Leaving Sanity

I quite hope this isn't too short. I enjoyed putting together prose and wirting. Constructive crit is always welcome!

Leaving Sanity - Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick...
The clock strikes,

It seems fickle of us cats. We want silence when we're stalking to concentrate, yet when we're hunting, we want sounds of prey to fill the area. Silence is a funny term. It can be good or bad. Perhaps it's neither. But it's interesting how here, in the Dark Forest, it decides to be silent. Perhaps it gives us time to reflect, even though we wouldn't. Perhaps it tortures us, even though it doesn't. It all changed when we could hear.

And silence falls.

The silence was disturbed. It seemed to just crash down and burn and never was it to be heard ever again. The sound of silence is such a weird thing. Many cats say you can't hear silence. But silence seems to be composed of many sounds. The blood rushing in your ears, your heart pounding, your breathing, ragged and hard. That is what silence is to me. To hear those things and those things only. But that changed.

Never before did anything call,

It pounds in my ears. I know others can feel it too. Even though we hardly interact, I can see it in their manner. Feuds are no longer sought after; they want to avoid them. Eyes are no longer seeking contact; they want to avoid them. It happened all so suddenly. It drives me mad, the sound. It's likened to a bird pecking a tree, but it's not. They try to make it familiar, but it's not. It's not.

''Tick... Tick... Tick.. Tick...''

It won't stop, it doesn't stop, it will never stop. It will just take us away one by one by one until we've all lost our minds. Do you know how it feels, to feel things slipping? Things not matching up, things falling out of place? You just can't understand. Everything is out of place. I don't know my past, I don't know why I'm here. I have no clue why I'm condemned to this dark place. I know, deep in my mind I deserve it. I know I used to not care. But I don't know why. I'm lost. I'm slipping. I'm scared.

Driving madness from the source,

Something inside of me is changing. But I know this change. I don't know why, or what I've done but I know this feeling. I've done this before. I have felt everything shift inside me before. I feel all of this pain and it's all just déjà vu. I know this isn't normal, but why? Why have felt this before?

''Come one, come all, in my arms.''

It seems so welcoming. I can't stop this madness, but I almost don't want to. It would be so easy to give in, to give up. And that's exactly what I want to do. But I can't. I am by no means forgotten. My paws are not fading in the air; nay, they pull me down what seems like foxlengths. I can barely step with that sound trapping me inside my head. I need to get out, but it never wavers. It's not in the forest. It's in my head.

''All are welcome, all are sought. Come join us, come join our block.''

It's in all of our heads. Maybe we should seek support with each other, but it wouldn't work. Maybe we should try to find a way out of this, but it wouldn't work. I'm trapped and chained and I bite my way out. Instead, it bites at my head, my ears until it's consumed my being, unable to fend for itself. I can feel even more slipping. I feel as though I'm going over the edge. I don't know whether to welcome this darkness or not.

''Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick...''

As I feel myself slip away, I remember the faintest thread of who I am.

"Ash...fur?"

Tock.