Before the Artful Dodger

Small wooden shack

"I'm glad I found ya, Jack. Yer know vat, right?"

"I-I-I guess.......er..... So where are ya takin' me, 'zactly?"

"To meet Fagin."

"Ya wot?"

"Fagin. Oh, ya'll see." Nancy finished the conversation, and Jack knew this. He knew that if he were to live past the age of four, he would have to trust Nancy. 

To think that mere hours ago, he and Lil had been having a brilliant time, teasing each other, stuffing their faces, playing games. How very ironic that one of those games had been wink murder. Lil had died in wink murder, and then got up and laughed her head off. Not much later, she died for real. But she had not got up. She had not laughed. She had just lay there, motionless, helpless, dead. Jack gave an audible sob.

"You alright?" questioned the girl, with some sense of concern in her voice. "'S OK. We're 'ere now."

Jack glanced upwards. Before him, was a, rather well hidden, wooden house. I say house, though anybody could see it was little more than a tall shack. There were stairs leading up to it, and the door seemed fast shut. A swamp-like river-ish thing (this is, at least, how Jack thought of it) separated the land beneath a mouldy platform. This enabled you to reach the door from the stairs, which seemed so old and obvious to passers-by, that the boy peered around to see where the secret, safe entrance was.

Nancy called up a wide shoot.

"'Ello! Bill, are you there?"

"Wodyoo want?" an annoyed, throaty voice answered her call.

"I'd like to 'ave a chat wiv you, whilst I'm out 'ere in da freezing rain. Lemmee in, will ya?"

"Right, I'm comin'."

Turning back to Jack, she grabbed his hand. The little boy felt a rush at this.

"Come on, we ain't gonna stay out 'ere all night, are we?"

Nancy led him up the rickety stairs, across the soggy platform, and waited. The door creaked open. A hazel eye appeared in the crack.

"Bill, open up! Ya silly, you should know it's only me!"

The sulky-looking teen shook his head. "I wouldn't say that. If it's only you, Nance, wot 'bout that one? Little tyke ain't there, eh?"

Clearly getting fed up, Nancy sighed. "Only me and this poor little sweetie wiv no family, nowhere to go." She placed a hand on her hip, raised an eyebrow.

After thinking awhile, (which seemed like hard work for the boy Nancy had called 'Bill' ) the two were let inside.

;-)'Ello me flash mates! Back on me laptop, so updates should be quicka! Sadly, dis also means no more emojis! 'Ope yer all enjoyin' da book! Do wot ya do wiv da comments section, ya know? Gotta go make some sushi now (yup, sushi), but I'll be back soon! So long, fare thee well, pip pip, cheerio, I'll be back soon! <3 =-P