Dollface finally stopped and looked around, trying to figure out where she was. Then she saw a sign that made her stomach drop; it said "Refuge for Delinquent Juveniles."
She looked up at the looming building. It was dark and gloomy and was covered in grime. There were several windows, all covered in dust and dirt. Then there was a gate. It was tall and iron with a large padlock on it. Dollface was still staring at the dreadful building when she heard the sound of a carriage drawing close. She quickly ducked into the shadows of a building and waited for it to pass. When she saw it stop in front of the gates, she acted before even thinking about it.
As a man came out with a large set of keys and began unlocking the gate, she ran behind the carriage and crawled under it. She grabbed onto some wooden planks on the bottom and held herself off the ground with her body flat against the underside of the carriage. She felt it jolt forward as the horses began moving again. She saw it go past the gates and heard the gates close once they had passed through. The carriage stopped before a large set of stone stairs. She acted quickly and ducked out from under the carriage and ran into an alley between two buildings.
She poked her head around the corner and saw a man get out of the carriage. She felt a large surge of anger rise within her when she realized it was Mr. Pulitzer himself. She wanted nothing more than to run up and give him a swift kick in the ass when she heard a quiet whistle. She looked around her and heard it again. She looked up saw a boy poking his head out of a window.
"Hey goil," he said. "What are ya doin? Do ya wanna get caught or somethin?" Dollface looked around to make sure no one was around before responding.
"Hey kid, have you seen a boy who looks like me?" she asked. "He's got a gimp leg and brown hair and lotsa freckles."
"Hold on," he said, ducking inside the room. He came back a few moments later. "Yeah, we's seen him. Came in today, looked beat up real bad. People's said he was part of the strike goin on."
"That's him!" she shouted excitedly.
"Shut it, would ya?" the boy said to her. "What, ya want the whole world to know you's here?"
"Where can I see him?" she asked.
"He's in a room down the hall," the kid said. "Just go in dat alley. Dere's a fire escape. The ladder's locked up but if you can somehow get up onto it, go up three flights and go to dat window. I'll get a message to my buddies in that room that you's comin."
"Thanks kid," she said, running through the alley.
She came to the fire escape and saw that the ladder was indeed locked up. It was dangling a few feet above her head. She jumped, hopelessly grasping at it. She spun around looking for something to stand on and saw some old crates. They were rotten and would most likely break easily but it was all she had to use. She carried them over and stacked them up. She climbed on top and heard the crates cracking. She jumped up and grabbed onto the bottom rung of the ladder as she heard a splitting crack from the crate she jumped off. She didn't have much strength left in her but she used all that she could to pull herself up.
Finally, she climbed onto the first landing. She climbed the stairs up to the third floor and stopped at the window like the kid told her. She knocked on it and a few moments later, a small boy, maybe six or seven years old, came over and opened it.
"Can we help you?" he said, leaning on the sill.
"Is there a kid with a gimp in here?" she asked. "Someone told me he was here."
"Yeah he's here," he said. "Why? What you need him for?"
"He's my brotha," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. He turned around and addressed an older boy, who came to the window.
"Hey, what's the matta?" he said.
"I just wanna see my brotha," Dollface said, exasperated. "He's the one with the gimp. He's got tons of freckles and brown hair-"
"Looks just like you?" he said, completing her sentence. He turned around, craning his neck to look at something, before turning back to her. "I don't think he can come talk to ya right now."
"Yeah he can," she said, irritably. "I'm his sista."
"Ya don't get it," he said, his face turning grim. "He can't get up to come to da window. When he came in, he was already beat up enough. And then they asked him a bunch of questions but he wouldn't answer them and they just made him worse." Dollface pushed the boy aside with her arm and crawled through the window.
"Hey, you can't do this," the boy said, following her as she walked down the row of beds. "If Snyda comes in here and sees you-"
"Then I'll run," she said, turning to face him. "Now where's my brotha?" The boy sighed heavily before leading her down a row of beds. Dollface looked around and was disgusted with what she saw. There were far too many boys for each of them to have their own bed. There was dirt everywhere and she could hear the scurry of mice as they walked down the room. The boys she walked past looked so underfed, it was scary.
Finally, they stopped at a row and the boy stepped aside. Dollface looked down to see the crumpled figure lying on the bed. She felt sick. She walked slowly over to Crutchie, seeing that he was asleep. She stood over him, taking in his appearance. His hair was matted with dried blood from a deep gash she could see on the top of his forehead. His face was bruised and his right eye was swollen. She couldn't see his chest but could see from the way his body was arranged that he must have been kicked or punched a few times. His bad leg was bent at a very disturbing angle.
Crutchie wore a worried expression on his face as he slept restlessly. He muttered under his breath as his expression changed from worried to scared. Dollface knelt down next to the bed and gently brushed his hair with her fingers. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Dollface. It took him a few minutes to recognize it was her but when he did, a large smile spread across his face.
"Hiya Dollface," he said. His voice was very rough, maybe from screaming in pain the whole day. Dollface pushed the thought aside and smiled back.
"Hiya Crutchie," she said. "How ya feelin?" She knew it was a stupid question to ask but didn't know what to say to him.
"Like a bunch of daisies," he said. They both laughed but Crutchie grimaced in pain. "Sorry, hurts to laugh." Dollface swallowed back the familiar lump in her throat.
"Look, I'm gonna get you outta here," she said determined. "You's gonna come wit me and we's gonna walk out those gates."
"Dollface, I ain't walkin so good," he said, ashamed.
"Then I'll carry you out," she said. He shook his head.
"I ain't being carried nowhere," he said firmly. "If I can't walk, I ain't goin nowhere, ya hear?"
"I hear," she said, nodding. "But we's gonna win this strike, ok? We's gonna win. We's gonna fight for you."
"I know you's gonna win," he said. "You's got the best friends anyone could ask for. And you gots Jack." Dollface looked away awkwardly.
"Yeah, we gots Jack," she lied. They were silent for a few moments before Dollface spoke again.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry I let ya get caught. I'm sorry I didn't protect ya."
"This ain't your fault," he said adamantly.
"Yeah it is," she said. "If I hadn't got caught by Oscar, you coulda gotten away. I just shouldn't a called out for ya. You was too busy lookin afta me and you got caught."
"Hey, I would do anythin to protect you," he said, "Even if it meant I got caught and you got away. As long as you's safe, that's all that mattas."
"I'm gonna get you outta here," she said. "I promise." She bent over and kissed his forehead. Just then there was a loud scuffle as the older boy ran over to her.
"Hey, you gotta go," he said urgently. "Snyda's comin."
"I'll see ya later," she said to Crutchie as the boy pulled her away. She ran down the room and reached the window. She turned around to the boy before climbing out.
"Hey, look afta him, will ya?" she asked him. He smiled and nodded.
"Good luck wit the strike," he said, as she climbed out the window. "We's all rootin for ya." They heard the door open and authoritative sounding footsteps.
"Gotta go!" she whispered. He closed the window and she ran down the fire escape stairs. She froze in place when she heard the window reopen. He heart stopped as she slowly looked up. Snyder had his head stuck out the window and was looking around. Dollface slowly began to back up against the wall of the building when the metal beneath her gave an enormous creak, causing Snyder to look down. There was a second, just a second, when they made eye contact and Dollface's heart stopped.
"Boyer!" he shouted, as he pulled his head out the window and slammed it shut. She ran down the remaining flight and began to climb down the ladder. She forgot it didn't go all the way to the ground and dangled in the air for a few sick seconds before letting go. She landed hard on the ground, twisting her ankle slightly, but kept running. She heard a whistle blow loudly and saw two policemen running towards her. She ran towards the gate and her stomach dropped when she saw it was closed and locked. She stopped momentarily to look around for any other way out but saw none. All she saw was the men chasing after her so she ran towards the gate anyway.
She began to climb, using up every ounce of strength she had left in her, and was halfway up when the men reached the bottom of the gate. She felt the gate moving as they began to climb it. One of them tugged on her ankle but she kicked him in the face and kept climbing. She reached the top, climbed over to the other side, jumped down, and hit the ground running.
"I'll get you Boyer!" she heard Snyder yelling. "One Boyer down, one to go!" She ran straight for the boarding house, ducking in an alley to make sure she had gotten rid of them. When she reached the boarding house, she froze outside, took a deep breath, and then walked inside. Kloppman was sitting at the desk, reading a newspaper, but put it down when he saw Dollface walk in.
"Where the hell have you been?" he asked sternly. "It's nearly midnight."
"Shut up," she said, walking past him toward the staircase. "You ain't my fatha."
"No I'm not," he said. "But I'm the closest thing you got." His words made Dollface stop.
"Now what happened?" he asked again. "I didn't even see you come in the first time. Next thing I know, there's banging on my bedroom door and Racetrack is going on about Crutchie being caught and Jack's gone missing and you've run out. Now you come waltzing in at midnight and expect me to not be worried? I think I deserve an explanation."
Dollface turned around to face him. She looked like hell. She had a large bruise on her left eyebrow. There was a big scratch that was slightly swollen next to her right eye. Her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks. She was favoring one foot and clutching a stich in her side from all the running. Her arms were still scratched up from the night before. But the worst thing was her eyes. There were dark circles under her eyes from such a long, stressful day. The look in her eyes was almost non-existent. They were glazed over as if she wasn't even aware of what was happening.
She opened her mouth to speak but Kloppman walked forward and gave her a hug. It was different that when Jack had hugged her after they ran away from Snyder the night before or when Racetrack and the others hugged her a few hours before; those were desperate hugs, hugs of relief for her wellbeing. This hug was such a loving, fatherly one; she had never experienced this before. She felt so much weight lift off her chest as she felt the strong yet gentle arms around her. For the first time that day, she felt some level of comfort. After a minute or two, Kloppman pulled away.
"You go get some sleep, you hear?" he said. "I told the boys to go to bed hours ago but they're probably still waiting for you. Just go in, get in bed, and close your eyes. I'll get you all up in the morning, ok?" She nodded and walked to the stairs. She turned back to look at Kloppman.
"Thanks," she said, with a slight smile. He nodded kindly towards her and she turned to walk upstairs. The light was out but just as he said, the boys were still awake.
"Are you crazy or something?" Racetrack said, bombarding her the moment she walked in the room. They were all in their beds but hadn't been able to fall asleep.
"Dollface, hey, answer us," Mush said, sitting up.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow," she said, as she climbed up to her bed. "But I needs to sleep. It's been a long day."
"Dollface, you can't just-"
"Shut it, Boots!" Racetrack said. "Let's just go to sleep. We'll go to Tibby's first thing tomorrow morning, alright? Maybe Jack will be there."
Dollface listened as a few people mumbled in agreement and then how it got quiet. She was completely exhausted but could not fall asleep, not with Crutchie still on her mind. But she told herself that they would come up with a plan the next day. He was alright, she repeated. He may not be in good shape but he's alive and they were gonna get him out of there. She slowly drifted off to sleep as the room was filled with the snores of the other boys.
so because the last chapter was so short, I uploaded the next one. and also, I kept thinking it was Friday but it's Thursday and that frustrates me so hopefully this will get us all through til tomorrow. (sidenote: I changed the rating to M mostly because the strike was getting violent and language and well... let's just say some other stuff happens later on.) enjoy!