Letters in the Refuge

Chapter 6

(^^ The actual-factual-real-life Refuge. Someone on Tumblr did tons of research on it, and I copy/pasted their post in my 'Random Newsies Stuff' book, because deep research like that shouldn't go unnoticed and unread!)

And just so you know, I have no written out plot points for this book. I goes wherever I feel like it should go. The idea actually came from a dream I had once. Boy secretly working for Snyder in the Refuge, Crutchie comes, and I can't tell you any more 'cause I'll spoil it lol

Anyway, enjoy!!

-Possible TWs: Beating up (par for the course though, this story is set in the Refuge lol), probably-death spoken about, nightmare, pouty Johnathan lol

I was in my bunk looking at the crip again, lost in thought, when the door burst open revealing Coleman and Tenpin.

Tenpin was shoved to the floor, and received a good kick to the back.

I smirked a bit.

When the door closed, Ghost rushed to his side. After a brief conversation between the two that I couldn't hear, Ghost got him in his bed, and came over to mine.

"Psst. Letters," he whispers to me. "Can ya come over 'ere for a sec?"

I roll my eyes, but get up and follow him to a secluded corner of the cell.

"What is it?" I say in a low voice.

"It's Tenpin. He ain't lookin' so good," Ghost says.

"'e's been in worse scrapes before, hasn't 'e?"

"Physically, yea, but I think Snyda got ta 'im real bad in 'is head this time."

"Hmm."

Tenpin's a tough kid. I know, the Delanceys know, and Snyder knows. He's been Snyder's little project for a few months. He beats him up, I try and get a secret or two about his past out of him, and every time I've failed. That kid's gotten be beat up pretty bad too. But if what Ghost said is true, and Snyder got into his head, it might make my job a bit easier.

"You want me ta go tawk ta him?" I ask.

"Not right now. 'e ain't in the best shape. Let 'im rest for a few hours, and then you can try and calm 'im down," he tells me.

A little less of a chance of cracking him if he calms down, but he should still be riled up enough for me to get something out of him.

Suddenly, I hear thrashing and faint yelling from across the room. From my bunk. Great.

"Isn't that the crip?" Ghost asks.

"Yea."

"Sounds like 'e's havin' a nightmare. You'se gonna go wake 'im up?"

"Why can't you," I whine. Yes, I'm fully aware that I sound like a little kid, but I don't want the kid to get attached to me, and I've seen situations like this multiple times in the time I've been at the Refuge. A kid has a nightmare, a kid wakes them up, and then they have a 'bond' or something.

"Tenpin says 'e's yers ta take care of. Besides, I hafta go take care of Tenpin 'imself, and Wheezy."

Right. The sicky.

"Fine," I say, and lightly stomp over to my bunk, where the crip's yelling has gotten louder. I shake him lightly. "Wake up, kid," I tell him.

That just makes him shift around more.

I shake him harder. "Kid. KID."

"No!" he cries out. "Jack, NO!!"

"'ill someone shut 'im up?" groans Owl from the next bunk over.

"I'm tryin'" I say.

"W'll try 'arder," he mumbles, and turns over, putting his thin pillow over his ears.

I turn back to the crip.

"Kid. Wake up! Yer havin' a nightmare. Wake up." No use.

Finally, I resort to something I haven't done the whole time the kid's been here. "Crutchie!" I say loudly into his ear.

That wakes him right up. His eyes fly open, and he sits up quickly. He looks around the room, and as he realizes where he is, his shoulders sag. Then he looks over at me. Oh boy.

"Letters?" he whispers.

"Yup," I say. "You were havin' a nightmare."

He nods silently.

"You wanna talk about it?" Please say no please say no please say no...

He shrugs.

Well that's even worse. Now I have to pry.

"You were callin' out ta Jack. Was 'e in it?"

He nods, but still doesn't say anything.

I sigh. When I start climbing onto the bunk, he looks up at me, and tenses up.

"Hey, I ain't gonna hurt ya, kid," I say as I sit on the other end of the bunk. I look him in the eyes. "I just wanna know what happened. And ya don't even hafta tell me. But sometimes it helps ta say it all out loud. That way it's not all stuck in yer head, ya know?"

He takes a shaky breath. "Okay," he says. "I'll try to tell you."

"'s all I'm askin'."

He takes a few more deep breaths, and then starts.

"I-I-I-I was dreamin'... I was dreamin' 'bout me and Jack. We'se good friends, ya know. We would always sleep on the roof together when it's warm. But, but, but, one day, 'e didn't come back from sellin'. We'se newsies, remember? Of course ya remember. You remember everythin'. Anyway, Jack didn't come back from sellin', and it was late at night. Me and Race was stayin' up fer 'im, but it was gettin' too late and we were worried. Race decided ta go out an' see if 'e could find 'im, and he told me ta stay at the lodgin' house in case Jack came back. But silly, dream me didn't want ta stay behind, so I left ta go find Jack on my own. A-a-and ya know what happened? I found 'im. I found 'im, beaten up in an alley. 'e looked so bad."

His voice had trailed off into a whisper, and I could barely him now.

"I-I-I-I-I was standin' over 'im, a-a-a-and 'e didn't look like 'e was breathin'. H-h-he looked so bad... " he trails off. "He looked so bad," he says, his voice barely coming out.

I hum. "Did it help ta say it out loud?" I ask. Because I really don't know what else to say.

"Kinda," he whispered.

"Well that's good. Do ya wanna get some rest now?"

He shakes his head. "I'm afraid I'd jus' go back ta the dream."

"Understandable."

We sit in silence for a good few minutes, just looking at the thin blanket on the bed, and occasionally at each other.

Eventually, I shift to get out of the bunk. "Well, I'm gonna go see what Ghost is doing, and see how Tenpin is," and I get out of the bed.

"Okay," he says, still looking down at the mattress.

I start to walk away, but am stopped by his voice.

"Letters?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks fer listenin' ta me."

I turn around. He's still looking down, picking at the blanket, probably putting more holes in it. Great.

"Anytime, kid," I say. I turn around, and start walking towards Ghost again.

Wow, normally my chapters are around 500-700 words, but this one is 1024!

Also, no promises on when the next chapter will be out. I'm kinda just publishing these as I'm writing them lol. I'm on a bit of a spree though, so it might not be long. We'll just have to see, won't we :)