Aisha was desperate to make up with the boy, not because she felt that bad, it more had to do with the feelings of another boy. Aisha wasn’t heartless, she just cared only cared about Jim and no one else. Glancing over at Jim, she saw that she was still getting the cold shoulder and she couldn’t blame Jim for being angry with her. What she had done was stupid and infantile. It was the type of this Gene would do, not her.

“John, Aisha has something to say,” Jim said after knocking once on the closet door. Jim looked to Aisha waiting for her to say something and Aisha got the hint and started speaking.

“John what I said was in the heat of the moment. I was being a bitch and you didn’t deserve my brutality. Some times I say things that aren’t true because I’m angry and back in there was one of those times. I know I don’t deserve it, but maybe we can still be friends. Why don’t you come out and we can have a big bowl of ice cream?” They waited a minute after Aisha was done for John to reply, but no answer was provided. Aisha tapped her foot impatiently and looked at her watch. The kid could at least yell back to be left alone so they could get back to their day. Aisha slammed her fist against the door after another minute went by and no answer was given.

“Don’t ignore me you punk. Do you want ta be friends or not? Answer me before I break this door down, you stupid little…”

“Aisha!” Jim cried in anger. She looked at Jim sheepishly and backed away from the door slowly. Jim was getting the same look in his eyes that Aisha got just before she ate someone. Aisha tried to look innocent, but the huge dent in the door somewhat made that hard.

“Oops,” was all Aisha could say as Jim stared at her crossly. It was at the time that the hinges of the door gave out and it fell over. Aisha’s assault on it had busted it up so badly that the door just couldn’t take it. Jim and Aisha looked past the fallen door and into the closet. Instead of seeing a weeping John, they saw junk and no boy. Aisha pushed some boxes away and saw that the back of the closet had a hole in it leading into the hollow area between the walls. It had never been fixed because nobody could fit through it, nobody that is but a child. Jim looked at Aisha in alarm.

“He’s gone,” he whispered. Without saying anything else, Jim rushed out the front door with Aisha trailing behind. They had to find John not just to apologize, but also keep him safe if the slavers found him, then they would never see John again.


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“Sir, we have movement,” The man on the roof across from Starwind and Hawking Enterprises said into his walkie talkie. He had been asked to stalk out the building and report any movements from anyone inside. He was given specific orders to keep an eye out for a Ctarl-Ctarl. He didn’t ask any questions, in this line of work the only thing that killed quicker then mistakes was asking too much.

“Good,” Jerome said with satisfaction. He had lost a considerable amount of his revenue because of these people and he wanted blood to make up for his suffering. His employee’s deaths and arrests weren’t a big problem for him. There would always be more thugs for him to hire and even the Ctarl-Ctarl could be replaced. There were a considerable amount of exiled Ctarl-Ctarls running around that had pick kicked out for not going with the new human friendly rules. No, the only thing that burned him up was the loss of the meat or as the paper called them ‘orphans’. It had been hard to commandeer that much unspoiled meat, most orphans had sicknesses or deformities making them unsuitable for selling. He had spent weeks rounding up all that meat and to have it taken away was like getting spit in the face. He would see that they understood the meaning of suffering before he killed them. But right now, he had to make a call. There was a group of Kei pirates that owned him a favor and they could pay it back by bringing these troublemakers in. As he made the call, he tried to decide which target to strike first, the Ctarl-Ctarl and boy wondering the streets, or the unsuspecting people inside Starwind and Hawking Enterprises? He only had enough men to attack one, so who would be brought to hell first?