Chapter 11

That night drifted off into a strange restless sleep, almost as if I knew what was to come. I was woken violently when two strong hands lifted me from my bed. My eyes snapped open, and I found myself staring into Zoot's white eyes.

"Ebony" he hissed. Then he lifted me and tossed me across the room like a rag doll. I seemed to fly through the air slowly in a surreal world. I saw him standing by my bed watching me and I felt my body hit my wardrobe before falling to the foot of it.

Slowly he advanced on me, scared I used the wardrobe to pull myself up.

"Keep away from me" I told him my voice shaking, I was terrified. He was so strong and forceful. "I'm not you slave anymore" I told him as I shrank away from him against the wardrobe

"No you're just a common s1ut now" he said his voice low and dangerous "Do you remember when you were my s1ut ebony?" Memories enfolded me and my breath caught in my throat in terror

"No" I whispered in despair

He picked me up and pushed me against the wardrobe, he was so close he was all I could see and I could hear his breath, even his breath was menacing. He began to bang my body against the wardrobe over and over repeating "You are my s1ut, my s1ut" I couldn't resist however much I struggled, and he forced the phrase through my mind battering through my defenses leaving them destroyed until that phrase was all I could think of.

Finally he threw me down into a quivering heap at the bottom of the wardrobe.

"You are my s1ut," he hissed at my before leaving.

He left me there shaking, I didn't move for over an hour, my body felt broken and weak and my mind was in shreds. Eventually I forced myself to move and I dragged myself into the bed where I rocked myself into an exhausted sleep.

I woke before dawn and I knew I would not sleep again that night. My body ached and I was haunted by Zoot's face and his words. Looking in the mirror I saw my body was covered in bruises, thankfully there were none on my face, to compliment the bruise I already had there, which people might ask questions about. I got out my long sleeved top to cover the bruises from the prying eyes of the Mallrats and left the hotel making my way down to the beach.

I used to spend a lot of time on the beach when I was with the Locos; the peace and space calmed me and made me feel better. When I climbed a hill and stood looking at the beach stretch for miles deserted either side of me and the sea spread before me I felt my problems float away on the wind that was swirling and eddying around me pulling on my clothes and intensifying the early morning nip in the air.

On the beach I walked among the sand dunes or sat on the sand watching the clouds high above me. I followed the flight of a seagull becoming one with it, soaring in the sky, feeling every jolt and lift in the wind until it disappeared over the horizon. All the time I didn't think of Jay or Zoot, the beach numbed the pain and in my heart I created a special place of calmness that was the beach, a place where there was only me, no-one else and no problems.

About midday as I sat on a dune I saw a boy walk onto the beach, he was dressed in Techno uniform. Not wanting to be seen I hid watching him waiting to see who he was meeting. After a minute or so I saw a girl run onto the breach and fling herself into his embrace where they kissed passionately. There was something strangely familiar about this girl but I couldn't think who she was.

I had been planning to leave after I saw who he was meeting but the sight of them meeting in secret twisted my heart painfully. I sat there watching them, mesmerized, remembering when Jay and I had been like that in our secret meetings in the hotel, the urgency, the suspense, the sense that we were doing something bad that heightened the pleasure of the meeting, it was all there. And then I realized who the strange girl was, it was Taisan.

What was Taisan doing meeting secretly with a Techno lover on the beach? I wondered about going and telling the Mallrats but I didn't see the point, the thought of becoming embroiled in the endless rows and pain this would cause was too much. I was already mentally and physically exhausted from Zoot, the tribe would have to find this one out themselves. I left them to it finally making my way back to the mall, I reckoned I had spent about eight hours on the beach; it hadn't seemed nearly that long at all.