Loyal

"Do you promise to be loyal forever?"

Nick stared at the screen in disbelief. He rarely joined Clans on Animal Jam - he was more of an item collector than a roleplayer - but even he knew that loyalty didn't usually matter to Clanners. It was practically an unspoken rule that you only had to stay with your Clan until the leader logged off, at which point you could simply find a new group.

"Well?" The leader, Infinity Arcticstar - or Froststar, as she called herself - was perched on the edge of a stone-chair Highrock, towering over the spike-clad wolves surrounding her. She had all-white fur and bright blue eyes, unusual for a Clanner, but her blue spikes and pirate sword were typical.

Nick wasn't sure what had compelled him to join ForestClan. He had just been hanging around Aldan, in the busy trading hours of Saturday afternoon, when he had seen Froststar's advertisement. But now that he was here, it was clear there was no going back for a while at least.

"Yes," he typed out. His warrior, a wolf named Commander Toughclaw - Tigerstripe - was your typical AJ "cat" - brown and white fur, black lighting pattern, yellow eyes, yellow spike set, cream worn, tail armor. He blended right into the crowd of sitting wolves.

"Good." Froststar stood. "Clan meeting over." The Clanners scattered at her words, some disappearing to the forest to hunt, others going to the pillow-filled nursery to tend to the rabbit-kits, still others chatting nonchalantly. Unsure, Nick had Tigerstripe hang around the volcano-den camp awkwardly.

The hours dragged on. It seemed whatever happened, Nick was too late to get involved. He started wondering how he could possibly slip out and get back to Aldan - but Froststar remained in his field of view, as though she could sense his faltering loyalty.

Finally, at four o'clock local time, Nick could stand it no longer,

"I'm going to hunt," he typed.

"Can I come with you?" Froststar replied.

Nick paused. He surely hadn't expected this. "Um I rather go alone."

Then, without waiting for her to respond, he unbuddied her and fled to his locked den.

After about five minutes of waiting to ensure she didn't have any way to get to him, he returned to Aldan. A few uneventful hours followed, with trading being more slow now that most people had logged off for dinner.

And eventually, Nick logged off as well. He had a bland dinner of leftover chicken and french fries, as was typical on weeknights, before heading up to bed.

In bed, rather than sleep, he played mindless minigames on his phone. The hours ticked away.

At about ten at night, he heard a sudden banging sound. Nick sat up; his parents had gone out, so he was the only one in the house. He felt a chill creep up his spine as the banging continued.

Slowly he got up and walked to the closed door of his room, where the noise was coming from. He reached out a trembling hand and opened the knob...

Nothing was there. The banging had stopped.

Then, out of the darkness of the hall, a pair of bright blue eyes appeared, gleaming.

Nick slammed the door shut and ran back to his bed. The banging resumed.

"Go away!" he shouted, "Or I'll call the police!" Grabbing his phone, he dialed 9-1-...

Then it stopped again. Nick froze, listening intently. Very slowly, the door creaked open.

He spun around, alarmed, and just barely glimpsed the white wolf before it pounced.

As he fell into a pool of his own blood, struggling to breathe, he heard a soft whisper:

"Stay loyal."