Hige's Death

Part 1

Hige has just said 'goodbye' to Blue and is going to the keep make things right, for him and all wolves.

I walked through the hall. My footsteps almost dragging on the serene floor. They echoed though the hallways. My hands felt tingly and numb, and I felt confused. My head was pounding and a headache throbbed in my eyes. My eyes felt thick and dull. Everything, my body, the air, my surroundings felt dull, though the searing pain in my head was sharp. My hands started getting clammy, and I began feeling nauseous. I could feel it. Them. The cameras, watching me. Their eyes burned in my fur. The walls around me were dark and ghastly, an eerie feeling loomed around them. Almost like a thick fog that hung around a funeral. I heard the undead whispering that danced around halls, and the creaking of the keep. I felt sick and I stumbled and leaned to the side, placing my hand on my forehead for support,

"What's happening to me?" I croaked. It was more so a statement, hoping that the illusion would go away . . . At least, that's what I hoped this was. My ears shot up and I froze; I heard a crash and a big boom on the level above me. 'The whole keep it falling apart!' I thought with a sick feeling. The dull but bright, luminescent lights that hung above flickered, and dangled, swaying hauntily as images of dead wolves pulsed through my mind. My vision felt blurry and hazy, and I didn't know what I was doing. I felt crazy, or like I was in some, sick dream. I felt my blood heat up.

Everything was grey and bleak, I felt as though the hallway was never-ending. I don't even know what I was thinking. I just had to keep moving.

I kept taking steps, each one echoing against my ears. I bent over and pushed my hand against the wall, placing my left hand on my knee lightly. I felt the shady walls; every groove, and knick. I started to sweat more intensely.. One drop ran down the side of my head and everything blurred pink and back to normal. "Damn it." I murmured, meaning for it to come out a shout. The air was cool, but it felt hot and muggy to me. The taste in my mouth was groggy, and my tongue stuck to my teeth. I licked around my mouth, almost trying to regain my consciousness.

BOOM! A gun shot somewhere in the halls and my body snapped back to normal. My legs felt like they could move faster but I stopped and I clenched my hands in fists in front of my eyes. I was still sweating, and I could hear wolves' howling in the back of my mind. I was confused and I looked around. The same hallway, over, and over again. How long had I been walking? I looked forward and stopped. There was a grey, steel door where the hallway ended. I ran up to it and smelled the air. Nobles, wolves. . . And blood. I moved closer to it, grabbed the metal knob and turned it sideways.

I walked in the room. It was a jail, or captivity room, with dozens of cells all lined up, all closed with the keep's failing electricity. I saw Tsume and Toboe up ahead on the right side-about 5 cells up from me-and I felt a voice in said me say, 'Yes!' I walked forward, my hands in my pockets, a weak smile on my face. The electricity dimmed momentarily and lit up again. My head started hurting again.

"Well what do you know, looks like I came all this way to rescue you for nothing." They were looking at me as I spotted that other human sitting across from them. I remembered smelling him at the door. He was Hubb I think, he hung around that old man. "Hey." They both leaned forward. Tsume breathed anxiously with a scowl on his face and Toboe smiled with surprise.

"Hige!" He said. He said it with relief, to my surprise. I smiled a little stronger and I moved closer to them. I made my way to the control panel, and I pushed the button to release them. It beeped and the doors slid open, ending off with a thud.

Toboe scurried to me with a smile on his face. He bent slightly forward and looked at me,

"I'm so glad you're not dead. " He said with relieved voice with the same tone as before. He touched my chest lightly with his hands spread out; stayed a little distance away from me. We turned and faced Tsume at an angle.

A little pang in my stomach felt annoyed. "Well, get out of there" I said with my usual careless, happy go lucky voice, though I felt weaker than before. Silence answered me as Tsume stared at me, his eyes frozen.

"So where the hell are you taking us?" He said with a gruff voice. Though, it was more of a surprised voice, as though he was negotiating with an enemy. I looked at him with a mutual look, but with the same smile on my face. He knew.

I didn't have to look at Toboe's face, but I knew he thought everything was fine, though he knew something was wrong. We relaxed our bodies, but inside I stay tense. Toboe's hand fell, and he brought it to his side. He moved closer to me,

"What are you talking about Tsume?" He looked at Tsume, not wanting whatever truth there was to be true. I knew what Toboe was feeling. It was probably like a crime scene for him. Like there was some underlying plot, or thief that he didn't want to believe was there. Toboe looked onward.

Tsume said shortly, "What kind of trap are you going to lead us to this time?" Before he was calm, with an uncertain anger in his throat, but now he was angry in his head. His eyes were sharp, piercing, golden-hazel pools that shot into mine. His face was solid, and he was teetering on whether to be angry or aloof. "I saw them," He said now, almost as though he wanted to whisper it, or to yell it at me. I couldn't tell which, my body was too messed up to know. "The wolves in that hall that had been stuffed and mounted like trophies." Toboe was surprised, almost dumbfound. Almost like he had been caught doing something wrong, he didn't know what to say.

"What happened to your collar?" Tsume was huffy now, and I paused for a second. I replied with a calm, but slightly angry voice. The sickness was getting to me,

"That stupid thing was just a number." I saw Toboe look at him from the side of my eye, but I didn't move from Tsume's gaze. I stared him down, not with much strength, but my inner determination.

"Then explain how you managed to waltz in here without being noticed." I felt like someone slid a pin in my arm. His emotion didn't want to believe what he knew was true. I smiled in my head. I could tell, even though he was trying to mask it up, 'stupid Tsume.' The little bit of happiness made room amongst my hazy head. He slightly paused and spoke again, "Was it your mission to lure us into this keep?" His voice was calm, and huffy-as though he didn't know what feeling he had- but grew to anger and the sentence finished itself. I didn't know what to say,

"I don't know." I didn't know what I said at that point. I was unsure, and annoyed, but mostly confused. My eyes throbbed, and I had a small vision of passing out on the floor.

"Yeah right" He replied a second later. "You were the nobles' dog. You helped them kill your own kind!" My body snapped into a somewhat normal mode,

"If that's what you think I am, then kill me!" I didn't really know what was happening. My heart felt weird, like it had been torn in two. I felt even sicker than before. My claws felt itchy, and anxious. The situation was dynamic, and gaining intensity. I never fully took in the conversation until I had left, but I knew at that moment he was angry. When he said that last sentence, he was almost furious. . But I didn't pay much attention to it, my body wouldn't let me. I spoke without thinking. I hesitated at the last part of the sentence when I saw a flicker of emotion in Tsume's eyes; it threw me off. Kill me? Did I mean that? Of all things, why did that come out? Inside, was that really what I wanted? Was I that guilty? Just as I said that, a flood of images drowned out my head. The dying wolves, all the pups, the guilt and greed and . . . Hatred . . . the blood… 'the blood' my head whispered . . .

He stared at me with hard eyes, and there was a pause. I stared back at him, but with softer eyes which turned into an almost insane happy expression. "Please, I mean it" I didn't know what I was saying. I saw the dead wolves' images again. And everything felt hazy again. A second passed and then Toboe processed through his mind of what I had said.

"Cut it out! That doesn't sound like you at all." He was a bit scared, or maybe he was confused and disturbed, but he still remained calm.

"Sound like me? My voice had an off tone to it, something I couldn't describe myself. I spoke aloud, though I focused on what I was saying to Tsume. "What the hell does that mean, 'like me'?" Who was me? I felt my head laughing. What was I? Was I the nobles' dog? Or was I just a lone wolf? What was I? Was I born for merely that purpose? I unconsciously looked at Toboe. His face expression said, 'What's wrong! What's wrong Hige?' The thought of me dying must of flickered through his mind. But . . . Maybe I was dying . . . I didn't know what was happening at that point. I said with a raspy voice. "How can I sound like me, when I don't know who that is?" I didn't really notice Tsume, but I imagined his face said that he was sick of this bullshit, though I didn't even recognise what I was saying. It probably was bullshit. I stared forward, looking at nothing, falling back into the daze-

"Well I do." Toboe broke the fog in my head like a boly of lightening, and I saw Tsume's face change.. I could feel Toboe's face looking down, solemn. I turned to look at him, and I looked at him with my eyes. "The Hige I know was funny and nice and kind of careless" He was probably as confused as I was. He looked as though he was reflecting on our journey. His voice was quiet, but full of meaning. His head gild up, almost like he was ready to yell., and his eyes were wide and scared. My face was blank. "That's the real Hige! " He was weak, and trying to convince me, or maybe just trying to convince himself. He touched my hoodie heavily.

Tsume continued on starting, but I felt his gaze soften, though he dwelled in the same spot. A few moments passed and my head bent forward,

"Things have gotten pretty weird inside the keep. You guys can make it out if you hurry." I had a headache, and I rushed at the last part of the sentence. I began walking away, but I could sense Toboe's arms remained in the place where my body was.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Tsume said, this time it wasn't so gruff. I breathed out, waiting, looking down and in my own world.

"I need to take care of something."