To Die For
Kim opened his eyes. For a moment he blinked them for the bright light of the sun. He remembered he had had a dream last night but couldn't remember what it was like.
He was already ready to get up, assuming this would be a great day, when he heard Malik's voice outside the cave and remembered everything that happened yesterday. His grumpy mood returned and he tried to get to sleep again.
Just when he was almost asleep, Maliki came pouncing to the cave. He was laughing, obviously enjoying himself, he had been playing with the others. "Hey Kim, you wanna play?"
Sure, Kim thought. Here we go again, still trying to fool Dad and Mum that he's changed. That won't work for me anymore.
But suddenly he saw a chance here. A chance to get back at Mali for yesterday. He grinned to himself and turned to face Maliki. "Sure!" he said cheerfully, maybe a little TOO cheerfully. "I'd love to play." Maliki smiled. Little bro didn't seem to be mad at him anymore. "Well, I'll ask the others and..." Kim shook his head. "Oh, no, please. I'd want to play without them this time, they don't like me." Kim lowered his head and tried to look sad. Maliki thought for a while, Kim was his little brother and Maliki HAD been very nasty at him yesterday. now he could have the chance to apologize. "Okay," he smiled. "We can play together, just you and me!" "Great!" Kim smiled and got up.
They walked away from Pride Rock. "So where are we going?" Maliki asked. "Oh, I don't know...Maybe to the field?" Kim suggested. Maliki nodded. He was thinking how to start, how to apologize from Kim.
"Kim, uhh...I-I need to, umm, talk to you." Kim walked a little behind him, slowing down on purpose. "Well?" he asked though he wasn't actually interested. He looked over his shoulder, no-one was following them.
"Look, I...What i wanted to say...? Uhh, Kim?" "Don't worry, I'm right behind you, go on." "Well, I just wanted to say...what happened yesterday, in the, umm, graveyard...Kim, I have to say I'm really so--Yeeaaoouch!!!"
Maliki cried out from pain and turned around. Kim was standing behind him, claws out and ears pulled back like getting ready to charge. Maliki felt pain in his shoulder and saw it was bleeding from Kim's scratch. "Geez, Kim! Why'd you do that for?!" "You lied to Shani! You said it was YOU who saved her!" Kim shouted, breathing hard. "But I wanted to say I was sorry!" "Oh sure, and I'm supposed to believe you?!" Maliki looked shocked for a while, then he became furious too. "Well, you deserved it!" "Why?" "If you wouldn't have gone with Shani to the graveyard, I wouldn't have had to come!" "We didn't force you!" "But without you no-one would've expected me to come too! They would've thought I was a coward!" "Yeah, that's what you always said about me!" Kim was filled with rage now. Maliki ignored him. "And if it wasn't for you, I would've never fallen from that cliff!" "What cliff?" "In the graveyard!" Maliki felt himself choking up. "It was so high...And I hate high places! Even Mum knows it!"
Kim's eyes widened. He never knew anything about this, he had always thought Mali didn't fear anything. Now he smiled and chuckled. "Oh, so you fear heights? This sounds interesting..." Maliki gulped. He had said too much. "I-I...I meant, I..." "This really DOES sound interesting!" Kim laughed. "Wait until everyone hears about this!" Maliki felt cold chills running down his spine. The he felt himself raging. "You wouldn't dare!" Kim laughed and turned around to leave. "Oh yeah? Watch me!"
"I won't LET you tell them!" Maliki roared and jumped on Kim, thinking he could easily blackmail a promise from him not to tell anyone by pinning him again. But this time he was wrong. Rage had driven Kim to the edge of his own strength and he was now almost as strong as his brother. He used Maliki's strategy against him; he stroke when he was blinded by his anger and hit him on the weak spots, like his scratched shoulder. Maliki was almost desperate seeing how strong Kim was now, it had always been so easy to pin him. But he used all the power he had and rolled on Kim.
They were both doing what they always did: fighting. But this time it was no game, they were fighting for their lives.
Kim pinned Maliki to the ground, for the first time in his life and started to slap him on the face with his paw. "I HATE YOU! YOU HEAR ME?! I HATE YOU!!!" Maliki was losing his strength all the time, but could still take advantage of the moment. When Kim lifted his paw again, Maliki bit his leg and Kim flew backwards from pain. Maliki got a grip of him and they started rolling on the ground, both pinning each other at a time.
Neither of them had noticed they had rolled closer and closer to a gorge, the same gorge where Simba once lost his father.
"Do you surrender?!" Maliki shouted, standing on top of Kim. "I--I--" Kim tried to gasp for air. "DO YOU?!" "NO!!!"
Kim used his hind legs to throw Maliki off him, but he did it in the wrong direction.
Maliki shrieked and grabbed the edge of the cliff just in time to see little rocks falling into the canyon. He looked down and everything started to spin again. He felt sick and he was scared to even shiver so he wouldn't fall. "K-Kim..." he whispered, eyes begging. "Pl-ease, help..." Kim was in shock, how could he help? This wasn't what he wanted, how could he even start thinking about fighting with Maliki?
"Hold on, I'll..." he started, when he suddenly felt weird. He saw colors and shapes changing and he felt dizzy. "Kim, Kim, please, please, I'll take it all back, I-I didn't mean anything...Please, I'll tell Shani I lied, I promise, I'll do it, just help me, Kim..." Maliki squaled with a tearful voice.
Now Kim felt better. Still he felt so strange. He knew why. He remembered his dream.
He looked at Maliki who was desperately trying to hold on to the cliff. His paws were getting tired, he couldn't hold on much longer.
Kim felt a grin forming on his face. He lifted his paws up in the air and stuck his claws in Maliki's paws. Maliki roared in pain. "K-K-Kim, w-what are y-you doing?!" He looked at Kim and gasped.
Kim had changed. His eyes that had always been big and red like his mother's were now small and green. He had a little more mane on his head and his fur was darker than before, more like Kovu's. Maliki was scared, it was Kim but still it wasn't.
Now Kim leaned over to Maliki and whispered:
"Long - live - the king."
Suddenly he let go of Maliki. Maliki fell screaming to the deep gorge, deeper than even in his nightmares. His body crushed on a few stones before hitting the ground. Everything fell silent.
Kim felt like he had been in a trance and now he woke up. What did he just do?
He had killed his own brother.
Kim felt like throwing up. This couldn't be happening...it just couldn't...
Maliki wasn't alive anymore, he knew it. He just KNEW it. It was scary too. He was shaking all over. Now everything left from the Kim Maliki saw last was a scared little cub. Everything rushed up to Kim's mind, he turned around, running back to Pride Rock as fast as he could. Only one word was enough to let all the hurt out:
"MOOOOMMMYYY!!!"
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