Between Halos and Horns

Chapter 5 ~ Injun and Black

My jaw hung slightly open in plain shock of what Reid was telling me. He looked so sincere, so serious about what he was telling me. I was honestly beginning to question whether or not he was actually making this up, or if it was like he said, his true life's story. "Okay, let's stop here for a few minutes, I need to set a few things straight, ask for some details."

"Alright then," he replied smoothly, biting off small bits of foam from the cup and spitting them into the ashtray.

"First of all," I began, trying to find the right words, "why didn't you just take off the first chance you got. Surely this Deacon fellow had to go to sleepsometime, right?"

"That's absolutely right," Reid nodded, "however, there was always two children guardin' the entrance, see? And nine times outta ten they were two of Deacon's most trusted Runts. For example I'd seen Andrew, the older boy I had met that night, and this other boy named Bryan, who was about our age."

"There wasneveran opportunity to leave then?" I asked, amazed at the severity of the situation he was in.

"Not till Dale and I made one," he answered with a sly smile.

"Care to explain?"

"I'll go ahead and continue now."

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Now, all the boys holed up here with Deacon were either trained, or in trainin', thieves and occasional brawlers. Me and Dale fit the latter category, in trainin'. As I started to actually poke around our new home, the boys called it Runtville, I realized that what we essentially were livin' in was a cavern, complete with hangin' lanterns and dirty workers. The Runts, I noticed, all looked like they had taken a whippin'. It was only my first day inside when I found out why.

"Knuckle dustin' time!" Deacon called out to Runtville. All of the boys began to hoot n' holler as they gathered in the large entry room of the cavern. "We got ourselves fresh meats! Time to break 'em in!" They all cheered and jostled me n' Dale around a bit - there must've been a dozen and a half of them. Before I knew it, everyone had formed a large circle, a ring of sorts, and they threw Dale right into the middle of it. He looked at me with large, fearin' eyes, but there was nothin' I could do.

"Let me see, let me see," Deacon said, lookin' around, scratchin' his beard like a philosopher. "Tongue!" All the boys went silent, dead silent. "Tongue, you get in there and beat the livin' shit out that black boy." I didn't like that, and I wrestled around with the two boys tryin' to hold me back.

"Hey, calm down lil' Injun," one of them whispered to me. I turned to look at him, and it was another boy about my age. He had short, blond hair a big blue eyes - one of them had been severly blackened, looked like a good slug to the face. "It's for his own good, don't ya know? After this, he'll be able to take any kind o' beatin'. You're next, so you might as well watch." He shrugged and then got me to face the ring once again.

I missed the first punch, but I knew when it happened because the crowd erupted into cheers. Dale was already staggerin' around, coughin' like he was outta breath. Tongue gave him a straight kick to the waist and my buddy crumpled to the floor like a toy doll. The boy then knelt down, right next to Dale, and finished the fight with a hard one to the jaw, knockin' him completely unconscious.

Next thing I knew, I was right in the middle of the dimly-lit circle. They carried Dale away and outta sight, and I was left to stare at Deacon, who was outside the circle, waitin' to see who my opponent would be. I caught sight of Tongue amongst the circle, calmly lookin' at me, his eyebrows scrunched up a bit. He had light brown hair like mine, but my hair was longer than his, and brushed to the side - his was just unruly.