BONES~ CHAPTER NINE

Instructions

CW~ Attempted k!lling ~BONEPAW~ I can feel Cloudgaze's glare burning into me, even without looking. Eventually, I whip around. "It was four against one. Even instinct couldn't have saved me. I had to retreat!" Cloudgaze rolls his eyes. "You couldn't even beat that excuse for an apprentice Moorpaw. You had her in a death grip, but you didn't k!ll her!" FLASHBACK "Bonepaw! This isn't you!" Moorpaw's eyes are wide with terror now. "Please...this isn't the cat I grew up with. What happened to you?" The words pierce me like claws. I feel something slip, like I'm being dropped, and I suddenly see Moorpaw differently. She was the sibling I never had, and I'm about to k!ll her." "Moorpaw..." I whisper. "What...have I-" My mew is cut off by Cloudgaze screeching in frustration and stomping his paw, and then the sensation is gone. END OF FLASHBACK I flatten my ears. "Something shifted. I promise it won't happen again. I regret not k!lling her." The words feel right in my head, but wrong when I say them. I storm back to camp, where I settle in my nest, and Cloudgaze goes back to the Hollow. Good. Moorpaw's voice keeps echoing in my head. 'What happened to you?' Over and over and over till I want to scream. Everything is telling me that I'm doing the right thing, that I'm trying to help everyone. But something in me is saying that this isn't actually who I am, that something is happening to me. What, though? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~CLOUDGAZE~ I can't let my hold slip again. During the fight, just when Bonepaw was going to get rid of that black molly who ruined everything, I lost concentration. "You," an icy voice hissed, "You're evil, no matter what you say to yourself. This is petty- trying to destroy everything the Clans have strived for just because you couldn't get something." "That's not true!" I yowled, voice wavering. "Clan life isn't suitable, isn't the way cats should live! The-" "You feel like you don't need to have a reason for this madness, but there is a reason. You know exactly what it is." I laughed bitterly. "My dream was so simple, but you wouldn't even give anything to me. So if I can't have what I want, then no one should, ever." My reverie broke, and I'd lost control of some of Bonepaw. And if this keeps happening, then I won't have a living puppet to help me acheive my dream.