"People always nag. Haven't you ever noticed? At school, the teachers nag you. At home, your parents nag. And at the bus stop, your friends nag you, if you're lucky." The young girl shrunk away from her. She knew why. People often felt intimidated by her, frightened, even. She laughed again and the young girl shivered. "You know, I've been watching Sodapop Curtis… do you know who Sodapop Curtis is? Of course you do. You're his cousin, aren't you? His father's brother's daughter… Soda's youngest cousin."

Melissa Curtis shivered again and shrunk away from the small, red haired girl pacing in front of her. "Who are you?" She managed to squeak.

The girl bent down until her face was level with Melissa's. "I," she said calmly, "am your worst nightmare."

Sodapop watched lazily as Darry finished talking on the phone and hung up. "Who was that? Your girlfriend from work?"

Two-Bit laughed as he sat on the couch. "Yeah, what's-her-name… Andrea?"

Soda grinned and nodded. "Yeah. They're in lurve!"

Darry glared at him. "Actually, it was Uncle Norman. He said that -"

"Are you OK?" Soda asked, suddenly realizing how pale and clammy Darry was. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good," Darry muttered weakly. "Melissa's missing."

Soda's reaction was completely different to Darry's. All the colour that had vanished from Darry's face seemed to rise suddenly in his brother's face, and Soda could feel himself going cold as he leapt to his feet. "What? What happened?"

"He-he didn't say much. He just said that last night, Christopher and Aileen were picking on her, and Melissa couldn't take it anymore, and she started yelling at Uncle Norman and Aunt Julianne and then she ran out. They haven't seen her since."

Two-Bit looked at them. "What, y'all think she's been kidnapped?"

"Well… not necessarily," Soda muttered, starting to pace. "I mean, when Ponyboy went missing, he wasn't kidnapped, was he?"

"No, but he was with Johnny," Darry pointed out, "and nobody in their right mind would try to kidnap one kid, let alone two. So if Melissa was by herself… there's a good chance she was kidnapped."

"But there's an equally good chance she wasn't," Sodapop argued as the front door swung open and Ponyboy walked in.

"Who wasn't what?"

"Nothing," Darry said hastily with a warning glare in Soda's direction. Ponyboy looked as though he didn't believe him. And why should he? Ponyboy had been shut out of so much, he didn't know what he'd been shut out of. Sodapop did… Although he'd been shut out of everything Ponyboy had, he'd learned to eavesdrop, and he knew that Ponyboy would be a lot worse off if he did know.

"Can I make a phone call?" Melissa begged. "I want to talk to my parents!"

"No," the girl snapped. "No phone calls. Not until I say."

"Why are you doing this?" Melissa asked desperately. "What have I ever done to you? I don't hang around with lunatics!"

The girl's eyes flashed angrily, and she kicked Melissa in the head. Hard. As hard as she could. Over and over again, with Melissa trying to get away, half-crawling, half dragging herself to get away from the girl. But the girl was older than her, stronger and faster. She kicked Melissa over and over, until Melissa finally collapsed and just lay still, in a pool of blood that seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

The girl stared at Melissa for a minute before she spat at her still body. "That's what you get," she hissed, her voice dripping with hatred, "for calling Artemis Crawford-Hall a lunatic."