AN: Finally my next Newsies story is here! I want to thank Ealasaid Una for the suggestions in this story! I also want to let everyone know that this will not directly relate to my two other Newsie stories, but they will be some connection with them. So it is not necessary to read Spot's and Racetrack's story, but feel free if you want. Enjoy!

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Simone Devonsky, though that was not her real name, migrated from Germany to New York when she was thirteen to escape an arranged marriage with a horrible man. When she got to America she soon learned that this place was her freedom, but along with her freedom she had to do whatever it took to survive. And while she ran away from her home to get away from one man, she entered a world where several men entered her life. This lifestyle was not ideal, but Simone got enough money to live and to eat.

This story, however, is not about Simone, but her son, Isaac. On November 2nd 1881, Simone gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, whom she did not know the father of. She could have guessed with his bright blonde hair, but decided that her work and her personal life should stay apart as much as possible. Simone was determined now to take care of Isaac no matter what the cost, and to ensure that her baby had a place to sleep, she continued her business with men. Some nights she would leave Isaac with a friend, but more often than not, she brought the men back to her tiny apartment.

As Isaac got older she tried to teach him as much English as she could, but her own was not the best, so Isaac grew up with a broken mixture of English and German. The boy was too young to understand what his mother was doing with all the men that came over, but he liked it when they came because his mother told him they were going to play hide and seek. He would always find a great spot, and it took his mother ages to find him. If the men came early enough in the day Isaac would get to play with the neighbor kids too.

Isaac loved his mother very much, but once he turned five she decided that he was old enough to stay home alone. At first she did not leave him alone for long, but as the months went by, it took her longer and longer to return. Isaac was supposed to go to sleep soon after she left, but most of the time he stayed up and waited for her to get home. When she came in and kissed him on the cheek, he pretended to be asleep. Isaac always fell asleep soon after his mother kissed him, because he knew they were both safe at home.

One night Isaac heard his mother come home, but she did not come over to kiss him on the cheek. Instead he heard her shuffling around, and then she began to sob. He knew he was supposed to be in bed, which was really just a bunch of blankets in the corner of the room, but he had to make sure his mother was alright. Isaac threw back his covers, and let his tiny feet walk him to his mother.

"Mutter?" His voice was quiet, but Simone heard him.

Simone looked up with wide eyes, and Isaac saw she had a bruise on her face and blood coming from her lip where she was holding a rag to it. He was frozen, not sure what to do. Isaac had never seen his mother look like this before.

She shooed him away. "Back to bed, go!"

For a moment Isaac stayed and stared, but then he turned around and jumped into his bed. He pulled the covers up over his ears terrified that whatever monster did this to his mother was going to come again. The next day Simone acted as if the night before did not happen, and Isaac did not question it. A few days later a letter was slipped under the door, and Isaac watched as his mother grew afraid. He knew it had to do with the monster that had plagued them, but his mother still would not talk about it.

She folded up the letter and slipped it in her pocket. She then began to rush around the apartment grabbing her clothes and changing. After she was done doing and had thrown some makeup on, she grabbed Isaac by the shoulder and looked him in the eye.

"Mutter must go for little while okay? I'll be back soon. Ich liebe dich." She kissed him on the forehead, and rushed out of the house. Isaac barely got to say I love you back as she shut the door.

Isaac was worried, but his mother always left, so he knew she would be back. His mother was strong and he knew that she could take care of any monsters that tried to hurt her. He just hoped that the monster would not come after him. So Isaac waited, and waited, and waited. He waited until the next day with no sign of his mother. He got hungry and ate some bread that was in the small kitchen. Isaac thought about going to see if the neighbor kids wanted to play, but he decided that he should be there when his mother returned. So he waited some more and finally during the night, just as he was about to roll out his bed, he heard voices outside.

He listened to the voices and heard that they were deep, male voices. His mother must have brought more men back, which meant Isaac needed to hide. Before the men opened the door, Isaac went to the tiny kitchen cupboard and climbed inside. The front door opened and Isaac listened. There were hushed voices and shuffling around, but Isaac did not hear his mother's voice. He decided to peek out of the cupboard a little to see what was going on. There were two large men in the house looking through their things. He could not hear what they were saying, but they were putting some of their stuff into a bag. The men seemed to be grabbing most of Simone's stuff.

"That it?" One of the men looked at the other.

The other man looked around and began to nod, but then stopped. "Did she have a kid?"

Isaac's eyes widened, the two men were staring at his toy top on the floor.

"Don't think so, let get outta here." The man began to walk towards the door.

The man staring at the top lingered for a moment and glanced around, before following the other man out the door.

Once the coast was clear, Isaac climbed out of the cupboard and looked around the apartment. The men seemed to have taken anything shiny, or nice looking. Her draws were ransacked and stuff was thrown about. As Isaac stood in the ruins that were once his home, he knew that those men were the monsters that tried to hurt his mother. As much as he hated to think it, Isaac knew his mother was not coming home. He was afraid the monsters would come back, so Isaac decided that when the sun came up, he would leave.

The sun was just rising over New York when Isaac grabbed as much food as he could out of the kitchen and left. He passed a couple of people that lived in the building, but none of them granted a second look as he walked by. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew he wanted to get as far away from his apartment as possible. Isaac had walked the streets a little bit with the neighbor kids, but for the most part he stayed indoors because his mother said that it was too dangerous for them to both be outside. He never quite understood that, but now none of that mattered.

Isaac was awed at the hustle and bustle of the world around him. Even though the sun was just coming up, the streets were alive with people. Although Isaac's old life was over and he was scared of what was to come, he was excited. Little Isaac spent the day exploring Manhattan, there were kids all over the place, but Isaac was sure all of them had a home to go to. He was not sure what he was going to do now that he was on his own, but he knew he could not be the only boy this had ever happened to.

In the middle of the afternoon Isaac sat down on a bench and got some bread out of his knapsack. He had barely taken a bite when he saw two kids, not much older than him, walk up to him.

"Hey kid, watcha got there?" The boy had squinty eyes and looked mean.

"Bread." Isaac stared at them with big eyes, not sure why they were asking.

The other kid smiled. "Here's da thing kid. We'se hungry, and it seems to us like you really ain't dat hungry since you'se only one person. Get it?"

Isaac just stared at them blankly.

The squinty eyed kid spoke. "What me friend is trying to say is, give us your food, and we'se won't have a problem."

Isaac understood that, but he was just as hungry as these boys were. "No."

"Den we'se gonna have a problem." He cracked his fist. "Get 'em!"

Isaac gasped, and jumped from the bench running past the two boys. They both began to chase after him. Isaac ran faster, but the boys were bigger and had stronger legs; they were catching up quick. He could hear their footsteps getting closer, and then he felt a tug on his knapsack. He slowed down a bit, but the boys were still running while holding onto the bag.

"Stop kid!"

Isaac shook off his knapsack which caused the squinty eyed boy to trip a little. The other boy kept on though, because he saw that Isaac still had the bread in his hand. Isaac willed himself to go faster as he turned the corner. He ran down a little ways, but knew that the boy was going to catch up to him soon. Isaac saw a wooden door and decided to run inside to hide. No matter what was behind that door, it had to be better than the boys ready to soak him outside. Isaac shut the door and sat down in front of it trying to catch his breath. He listened to make sure the boys did not see where he went, and when he heard nothing, let out a big sigh of relief.

He was not sure what kind of place he was in. It was quiet, and there was a small hallway leading into another room. If he was lucky no one noticed he was there and he could leave unseen when he was sure the coast was clear. Isaac thought too soon, because he heard the floor squeak in the other room. Isaac opened the door just a crack to peek out, but he saw the boys across the street looking around. He shut it and turned back around to see an old man with a bowler hat and glasses staring down at him.

"You in some kinda trouble young man?"

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AN: Yay, first chapter done! Can anyone guess who the old man is? Hope you all enjoyed it and thanks for reading!