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Promise Me
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"Race, wake up. Race, RACETRACK!" A violent shake woke Race up. He squinted into the bright lights, a figure coming into focus. It was Kid Blink. Race rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, but was still groggy. "Wha-?"
"Race, you gotta wake up. Spot's body is gone." Race woke up quickly and jumped to his feet. Without another glance at Blink, he ran into the bedroom. All the other newsies were dressed and ready to sell the morning papes. "Where's Jack?" Racetrack demanded. The other newsies pointed towards the open front door. Race ran outside, and nearly ran into Jack. He screamed, "WHERE IS HE?"
Jack took his arm and dragged him to the fire escape. The body was gone, and there wasn't even a blood stain to indicate that there had been a dead body there before. Racetrack glared at Jack and opened his mouth in protest. Jack beat him to it. "Race, don't act like we's the scabbers. When we woke up and you weren't in your bed, we thought that you ran off to do somethin' stupid. We came out here an' Spot's body was gone. We assumed the worst."
"WHY WOULD I DO SOMETHIN' LIKE THAT? I THOUGHT DAT DA NEWSIES KNEW ME BETTA, HELL, I THOUGHT YOU KNEW ME BETTA DAN DAT. WHERE WOULD I TAKE A DEAD BODY JACK? ANSWER ME!"
"I'm sorry, but you overreacted last night, and I didn't know whatcha coulda done. Race, you scared me."
Race stepped back a step in surprise. Jack, scared of him? He stood there in silence, not sure of what to say. Jack looked into Racetrack's eyes. "Race, when we woke up, Spot and you was gone. Race, I… I've neva seen ya cry before, and I didn't know what else you woulda done. Race, ya gotta believe me. We's worried for a good reason. Don't think that we don't trust ya, 'cause we do…" Race turned away. Jack kept talking. "Race, we don't want ya to kill someone." Race turned and interrupted him, his eyes gleaming.
"Why not?" Jack stared warily at Race, not sure how to respond. Race blinked and shook his head as he realized what he said. In the distance, he could hear the circulation bell ringing. Jack noticed too, and hesitated, not entirely assured of Race's sanity. "Get outta here. The papes are waitin' for ya," Race said. Jack slowly walked away, then looked back at Race. Race could see him out of the corner of his eye, but refused to acknowledge his presence. He leaned against the building with his back towards Jack. Jack sighed, but didn't comment and walked to get his papes for the day.
Race waited until Jack was out of sight before he stood up straight again. There was a slight breeze and the old fire escape creaked. He looked up it and almost immediately looked away. There was a message scrawled in blood on the wall. It said 'Your Beating'. There was a body tied next to it, and he didn't have to look twice to know whose it was.