I Never Planned on This (A newsies fanfiction)

Chapter eight

Davey blinked a few times, trying to get his sight adjusted to the darkness. The wagon started to move, but he only laid there in pain. He felt like he had been trampled on by a horse. He looked to his right to see Henri sitting there, her knees against her chest, curled into a ball. She was staring at the door, where they had been shoved inside of this wagon only seconds before.

The wagon was in the style of a dog catcher's wagon, with one solid door opening and closing the back. Another wall separated them from the driver and passenger, and one padlock kept them trapped inside.

Davey's foot hurt like heck, and he took off his right shoe, wincing as he did so.

"You...okay?" Henri asked in a small voice. Though he couldn't see her face, Davey could tell by her voice that she was about to start crying.

"I...I don't know." Davey admitted, stretching out his leg and leaning back against the wall. "Morris stomped on my right foot hard." He winced a bit. "Now I know how Crutchie feels." He looked at her, although all he could see was her silouette in the dark room. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "I dunno." She admitted. "Oscar got me in the eye. I think it'll be fine, but it really hurts." She put her hand to her eye and winced, yanking her hand back down again. It was silent. You could hear rain pouring outside. Some drops made it into the small room through cracks in the boards.

"Your..." Henri started. "Your folks. Your brother. Your...your family." She looked at him. "They's just allowed to...take ya away from them like that?"

"If I did something bad enough, yeah." Davey answered.

"But you didn't do nothing!!!" Henri said. "We were the ones who started it. Besides," she looked back down at the floor and muttered, "The Delanceys are the ones that threw the first punch." Her voice broke. She buried her face in her hands. Davey could hear her silently crying. He wished he could help, but he was honestly afraid himself. No one had ever been inside of The Wall before. They would be the first inmates. He put his hand on Henri's shoulder, and she looked at him. Wiping her eyes, she was quiet for a while, before asking,

"Davey? Having folks..." She looked back at the ground. "What's it like?"

"You've...never known?" He asked, feeling sympathy for her.

She shook her head. "My folks were killed in a fire when I was five. Around that time, I was old enough to be raised in an orphanage. That's how I learned to read and write." She explained. "Three years later, I turned eight, and I was too old to stay at the orphanage anymore. They kicked me out and threw me onto the streets." Davey listened intently, gaping at her. "Eventually, I found Jack, Crutchie, and the others. They took me into the Newsie family." She smiled sadly. "The rest is history."

"I'm...I'm sorry." Davey said. "I had no idea."

"It's fine." Henri answered. "My story ain't the saddest. But..." She looked at him, and asked again. "What's it like having folks?"

Davey thought about it and tried to explain it in an easy way to understand. "Well, the father is kind of the leader of the family." He said. "He protects you, and would do anything in his power to keep you safe."

"So...like Jack?" Henri asked.

Davey nodded. "in a way, I suppose." He said. "And the mother, she's the one who cooks everything, the one who keeps things going in the house. Usually the father goes off to work, but the mother does the house work. She's always there to help when you need it." He thought for a second. "In a way, she's kind of like Medda."

Henri nodded. "Must be nice." She remarked. She then went back to looking at the floor. She looked at Davey's foot. "Do you think it's bad?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It hurt like heck when I was forced to stand. It may be broken." He inhaled a sharp breath as he touched it. "It's already starting to swell."

They felt a bump in the road and Davey let out a howl of pain as his foot moved up and down with the wagon. Then, it stopped.

They had reached their destination.

They yanked Henri out by her arms first, and yanked Davey out soon after. He let out another howl of pain as his foot collided with the ground. Henri helped him to balance on his left foot, and they were forced forward.

They were walked through the door and into The Wall.

The walls were a mix of browns, grays, and blacks. There were heavy doors every few steps, with one window at the top, and three or four locks on each. Davey balanced on his left foot and dragged his right behind him, leaning his right arm on Henri's left shoulder for support. That is, until they were separated.

They arrived at one of the cells, and Kennedy grabbed Henri by her wrist. She looked up at him in fear, and he looked back down at her with a stone-faced expression. "This is your cell, girl." He said, his voice gravelly. Henri whipped her head back towards Davey, and tried to break free from Kennedy. But he tightened his grip on her wrist, unlocking the cell door. She began to scream as the other officers began to drag Davey, stumbling, down the hallway. She reached her arm out for him, and he attempted to grab it, but was smacked away by one of the officers' batons. He tried to turn around and see Henri as the officers dragged him away. He saw Kennedy unlock the door, and began to yell for Henri. Kennedy opened the door to an insanely dark room, and despite Henri's struggles, he grabbed her other wrist and dragged her in, Henri struggling and screaming to the best of her ability. A few minutes later, Kennedy came back out of the cell alone and slammed the door behind him. He latched the door shut and shoved the padlock in place. He then continued to chain the door closed as Davey heard Henri's screams from the inside. The officer on his right shoved his head to turn in front of him, and kept his hand there so that Davey couldn't look back, as they proceeded down the hallway.

Henri pounded on the door, screaming for Davey. She didn't want to be here. She wanted out. She wanted to be back in Newsie square. And if she couldn't do that, she at least wanted to be near Davey, the only person she knew in this prison full of darkness, cold, and strangers.

Frustrated, angry, but most of all, afraid, she pounded against the door a final time. She turned around, sliding down onto her knees. She buried her face in her knees.

And she cried.