The Queen of White Lies

Stress was never something Viper had taken well. Even when he was young, the Frenchman had never learned how to deal with stress in a healthy way. He kept it buried far inside and never mentioned it. One might think the Frenchman didn't have a care in the world. He usually wore a bright smile and was doting around some kind of baked treat. Little did they know, Viper was motivated by deep, stabbing stress. It clawed at his mind day and night, never letting him fall into a deep sleep or focus on anything else for more than a moment. He really had no one to talk to about it, at least, no one Viper felt comfortable enough to talk with. He'd talk to Val, but the issue was, a good portion of Viper's stress was stemming from the pimp. The last thing Viper wanted to do is offend him. Viper wasn't looking for another fight with the man. Even though the Frenchman had a few choice words for his mate.

Viper had never been the violent type. At least, he didn't show that part of himself since he had joined the Exiles. In fact, the blonde serval had changed significantly since he had joined the Exiles. He'd joined under the promise that he had a large amount of drugs on his person and that he was willing to suck anyone's dick. While the former was definitely still true, the latter was definitely not. Lucky Val, Viper was exclusively his.

However, the drugs were starting to lose their knack. In any other circumstance, Viper would have just taken more and just prayed that it didn't kill him. To keep him from doing something drastic, if nothing else. Something kept Viper from doing it, though. Not even Viper could explain it. He wondered if it was the fear of death. Viper wasn't ready to die yet, despite how careless he could be with himself. He didn't want to fall asleep one night and never wake up. He wondered constantly if he would be able to feel it. Was it possible to feel that one was going to die? Or maybe it was just paranoia.

Instead of taking up his usual spot to fall asleep in the afternoon, Viper had taken to pacing around the territory. Besides, his spot was tainted by memories of his capture. He called them walks, but they were neither productive nor relaxing. Viper would lose himself in dire thoughts of his death, what Val could possibly do next to get himself into trouble, what the next political issue would be in the Exiles. The idea of a coming battle made Viper sick to his stomach. His leg still ached and his limp was heavy. He couldn't possibly live through another battle and escape alive. His tongue ran over his newly grown fangs. He could be captured again and maybe this time the Exiles wouldn't be able to save him. Where would Viper's good luck end? The serval had been terribly lucky all of his life. He had survived a war, survived wandering aimlessly with a newborn child. He'd made it through ever single one of Maxine's pointless battles and every horrible encounter he had had with clients. Even with his capture, he had been very fortunate that Val had come to his rescue. It was bound to run out one of these days.

Too deeply encased in a tomb of thoughts, Viper didn't notice the pale grey coat trailing along the border beside him. The words were going so far over Viper's head that the domestic cat might as well have not been speaking. When a paw reached out to nudge Viper's shoulder, the leucistic serval flinched. His pink eyes shot up in fear, meeting the cat's angry gaze. Not processing any of the words thrown at him. Viper's immediate first thought was that this feline wanted to hurt him.

Viper's thoughts weren't processing in his brain. Viper didn't remember feeling his claws rip out the cat's delicate throat. Perhaps if some curious crows didn't come to poke at the corpse, Viper would have completely forgotten the incident. His pink oculars stared at the pools of crimson red flooding around his pristine white paws. Uttering a blood curdling scream, Viper stumbled backwards. He fell onto his back, shaking his paws wildly in an attempt to rid his claws of the sticky blood and the flesh caught between his shiny white claws.

His fearful tears dripped to the ground, mingling with the spilled feline blood. Viper's breath came in heaving gasps, the albino serval swaying on his feet.