Time Ticking [] Prologue

Instructions

[ ... ] everything was suddenly quiet. calm. unsettling, even. i mean, it was complete silence. something that the tom-cat had almost never heard before. just still, calm, eerie silence. and then he opened his eyes. the tom-cat awakened in a weird place. it was completely dark red. what /was/ this place anyways? he slowly got up from his resting position. stars...where /was/ he? slowly adjusting to the eerie, cold place, he heard a loud voice that shattered the silence. "well well well!" the tom-cat's fur bristled, back arched slightly, and swerved towards the sudden sound. "STAY--" a huge figure caused his words to falter. "...back..." a huge cat, outlined in white, wings on back, stars for pupils, was grinning at him. /grinning./ "who..." the tom-cat began, cautiously and slowly approaching the cat. "who are y--" he was suddenly cut off by a jolt of pain. glancing down on his paw, red strings laced around it, as if it was vines wrapping around. almost as if it was trapping his paw. "ah, time-out barriers, forgot about those," the cat muttered, however they seemed like they /wanted/ him to hear. their grin faded. "don't resist, otherwise its gonna be harder for ya," the cat ordered. the tom-cat decided to ignore the pain and gazed back up towards the stranger again. "who are you?" he demanded. this time he was smart enough not to approach because of the 'time-out barrier' the cat had mentioned. "and...what in the /dark forest/ is this place?" the cat gave an unreadable expression, almost mixed between a grin and a grimace. "i'm starfall," they introduced themself, their gaze softening. "and you are in the void." "the...void?" the tom-cat repeated, processing it. "yes, the void. it's where ghosts go, good, bad, neutral, everyone, when they die twice." die...twice? did...did /he/ die twice? the cat-- or well, starfall, seemed to have answer his question. "if you are here, it seems like you have died again." "...oh." there seemed to be an awkward moment of silence, before starfall broke it again. "say, does the name wolfmaelstrom sound familiar?" the tom-cat's eyes widened. flashbacks began. flashbacks of terror, of joy, of pain, and most importantly. blood. wolfmaelstrom blinked again. "i...am wolfmaelstrom," he meowed slowly. starfall gave wolfmaelstrom a small smile. "good. that brought back your memories." wolfmaelstrom seemed confused, so starfall explained. "see, when cats die, once or twice, they lose their memories for a bit until someone mentions their name. in very rare occasions, cats can't even remember at all. i'm glad i was able to retrieve your memories easily." ah, that made sense now. "so tell me, at least a few things, some memories you gained," starfall prompted. wolfmaelstrom paused for a moment, before opening his mouth to speak. "i...i remember being sent to the dark forest." he /shouldn't/ have been there. his brother should've been there. for all the hurt he's caused. all wolfmaelstrom had done is murder his brother so he wouldn't hurt anymore cats, but what had it cost him? starclan's trust, apparently. starfall sighed. "i feel you," they meowed sympathetically. "i was once a clan cat, just like you. a soul who's life ended too early." then there was something in starfall's gaze, something that wolfmaelstrom couldn't describe. "life can be unfair sometimes, can't it?" wolfmaelstrom paused again. "yeah...i guess so." starfall spoke again. "so i'm going to offer you something." starfall took a step towards wolfmaelstrom's 'time-out barrier.' "there's no way i can reincarnate you. despite the rumors, reincarnation is unfortunately not a thing. so i'm going to offer you something else." [ ... ] wolfmaelstrom nodded thoughtfully. he had carefully listened through starfall's deal. "so," starfall mrrowed after they let wolfmaelstrom have a moment to think about it. "what d'ya say?" wolfmaelstrom gave a small smile to starfall. the first time since he had arrived here. "deal."