Birds in Gilded Cages

Chapter 6-A Little Bit of Kindness.

Chapter 6- A Little Bit of Kindness.

“Umm…Porridge maybe?”

“That’s it. I give up.” Zayn lifted a spoonful of whatever it was they’d been served for breakfast and let it fall wetly back into the bowl. “What it is, is fucking rank!”

Harry took a bite of limp toast.  “Do you remember pizza?”

Zayn’s eyes lit up. “God yeah, with extra cheese…And Chinese. I used to love a Chinese.”

“Yeah, we used to get one every Friday night…Hoi Sin Duck, Chicken Chow Mein…”

They both sighed longingly.

 “And chips…” Zayn prodded the mystery goop again with his spoon. “Like, would it kill them to let us have chips, just once?”

Harry jerked his head at the crowded tables in the dining hall, indicating all the men and boys eating. They were all toned, lean. “Nah, ‘cause God forbid any of us lot get fat.”

“Hi, lads.”   They both looked up at the sound of Liam’s voice to find him standing at the far end of the table…And he wasn’t alone. The boy who cowered at his elbow was rail thin, his skin now clean and milky pale.  He was baby-faced and his once matted and filthy hair had been washed, cut into a fluffy style and bleached blonde which made him look even younger.  He stared at them with china-blue eyes wide as saucers. He’d been dressed in jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt that hung from his scrawny body.  “This is Niall. He’s new here.  Niall, this is Harry and Zayn.  Now, you sit down with them and I’ll go get you some breakfast.”

“Yes Master.” The boy sat down in the seat between Zayn and Harry, hugging his arms to his chest.

“I’m not your…” Then Liam sighed and gave up, turning his back on them and going to fetch his food.  Left alone, the boy ducked his head and started to tremble. Harry and Zayn looked at each other and then Harry reached out to gently touch the boys arm.

“Hey, it’s ok. We’re not going to hurt you.  We’re Products, same as you.”

The boy fixed them with a curious stare. “Did youse say ya were gonna tell?”

And Harry realised why he’d sounded so strange the night before-He was Irish, his accent not a soft Dublin lilt but a thick country brogue.

“What?”  Zayn glanced at Harry, who shrugged.

“Y’know, tell what they were doin’ to ya. I told Father Heeley I were gonna tell. He was startin’ on the wee ones, y’know? I had to do somethin’ so I told him I’d tell on him if he didn’t let them alone. Next night I was waitin’ on me lift home from the youth club when they grabbed me. I guess they needed to keep me quiet. They kept me chained in a room wi’ no windows an’ they took turns. I was their slave, see.”

Zayn’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Who’s slave?”

The boy-Niall- looked surprised by the question. “The priests, o’ course. Then one day they came in an’ said I’d got too old. They made me take pills.  I woke up in a van wi’ my new master an’ some others an’ they said I’d been sold.”

Harry eyed him suspiciously. “Niall…How old are you?”

The boy looked thoughtful. “One of them men said they tol’ him I was twenty-one.”

Twenty-one…That was older than him…And yet Niall still looked like a kid. 

“Here you go, mate.” Liam reappeared and set a tray of food down in front of the blonde boy who stared at it longingly…But didn’t move an inch.  They watched him curiously as he sat staring down at the food in silence, as if waiting for something.  Finally he looked up at Liam appealingly.