PART 9: ONE THAT PUTS SALT IN THE SUGARBOWL

"So... this girl you lost, what does she look like?"the Mallrat that had been introduced to Raja and Dart as Bray asked. All the other Mallrats were gathered around him and Amber, who sat by his side. Most of them looked nearly concerned, even though they didn't know Kita. But they did know the streets were dangerous and anything could happen to a girl there... Most of the Mallrats looked more than willing to help.


"She's 18 years old. Sort of small. She looks rather Arabian, a dark skin, but not that dark. She has very long, wavy black hair with caramel highlights and dark eyes. The last time we saw her, she was wearing a long blue dress. She's very beautiful, you would probably remember her if you saw her,"Dart tried to say as objective as possible. Raja rolled her eyes.


Lex got up right away. "Hey, you know what: I'll lead the search for this girl!"he said enthusiastically.


"Yeah, right. If you would, I bet she would get into greater danger than she already is. Sit down and shut up,"Ebony said.


"Well, has any of you seen her?"Raja asked worried.


The Mallrats tried to recall if any of them had seen a beautiful Arabian girl, but they all shook their head eventually. Amber looked to the floor. "Sorry. But we'll be on the look-out, and if we catch a trail of her, we'll tell you,"Amber said.


Dart nodded his head. "Your help will be appreciated,"he said.


"He talks funny,"a small girl that went by the name of Mouse said.


"You better watch what you say, he could easily slice you in two with that sword on his back!"a young boy with orange/blue hair quickly said.
Dart scowled at them, and both of the children took a few steps back.


"We'll leave now,"said Dart. "Thanks for your help, once again."


"I'm sorry. If she hasn't returned by tomorrow, maybe we could have our tribe to look for her,"Amber said.

 
"I should be doing that, being the sheriff and knowing the city and all of that,"Lex said, nodding confident.

 
"Close your mouth, you're attracting flies,"Ebony said.

*

Zion and Scott turned back to the hospital, with no information about Kita's wherabouts at all, even though they had questioned every kid they saw on the streets. Scott was getting more pissed off and stressed out the lower the sun sank, and when it was time to quit their search because it would be dark soon, the look on his face said 'Kill.'


"Don't worry, man. We'll find her,"Zion said as the both of them entered the hospital.


Trojan and Iz approached both of them right away. "Where's Kita?" "Did you find her?"


"We didn't find shit,"Scott said and left for his room. They all stared at him in amazement. They had never seen Scott this angry, and they never heard him swear either.


"Great. Well, she didn't return to the hospital either,"Iz said.


"I guess it's safe to say that Kita's officially missing now,"Trojan said, letting his gaze wander over the floor.


"Yeah,"Zion said defeated.


"Well, let's hope the others did find something useful,"Iz said, venom dripping of her voice. "God. Kita's gone missing right away, the whole tribe including Scott is stressed out of their minds; we should've never come to the city! Great decision this was, Fearless Leader!"Iz said hateful, before she too left to her room.

*

"Time for dinner, precious."


"No,"Kita said like a stubborn, sad child. The darkness was removed from her eyes and her gaze locked with the nearly ice-coloured eyes right in front of her. He was staring at her. His possession; he always loved to have a pet like this. It was feeding-time now.


"Please,"Kita begged. "Why won't you just let me go? I want to back to my tribe... please! I-I promise I won't tell anyone about you, okay? Just please-"


"Sssssh!"he hissed. He pressed his finger against his lips, then caressed her face. "It musn't make noise! I cooked dinner,"the young man said.
He untied her feet, that had been restrained with ropes to the posts of the bed she was laying on. He then untied one of her hands, also tied to a post of the bed. Her thin wrist was like a twig in his grip; there was no doubt about the fact that he was strong. Really strong. There was no thinking about an escape. But Kita lost the courage to even think about an escape. He had her in his power, totally. She had never been so scared in all her life. Too scared to move.


He helped her up and tied her hands behind her back. He left her feet untied. The room was shady, and even with the blindfold removed, Kita couldn't see mch of him. Only those eyes. Those horribly light eyes. He pierced and burned her soul with it.


"Look, I don't know why you're doing this... But this can never end well. My tribe will come and look for me. I- You probably have a problem, but, but maybe I can help. Maybe you could tell me something about...,"Kita babbled away, sentences tumbling into the next so she was hardly understandable, in a futile attempt to start a conversation with her kidnapper.


He didn't appreciate. He let out a sort of whimpering groan and hit her in the face, hard. "No talking. No talking. No talking,"he repeated over and over, pressing his hand in front of her mouth. "Time for dinner now."

*

"It's time for dinner,"Kera said in a flat voice.


The Argonauts assembled in the cafeteria in silence. They ate Kera's food, who had put quite an effort in cooking -especially because of the situation- in total silence. Usually they were joking around, talking... but it wasn't the same without Kita.


Iz dropped her spoon all of the sudden. "We should be looking for Kita instead of stuffing our face. It's still light outside,"she said in a very venomous face.


"But soon it will be dark,"Zion said.


"That's probably when you can spot the type of character that abducted Kita,"Iz said.


"We don't know if she has been abducted,"Zion said calmly.


"Well, what else could it be, huh? I mean... even Kita would've come back by now if everything was fine and perfect. Someone has done something to her. That's what you get when moving into the city. That's where all the freaks stay. It was so much better in nature, but no: we had to move into the city. We had to go back to Zions old home. If you would've ran the tribe better, instead of doing nothing, we could've build a proper shelter in the woods to spend the winter in. We could've gotten food-supplies. But no, those things didn't even come to your mind, and when it was too late, you all of the sudden ordered we had to leave for the city. And look what happened. How can you even call yourself a leader?"Iz snapped at him with a serpetine look in her eyes.


Now Iz had entered the dangerzone. This was Zion's territory, HE was the leader, and if there was one thing he couldn't stand it was people that critisized him for his actions as leader. "I'm sure you could've done a better job?"he asked Iz in a low, dangerous voice, dripping with sarcasm.


"Yes I could! I mean, obviously I've got better idea's than you do. You're not cut out to be a leader. I'd make a better leader, in fact, even Randy would make a better leader,"Iz said.

 
And if there was one thing that Zion definitely couldn't stand, it was when people tried to take over his territory. The tension in the cafeteria was now so thick you could cut it with a knife. All the other tribemembers watched the arguements in silence. Except for Scott, who suddenly got up.
"You know, as a matter of fact, I bet Iz would make a better leader than you,"he said. Normally Scott was a nice guy, normally he wouldn't have said something like that... But these weren't normal circumstances. The girl he loved with all his heart -Kita- was gone, and he too blamed Zion.
Other voices were heard now, and most didn't support Zion.


"Please... don't fight,"Jax whispered in a nearly begging voice. He was ignored by everybody. The heat was now on. Iz had openly stood up to the leader.


Zion was boiling with anger. "You think you can do a better job, Iz? You think you could do a better job?!"he asked her.


Iz wasn't shocked by the tone in his voice, something that would've chased any person that valued his or her life away... "Yes. If I would've been the leader from the start, then we would now still be in the woods, in a shelter suitable for the winter, with foodsupplies, Kita would still be here, and everything would still be perfect! This tribe is falling apart because of you, Zion! But you don't wanna face that, do you? Would just be too much of a blow to your pride? You screwed up!"she yelled.


Jax winced and covered his ears, Aaron started to whimper, and all the other tribemembers began to get quite nervous.


Zion approached Iz slowly, his eyes on fire. His stance was so treathening and furious, that Iz backed up, scared afterall, thinking he would suddenly hit her or something.


"You think you're so good? Fine! See if you can lead the tribe then, you fucking bitch!"he spat at her. Then he turned around and left the cafeteria, leaving the whole tribe in shock.

*

"Hm… see how he liked them apples,"Scott said with a smirk, watching Zion leave. "Applesauce, bitch,"Iz growled, narrowing her eyes at the sight of Zion. Scott tried to high-five her, but the dark-haired girl was obviously not in the mood for it.

Iz sat back at the table and ate on like nothing happened. "Well, what are you waiting for? Dinnertime's for eating, you know,"she said when no one did the same.

Kera scowled at her. "How could you do that? Zion is a good leader! He suffers from all of this too, you know! He's doing the very best he can… But no, you have to stir up trouble again, like you always do. You're the one that's always screwing things up!"Kera, who had been Zions co-leader for years, threw the words in Iz's face, sharp and stinging and then left the room, probably following Zion.

"Well, sorry if I insulted your boyfriend,"Iz called after her. Zion wasn't Kera's boyfriend, but Kera did have an eye on him, and everybody noticed this except for Zion. "Heh, whatever, all the more to eat for us." Iz looked at the untouched plates of Zion and Kera.

Dart looked at her grimly, even though he wasn't scowling. By God, he looked like he was about to nod his head in disappointment. Iz rolled her eyes and then noticed much of the Argonauts were looking at her in the same way, save Scott.

"What? A few minutes ago you were all with me, and now you're all against me? Come on, the guy had it coming. What do you want from me?"Iz asked annoyed.

"To lead the tribe, I suppose,"Dart said, shrugging shoulders. Normally Iz would've made some remark about how she never knew Dart had a sense of humour, but this time he was getting on her nerves, instead of she getting on his nerves.

"Ooooh, right. It's all my fault again. Just blame it on Iz. Admit that I just said what was on everybody's minds. But know, now that something unexpected happens, everyone changes his mind again and I'm the one that did it all wrong. Maybe I should put on a classical scary record and cackle maniacally too?"she asked, the sarcasm in her voice so thick you could stick a spoon on it.

"It wasn't honourable,"Dart said, in a sort of explaining tone.

"Nothing in life is honourable, kungfu-boy,"Iz said. "Now I don't know about you, but I am going to finish this meal."

*

Kita walked along with her kidnapper, her torturer, taking small steps like a blind woman that's 90 years old. The fear made her unable to struggle. Like a zombie she just lead him lead the way.

She was taken into the next room, just as shady as the first, and seated at a small table. Her hands were untied, and Kita breathed a sigh of relief, because the ropes were hurting her wrists terribly. But her luck didn't last long, because her hands were soon tied behind the chair again.

Kita looked around her, nervously. In front of her, on the table, stood a big bowl. It seemed lonely, the white porcelain cup on the shiny wooden table. That was, until he put a candle on the table as well and lit it. As if this was supposed to be some sort of romantic dinner.

The dim light of the candle made it possible for Kita to see what was in the bowl… sort of. It could either be very soft pudding, yoghurt or porridge. Suddenly a terrifying thought crossed her mind: what if it was poisoned.

Kita pressed her lips together right away, and looked up at him with big eyes. He took a spoon and set across her. "I hope you'll like it,"he said. Kita now noticed how weird that voice sounded. Androgynous, a bit like the voice of an alien.

He scooped a bit of what was inside the bowl out of it with the spoon, and moved the spoon towards Kita's mouth. Kita forced her head back as far as she possible could and pressed her lips together, afraid that the food on the spoon, yellow-white and soft, might be lethal.

"Eat,"he said in that weird voice of him, and pushed the spoon against her mouth. Kita shook her head violently. "Eat,"he said again, high and sad, nearly begging, trying to pry the mouth of his human pet open.

"Eat!"he yelled and stuffed the food between her lips, furious force in his hand. The food seeped down her chin between her lips, and Kita sobbed. Clear gasps in her terrified mind told her that it was indeed some kind of porridge.

She didn't want this. Oh God, she was so hungry… The last time she ate something was with Trojan and that was nearly 24 hours ago. But her fear of being poisoned was bigger.

"Eat,"he said again in that high, begging voice, seemingly upset. "Hmmm,"Kita yelled behind closed lips, trying to keep the food away, even though he was pushing the spoon against her mouth.

But the lack of food had made her weak, and eventually she had to give in. He stuffed the porridge into her mouth, kept saying "Eat… Eat!" even though she was eating now. He stuffed the food in too fast, Kita never got time to swallow, and the porridge was dripping down her chin, onto her chest. It was all around her mouth.

Without words she tried to beg him for some time to eat, because he never gave her time to actually say something. He kept pressing the spoon between her lips, more food, more food, and kept saying: "Eat! Eat…!"

Kita whimpered, her mouth full of porridge, and she thought that she was going to choke. It seaped between the corners of her lips, dripping over her tear-stained face, and she tried to spit it out. She wondered when the big, over-full bowl would finally be empty… She couldn't take this much food.

And finally, it became to much for her. She turned her head and vomited on the floor. She looked at the sour, hardly digested meal on the carpet, and started to sob hysterically. She couldn't take this anymore. She couldn't.

He stood in front of her -almost seemed to appear out of nowhere. He slapped her in the face violently and she cried out in shock. Then right away he started to caress her red, sore cheek, as if he was sorry. "Filthy girl,"he said. "No more dinner for you."

*

Iz was doing the dishes, all on her own. She let the sponge slide over the plates slowly, almost as if she was a robot. Damn waste of food tonight. She put what was left in a few of those Tupperware-boxes and hoped it would stay good until tomorrow, even without a refrigerator.

Dinner hadn't been a success tonight, ofcourse. First the fight and then Zion left, after which Kera left with a few harsh words, probably to go and comfort her precious Fearless Leader Zion. Well, then Raja quickly left with Aaron, Raja mumbling something about having to change his diaper or whatever. Iz never realized that Raja could actually lie.

After that, Jax left right away, in the relative safety of following Raja. He had a hurt, scared look on his face. Well, after that, Randy and Justine left the table together, then Trojan and Dart followed… Scott, the only one who had really supported Iz openly, stayed for a while, but didn't like having dinner with the suddenly quiet, glum Iz, and was the last to leave.

So Iz finished her meal alone, trying to swallow the food past that weird chunk in her throat. And now she was doing the dishes alone. Alone again. Kita had been the closest thing Iz had ever had to a friend, and now the girl was missing. Probably killed out on the street, who could say. The city wad not to be trusted. Iz knew that, and she had been happy to live in nature… Why couldn't things have stayed that way. Why did they have to leave? Everything was wrong now…

That was her fault partially. She didn't know why she had to provoke Zion. She was just so angry and stressed-out, and had to blame someone. People had called her anti-social in the past. She had to admit that was true. She had only been declared leader less than an hour ago, and didn't have to do anything yet (except the dishes) and already she felt a strange, heavy responsibility and insecurity. Why did she have to be so impulse? She didn't want this at all. Not at all. And now she had gone and made herself even lonelier than she already was.

In my field of paper flowers…

Daydreaming and phantasizing like only Iz could, she had thought of perfect boyfriends, perfect friends. People that understood her and would never, EVER leave her. It was all so easy in her own mind. Sometimes she wished she could stay there forever.

And candyclouds of lullaby…

She had surrounded herself with an entire society that worshipped, adored her in every way. People that would never go away.

I lie inside myself for hours…

Her perfect world. Everything went right there. But why couldn't she do anything right in this world. In her mind it all started out right, she thought to far ahead and imagined how everything would work out well. Why couldn't she control reality like that?

And watch my purple sky fly over me…

She hated this place. She preferred the sanctuary, the warm delight that was her great fantasy. Why couldn't she wake up there for once? Fall into a coma and spend the rest of her days there?

Oh, how I long for the deep sleep dreaming…

Why did everything that always worked out in her head, went totally wrong here? She always ended up alone. And she wished that once, just once, one of her fantasy's would happen in real life.

The goddess of imaginary light…

*

"Cloe? Where are you going?"Salene asked the dark-haired girl that was just about to leave the Mall.

"Hm? Oh, just going for an evening-walk. Why?"Cloe asked.

"Well… it's almost completely dark. Are you sure?"Salene asked.

The reckless young girl rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be going if I wasn't sure. I need some fresh air. Goodnight, Salene,"she said and left.

Salene knew there was no stopping Cloe, no matter how hard she tried. She just hoped the girl stayed close to the Mall. Sure, it wasn't completely dark yet, but you never knew who was wandering the streets. And now that that girl of the new tribe in town had gone missing…

*

Cloe breathed in the fresh air. She had spend the entire day in the Mall, which wasn't like her. She was just going for a short walk around the Mall. She soon came to a stop when she saw someone, a big guy with dark hair and viciously light eyes, staring up at the sky. Cloe looked up too, slightly amazed. According to her there was nothing interesting to see. Her curiosity got the best of her and she walked over to the young man to ask him what he was looking at.

From the corners of his eyes he saw the girl approaching. Dark eyes, long dark hair, slender, pretty. That girl looked a lot like the precious pet he already had in his collection. Girls like that… Always girls like that. Ayanda. Sarah. Bethany. Padmé. He always found out their names, even though he never called them by it. The name of the girl that was approaching him, was Cloe. The name of the girl he already had… Kita.

Cloe stood next to him. "Excuse me but… what are you looking at?"she asked. And not one of them was afraid to speak. All of them had an attitude. And they all obeyed him in the end.

"Can you talk?"Cloe asked. He turned to smile at her. Then grabbed her and pushed the handkerchief soaked in ether to her mouth, forcing her to lose consciousness.