Nightmares

[Sky]

“Leopardfur….. Leopardfur…. Leopardfur!” That mysterious voice called. It’s growl was deep and full of hatred. Leopardfur saw a shadow-- a huge, ominous shadow looming over her. It was slowly taking the shape of a large cat. Leopardfur couldn’t tell what kind. She was frozen with fear. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The large, black cat wanted to shred her to pieces. It raised up its paws and exposed its razor-sharp claws. Leopardfur knew she was dead. She yowled as the claws tore into her tender skin….

Leopardfur woke with a start. She sat up in her bed, and sighed with relief. She wasn’t dead. That black cat seemed familiar, now that Leopardfur thought about it. She had read about a cat like that in the stories about the Capital, Clementine. What was his name? Christoph! That was it. The cat in her nightmare must have been Christoph, the panther dictator of Norwood, who lives in Clementine. Yikes! What a creature to dream about. Leopardfur looked out the window. It was nearly dawn. She dressed and decided to do her laundry and daily plant-watering. Her plants were her family. They never got mad at the golden-furred cat. Instead, they listened to her every problem and gave her their silent support. Yes, Leopardfur talks to her plants. She has extensive conversations with them. They helped her figure out her problems just by listening to her talk about them.

By sunrise, all the morning chores were finished. Leopardfur decided to hunt for breakfast. She gathered her gear and locked the door on her way out. The air was warm and Leopardfur couldn’t help but smile to herself. Summer was one of her favorite seasons. She enjoyed the warm weather. She also enjoyed the prey that ran around in the summer months. The other part of the Great Forest was right in front of her now. As she crept into the woods, she heard birds chirping. Birds were tasty, but Leopardfur didn’t feel like bird for breakfast. She listened closer. Squirrels were leaping from tree to tree and chattering amongst themselves. Perfect. Looking up, she spotted one. It was a red squirrel, and a good size, too. Leopardfur tasted the air. She was downwind from the squirrel. She chuckled with glee. The squirrel will never know she’s coming. The golden hunter silently advanced upon the tree where the red squirrel was resting. Once she was close, but not too close to the tree, the squirrel spotted a nut on the ground and climbed down to grab it. Once it had the nut in its paws, Leopardfur leaped. She pounced on the squirrel and killed it with one quick bite to the neck. Then she stood up triumphantly and carried her kill back to her cottage.

[Sky]

In the dark, empty room, everything was at a complete standstill. Nothing moved or made any noise. Leopardfur sat in the middle of all the nothing, and almost screeched out loud when she realized that she was tied to a chair, and her body was covered in cuts and bruises. The pain hit her like a tidal wave. She couldn’t think or breathe. Then she looked in front of her and saw that giant black cat from her previous dream. He stood a few feet away and was even more terrifying than before. She cringed as she saw his paw rise, only to see he struck another cat, who just appeared right beside him. Then he spoke to the other black cat. His voice was filled with more hatred and venom than the golden she-cat had ever thought possible.

“You cowardly fool; you told me she was dead! Does she look dead to you? Next time I tell you to kill a prisoner, you had better do it, or I will make sure you suffer nine times as much as this little ocicat has!” Cristoph kicked the cat and the cat collapsed on the floor. The other black cat crawled away and vanished from Leopardfur’s view. Cristoph then turned to Leopardfur and strode over to where she sat. He looked her over, inspecting every gash and every bruise. She had one giant gash on her cheek, and it was steadily bleeding. She jerked away when he touched it. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” He asked, mockingly. “You’re lucky you’re still alive.” A smirk formed across his face. “Or are you?” The wicked laughter that followed chilled Leopardfur to the core.

Cristoph pulled a knife out of his clothing and took several more steps toward Leopardfur. He smiled once he saw the fear in her eyes. She shrunk in her torture chair and tried to become as little as possible. The razor-sharp blade touched the terrified prisoner’s golden fur. Christoph laughed as the blade found an unscathed patch of fur on her forearm. Cristoph sliced it open entirely. Leopardfur couldn’t keep her mouth shut this time. The entire room was filled with her screams…..

Wide-eyed and breathing very hard, Leopardfur woke from her second nightmare. Her throat hurt from screaming in her sleep. Her entire body ached, especially her forearm and her face. She felt them and was relieved to find that the cuts weren’t there anymore. She sat up and got her breathing back to normal. It was around three in the morning. Leopardfur stood up and slowly walked around her room in aimless circles, thinking about her recent nightmares. This latest one was way more vivid than the last one. The golden she-cat had a strange feeling about it. She sensed it wasn’t an ordinary nightmare. It seemed way too real for that. A premonition, perhaps? She hadn’t thought about that possibility before. Leopardfur shook the feeling off and tried to forget the tyrant as she laid back down.

[Sky]

“Hold still! This will only take a moment, Leopardfur.” The grumpy old squirrel doctor scolded. He continued to check her blood pressure.
“I would if you’d quit cutting off all circulation in my arm!” Leopardfur shot back.
“I have to do that! That’s how I get an accurate result!” The doctor yelled.
A gun shot off somewhere in the infirmary.
“W-w-w-what was that?” The squirrel stuttered, fearfully.
“A gunshot.” Leopardfur replied. “And it sounded very close. I’ll go check it out. You stay here, Doctor.” Leopardfur took off the blood pressure meter.
“Ok-k-k-kay, just be c-c-c-careful.” The squirrel was still shaking and stuttering.

Leopardfur nodded and stepped out of the room and into the infirmary corridor. She glanced down the right side, then the left. There wasn’t anyone else in the corridor. The golden cat crept down the corridor and paused in front of the next door to listen. Silence. She tried the next door down. Still nothing. The third and final door also had the same chilling silence. Leopardfur decided to turn around and try the other end. They were all silent. The gunshot must have come from the other side of the infirmary. The ocicat was now fearful. She cautiously made her way over to the other end of the infirmary. When she stepped through the door that led to the other corridor, she saw a fox lying on the ground, dead. The white-tailed fox had a bullet-hole in his left temple. Leopardfur cursed under her breath. Who could’ve done this? That white-tailed fox was the most sweet, cheerful, and innocent fox in the whole infirmary! All of a sudden, Leopardfur was hit over the head and blacked out, without a sound.

When Leopardfur regained consciousness, she felt a terrible pain in her head. It was so bad, she gasped. She felt the familiar soft, fuzzy material of her blankets. She must be in her bed at home. She rolled over and vomited over the side of her bed. Feeling better, she opened her eyes, but to her dismay, she couldn’t see anything. Leopardfur yowled as loud as she could. She yowled until her throat hurt, not caring if anyone heard her. Without sight, the world seemed smaller. Leopardfur hated it. She hated her failing eyesight and the empty feeling it left her with. When she was without sight, she hated the world, too. Rolling back over in her bed, Leopardfur started crying. All the cooped up anger, sorrow, and loneliness poured out of the grief-stricken ocicat’s sightless eyes. Leopardfur cried until sleep took over her body.

In the next room, the old squirrel doctor sat, listening to the golden she-cat. He waited until she fell silent to check on her. The squirrel tiptoed into her bedroom and curled his nose when he smelled the vomit on the floor. He crept back out and searched her closets for cleaning supplies. When he found some, he softly padded back into the bedroom of the sleeping ocicat. He cleaned up her vomit and sprayed some air freshener. The old squirrel put another blanket on Leopardfur before taking the cleaning supplies, walking out, and shutting the door behind him.

Leopardfur thrashed in her sleep. She was back in her torture chair, only this time, her front paws were free. However, she was being haunted by voices. More specifically, she was haunted by Christoph’s voices. He jeered at her in several different tones. He kept teasing her, making fun of her lack of eyesight. Leopardfur was blind for her nightmare this time. She still felt, heard, smelled, and tasted everything. Cristoph continued vexing the golden ocicat. The ocicat was growing sick of the panther. She tried to lash her claws at him. Christoph laughed at her pathetic attempts to snag his fur. Every time she got a clawful of air. Frustration began to make itself present in her emotions. That agile panther just danced away. Now Leopardfur was getting angry. She practically roared at the panther. He just laughed harder as he continued to dance around the she-cat and mock her. Eventually, Leopardfur grew weary. She slumped back into her chair.
“Had enough, have we? Excellent. Let’s try another game. The object of this game is to catch the knife I’m going to throw at you. Understand?” Cristoph backed away a few feet and pulled out a knife.

“No….. No please…. Don’t throw it!” Leopardfur pleaded.
“Ready….”
“No, no, no, please!”
“Set….”
“Please, no! Please!”
“Catch!”

The knife left the insane tyrant’s paw and flew towards Leopardfur’s face.

“Leopardfur! Wake up! Wake up, Leopardfur!” The old squirrel doctor shook Leopardfur until she stopped screaming and looked at him. Her sight had returned.

“Uhh… Hi, Doctor. I had a bad dream.” Leopardfur mumbled.
“Tell me about it.”