Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

X

Truth.

"So, why'd you do it? How exactly did killing them benefit you?" The voice was cold. It was clung to by frost, not bothering to overrun it and gain some sense of expression, and yet at the same time emitting an undeniable sense of anger.

"I don't know," Silentdawn replied. It was a lie, she knew why. She'd spilled all this blood because they'd ruined her life, these cats had shattered her psyche forever. So why wasn't she telling the truth? Was the truth something untouchable?

"What about the other killer? Do you know them? Do they have the same motive as you?" Silentdawn felt as though every syllable was a thorn caught in her throat. She'd often thought everything happened for a reason, but this feeling had come from nothing. There was nothing physically stopping her from telling the truth, she had no idea why the other someone in her head didn't want her to tell the truth.

"We were...friends. We wanted to...we wanted to kill them because they were murderers themselves. They'd helped massacre our Clan. They killed our families and friends," she spoke, each word born by her force-feeding of that cowardly voice inside her. Force-feeding it the fact that there was no real reason she shouldn't be saying this.

"So, you killed them not by malice, but for vengeance and a sense of justice?" Silentdawn found herself drifting away from those words, distracted by the cluttered scenery around them as though none of this actually mattered. She hadn't laid eyes upon her interrogator this whole conversation. For all she cared, they were just some meaningless voice "Silentdawn? Do you hear me?"

"Yes. It was...justice. We did it for good." This was the truth, wasn't it? All those dead cats deserved it. This was the truth she was blurting out.

Something true.

-

III
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A musty fragrance wrapped itself around him, rousing the tom from his previous state of unconsciousness. A feeling of intoxication strangled him, he had no idea how he'd fallen into unawareness and awoken in this place. He raised his head to stare at the murky place he'd found himself in. Where am I?

A feeling of exhaustion ate away at him, threatening to send him back into unconsciousness. Despite it, he decided to continue scanning the place he had ended up in. It was a black room, the charcoal-toned walls chipping away. The only source of light was a lamp hanging from the ceiling's centre, bathing the room in a pale half-light. It almost resembled moonlight. Sickly moonlight.

But what stirred disease in the tom was something else.

Crimson was splashed upon the walls. Blood spoiled the murky room, splattered upon the floor. It caused his insides to wriggle with sickness as the scent of aged blood filled his lungs, threatening to send him back into a coma.

"You're awake," a she-cat spoke behind him.

The tom's head snapped around to see a silhouette standing against the wall. She sauntered forth, the sickly lamplight falling down upon her to reveal her to be a tall calico. "My name's Silentdawn. I must ask you a question."

"Go to Hell," the tom spat, backing away in terror. "What do you want from me!? Leave me alone!"

"I'm asking if you know anything about BlazeClan," She hissed, murderous fury glimmering in her green eyes. "Pebblestar. Are you one of his mercs? Do you work for him? Answer me now, bastard."

How does she know? Panic shifted his blood to something akin to rapid waters.

≭ 𝄇
(Die Unterbrechung der Wiederholung hat begonnen.)

Knowing the virtue of telling the truth was useless here, he refused to do so. "Who the hell are they!?" he hissed. "Get away from me!!!"

"Don't play dumb with me!!" she snarled, pouncing forth in rage. Her sharp green eyes were now inches away from his, brightened by a murderous gleam as her claws became unearthed. "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!"

"I swear, I don't!" He let his own claws become unsheathed. Yet even though he'd killed before, he was suddenly stricken by the idea that this stranger may not be as weak as those two. Knowing this, his eyes scanned the room, setting upon a gaping exit where a door should be, time having caused it to fall out. The tom didn't hesitate. He pounced past his captor, dashing through the empty doorway and out into the abandoned building. 

"Get back here!" the she-cat snarled.

He flew forth into the darkness, finding himself trapped in a blind labyrinth as he dashed through the halls. No light penetrated this place, it was sealed away from all illumination. The flash of maddened green eyes peeked through the black for a moment, notifying the tom that he was now locked in a tight chase.

"Won't let you run away," she hissed, bounding forth in an attempt to catch him in her claws.

'Speed up.' Through the pounding of his heart, his mind cried to him. He pressured himself to believe he could run faster, and elude this place. He didn't want to die. He couldn't die. 

As he dashed onward, his pace suddenly became too swift, and he lost his balance. The tom tumbled upon the frigid stone ground, his escape put to an end. Before he could even regain his senses and continue running, his captor had caught up, her claws pinning him down to the ground.

He gasped as he felt her press down upon his lungs. He forced himself to try and struggle his way out, yet it was no use. He was helpless as he stared up into the gaze of the she-cat. Her eyes were fixed in a deathly glare, fully wide, her soul completely uncovered as she stared down upon him.

"They took everything from me." Her broadened eyes almost appeared emotionless, their sharp green almost glowing in the midst of the suffocating darkness. "They destroyed my home, killed my family. Because of them, everyone I love is gone. How could I ever forgive them for that?"

Before the tom could utter another lie to try and keep himself alive, she moved her claws from his heart to his throat and instantly struck. In just a second, the tomcat felt his breath stolen away, helpless as his life and his consciousness rapidly poured out from the wound she'd opened. He was falling, yet he had gone too deep to realize that. He'd descended into a puddle of splashed crimson.

He was dead.

-

Yes.

This isn't a reverie, she told herself. Her other scenario was just some paranoid fantasy, a concept born of unfounded doubt. 

Yet, crawling from the deepest pit of her mind, it came to her and cried out, 'I'm innocent. Why did you kill me?'

I killed you, but it was meant to be. You weren't innocent, she replied.

But in the end, these two scenarios were her only answers. In the end, there was no truth. At least not one that'd ever be seen by her. There'd never be an answer awaiting at the end of some deep cavern.

In defeat, she welcomed the real truth: She would never know what her actions truly were.

//

A/N

This chapter was written with instant noodles, coca-cola and The Dark Side of the Moon.

Surprisingly, I actually liked this chapter? Though I'll always regret having the two scenarios of the Chapter III be the "bad" one first (the roger was innocent) then later on the "good" one (the roger was a murderer so him dying wasn't exactly a bad thing) and not the other way around, but it's probably too late now. Oh well. (27/10/2023)

Edit (still 27/10/2023) I just realized that typo. *Rogue, not roger. Honestly it's too funny to fix now so I'm just leaving that there.