This is a solo story, please no comments.
CONTENT WARNING: Murder, Abuse, Execution
Face in the Dark by City Wolf
The first thing that registered in the dark tabby’s mind was the scent of loam, dampness, and decay. His amber eyes snapped open to see a thick mist hugging the ground, huge, dark trees looming above him, their bark scattered with glowing lichens and mushrooms. The eerie scene immediately set him on edge. There was only one place this could be.
When the lights are low and there’s no one around, don’t need to look for me ‘cause I’m still hangin’ ‘round.
Looking at his paws quickly, he realized his own form was translucent. Good, he was still alive. That didn’t do much to curb his unease, however. There was only one cat that would summon him here, for any reason. A mixture of fear and fury tingled under his fur, setting his hackles bristling on his neck. It had taken moons to simply stop seeing the cat in the shadows in the waking world and moons longer to stop seeing him in dreams. Yet here he was again, tormented.
Gonna take my name and tattoo your heart. Believe me when I say you’ll see my face in the dark.
As if on queue, he saw the white flashes of fur on the paws and throat of the cat in question materialize in the darkness, a wide, stocky form covered with a battlescarred chocolate brown pelt striding out of the dense fog. Copper eyes flashed as the other tom began to stalk around the edge of the small clearing that the living warrior had awoken in.
‘Till I hear the reaper call, by the grace I still stand tall, never gon’ fall. Walk through flames, six chains drowning my pain, watch the smoke cascade burn down the mountain range.
As the deep, ghastly chuckle began to echo out of the dark forest warrior, the stocky tabby straightened himself up, holding his head high out of sheer habit, taking a proud stance despite his discomfort. It wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t be harmed, but after the constant belligerence and brutality he had experienced, he didn’t want to take any chances. His amber gaze locked onto the other tom as he approached. Standing up to his full height, the dark forest warrior still stood a full head taller. Swallowing to steady himself, the living cat spoke.
“Dusktalon.”
I got pent up rage, disdain, stay in your lane. When I draw my blade, light’s out, this ain’t a game.
The dark warrior smirked as he heard his name, letting his tail lash as he began to pace around his son.
“So you do remember me, Hawkblaze. And here I was starting to think you had forgotten,” Dusktalon sneered, taunting the brown tabby. Slowly, looking the living cat up and down, he nodded in approval.
“Somehow, despite all your faults and laziness, you’ve managed to keep your muscle-tone,” he added, prodding a forepaw at the younger cat’s shoulder. He could almost taste the anxiety rolling off his son’s pelt. It was delicious.
Blowin’ around like a winter storm, the fires of hell they couldn’t keep me warm. I’m no savior, I’m a lonely soul. Where I’m going, heaven only knows…
Swallowing hard, Hawkblaze kept his head high, forcing his breathing to stay steady. Better to get this over with quickly, not draw it out. So what if it drew his father’s ire.
“What do you want, Dusktalon,” he growled, more of a demand than a question. The response was a short, callous laugh.
“Oh, Hawkblaze, my son, I only wish to congratulate you! You’re becoming more and more like me every day,” the tom taunted, smiling in satisfaction as his offspring spat in disgust.
Let you believe that you might have it, lay waste to your nation when I laugh at it. They want a blood bath, swingin’ ‘em swords, comin’ in swarms. It’s a cold world, nobody told you it would be warm.
“I am nothing like you, murderer,” Hawlblaze growled in response, although he knew it was not entirely true. Sure, he had felt the dark desires that plagued his line, the glee instead of disgust he felt at the carnage of battle. He refused to act upon the impulses, instead letting the warm sun bake his pelt as he staved off the lingering darkness with learned, habitual laziness. However, he hadn’t killed his own kit in cold blood, and he was training an apprentice. Surely that had to count for something in the grand scheme?
It's a dark day, better forget what you used to know. It's a war outside, ain't no fallin' asleep in the storm. I was born to outlive, outlast, break through the glass, I got 3000 ancestors standin' behind my back.
Dusktalon narrowed his eyes as he slowed his pace, stalking around Hawkblaze and listening to his breathing grow just slightly faster, watching his tail twitch, betraying the nerves he really felt.
“Oh, but my child, you are more like me than you know. You have no family left. Your own son hates you. Your apprentice resents you. You brute force train her to force her to be better, but she will turn out just like your mate, disappointed in you and deceased because you couldn’t protect her,” the chocolate tabby taunted, his copper-orange eyes flashing in the darkness.
“Even though you were the strongest of my kits, you still ended up a disappointment,” Dusktalon continued, smirking as the words he spoke began to have the desired effect.
Who's gonna be there when you hit your knees? Leave you layin' on the cold concrete? This ain't no train that you can ride for free, the devil's always gonna get his fee…
Unprompted the flashbacks of his kithood began, images of his siblings lying in pools of blood, one by one, cut down for their perceived weakness. Each time the bloodied claws and fangs of the cat before him were not far away, lingering on the edge of his vision. His heart rate climbed and Hawkblaze felt his emotions begin to get the better of him. Oh how he despised that this cat was the one who had sired him, trained him, built him into what he was. It was only the sight of the fang marks in the back of Dusktalon’s neck, freshly scarred as if they had just been left yesterday, that brought him back to reality. Those were Twilightstar’s fangs that had left those scars, that had finally put to rest the monster that had broken him.
Drink it all even if it burns goin’ down. Built to swim with the sharks, when your time comes you gon’ see my face in the dark.
Gaze hardening, Hawkblaze let out a snarl.
“I will strive every day to overcome the burdens you left me with, and I will succeed, because when the sun sets, you’re still stuck here where Twilightstar sent you, and when my time comes, I won’t ever have to see you again,” he spat, claws digging into the spongy soil beneath him. Dusktalon merely shrugged, waving his tail as he turned away and padded back into the mist.
“We shall see, Hawkblaze. We shall see,” he called as he faded away, leaving Hawkblaze to awaken in the warrior’s den in a cold sweat.
Believe me when I say you’ll see my face in the dark.
Face in the Dark [Solo]
