John slept on the stained, bumpy mattress in his room and it was the best sleep he’d had in a while. For the past months, his only bed had been a sweat and pee soiled blanket that he had to share with five different orphans. Not even his comfy bed at inside Starwind and Hawking Enterprises had given him this good of a nights sleep. He had kept one eye open during his whole night there. He could barely sleep knowing a Ctarl-Ctarl was near by, even though she said she was friendly. Jim had never really trusted the cat and now felt justified in his mistrust. The whole race was evil and couldn’t be trusted. The only reason that John could figure why the little Ctarl-Ctarl girl hadn’t eaten him was that she didn’t like his taste and thought he wasn’t even worth tasting. John knew she had been planning on eating him, why else would she have pulled his clothes off unless she was preparing to devour him. John had only been saved by not being worthy of being the malicious Ctarl-Ctarls dinner, which had to be the only reason he was alive.

“But what do I do next?” John asked himself in despair. He had gotten a momentary run of good luck when he was deemed unappetizing by that tiny devil, but if he were ever caught again, John’s luck would not be enough to save him. His only other option was to go back to Starwind and Hawkings Enterprises, but that was out of the question. He would be walking into the clutches of that evil monster again and he knew he would have more luck surviving with the slavers then Aisha. That monster had proven her evil and John was sure she had no soul. The only thing that really bothered John was Jim. Surly the boy was dead by now, that beast probably ate him up last night, but not before torturing him.

“Poor Jim,” John moaned letting a few tears slip out. He had been a true friend to him and he would be missed dearly. It horrified John to know how diabolical Aisha was, she acted like a real friend to Jim, but that had to be an act. She probably got off at betraying young terrans by eating them when they fall in love with her. Like some sick black widow, she made terrans think she was their friend, then gobbled them down to suffer a fate worse then death. John could still remember Jerome’s description of the Ctarl-Ctarl eating process. All the horrifying details were etched into John’s mind and he feared they would stay there until the day he died. If John ever found himself cornered by one of those evil beasts, he pledged to plunge his unprotected throat on one of their fangs and take the easy way out, instead of suffering through the digestion process.

At that moment, a knock sounded from the door to John’s room. he froze up and felt a sick coldness settle in his stomach. Had they found him? Was there a hungry Ctarl-Ctarl waiting behind the door to pull him into their jaws and push him into their putrid gut? Images of snarling Ctarl-Ctarls waiting outside his door went through John’s mind. They would have wiggling bellies where the muffled cries of boys and girls would be screaming out for mercy. Furthermore, at the front of this line of monsters, would be the biggest of them all, that atrocious and depraved Ctarl-Ctarl that pretended to be his friend, Aisha Clanclan. She would have a twisted sneer on her face and her belly would be shaking like all the rest, but John would know the voice inside her as that of Jim. While her belly shook, her laughter would be filling the hall and then John would be joining Jim.

“GO AWAY!” John screamed whilst scrambling to get under his blanket. If he went back to sleep, maybe the monsters would go away and he would be safe.

“Johnny boy, open up. It’s Pete.” John gaped at hearing his good friends voice. He felt like hitting himself for over reacting like that. None of those monsters knew where he was and they would never find him. He was going to have to leave the city and go somewhere that the Ctarl-Ctarls couldn’t go. Rumored had it, there’re extremists that lived in the mountains of Sentiel III that formed an anti-Ctarl-Ctarl movement. They understood that the race was evil and had to be exterminated. John could hitch a ride to Sentiel III and join with the freedom fighters. Maybe one day he could even avenge his friend Jim against that monster Aisha by taking her evil head, Visions of fighting of slobbering hordes of the beast cats’ filled Johns mind as he got out of bed and head to the door.

“Pete, I really gotta go, I’m going to Sentiel III and…” John was stopped when he saw a flash of someone’s fist before it smashed squarely into his face, rendering him unconscious. Falling to the floor, like a puppet that had it’s strings cut, John never saw Jerome looking over him with glee. Without taking his eyes of John, Jerome handed Pete a handful of bills and motioned for the greedy man to move along. Pete scurried away, counting his ill begotten gains with glee.

“Why must I do all the heavy lifting?” Jerome sighed before lifting John up by one hand and carrying him to his limo.