It took Aisha a few minutes to find out what had upset John. The boy had been making spices that he would be swimming in for a ctarl-ctarl to eat. That very idea made Aisha want to throw up. Aisha may like eating Terrans, but she wouldn't make a Terran cover themsleves with spices. Aisha rushed out of the room to look for Jim and John.
She rushed downstairs, only to find Jim outside his own door and knocking on it.
"Come on, John" said Jim. "Aisha is always like that"
There was no answer from Jim's room, except for a soft sob from John. As Aisha walked towards the door, Jim looked up and glared at Aisha.
"Why did you have to scare him like that?" asked Jim. "just because he was beating you"
"I was only kidding..." said Aisha sheepishy, her ears drooping a bit.
"I know that, but John had two ctarl-ctarls that were cruel to him and the other kids" said Jim. "show a little compassion"
"John, come on out" said Aisha to the door. "I'll never hurt you"
There was a loud squeal from John from inside the room and the sound of the closet door slamming shut. The poor boy must be scared out of his wits.
"Aisha" said Jim. "I know you were just kidding, but try to look at it from John's point of view"


"Get back to work, dinner" growled Hojoma Jinjin to the cowering boy at his feet. The boy was in chains, and he wore dirty clothes. He was also crying apologies to Hojoma over and over again, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The boy got to his feet and picked up the packet that he had been carrying from the floor and continued his way to the big vat at the center of the room.
That had been John's life as far back as he could remember. The two ctarl-ctarls were so cruel to him, that he believed the whole feline speices must be that way. If you didn't work at the sweat shop, you ended up in either Sarah or Hojoma's belly. With that kind of movavition, the children had worked as hard as they could. But it was never enough for Sarah and Hojoma. The pair would terrorize a kid if he stopped working, telling the kid in guesome detail what would happen to him or her inside thier bellies. Like what Aisha had just said to John...or worse.
"And nobody would care if you were eaten" Hojoma had said one time to John when he tried to escape. "because nobody cares about little pieces of shit like you would be. I didn't eat you today because Mr. Big believes in giving dinner like you a second chance. If it was up to me, you'll be a pile of my shit by now"
John had made several escape attempts, but he was always caught by DeZarro, or by the other Terran slavers. He was never caught by Hojoma again, or else he wouldn't be around to talk about it.
John had finally escaped when DeZarro and Hojoma had been distracted by the arrival of thier boss, inspecting the sweat shop. When nobody was looking, John had slipped out of the sweat shop and headed for Starwind and Hawking Enterprises.
And now, John was cowering in a closet of a locked room because of what that Aisha had said to him. A part of him knew she had been kidding...but the other part of him told him to run, run, and keep on running and hide. Well, he was hiding. He was in a safe spot.
All ctarl-ctarl are evil John kept saying to himself. There's not a speck of kindness in thier hearts. To them, we are prey. To them, we are pieces of meat. To them, we were all walking pieces of shit. John shook his head to clear those ugly thoughts from his head, but it was no use. He was never going to trust a ctarl-ctarl as long as he lived. He should't have argeed to play that video game in the first place. John was in a fetal postition and deaf to the world. He was crying softly, and he was planning to get away from here before that Aisha ate him all up. That very thoght sent John into hysterics. But, he couldn't run. If he ran, Aisha was sure to catch him and.... "AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" John screamed in fear.
"Don't think about that" whispered John to himself. "just think about how to get outta here"