(AN: Hello! This is the first fanfic I've made on this site, about a year too late, so here is an insanely long prologue for this story. Now this fic, which is set in the Love Never Dies universe and features a good number of the characters, doesn't revolve around those main characters. So if you have no qualms with that then you might enjoy this!)

It was cold in the cage young Dobrosława (Dovra for short) was kept in after those demeaning performances, where she was so afraid of those around her that she was left speechless, the White Widow is what they called her. She did not know what that meant, she was only 8, and this place was so different to her home in Poland. Gone were the grassy hills and farms and the old cottage her family had lived in for so long. This place was grey, this place was dreary and in this place, she was alone.

There was a young man in the cage close to her's, 'The Human Lobster', that's what they called him. They didn't speak to each other, Dobrosława didn't speak to anyone, but he would occasionally give her a sympathetic look. Mostly he would just keep to himself, like she did. But from time to time she would give him things, little flowers or weeds that she was able to find and push to him through the bars of his cage a as a show of friendship. He would simply give her a look of acknowledgment, maybe even a little smile.

As she sat in the darkest corner of her cage, the ringmaster staggered over to her. Dropping a now empty bottle of rum on the floor. Dovra moved back quickly when he grasped his whip and lashed it across the bars of the cage. This made the young man look to the commotion.

"What's wrong with you, huh?! Don't talk on stage, you don't do nothin'! You mute, albino freak!" The man slurred, opening the cage and pulling the child by her long white hair out of the cage and throwing her to the ground. "You're gonna talk, I'm gonna beat the words out of you!"

His words, and the raising of the whip, was met by a blood curdling scream from Dovra. This made the Human Lobster to jump out of his broken cage and rush to her aid, standing between the girl and the drunk ringmaster, which only made the man angrier. "The hell do you want, lobster boy?"

The young man stood his ground firmly in front of the crying and shaking girl. "Lay off her, she's just a kid." "Kid? She's a freak, you're all freaks! Every one of ya'!" The young man was silent for a moment, glaring at the angry brute before him. "If we're freaks... What does that make you?" He snapped back. The ringmaster's eyes widened with pure rage before he sucker punched the boy square in her jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground. Dovra scrambled back and covered her mouth to stop her from screaming again. "Go... Go back in there, kid!" The young man urged as he tried to gain his footing. "And don't look, okay?"

Dobrosława scrambled back into her cage and scurried to the far corner, ducking her head down and getting into a fetal position. The ringmaster towered over the man on the floor. "So you wanna play hero, do ya'? Well how about I show you what happens to freaks that don't mind their own business."

The little girl kept her eyes covered, but she could still hear the beatings the 'hero' was given, the whip being thrashed against his back over, and over, and over again. She could almost feel it as if it was done upon her. After 40 or so lashes and a handful of beatings to keep him down, he was thrown back into his cage. He crawled his way back to a part of the cage that was shrouded in shadows and wiped the blood from his face, grimacing about the stinging on his back.

When Dovra was sure that the cruel man was gone, she scrambled to the so called lobster boy's cage. She didn't know what to do, this was all her fault, after all. Finding a three-fingered hand dangling outside the cage, she moved towards it and held it tight with both of her milky white ones. This brought a feeling of shock down his spine, quickly looking down, he realised that it was just the kid. "You shouldn't be here." He told her softly. "Go on, get outta' here. I don't want you getting hurt too."

Whether it was out of her fear or anger, she moved herself to the cage door and tried to shake it open, hot tears running down her face. The three-fingered man gave a sigh, she was gonna hurt herself doing that, he thought as he covered the whip marks with a coat, wincing as he did, and opened the door for her. She sprang in and hugged him tight, crying as she held him.

"Proszę, nie umieraj, proszę nie umieraj..." She wept, speaking in her native tongue. "Do not die, please..." She translated for him. After wincing at the impact, his face softened at her words. "Hey, hey... It's alright, I've been in worse shape then this, trust me." He reassured her, placing a hand on the White Widow's back. "You're the one givin' me all those plants, huh? The name's Jack, what's your's, kid?"

"D-Dobrosława... Dovra is shorter... They call me White Widow. Not my name." She was able to stammer out between sobs. Jack slowly stroked her thick, curly white hair in an attempt to comfort her. "Dovra... Okay, cut the waterworks, now. It ain't so bad, you just... Get used to it." Of course it still hurt, but he didn't want to worry the girl.

"Don't want to get used to it! I want to go home, back to Poland with Mama and Tata..." She snapped back, accent thick and tears stinging her eyes. Jack sighed, he never had a family or home, and Dovra's was now far away. He would be lying if he said he wasn't getting fond of the kid, between the little presents she always tended to leave for him and this, her show of concern and affection, something that was completely alien to him for most of his life. He got the impression that she won't be as hardened as he is for a long while, she needs someone. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, so does he.

"Don't worry, kid. I'll make sure he steers clear of you, we'll stick together from now on."