Transformation Tragedies [CoRIII]

Chapter 17 - Sharp dread

[Feeling like her guilt has fully morphed into anger, Nicole no longer knows what she's doing once she doesn't manage speaking up due to her damaged throat. She keeps completely still and watches the blood drip from her mouth, panting while keeping her head dangled. Her eyes then start tearing up again and she grits her teeth while raising her head up high, trying to catch her breath. After exhaling with her eyes closed, she suddenly reopens them when a strong urge gets the best of her and gives her paws a grim stare. The cat then suddenly grabs her left wrist and tightens her grip around it with her other paw, narrowing her eyes even more in the process.

A low hiss then gets released from in between her teeth when she encloses her jaws around her claws and impulsively starts pulling each one of them. Realizing she had attempted it before but failed, she now puts in more extreme power and tears flow down her cheeks again. Her nailbeds start bleeding heavily, but due to her snapped vocal cord having caused great pain already, she doesn't hesitate and continues chewing on them. Having underestimated the sensitivity of her paws, she suddenly winces and grunts once a claw loosens itself. She starts shivering heavier and spits out the claw that got stuck in her teeth, immediately staining the sheets with even more blood. Her nose and ears twitch, but she doesn't stop. She continues pulling out her claws. Each one of them.

The blue feline's throat soon hurts a tad less and her panting decreases when she glares at her roughly declawed paws. Both of them bleed heavily, but she doesn't move a muscle to let them heal. She then closes her eyes and hopes for her to calm down more while her blood starts solidifying, eventually falling into deep slumber out of pure exhaustion. The further her damaged paws heal, the less they hurt and she actually manages staying asleep due to not having a choice. The kids being upstairs and Richard in the backyard caused none of them having been able to catch Nicole's alarming screams, but complete silence and rest rules amongst her after her pain diffused a bit. Hours pass until right before dinner, but despite it not being too late yet, the upwelling rainstorm outside causes everything to turn dark earlier.

Once Nicole's own intuition causes her to wake up, she gets surprised by the peaceful state she got herself into and even feels a slight bit of relief by this. But a known voice suddenly echoing in her mind immediately strikes distress into her and she starts panting again.

"What in the world are we attempting now?!"

Nicole still doesn't move, but closes her eyes while hoping both her pain and the Upper Limit fades soon.

"Declawing ourselves, huh? How's that worked out for you..."

"Anything... to prevent myself from hurting anyone ever again..."

"HAHAHAH OH YOU- Fool, I can't believe we're still going on with that resisting behaviour of yours... I'm losing my patience again..."

"There's nothing you can do to make me feel worse. I've gotten to know such heavy agony and grief, which only increased since the past months. I'm ready to die."

"Die? HAHAH... Oh well, I see we got to know a bit more about me."

"I'm getting clues out of a sudden... Isn't that your work as well?"

"What clues? Your pathetic little mind is too weak to unfold anything anyway..."

"I know you're trying to kill me. Then tell me, why haven't you done that yet?"

"Heheh... I see we're feisty again, aren't we?"

"Ugh, stop saying 'we'! There's no 'we', I'm NOT YOU!"