Liz awoke the next morning to her cellphone ringing. She raised her head and reached over to where it set on the table, careful not to disturb Patti, who was sleeping in Liz's arms. Liz looked at the caller ID before flipping the phone open.

"Hey Soul," she said hoarsely. "What's up? Do you know what time it is?"

"Liz, is Kid there?"

"No, why?" Liz sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Patti stirred in her lap.

"He's not here. He left a note saying he left and he'd be back soon."

"Then why are you calling me?" Liz thought bitterly.

"This… this doesn't seem cool at all," Soul said. "It's not like Kid to leave his guests alone like this. I wanted you to know, just in case something happened to him."

"What are you implying, Soul?" her voice was serious now. She was wide awake. "What kind of thing?"

"I have no idea. I just got a bad a feeling about this."

Lost Night; Kid's Been Taken?!

"Did anything happen last night?" Liz was all but interrogating Soul, Blackstar, and Crona. Kid was nowhere to be found. Maka had the note in her hand.

"Soul, Blackstar, and Crona—

I've gone out for a while and I'll be back soon. Breakfast should be on the table when you wake up. Be careful not to ruin my house while I'm out.

— Death the Kid."

Kid's handwriting was shaky, as if he was trying not to cry when he wrote it.

"No," Soul replied. "At least… I don't think so."

"What do you mean 'you don't think so'?" Maka pressed.

Ame was poking around the house. She picked up one of the empty soda bottles and sniffed the rim. She wrinkled her nose and pulled back.

"I don't remember a lot that happened, alright?" Soul tried to defend himself. "We fell asleep at about midnight and I didn't wake up since."

"Who was the first to fall asleep?" Tsubaki quizzed. Blackstar looked up. It seemed like a random question to ask.

"Why do you need to know that?" he asked.

"Just tell me," Tsubaki insisted. "You acted kind of weird last night, and it's got me worried."

"Um… I think Soul was the first to fall asleep," Blackstar replied slowly. Whatever had them in a spell last night hadn't seemed to wear off any; Crona was still asleep on the couch.

"No, I remember Kid fell asleep before I did," Soul said. "I… I guess it was Kid? Or… Crona?"

"Something's not right," Maka said. There was another pause as she observed her weapon. "Soul, are you feeling okay?"

"Not really," Soul yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"What did you four do anyway?" Maka asked. "What did you eat? Soul, snap out of it!"

"Maybe you'll remember once you eat something," Tsubaki said, putting a cautioning hand on her friend's wrist. Maka glanced at her, and Tsubaki eyed her meaningfully. "Let them eat something, at least. They're tired, and it's clear someone did something to them."

There was some breakfast on the table, just as the note predicted. Soul was the first one there; Blackstar was still trudging behind him and Liz was trying to awaken Crona. Soul sat down at the table and stared at the plates. Pancakes? Since when did Kid have the time to cook these in the middle of the night? And especially after sleeping like that. Maybe his reaper body was simply immune to whatever made them sleep so much. Wait, then why was Kid asleep at some point?

Soul dismissed the thoughts for later, cutting into the pancake and taking a bite. He chewed and swallowed, but felt something sharp stuck in his throat.

He stood upright at once, coughing violently. One hand was cupped over his face, the other clutching his throat.

"Soul, what's wrong?!" Maka asked, running to his side immediately. Soul coughed again, successfully dislodging whatever it was. He pulled his hand away from his mouth to look at what it was. Maka gasped in horror.

"N-needle!" Soul choked out. He straightened and put the needle on the table. The others gathered in the room. "That makes it official. Kid didn't leave on his own terms."

"Than what happened to him?" Liz whispered.

"I have a theory," Ame spoke up. The others turned to her.

"You have more than a theory," Liz stated, remembering what Ame had said the other day about 'her eye.'

Ame nodded once. "First of all, you three are tired because you were drugged. Where did you get that soda?"

"Kid said you left it here," Blackstar replied.

"I've never seen a soda pop like this before," Ame countered. "But it was made with a rare and powerful drug that causes people to sleep. Crona fell asleep first because he's the weakest of you. Kid fell asleep because this drug could get past his immunity barrier. Blackstar's still tired because he had two."

"What about the needle?" Maka asked.

"I'm getting to that," Ame assured her. Ame was speaking slowly and calmly; her serenity kept the others' madness at bay for now. "Now the rest of this, I'm not one hundred percent certain of—I'm just kind of guessing—but I think it went like this. In the middle of the night, Kid woke up because he heard a noise and his body was able to dissolve the poison first. He realized he didn't feel well and went to the kitchen to get a drink. I looked in the fridge and saw the pitcher was only half full, which is odd even if he wanted to get a little drink. It was like he dropped it and it spilled all over the floor. I think someone grabbed him from behind and he dropped the pitcher in surprise."

The others could see it in vivid detail.

"Next I looked at the note. His handwriting is all scratchy like he was trembling. I think whoever grabbed him told him to write that note, saying he'd hurt Soul and the others if he refused or screamed. Kid was too scared to fuss over the letters, so whoever it was must have been really good."

"So you think he was kidnapped?" Liz proposed, horrified at the thought.

"But that's not all. I looked at the pitcher again and realized it wasn't in the center of the fridge like it always is. I suppose after writing the note, Kid told his captor, 'my friends would be suspicious if I just left this mess here.' So the captor gave him a short amount of time to clean it, which was only enough time to put the pitcher in the fridge and soak up the water with a towel. He wasn't being careful enough because the towel is still in the laundry room.

"The other thing is the pancakes with the needles in them. Kid wouldn't have had time or energy to bake pancakes after being drugged like that, so this part I'm certain of. To finish the job, the captor made pancakes for the others to eat when they woke up. He put needles in them so that you three would choke and die instead of calling Liz and Patti to come home, because whoever did this knew he did it very sloppily."

"And?"

"That's all I have so far," Ame alleged. "My guessing ends there."

Soul Eater

Kid awoke hours later. The drug was finally dissolved in his body, leaving him fully conscious. The room he was in was unfamiliar and dark, and it smelt of blood and dirt. He felt chains binding his wrists and ankles to a chair. Kid struggled, but winced when the chains cut into his raw wrists. Escaping immediately was a no-go, apparently.

"Finally awake, are you, reaper?" a voice asked.

Kid's head snapped up as the room was suddenly alight with several candles. He could definitely sense a witch's soul in the room; his kidnapper, no doubt. She was standing right in front of him. Her appearance was disgusting. Her silver hair was long and parted in a lopsided way. Her eyes were a piercing, frosty blue. It hurt to look at them. She almost looked like Loraine, but this person wore a disconcertingly cruel sneer instead of that familiar wolfy grin. Kid couldn't help but feel a little fear as she stepped dangerously close to him.

"Who are you?" Kid demanded. "What do you want with me?"

"I am the witch Rem," she replied with a grin. "And you'll find out what I want soon enough."

"Well then, Rem," Kid hissed. "Would you mind not standing so close to me? Your appearance is repulsive."

Rem laughed. "I'd slap you for a comment like that, but I need you in a better mental state for my project."

"Your project?" Kid asked as she began circling his chair.

"I need to create something mortal immortal," she smiled demonically, appearing in front of him again. She held up a syringe filled with a black substance. "Just cooperate and I won't hurt you more than necessary."

"Stay away from me," Kid commanded. He didn't want this psycho woman or her needle anywhere near him. Immortal? What was she talking about? He began struggling against the restraints again, but someone grabbed him from behind—probably that wolf Kishin that had taken him in the first place.

Rem plunged the needle into Kid's neck, and he felt tears well up in his eyes and spill over before he could control it. The chemical injected into his veins burned and made his mind a bit hazy from the sudden pain. Once he was released, Kid doubled over and began coughing and sputtering. Small drops of black blood splattered across his lap.

"What did she do to me?" he thought. "Is she trying to get to Ame? Does she want something from my father?" Kid looked up at Rem's sick sneer. "No. she targeted me alone. What does she want?"

Rem took his face roughly in her hand. "Not so big and tough now, huh, Shinigami?"

Kid lashed out reflexively, biting her fingers savagely. Even in this circumstance, he wondered what triggered such a reaction. Honestly, speak of impulsive. Rem recoiled, clutching her bleeding hand. She frowned and turned to her wolf servant.

"Let him have it," she ordered.

Kid felt himself being held from behind again, this time a hand forcing his mouth open. Kid thrashed unwillingly, trying to bite the hand away as he did with Rem. He felt his blood racing; he suddenly smelt blood. Not just blood, but he could tell what kind of blood—wolf's blood. How could he tell that? He felt a glass of the stuff shoved under his nose and tipped back. Kid choked back on the blood. It tasted horrific. He shook his head forcefully, trying to pull away. He was finally released, and he gulped in fresh air.

Only to be forced back in a chokehold. Kid whimpered when he wasn't coughing. The blood was making him feel nauseous and weak. His hands were trembling in their restraints. Blood was terrible. He hated all of this.

As soon as he was released, he passed out from pain and something else that he couldn't quite place. Another drug, maybe? Rem stared at his limp body.

"How long do you think it will take to break him, Master?" the wolf asked.

"He's a Shinigami, but his mind and body are changing," Rem said. "It shouldn't be long. Tomorrow"—she turned her back on the wolf and Kid—"I want to begin the real torture."

"Yes, Master Rem."

Poor Kid! But, in all honesty, I kind of miss writing this kind of stuff all the time. If you liked it, I recommend my first story Vector Wolf. If you didn't like it, review and tell me and I will put up author's notes before and after the graphic scenes so you won't have to read anymore :)