Captive of Rotteness

Chapter Four- Looking


A balding man stood out in front of a house, seeming very distraught as he looked up and down the street jerkily.
“ Oh, Dear...” He said over and over again as he seemed to be waiting for someone on his stoop.

A very well muscled man dressed in blue and white appeared from somewhere. He seemed to be hurrying a little bit, his legs speeding him along surprisingly fast.

The man leaped the low stone fence, and headed straight towards the very emotional man who was babbling away like crazy..
“ Hello, Mayor.” The tall man said.
“ Sportacus...” The man said, with a relieved sigh. “ Thank Goodness...Am I glad to see you!”

Sportacus looked at his friend who was the Mayor of Lazytown. He could see the frantic state the man was in. He knew that something was very wrong in Lazytown this morning.
“ What is it, Mayor Meanswell?”

The man did not stop moving o the stoop, running back and forth while holding his head with both hands.
“ It... It’s Stephanie...” He said, his voice wavering a little. “ She’s gone... She’s vanished.. simply disappeared... Oh dear, Oh my...”

Putting his hands on the shorter man’s shoulders, he made eye contact with him to try and stop the babbling that flowed out the man.
“ Slow down there, sir...” He said, stopping the non-stop words of Mayor Meanswell. “ Take a few deep breaths in and start again telling me what is wrong?”

The Mayor nodded and did what he was asked to, taking two or three deep breaths in in succession. He seemed to be calmed enough, and looked up at the much taller person who waited on him.
“ Stephanie was late getting to the town hall to meet me for brunch this morning...” He started, slowly. “ I went back home to find her, but she was not there. I found only her clothes that were layed out on the bed, but she was absolutely nowhere to be found.” He shook his head. “ I looked everywhere in the house, and there is no trace of her anywhere...”

Sportacus gasped, hearing what the man was saying. He knelt down a little, and looked into the man’s face
“ Are you trying to say that she has simply disappeared, Mayor?” Clarified Sportacus.
“ Yes.” Was the man’s answer, voice very flattened. “ Gone without a single trace, I’m afraid.”

Sportacus rubbed his chin as he thought.
“ That does not sound like Stephanie to simply go off on her own like that...” He said with a sigh. “ She would not go off like this, and not tell someone before she went off... never!”
“ No it does not! She always tells me where she is going, even when she is meeting with you or the others.” The mayor agreed. “ Sportacus..What shall we do? Can we find Stephanie?”

The blue and white garbed man thought for a few minutes, while Milford Meanswell waited.

The tall man walked back and forth a few times, his mind was hard at work on this predicament.
“ You go and ask Miss Busybody if she has seen Stephanie this morning...” Sportacus said finally. “ I will go and check with Stingy... we all will meet back here if we don’t find something and then form a plan.”
“ Do you have one? A plan that is...” The Mayor asked.

Sportacus shook his head, his eyes flashing with the worry that had invaded his whole body.
“ Not right now.” Sighed the tall man. “ Let’s just split up after getting the others, go look around Lazytown, then figure things out later if we all do not find her.”

Mayor Meanswell went to run off to do like his friend had said to, then stopped and looked over at him again.
“ Should we call Browntown and get a hold of Trixie, Pixel and Ziggy?” The Mayor asked. “ They might know or have a clue to where she went.”
“ Would she have gone with them to Browntown?” Asked the tall man, his mind already knowing the answer.
“ Oh no, she would have asked me if she could go.” Milford said.


Sportacus shook his head a little. He already knew the answer to his own question before he even had said it. Taking a deep breath in, he knew just what he could do for now.
“ Right now, we have to check with who is still in town first.” He said, thinking out loud for the benefit of the Mayor. “ Then we will get a hold of the others, if we don’t find her soon...” Sportacus paused, thinking on the situation. “ They would come back to look, if we needed them to.”
“ Got it...” Said Milford.

Running off as fast as he could, the Mayor hurried off in the direction of Miss Busybody’s house as asked by his friend. He seemed very determined to find his Niece, but you could help but not see that he was very worried as he hurried off.

Sportacus hurried himself off with all haste as well, hoping that Stingy was home right now, and had seen Stephanie.

As he raced off to the tree-house, but he had a sinking feeling that his little friend was in real danger, but he had not the slightest idea of where to start looking for the girl. He doubled his speed and raced to meet up with the young lad he needed to see.