Guilt Can't Catch Me (OPEN)

As sunlight peeked through the warriors den, Marshmallow was asleep. Her tail, tucked under her chin as she fell into a dream.

Standing in a dark, pitch black place. Her paws felt sticky. She pulled one up to see something black dripping off of them, like mud. There was a feeling of fear deep in her stomach, swirling and spinning. The black and white she-cat attempted to shake the black thing off of her paw, but it was everywhere, so when she put her paw down again, it just got caught in the icky stuff again. She narrowed her eyes, but she felt a presence behind her. Similar to the one she felt when she was talking to Forestkit. She spun around swiftly, pouncing on what she thought was watching her, but she only fell into the black mud stuff. "Stop watching me." She hissed. But something echoed around her, as if mocking her. "Stop, stop, stop." Huffing in annoyance, she got up, the mud sticking to the fur on her stomach and legs. "I'm serious, stop it."

Silence.

Not even a single word. Even if Marshmallow could only see herself in the pitch-black world of her dream, she knew she was spinning. Her claws came out, but the spinning jerked to a stop, causing her to let go, and making her fall sideways into the mud. "I know you mean it." The voice that mocked her spoke again. A black paw stepped in front of her, it was dripping with the black mud stuff. "I know who you are. You know who I am. Inside." Marshmallow lifted her head. It was a mirrored version of herself. She didn't have any scars, was covered in flowers, and seemed to be made of the black mud stuff, but black changed to white where it was needed. ".. What..?" "Surprised? Don't be." As Marshmallow lifted her head up, she noticed the other Marshmallow's face. Like hers, but her green eye replace by a green mallow flower.

"This is you. I am you. Like you are me, but unlike you, I don't run away, I am-" "Perfect?" Marshmallow guessed, huffing as she pushed herself up from the ground. "You aren't real." "I am... To you. To your gut. Inside, you feel me." "... What...?" The she-cat was utterly confused.

"Oh. Guilt is confusing for you. So that is me. I am confusing." The other Marshmallow started walking away. "I'm not guilty of anything, nothing's my fault" Marshmallow got up and started walking after it, but it stopped. "I'm disappointed in you. You're going down the wrong path. Stop pretending. Feel your own guilt." The real she-cat hissed. "Stop talking. I- I don't like it." "Why do you avoid me?" "I-I'm not avoiding anything..." She stepped back, ears lowering. The dripping mud Marshmallow turned back. "Then don't run away." A sense of danger hit her all of a sudden and she let out a tiny whimper. "The only thing I'm avoiding is you." Just as she was about to run, the fake Marshmallow spun around and hit her cheek with her claws.

Then she woke up. Breath heavy. Eyes wide. She still felt a tingling pain in her cheek. There was blood below her, something warm dripping down her face. The sun lit up a little brown thorn hidden in her nest.

It was just a dream.

Dreams don't make sense.

Deerleap poked her head in to call Marshmallow. "Hey, Frostgaze said that you have to go on patrol with me-" she stopped as the scent of blood drifted towards her. "Marshmallow? Are you ok?" she gasped, her gaze sweeping in the warrior's heavy breathing and wide eyes. she tipped her head. did something happen? her amber eyes softened and she whispered softly, "is there something you want to talk about?" she hoped that the she-cat would trust her enough to tell her what happened.

Snowpaw had been walking past the den and stopped when she heard Deerleap’s words. Was her mentor in some kind of trouble? Whiskers twitching anxiously, Snowpaw slipped into the entrance next to Deerleap.
“Marshmallow? Is something the matter?”

Marshmallow lifted her paw up to her face, still in a bit of disbelief. She felt the blood dampen her paw fur, it only made her breath quicken. "I'm... I'm fine." She whispered to herself. "It was only a dream." Suddenly, two shadows appeared on the den's wall, causing her to look back quickly, half expecting the Not-Marshmallow to be standing there. "Patrol...?" She mumbled, slowly regaining her senses. The sun was slowly setting, that's why there was a patrol happening.

Lifting her paw to her cheek again, she still felt blood, it had dripped and stained her moss bed red, now. Her gaze fell onto a brown thorn, a bit of her white fur caught on it. "Just a..." She was having trouble regaining her breath. "...Bad dream.." Her fur started standing up, feeling something behind her.

Stop trying to run away

She could hear the voice clearly in her head, it spooked her, fur standing up and claws coming out, sinking into the ground. But when she turned her head, she saw nothing. She felt the heat of embarrassment through her face. Marshmallow didn't like it. Her gaze flinched slightly, pupils shifting between Deerleap and her apprentice. "I just... got cut... by a thorn..." She nudged the sharp brown thorn towards them, giving herself a lick on the shoulder in hopes it would calm her down.

It wasn't working.

Deerleap gave an uncertain look at Marshmallow. it didn't look like it was just a cut by the thorn, but she didn't push it. "well, go see Basilbloom in case that gets infected. I'll tell Frostgaze what happened," she signed, picking up the thorn and heading out of the den.

Snowpaw took a step closer to her mentor. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem a bit off lately.”