The Disgraced Newsie( Tommy Boy Alternate)

CHAPTER VIII

TOMMY BOY'S POV

The Harlem Newsies took me to the deepest parts of Harlem. One of the boys had me over their shoulder, so that prevented any chances of me escaping from them. Not that I could have escaped from them in the first place. Why were they doing this? What could they possibly want from me? I am not worth anything to Manhattan anymore, so what importance could I maybe mean to them?

Eventually, they took me into their lodging house, and the one carrying me roughly dropped me on the ground. I groaned painfully as I looked around the lodging house and saw everyone looking at me with cruel malice. If I didn't know any better, it looked like they could surround me and beat me up at the slightest moment. I learned that much from the others back at the lodging house. Some of them decided to spit out their hatred and spitefulness toward Manhattan Newsies on me.

"Manhattan trash."

"Not so tough without your leader to protect your useless and scrawny butt, aren't you?"

"I would love to use you as an excuse to show Jack Kelly what happens when he messes with the wrong newsies." One by one, the insults started to become worse and worse to the point where it was... what is the word Davey says in certain situations? Inevitable? I think that is the one. It was inevitable that the Harlem Newsies would beat me up. I heard footsteps walking toward me from behind me, and I thought that it was over for me. The person grabbed me by the hair and forced me to stand up from the ground. I was forced to turn around and face the person in question, who turned out to be Slingshot: the leader of the Harlem Newsies.

"Well. Well. Well. Look what we have here. A Manhattan Newsie, and it happens to be one of the younger ones, which is even better. Wait until Jack Kelly finds out about this. He will go crazy." So that is why they wanted a Manhattan Newsie; they just wanted to mess with Jack. But he wouldn't waste his time rescuing me from Harlem after all the trouble I caused him and the others and all the problems I am causing them now. I am not a Manhattan Newsie anymore, so why would he even care about me? "Take him to the basement and chain him down there. But for now, let him unharmed unless he gives you any trouble. But not before I do this." At first, I thought he wanted to punch me in the face or beat me up a little bit, but instead, he grabbed my hat from my head and motioned for his boys to drag me into the basement. I was chained up in the basement, and then I was left alone in the near darkness. That was a huge mess. It was a huge mess that I caused in the first place.

What was going to happen to me? What were they going to do to me? Are they going to kill me? What if they kill me? No, Slingshot said he wanted me unharmed, but when has he ever kept his word on anything he said? I don't deserve his help, but I wish Jack would save me. He seemed like he still cared about me, as from what Finch said, he grounded everyone because of me and won't unground them until I am brought back to the lodging house. But he probably won't anymore once he finds out I am why war is about to start between Harlem and Manhattan.

JACK KELLY'S POV

There was a knock on the front door, which left me confused. Who could that be at this hour? Wait, could it be Tommy? Did he decide to come back home? I quickly ran downstairs toward the door and opened it, but it was Tommy; it was Slingshot who was at the door.

"What are you doing here?!" I barked at him. What is he doing here? What does he want? I don't have time to deal with him. I have many more important problems to deal with, and he is not one of them.

"I am hurt, Jack Kelly. What is with this hostility toward me? I can't visit an old friend anymore?"

"We are not friends. Look, I have too many problems to deal with right now, and you are not one of those problems, so get out of my sight!"

"Well, we are both leaders of our territories, aren't we? Anyways, I just wanted to talk. How about we take a walk toward the Brooklyn Bridge?" He smiled at me with obvious malicious intentions. I don't trust him at all; he is the last person I would ever trust. Slingshot was known to double cross other leaders regarding negotiations or 'friendly' conversations with other leaders. But if it made him leave quicker, I would do whatever he wanted, but I would keep an eye on him, watching my back.

"Fine, whatever. I don't care as long as it makes you leave quicker." We walked toward the Brooklyn Bridge and stopped in the middle. I glared silently at the water while Slingshot had a malicious smirk on his stupid face. "What do you want?"

"I want you to suffer and fall apart. You think you are tough, but you are nothing without your territory and newsies."

"Listen, if you have some problem with me, that is between you and me, but you better leave my boys out of it. They have nothing to do with this."

"Funny how you mentioned that. You care about your newsies so much that it will hurt you a lot if something happens to them."

"What are you talking about?" All of the boys should be at the lodging house right now. Unless... I immediately grabbed hold of Slingshot by the collar of his shirt and looked at him with murderous rage. I would smack that stupid grin off his face if he did anything to Tommy. "What did you do to him?! Tell me, you sick bastard!"

"Man, I didn't know you had that big of a temper. You might need to work on that."

"Where is he?!"

"He is safe and sound at the Harlem Lodging House. For now, he is unharmed."

"I am going to kill you."

"You don't have the guts to do that, not if the safety of your newsie depends on it."

"You wouldn't."

"I would and would also do it if you give me if you don't do something for me."

"What do you want?"

"I want what you have. I want Manhattan."

"And if I don't give you Manhattan?"

"Then have fun seeing the body of your newsie in the East River." I continued murderously glaring at him, but as long as he had Tommy Boy in captivity, he had the upper advantage against me. "You are lucky that I am feeling nice today, so you have until two weeks to surrender Manhattan unless you are more than content with having your newsie killed."

"... We will see about that. He better be unharmed when I come to get him!"

"As you said, we will see about that." I headed back toward the direction of the lodging house with deep rage in me right now. I can't believe this happened, and I knew that this would happen. I swear that if I find out that bastard put his hands on Tommy, there will be war.