wish to harm her, but all she found was the shadows of her furniture cast on the walls from the street lamps outside her window. No Ffion, no Nick trying to hurt her; just her safe in her bedroom and the only noise being the occasional traffic outside.
She closed her eyes and counted to three, waiting for her heart to finally slow and her shaking to cease.
Today had not gone exactly as she had foreseen it. When she continued to question the bear about what exactly he meant by his statement, he refused to answer anymore questions, and eventually she was forced to give up. Nick, too, had grown uncontrollably frustrated, demanding what he meant by his final statement, but to no avail. He told Judy not to worry, and that she would be safe and nothing was going to happen, but she kept her mouth shut. She was too jostled to take any notice of anyone's reassurances, not even Bogo's, who promised that she wouldn't be that far into the case before the entire force intervened.
Nick had tried to get Bogo to give the case to someone else. Both he and Judy said no, of course. This had enraged him, leading to a blow up between him and his chief over the concern for his partner's safety.
"No one asked you to join the case, Wilde." Bogo had growled at the seething fox, all the while Judy gazing distantly through the one-way glass where she could see Sharp laughing at something, yet completely alone in the interrogation room.
"I'm her partner, Chief, it was in my best interest as well as hers," Nick had replied, acid dripping from his tongue to match his bubbling anger.
"I can look after myself, Nick." Judy had murmured, her face morphing into a frown as she stared through the glass at Sharp. "Bogo knows that."
"Tell that to claws over there, then, Carrots." Nick had snapped back, finally grabbing her shoulder to spin her around, forcing her to look at him. Instead she had kept her eyes on the ground, being as stubborn as always. "You don't have to do this."
"I do," she'd replied. "And I will."
And with that she had stormed off, leaving the bickering pair to fight it out between themselves whilst she had desperately needed some fresh air. As she left, she'd noticed Ffion lurking on the other side of the street, her shadow cast along the road with the setting sun while her expression came across as sour. They had made eye contact, and enough was said between the pair in those few seconds. Ffion had smirked, dropping her paws sleekly into her jeans pockets and dipping her head, eyes and teeth glinting in the overcast of red and yellow. Judy had merely blinked, feigning ignorance, as she went about her way. She refused to allow her the satisfaction of knowing the wedge she had lodged into Judy's life, cracking it piece by piece as she knew it.
And here she was, wide-awake at four in the morning, nightmares swirling around in her mind that kept sleep at bay. Her phone was on her bedside, low in battery as it dimly lit its screen upon picking it up. Nick had rang five times, the last call an hour ago. She sighed, placing the phone back on the table face down.
She had to get out of here.
Quickly dressing into a white t-shirt, her light purple jacket, and a pair of light jeans, she left the apartment in utter silence. It felt good to be out of her uniform for a change, the clothing loose of her body that allowed her to move and breathe with ease. She stretched her muscles with the feel of release, relishing in it while she could.
And then she jogged into the night, clicking the door to her building quietly shut behind her before she had no intention on looking back. Right now, she had to clear her head if she was to focus on the tasks that were building up before her, and running was her way of getting that out of her system. With the breeze cooling her ears and the soft, none-urgent pat of her feet against the ground reminded her that this was the real world, where she wasn't being chased by her best friend who was ready to kill her. That world would never be real.
For the moment, she let the case fall free as she ran like a second skin. It was weighing her down, keeping her from being the mammal she was. Lately she had been stressed, angry and utterly alone in a world populated by the many, and it was all because of this case. A part of her felt like she wished she could drop it. She missed her old life, the one before the attacks and the one before Ffion, back when it was just her and Nick making the best team.
Now it was like the ground had split in an earth quack, forcing a divide between her and everything she knew.
Right now, in her loneliest, most innocent moment, she wished she was a child again with her family wrapped around her, forever promising that she would always be okay and that nothing would ever hurt her. She could almost feel the warmth of her mother and the goofy voice of her father as they held her, delivering those empty promises.
She stopped mid-run, fighting back the tears that burned her eyes and throat, and forced herself to count to ten.
"Hey, Whiskers, don't be weird and cry in the middle of the street, that's uncool."
Judy looked up in a start, frozen in the middle of an empty, silent road. Directly in front of her was Chad Ermin, the stoat she had met along with the cat. He didn't look all that amused, or threatening, just indifferent as he looked at her. His hands were in his trouser pockets, his little brown and white head tilted to the side as he teased his collar with his small claws. Judy lacked the spark she had had upon their last meeting, too hopeless to express determination and confidence.
"You look tired, rabbit." Chad acknowledged.
She shrugged in reply.
"What are you doing out here at this time in the morning?"
Again she shrugged, heavier this time.
"Ah, not really in the talking mood; I see." He said, nodding to himself in his own agreement. "I'll do the talking then, and you just put those ears to good use."
Judy folded her arms tiredly across her chest, doing as she was told and saying nothing, but pricking her ears slightly forward to prove that she was indeed listening. She was of course curious as to what Chad had to tell her.
"You want to know what the bear meant by saying that you were the gain in the attack of those children – don't ask how I know, I just do – and now you're frightened and confused. Well, you need to look between the lines of the attacks. Don't look directly at the victims, or the nature of the attacks, but look beyond that. What lives did the victims have before? Who did they socialise with? What did they do? Ignore the threat looming over you, that's not important. Look at the bigger picture, and the rest with sort itself."
There was a long pause, and the stoat nodded to himself as if nothing more needed to be said. As he turned away, Judy finally spoke.
"Why are you helping me?"
Chad turned back around with a smile, his eyes glinting mischievously. "Some of us want to be what we're not, others want to live by their stereotypes, but there are some out there that want to live exactly how nature intended."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, Hopps, I have no doubt about it. Just keep an eye on that fluffy tail of yours."
And Chad left, leaving Judy once again in a predicament.
Later, whilst looking through the files of her victims in the low light of her lamp on her desk, Judy found something curious.
Each victim, all prey, had a life that resembled any other mammal life, prey and predator alike. However, there was something deeper, yet no one would have seen it as an issue in hindsight. Had Judy not been nudged in the right direction, she would have overlooked it, too. Why would anyone think any more of it?
Each victim had a close family friend, or friends.
Peter Bush, for example, had been in a close partnership with a friend called Timmy Shade, a raccoon who had been a part of his life since they were both kids. She found this information whilst expanding on a statement given by the raccoon, which had expressed his concern for Peter and lack of understanding of why anyone would do such a thing to someone so kind. Online, through social networking, she found many photos of the two together, clearly the closest of friends.
Another victim, Richard Haring, was found by his wife's best friend and children's godmother, Tia Snow, a Lynx. She had been part of the Haring family for the best part of ten years, and was greatly loved by her friend's children, who would one day be put into her own care should anything happen to her parents.
Furthermore, the hedgehog had close relations to his neighbour, a badger. The sheep was in partnership with a wolf at his place of work, while her long time friend, a cheetah, cared for the elderly zebra. The koala was often seen out with a dingo and his family, whilst the deer was a gym partner of a tiger. Also the beaver was the best man of the coyote, a lion was the common babysitter to the gazelle's children, and finally a leopard was one of the bridesmaids to the okapi.
Judy forgot how to breathe.
The victims had all been close friends with one or more predators.
They were being punished for being friends with their enemies.
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