PART 7: MORNINGBELLS
Kita groaned, she felt dizzy and waves of pain washed over her head, accompanied by a pounding noise like a drum. Kita already started to think she drank a little too much wine last night... no, impossible, it was like one glass.
All of the sudden, she fully came to her senses, woke up completely. The moment she did, her hart missed a beat, literally, and the blood in her veins turned to ice. Her whole body shook with the shivers of fear that went through it, like an electric shock.
She was awake, but she saw nothing but the blackest darkness. She had gone blind.
It had always been Kita's greatest fear to go blind. To never see the world again, and to be so helpless. She tried to imagine what it could be like once, to look into pure darkness for the rest of your life, and she had shivered. One time she had gotten shampoo in her eye and she had gone totally hysteric, spending nearly an hour on trying to wash it out.
Blind. She couldn't see anything. A squeal started in the bottom of her throat, rising up, in a loud, waving yell, that sounded much like the shriek of a mad woman, but she didn't care. She bursted into tears. She would never see again.
Her sobbing stopped as abruptly as it started when she noticed other things. She felt... something on her face. On her eyes... a soft fabric. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized she wasn't blind after all, but there was something laying on her face, covering her eyes. Maybe one of the Argonauts thought it would have been a very funny joke to blindfold her.
With a sigh of exasperation, Kita wanted to move her hand to her face to remove whatever it was that covered her eyes. But then she came to another eerie realization. She couldn't move her hands. She tried, but she could only lift them a little bit. They were restrained and... so were her feet.
She tried to move, but couldn't. She was laying somewhere -yes, she now realized she was laying, on a bed, it seemed- and she had been tied down. God damn it, which of her tribe-members could've played such a stupid joke on her?! Kita growled annoyed, but sort of came to the conclusion that these type of jokes weren't really the style of any of her tribe-members.
Kita lay there, perfectly silent and motionless for a few minutes, restrained to a bed with a covered face. "Er... guys, this isn't funny, let me go...,"she tried, a small spark of hope in her voice. Undoubtly someone would appear now, to untie her and take her blindfold away, and then Kita could slap that person in the face for playing such a stupid joke on her.
Silence. Her ears registered nothing but silence.
"Hey! Bastards! I said: this isn't funny, now untie me already!"Kita yelled, trying to sound as dangerous as she possibly could. Again, no one responded. "Oh God,"Kita muttered as she tried to recall last night's events. She had been sitting outside... then all of the sudden something had hit her in the head -that was the cause of her headache. None of her fellow tribe-members would ever do such a thing. Nor would they tie her up by means of a joke.
She was laying somewhere, tied down, and nobody responded to her cries. Kita became so scared at that moment that she just seem to lose it for one second. One second, in which her hart sank to her feet, her mind disappeared, like an inner eye blinked to a bright light. Then she just fainted.
*
Dart watched the creature in his arms, the weight on his chest that he woke up with. A soft face, round nose, closed eyes with a decoration of thick, golden-brown eyelashes. An ocean of dark gold, silk from thousand spinning- mills, curled in strange plantlike forms on his chest. Her full, pink lips... with her thumb in between. Raja was actually sucking her thumb. Nobody had really tried to get her off that habit, but she stopped it herself. Only in her sleep, when she felt sad and alone, but also when she felt the opposite -happiness- she could fall back to her childlike ways.
She looked so pure and touching and beautiful. Her breath was soft and warm, the scent of it made Dart recall... last night. His memory didn't went any further back then the moment that he joined the Argonauts, and he didn't care about his past either. So he simply recalled the best thing he could remember.
Last night. Him. And Raja. And the sweet, innocent beauty laying next to him, untouched and undamaged by this terribly judgmental world. Dart wondered... then his mind threw a cover over his eyes, and he looked at her in a complete different way all of the sudden. The thumb in her mouth not touching, but a sign of weakness. Her closeness to him not enlightening but sickening. She slept with him, while she hardly knew him. The weakling. And he let her drag him along.
She dragged him along in her despicable weakness. She was nothing more but a slag, and he was actually tempted by her, he wasn't able to resist her. He wasn't able to keep control. Not able to control his emotions, a simple thing every warrior, every man should be capable of. Now he was no better than her.
He awoke her rudely, shaking her shoulders. Raja groaned a little, a very cute sound. She let the thumb slide from her mouth, a little embarrassed, and looked at Dart with a blissful smile. She was shocked to see him stare back with hatred and disgust burning in his eyes.
"Get. Out." he hissed, and Raja nearly started to tremble because of the hate in his voice. She was so oversensitive, and she could perfectly feel how much she sickened him at the moment. She crawled back, and continued to face him. Her eyes began to glow and her cheeks tinted violent red. Her eyebrows twisted in a frown, refusing to understand.
Dart was nearly touched, by it. One part of his mind was at least, but this made the other part of his mind hate her even more violently, and he wanted to shout it in her face. But he didn't have to. She already left the room with furious steps and her fists, those small, pretty hands clenched. Dart saw one last glimpse of her face before she slammed the door to his room shut -she was crying.
Dart thought there was something fascinating about people becoming so upset that their eyes would leak... before he found out it was a sign of weakness, that is. And he couldn't repeat it to himself often enough: weakness was wrong. Emotions equal weakness. Don't get carried away, always stay in control. And make sure that little tramp doesn't get near you again.
*
Iz held a stuffed bunny with one button-eye dangling from a loose thread. It was a bit of a sooty, old thing. She had found it in the children's ward of the hospital. It might be old, but nothing ever was in perfect shape in this world, and Iz had the feeling that Aaron might still appreciate it.
She was just walking up to the room that belonged to Raja and Aaron, when all of the sudden she saw Raja storming through the hallway, her fists trembling and her eyes dark and wet. Raja shot Iz one furious glare (if looks could kill, Iz would have to be buried the next morning) and then she entered her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Iz was utterly stunned. She had never seen Raja this angry. Come to think about it, she couldn't recall to ever seeing Raja getting angry. The cute girl with the daisy on her cheek and her big space heart and her endless patience, getting pissed of at anyone, no matter what that person had done?
Not only that, the girl had looked hurt too. Iz could've gone in to ask her what wrong, but she wasn't that curious. She could've also gone in to comfort Raja, but she was definitely not the comforting type. She didn't like tears, upset, angry people and she having to make that all better again. She never knew what to say and usually ended up insulting them anyway.
So Iz just shrugged her shoulders and decided she'd best give Aaron his present later. It was time for breakfast anyway.
*
Raja let her tears flow, her brown eyes islands in a salt ocean of hurt, her face striped with wet sadness. Raja had never let herself go this much. She usually held back her tears, trying to stay cheery for everyone else. She wasn't a big fan of crying. But she didn't care anymore.
She thought she could trust Dart. It was stupid of her, but for some reason he just seemed like such a trustworthy, noble person to her. And he hadn't denied her last night. It had been fantastic, and Raja had felt so complete. She had never felt like that in all of her life.
But she couldn't trust him. Just like the others. They can't be trusted. Use you, then they don't need you anymore. Raja could've known, but she kept hope, saying to herself that he just needed to be persuaded. That he was just a tough guy, that even he could give in. But it wasn't all of that, he just couldn't be trusted. He turned his back on her.
Just like Aaron's father had done. Just like her foster-parents had done. When would she ever learn, that she couldn't trust anybody?
*
Jax made sure to cover up the gashes with the sleeves of his dark top. Red on white, criss-cross, forming a macabre pattern. The cuts had closed and gone brown-red. In a few weeks they would be scars, like the others. Right now they itched, like every healing wound does. Jax scratched the itch away. He opened some of the cuts, which started bleeding again, but he didn't pay attention to it. Or maybe he did, but it pleased him.
He had gained control again, for a short while. He just hoped none of the others would find out, but they couldn't possibly, all the cuts were covered up. On the other side he did want them to find out... Ambivalent. He was ambivalent. Yeah, that's the word, and it really seemed to fit all his thoughts and actions.
Jax sighed. Now he shouldn't raise any suspicions. He should just go downstairs and have breakfast, with the others.
Jax had completely forgotten about the last time he sat in the cafeteria, which was only last night. He had panicked. A sleepless night, containing self-harm, followed. But he didn't think about that, and he completely underestimated the situation. Sure, he would just go down and have breakfast.
Jax left his room. He never even thought about the black eye that disgraced his face.
*
Iz jumped off the stairs, taking three at the time, and she went through the hallway nearly hopping around like a schoolgirl. All that is missing are two pigtails and a tartan skirt, Iz thought with a touch of sarcasm.
But she couldn't help it, she was in a good mood today. But her good mood was about to be crushed.
*
Scott had been standing in front of the door like ten minutes. He had been thoughtful enough to think about getting Kita for breakfast, but now he was afraid to knock... He loathed this day, even though it had just begun. Kita would undoubtly tell all the girls about her escapades with Trojan last night.
Why can't I be like Trojan? Scott wondered.
He sighed and knocked on Kita's door. "Kita? Are you already awake? It's time for breakfast,"he said in a gentle, soft voice. He got no reply from Kita. "Ahem... Kita, time for breakfast, get up!"he said a little louder, and accompanied his voice by a few more knocks on the door.
Again, nothing.
Scott frowned. "You don't want any breakfast?"he asked in a bit of a concerned voice. Again, he heard no answer and figured that Kita might be laying in bed, sick, or something. He slowly opened the door. "I'm coming in,"he warned, closing his eyes just in case she happened to be undressing.
After hearing no answer he opened his eyes again and didn't saw Kita undressing, in fact, he didn't saw Kita at all. She wasn't in her room, and her bed hadn't been slept on.
Scott tried to figure this out, and with a sting of jealousy he figured there was nothing to worry about. Ofcourse. She had spent the night with Trojan. Trojan that all the girl's like. She must've had a great time last night.
With firm steps he walked away, to the cafeteria.
*
Iz, Zion, Randy, Justine, Kera, Dart ánd Trojan were already sitting at the small, round dinner-tables in the cafeteria. Raja came walking in too, holding her baby-boy. She walked right past Dart, not even paying the slightest bit of attention to him, and took place at the same table as Trojan. Dart seemed to be left careless, and kept his Siberian temper.
"Hey, Raj, what's up?"Trojan asked. His voice missed every bit of cheeriness and activity, something that tended to be present in it.
"Not up, down,"Raja said in the same kind of voice. "You too, judging by the look on your face."
"Yeah well...,"Trojan said. "Have you ever hit someone, Raja?"he asked her, out of the blue.
"Hm... no. No, I don't think so,"she said.
"And... if you hit a person for basically no reason at all, that would be very wrong, right?"Trojan asked.
"Well, ofcourse. Why do you ask?"Raja said, frowning and chuckling at the same time.
"Oh, nothing,"Trojan said and he fell silent.
Scott was the next one to enter the cafeteria, and he was a little surprised to see that Kita wasn't there, even though Trojan was. But he was too jealous at the moment to decide it was worth his attention, so he just took his seat.
Kera served breakfast in little baskets and on dinner-plates, and as always, it looked delicious. They couldn't wait to attack, especially Iz. "When do we eat already? Hey, Fearless Leader, I'm getting hungry,"Iz said, discontent.
"We eat when everyone is sitting at the table, alright Iz? You know that. Kita and Jax aren't here yet,"Zion said.
Raja fell a sting of guilt when she thought that, with her whole emotional outburst because of Dart, she forgot to get Jax for breakfast. Last night he came down with her help. She really should go to him, now.
"Well, I say we banish this rule. This ain't a foster-home, it's a tribe. And Kita and Jax are... probably just making out somewhere. I saw the way Kita was eying Jax,"Iz said with a smirk. Both Trojan and Scott gave her death-glares, but she didn't even notice.
"Iz, it's not a rule, it's just polite to wait until every member of the tribe- Jax!"
Heads turned when Zion exclaimed Jax's name. The boy himself was standing in the door-opening to the hospital-cafeteria. He had half of his hair hanging in front of his face and his arms wrapped around himself. He looked to the ground. "Hey. Am I too late?"he said in a barely audible voice.
"Yes, you are!"Iz said in a cheery voice, but with a blank face.
Jax nodded and quickly made his way to a table. He didn't like the way they were looking at them. Why did all of them had their eyes set on him of all people? Why? Well, because he was late, ofcourse. So, it all came back to him. Whatever happened, was his fault.
Jax took place in back of the cafeteria.
"Don't you wanna sit with us?"Zion asked.
"No,"Jax simply said, sounding kind of rude to the others. Zion shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably. Apparently Jax wanted to be alone. The dark boy sat in the far corner of the café, hair covering his features. Iz got a glimpse through that hair and all of the sudden asked, with her loud voice: "Hey, what happened to your face?" pointing at the bruise that covered his cheekbone and formed a half ring around his eye.
"I... I..." think of an excuse, quickly, anything, "I tripped and then my head hit the sink..." Oh God, can you think of anything lamer, he asked himself.
"Your head hit the sink? How stupid can you be?"she said, chuckling.
"Shut up, Iz!"Trojan snapped.
"Jesus... Everyone is surely in a fantastic mood today. Looks like I'm the only one that got up on the right side of the bed... Even though you'll undoubtly spoil it for me throughout the day. Now, when are we going to eat already?"Iz asked.
Zion grit his teeth. He knew he got annoyed too easily, but he couldn't help it. He could feel all the stress in this tribe, and Iz asking irritating questions which he had already answered three times for her, was one thing he didn't need. "We eat when everyone is seated at the table,"Zion said in a low, slow voice. His voice always became that way when he was getting angry.
"Everyone? Does that mean every member of this tribe?"Iz asked innocently, feigning ignorance.
"Iz...,"Zion growled.
"Well, no one seems to want to eat anyway, except for me, so I might as well,"Iz said in a voice that made Zion expect she would also stick her tongue out to him. Instead, she just gave him an arrogant glare and already pricked her fork at the food.
"We don't eat until everyone sits at the table!"Zion snapped.
"Why?"Iz asked.
"Because I say so!!"Zion yelled. This shut Iz, as well as the other tribemembers, up right away, and made Jax flee the cafeteria, his hands over his ears.
"Oh way to upset the psycho,"Iz said, "and because you say so? What, and you word is the law or something? Just because you're leader? Well, what kind of leader are you anyway? You don't even know where your tribemembers are at. For all you know Kita is just laying in bed, catching some sleep, not thinking-"
"Kita wasn't in her room,"Scott said. This silenced Iz once again. "Her bed hadn't been slept on. And I haven't seen her anywhere else. I... don't think she's in the hospital anymore."
*
Kita had regained consciousness, but wished she didn't. The ropes around her ankles and wrists were hurting her, the fact that she couldn't see made her so nervous that she nearly started hyperventilating -the situation as such caused her to hyperventilate. She was now well aware of the fact that something was awfully wrong. Someone had tied her down here, someone that wasn't a member of her tribe. And it hadn't been done for fun... or even worse, maybe it had.
All of the sudden Kita's blindfold was removed and she could see once again. Not that there was much to see, because she was in a small, empty room were there was hardly any light, except for that which seeped through the boards that had been nailed in front of the window.
Someone caressed her hair. Kita, slowly and with eyes nearly popping out of her head of fear, turned her head to the person that had touched her hair. Someone of who she could only see he had horribly pale eyes.
"You woke up,"it said.
Kita wanted to scream, but the sound didn't get any further than the bottom of her throat.
"My beauty."
Kita groaned, she felt dizzy and waves of pain washed over her head, accompanied by a pounding noise like a drum. Kita already started to think she drank a little too much wine last night... no, impossible, it was like one glass.
All of the sudden, she fully came to her senses, woke up completely. The moment she did, her hart missed a beat, literally, and the blood in her veins turned to ice. Her whole body shook with the shivers of fear that went through it, like an electric shock.
She was awake, but she saw nothing but the blackest darkness. She had gone blind.
It had always been Kita's greatest fear to go blind. To never see the world again, and to be so helpless. She tried to imagine what it could be like once, to look into pure darkness for the rest of your life, and she had shivered. One time she had gotten shampoo in her eye and she had gone totally hysteric, spending nearly an hour on trying to wash it out.
Blind. She couldn't see anything. A squeal started in the bottom of her throat, rising up, in a loud, waving yell, that sounded much like the shriek of a mad woman, but she didn't care. She bursted into tears. She would never see again.
Her sobbing stopped as abruptly as it started when she noticed other things. She felt... something on her face. On her eyes... a soft fabric. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized she wasn't blind after all, but there was something laying on her face, covering her eyes. Maybe one of the Argonauts thought it would have been a very funny joke to blindfold her.
With a sigh of exasperation, Kita wanted to move her hand to her face to remove whatever it was that covered her eyes. But then she came to another eerie realization. She couldn't move her hands. She tried, but she could only lift them a little bit. They were restrained and... so were her feet.
She tried to move, but couldn't. She was laying somewhere -yes, she now realized she was laying, on a bed, it seemed- and she had been tied down. God damn it, which of her tribe-members could've played such a stupid joke on her?! Kita growled annoyed, but sort of came to the conclusion that these type of jokes weren't really the style of any of her tribe-members.
Kita lay there, perfectly silent and motionless for a few minutes, restrained to a bed with a covered face. "Er... guys, this isn't funny, let me go...,"she tried, a small spark of hope in her voice. Undoubtly someone would appear now, to untie her and take her blindfold away, and then Kita could slap that person in the face for playing such a stupid joke on her.
Silence. Her ears registered nothing but silence.
"Hey! Bastards! I said: this isn't funny, now untie me already!"Kita yelled, trying to sound as dangerous as she possibly could. Again, no one responded. "Oh God,"Kita muttered as she tried to recall last night's events. She had been sitting outside... then all of the sudden something had hit her in the head -that was the cause of her headache. None of her fellow tribe-members would ever do such a thing. Nor would they tie her up by means of a joke.
She was laying somewhere, tied down, and nobody responded to her cries. Kita became so scared at that moment that she just seem to lose it for one second. One second, in which her hart sank to her feet, her mind disappeared, like an inner eye blinked to a bright light. Then she just fainted.
*
Dart watched the creature in his arms, the weight on his chest that he woke up with. A soft face, round nose, closed eyes with a decoration of thick, golden-brown eyelashes. An ocean of dark gold, silk from thousand spinning- mills, curled in strange plantlike forms on his chest. Her full, pink lips... with her thumb in between. Raja was actually sucking her thumb. Nobody had really tried to get her off that habit, but she stopped it herself. Only in her sleep, when she felt sad and alone, but also when she felt the opposite -happiness- she could fall back to her childlike ways.
She looked so pure and touching and beautiful. Her breath was soft and warm, the scent of it made Dart recall... last night. His memory didn't went any further back then the moment that he joined the Argonauts, and he didn't care about his past either. So he simply recalled the best thing he could remember.
Last night. Him. And Raja. And the sweet, innocent beauty laying next to him, untouched and undamaged by this terribly judgmental world. Dart wondered... then his mind threw a cover over his eyes, and he looked at her in a complete different way all of the sudden. The thumb in her mouth not touching, but a sign of weakness. Her closeness to him not enlightening but sickening. She slept with him, while she hardly knew him. The weakling. And he let her drag him along.
She dragged him along in her despicable weakness. She was nothing more but a slag, and he was actually tempted by her, he wasn't able to resist her. He wasn't able to keep control. Not able to control his emotions, a simple thing every warrior, every man should be capable of. Now he was no better than her.
He awoke her rudely, shaking her shoulders. Raja groaned a little, a very cute sound. She let the thumb slide from her mouth, a little embarrassed, and looked at Dart with a blissful smile. She was shocked to see him stare back with hatred and disgust burning in his eyes.
"Get. Out." he hissed, and Raja nearly started to tremble because of the hate in his voice. She was so oversensitive, and she could perfectly feel how much she sickened him at the moment. She crawled back, and continued to face him. Her eyes began to glow and her cheeks tinted violent red. Her eyebrows twisted in a frown, refusing to understand.
Dart was nearly touched, by it. One part of his mind was at least, but this made the other part of his mind hate her even more violently, and he wanted to shout it in her face. But he didn't have to. She already left the room with furious steps and her fists, those small, pretty hands clenched. Dart saw one last glimpse of her face before she slammed the door to his room shut -she was crying.
Dart thought there was something fascinating about people becoming so upset that their eyes would leak... before he found out it was a sign of weakness, that is. And he couldn't repeat it to himself often enough: weakness was wrong. Emotions equal weakness. Don't get carried away, always stay in control. And make sure that little tramp doesn't get near you again.
*
Iz held a stuffed bunny with one button-eye dangling from a loose thread. It was a bit of a sooty, old thing. She had found it in the children's ward of the hospital. It might be old, but nothing ever was in perfect shape in this world, and Iz had the feeling that Aaron might still appreciate it.
She was just walking up to the room that belonged to Raja and Aaron, when all of the sudden she saw Raja storming through the hallway, her fists trembling and her eyes dark and wet. Raja shot Iz one furious glare (if looks could kill, Iz would have to be buried the next morning) and then she entered her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Iz was utterly stunned. She had never seen Raja this angry. Come to think about it, she couldn't recall to ever seeing Raja getting angry. The cute girl with the daisy on her cheek and her big space heart and her endless patience, getting pissed of at anyone, no matter what that person had done?
Not only that, the girl had looked hurt too. Iz could've gone in to ask her what wrong, but she wasn't that curious. She could've also gone in to comfort Raja, but she was definitely not the comforting type. She didn't like tears, upset, angry people and she having to make that all better again. She never knew what to say and usually ended up insulting them anyway.
So Iz just shrugged her shoulders and decided she'd best give Aaron his present later. It was time for breakfast anyway.
*
Raja let her tears flow, her brown eyes islands in a salt ocean of hurt, her face striped with wet sadness. Raja had never let herself go this much. She usually held back her tears, trying to stay cheery for everyone else. She wasn't a big fan of crying. But she didn't care anymore.
She thought she could trust Dart. It was stupid of her, but for some reason he just seemed like such a trustworthy, noble person to her. And he hadn't denied her last night. It had been fantastic, and Raja had felt so complete. She had never felt like that in all of her life.
But she couldn't trust him. Just like the others. They can't be trusted. Use you, then they don't need you anymore. Raja could've known, but she kept hope, saying to herself that he just needed to be persuaded. That he was just a tough guy, that even he could give in. But it wasn't all of that, he just couldn't be trusted. He turned his back on her.
Just like Aaron's father had done. Just like her foster-parents had done. When would she ever learn, that she couldn't trust anybody?
*
Jax made sure to cover up the gashes with the sleeves of his dark top. Red on white, criss-cross, forming a macabre pattern. The cuts had closed and gone brown-red. In a few weeks they would be scars, like the others. Right now they itched, like every healing wound does. Jax scratched the itch away. He opened some of the cuts, which started bleeding again, but he didn't pay attention to it. Or maybe he did, but it pleased him.
He had gained control again, for a short while. He just hoped none of the others would find out, but they couldn't possibly, all the cuts were covered up. On the other side he did want them to find out... Ambivalent. He was ambivalent. Yeah, that's the word, and it really seemed to fit all his thoughts and actions.
Jax sighed. Now he shouldn't raise any suspicions. He should just go downstairs and have breakfast, with the others.
Jax had completely forgotten about the last time he sat in the cafeteria, which was only last night. He had panicked. A sleepless night, containing self-harm, followed. But he didn't think about that, and he completely underestimated the situation. Sure, he would just go down and have breakfast.
Jax left his room. He never even thought about the black eye that disgraced his face.
*
Iz jumped off the stairs, taking three at the time, and she went through the hallway nearly hopping around like a schoolgirl. All that is missing are two pigtails and a tartan skirt, Iz thought with a touch of sarcasm.
But she couldn't help it, she was in a good mood today. But her good mood was about to be crushed.
*
Scott had been standing in front of the door like ten minutes. He had been thoughtful enough to think about getting Kita for breakfast, but now he was afraid to knock... He loathed this day, even though it had just begun. Kita would undoubtly tell all the girls about her escapades with Trojan last night.
Why can't I be like Trojan? Scott wondered.
He sighed and knocked on Kita's door. "Kita? Are you already awake? It's time for breakfast,"he said in a gentle, soft voice. He got no reply from Kita. "Ahem... Kita, time for breakfast, get up!"he said a little louder, and accompanied his voice by a few more knocks on the door.
Again, nothing.
Scott frowned. "You don't want any breakfast?"he asked in a bit of a concerned voice. Again, he heard no answer and figured that Kita might be laying in bed, sick, or something. He slowly opened the door. "I'm coming in,"he warned, closing his eyes just in case she happened to be undressing.
After hearing no answer he opened his eyes again and didn't saw Kita undressing, in fact, he didn't saw Kita at all. She wasn't in her room, and her bed hadn't been slept on.
Scott tried to figure this out, and with a sting of jealousy he figured there was nothing to worry about. Ofcourse. She had spent the night with Trojan. Trojan that all the girl's like. She must've had a great time last night.
With firm steps he walked away, to the cafeteria.
*
Iz, Zion, Randy, Justine, Kera, Dart ánd Trojan were already sitting at the small, round dinner-tables in the cafeteria. Raja came walking in too, holding her baby-boy. She walked right past Dart, not even paying the slightest bit of attention to him, and took place at the same table as Trojan. Dart seemed to be left careless, and kept his Siberian temper.
"Hey, Raj, what's up?"Trojan asked. His voice missed every bit of cheeriness and activity, something that tended to be present in it.
"Not up, down,"Raja said in the same kind of voice. "You too, judging by the look on your face."
"Yeah well...,"Trojan said. "Have you ever hit someone, Raja?"he asked her, out of the blue.
"Hm... no. No, I don't think so,"she said.
"And... if you hit a person for basically no reason at all, that would be very wrong, right?"Trojan asked.
"Well, ofcourse. Why do you ask?"Raja said, frowning and chuckling at the same time.
"Oh, nothing,"Trojan said and he fell silent.
Scott was the next one to enter the cafeteria, and he was a little surprised to see that Kita wasn't there, even though Trojan was. But he was too jealous at the moment to decide it was worth his attention, so he just took his seat.
Kera served breakfast in little baskets and on dinner-plates, and as always, it looked delicious. They couldn't wait to attack, especially Iz. "When do we eat already? Hey, Fearless Leader, I'm getting hungry,"Iz said, discontent.
"We eat when everyone is sitting at the table, alright Iz? You know that. Kita and Jax aren't here yet,"Zion said.
Raja fell a sting of guilt when she thought that, with her whole emotional outburst because of Dart, she forgot to get Jax for breakfast. Last night he came down with her help. She really should go to him, now.
"Well, I say we banish this rule. This ain't a foster-home, it's a tribe. And Kita and Jax are... probably just making out somewhere. I saw the way Kita was eying Jax,"Iz said with a smirk. Both Trojan and Scott gave her death-glares, but she didn't even notice.
"Iz, it's not a rule, it's just polite to wait until every member of the tribe- Jax!"
Heads turned when Zion exclaimed Jax's name. The boy himself was standing in the door-opening to the hospital-cafeteria. He had half of his hair hanging in front of his face and his arms wrapped around himself. He looked to the ground. "Hey. Am I too late?"he said in a barely audible voice.
"Yes, you are!"Iz said in a cheery voice, but with a blank face.
Jax nodded and quickly made his way to a table. He didn't like the way they were looking at them. Why did all of them had their eyes set on him of all people? Why? Well, because he was late, ofcourse. So, it all came back to him. Whatever happened, was his fault.
Jax took place in back of the cafeteria.
"Don't you wanna sit with us?"Zion asked.
"No,"Jax simply said, sounding kind of rude to the others. Zion shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably. Apparently Jax wanted to be alone. The dark boy sat in the far corner of the café, hair covering his features. Iz got a glimpse through that hair and all of the sudden asked, with her loud voice: "Hey, what happened to your face?" pointing at the bruise that covered his cheekbone and formed a half ring around his eye.
"I... I..." think of an excuse, quickly, anything, "I tripped and then my head hit the sink..." Oh God, can you think of anything lamer, he asked himself.
"Your head hit the sink? How stupid can you be?"she said, chuckling.
"Shut up, Iz!"Trojan snapped.
"Jesus... Everyone is surely in a fantastic mood today. Looks like I'm the only one that got up on the right side of the bed... Even though you'll undoubtly spoil it for me throughout the day. Now, when are we going to eat already?"Iz asked.
Zion grit his teeth. He knew he got annoyed too easily, but he couldn't help it. He could feel all the stress in this tribe, and Iz asking irritating questions which he had already answered three times for her, was one thing he didn't need. "We eat when everyone is seated at the table,"Zion said in a low, slow voice. His voice always became that way when he was getting angry.
"Everyone? Does that mean every member of this tribe?"Iz asked innocently, feigning ignorance.
"Iz...,"Zion growled.
"Well, no one seems to want to eat anyway, except for me, so I might as well,"Iz said in a voice that made Zion expect she would also stick her tongue out to him. Instead, she just gave him an arrogant glare and already pricked her fork at the food.
"We don't eat until everyone sits at the table!"Zion snapped.
"Why?"Iz asked.
"Because I say so!!"Zion yelled. This shut Iz, as well as the other tribemembers, up right away, and made Jax flee the cafeteria, his hands over his ears.
"Oh way to upset the psycho,"Iz said, "and because you say so? What, and you word is the law or something? Just because you're leader? Well, what kind of leader are you anyway? You don't even know where your tribemembers are at. For all you know Kita is just laying in bed, catching some sleep, not thinking-"
"Kita wasn't in her room,"Scott said. This silenced Iz once again. "Her bed hadn't been slept on. And I haven't seen her anywhere else. I... don't think she's in the hospital anymore."
*
Kita had regained consciousness, but wished she didn't. The ropes around her ankles and wrists were hurting her, the fact that she couldn't see made her so nervous that she nearly started hyperventilating -the situation as such caused her to hyperventilate. She was now well aware of the fact that something was awfully wrong. Someone had tied her down here, someone that wasn't a member of her tribe. And it hadn't been done for fun... or even worse, maybe it had.
All of the sudden Kita's blindfold was removed and she could see once again. Not that there was much to see, because she was in a small, empty room were there was hardly any light, except for that which seeped through the boards that had been nailed in front of the window.
Someone caressed her hair. Kita, slowly and with eyes nearly popping out of her head of fear, turned her head to the person that had touched her hair. Someone of who she could only see he had horribly pale eyes.
"You woke up,"it said.
Kita wanted to scream, but the sound didn't get any further than the bottom of her throat.
"My beauty."