WARNING- MURDER, DRUG MENTION, AND CURSING and SUGGESTIVE DIALOGUE.
Heyy, so what Lulu, Millie's sister who's mute, says will be in Italics. YAY! Let's begin!
The moment a BANG had echoed through the building, Millie's heart broke in two. The boy fell to the floor, blood dripping from his forehead. Millie stared blankly at a wall, in shock. The boy had not been more than ten years old. Spark, they called him. A boy with one bright future ahead of him, great things to come his way, yet his life was ended in less than a millisecond, and Millie had done nothing to stop it.
She re-charged her gun behind a wall, peering over to see if Zulo Antosh was still there. Sure enough, the man stared at the lifeless body in front of him with passionate hate and anger, as if the boy in front of him had done something terrible to him. Millie bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed at the sight of Spark's lifeless body covered from head to toe in blood, laying emotionless on the ground with his now dead eyes staring at the ceiling..
It should have been me. She shook her head. What would happen to Lulu if she ended up dead? No, she was doing the right thing. Or so she tried to tell herself.
She blinked the tears away, swallowing the hard lump on her throat. No time for tears now, she told herself, there's no point in doing so.
Zulo's eyes switched to her, staring at her. They stared at each other for a moment without moving a muscle. After a second or two,Millie sucked in a breath and hid again behind the walls. She held her gun tightly, closing her eyes and fearing the worst.
"I know you're there,Shadow." Zulo warned. Millie could hear his footsteps approaching her, yet she did not dare to move. She was scared that she would make some noise and he'd just come barreling in and kill her. Rolling her eyes at herself, she tiptoed across the wall to be closer to the killer- Zulo had already seen her. She had stared into her death's eyes.
There was no point in hoping for an escape.
Millie ran a hand through the cold metal gun she held in her hands. Her heart ached at the thought of how much could happen if anybody pressed the trigger. Anybody could ruin anyone's life in seconds. That 'anybody' would never be her. Not after all they'd been through.
Millie trembled as she remembered the stone cold walls, the dry mud that had stuck to her fingers, her greasy hair stuck to her scalp, the burning of the sun in her back, the goose bumps she got at the sight of him as he ran a dagger against the walls, making her ears ring, the blood as he... That 'anybody' would never be her. Not after all they'd been through.
"Come out, we'll negotiate." Millie suppressed a laugh. She knew what negotiating meant.. A duel. You counted to ten, turned around and prayed you didn't get shot. Millie herself had never participated in one, but she had heard stories.
She slowly stood up, keeping the gun pressed tightly to her chest, and walked sideways to the end of the wall. It was very dark, her eyes had to really focus to see where to aim at.. She could barely see the gun she held in her own hands.
It would be a miracle if she actually shot Zulo without getting shot herself. Millie ran the plan through her head for the hundredth time since Zulo had barged in and ruined everything. She would walk out, shoot the murderer on the leg and run out. This was called a twenty second plan. The 'Executer' would have to hit the guy somewhere to disable the 'victim' or 'cow' until the other guys arrived, doing all of this with only one bullet, without time to aim, then run out and hide in the next fifteen seconds.
Even though she would never admit it, the adrenaline of doing so, of wondering 'am I going to get out of this alive?' was something she loved. Millie hated killing, stealing, blackmailing, threatening. All the yelling, tears and 'tell'em I love'em's gave her a heartache, but that was completely different from the thrill that came with it. "Killers do it for the thrill of it," Jack had once told her, after she asked why he had done it. Millie took comfort in knowing she did not do it for the thrill, but to keep those close to her safe.
Zulo, however, did it because he enjoyed the pleas, cry's, begging, and suffering. The click of the gun. The red splash. The piercing screams so loud that left you deaf. Zulo was a gang leader, one of the big ones. He was feared more than 'Shadow' and Spot Conlon combined, and no one dared to defy him. He was the leader of the Scarlet Hand, which would be the most horrible, feared gang in the World if it weren't for the Mafia. The Scarlet Hand left their signature by pressing their hand against a wall, painting a hand with the blood of one of their victims, leaving those who discovered them petrified, often traumatized. These guys felt no remorse whatsoever when they killed innocent souls, and would not hesitate to shoot you if you crossed their path.
It was stupid not to be scared, Millie knew. Zulo and his boys had nothing to lose. She, on the other hand, could lose everything. If they could kill her little sister and her older brother they would have destroyed her world. Yet she wasn't scared. Millie was confident that would never happen, she would never allow it for as long as she lived… not after what Snyder had done to Lulu.
She would do anything to keep them alive. She'd done so before, she would do it now.
Millie took a deep breath. She turned around, hands trembling and fired, hitting Zulo in the head. Her eyes widened. It all happened so fast, though she wasn't entirely sure if it had happened. The gun dropped along with her heart, making a big CLANK. She ran to the gang leader, pressing her cold fingers against his neck, trying to find some pulse. Retrieving her fingers as if something had burnt her, she rapidly stood up, staring at Zulo's body in a weird state of shock. She'd killed him. Milliecent Kelly had killed the ruthless Scarlet Hand leader. She just stood there, shaking like a leaf. She could feel her heart and could hear it's steady drum. It wasn't until footsteps rushed to the scene that her senses came back, and so she began running like the devil was behind her, because it was.
Her hands were shaking. No, her whole body was shaking. Had she just murdered Zulo? There was absolutely no way she could get away with this. A, she hadn't gotten Snyder's money, meaning she would have to pay him with a more gruesome job. B, she had not delivered the Heroin to Paco, and he would be pissed too. C, she had just killed Zulo. There was absolutely no way in hell that she was not going to pay the Scarlet Hand for that.
A sudden feeling of anxiety washed over her, making her mind run a thousand miles per hour. She tried breathing to calm herself down, reminding herself she still had time for the Heroin delivery, get that money, assault some men to reach the amount of money that she should have gotten when Zulo hadn't barged in and ruined everything, and then get to Snyder by ten a.m. Millie sighed. She would have to miss the dinner and poker game Duane Street had organized. She hadn't seen her siblings for a month, due to Snyder asking for more money. More money meant more jobs, more jobs meant less time, less time meant less meetings with her siblings, less meeting meant more excuses, more excuses meant more lying..
Trigger broke a leg
They got the toilet stuck again
I fell asleep
My head aches
Problems with Queens
She could tell Jack wasn't believing her anymore. Each and every time she came up with a different excuse, he just muttered 'yeah right.' under his breath and walked away, leaving her paralyzed, not knowing what to do. The figure she valued the most, the one who's opinions were her world, just disappears, leaving her alone in the night, feeling like crap, wondering what could've been done.
Hours felt like minutes, minutes felt like seconds, and suddenly, Millie was knocking on the door of an abandoned warehouse, where Snyder kept all the drugs to be trafficked, and a burly man with broad shoulders and a sickening smile opened the door. His teeth were crooked and yellow, and his breath stank. When he opened his mouth to talk, she had to hold her breath to keep from fainting. With a shudder, Millie walked through the door, putting on a large grey coat and a cap. She carefully placed each bag inside the inside pockets of the grey coat, receiving a yellow paper with numbers and letters scribbled.
HD10LBAG30DR
Hell Dust, 10 Large Bags, 30 Dollars in Return, Millie traduced almost automatically. She nodded to the man from before, walking back out onto the pouring rain again. All she could hear was the raindrops smacking against the pavement. Her mind raced through topics, from Zulo to the poker games, to the deliveries, to Lulu, to how Jack seemed to trust her less and less each day.. Maybe, she thought, if I deliver this shit, then take the money to the Lodge, hide it, go back to Tiby's… I can actually make it to the game.
She rushed down the streets, eager to get this done. Soon enough, Millie arrived to Paco's house. She knocked on the door.
Nothing.
She knocked again, biting her lips. If he wasn't there, her whole 'be home by midnight' plan would fall apart. Goodbye, trust. She knocked on the door again, this time harder and louder, bruising her knuckles. She sucked her knuckles, wincing from the pain. No matter how many people she punched, she would never get used to it.
Exasperated, she shouted, "For my sake, Paco! Open the door!" The man did not answer, but Millie knew he was there. A light was turned on, signaling the man was still awake and giving her a small dose of hope. She sighed. "I'm here to sign the contract about your horse. To buy a stable home at my farm, you need to give me thirty dollars." Paco finally opened the door, pulling her inside so quickly that she found herself tripping over her own feet. Sucking in a breath, she glared at Paco and followed him to his kitchen.
They reached his kitchen, where she laid the heroin bags. Paco watched, counting them as she lay them on the table. Paco was not fat, yet he wasn't very skinny either. He had tattoos all over his arms, very, very short blonde hair and was one of the shortest boys Millie had ever met. He looked older than he was, and worked as a boot-black since he was twelve. He had quit now at eighteen, saying he was too old for those jobs. He now worked at the factory risking his life unnecessarily.
"What took ya' so long?" Paco asked. Millie shrugged, handing him the note.
"Nothin'." She said. "I'm busy. Snyder's sendin' me more jobs. Somethin' went really wrong on this one." Paco nodded. She passed him a paper, telling him to sign, and stuck it into her pocket again.
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen." Paco nodded, squinting his eyes at her. Millie looked around nervously. . He knew. Well, she was almost certain that he almost knew. A weird feeling settled in her stomach, like butterflies, but it ran through her cold body. Like if someone had just shoved a handful of snow through her coat.. She had to get out. If he ever found out, he would tell Jack and…
"See ya'." He grabbed her wrist before she left. He grabbed her face with his fingers, examinating it. Flinching, Millie smacked his hand away, re-arranging her cap.
"Wait a minute- You're.. You're Cowboy's sister, ain't ya'?" Millie gulped.
"What if I am?"
Paco crossed his arms, a grin forming in his lips. "Doesn't matter. Just thought-"
"You ain't gonna tell him a thing, do you understand?" Millie hissed. Paco lifted his arms up in defeat.
"I don't wanna be the one to tell'im 'is sister's become.. well, you." Millie nodded. She couldn't blame him. She didn't want to be the one to tell Jack she had become the Shadow of New York either. What would he think of her then?
She walked out of the house without another word, thirty dollars in her inner pocket, running around New York and looking for another victim. She was only missing five bucks. That was all she needed, and her plan would have succeeded. A horse neighed from somewhere in front of her, making her grin. Bingo.
She pulled the cap further, causing it to cover her eyes, and tied the grey coat around her tightly. This was going to be no fun, she knew, but you had to do what you had to do. As she arpocahed she realized two things:
One, It could just be a horse that had escaped from those crazy circus persons that ran around the street. Jack once had told her what they were, but she could not remember what exactly she had told her. Ah yes.. 'they're dangerous.' But that was what he said about anything that approached her, so she dismissed the thought and continued forward.
Two, how would she assault a carriage? She reached into her pocket, fidgeting with the gun's trigger. Well, shit. How'd they say? You gotta do what you gotta do.
She walked behind the carriage for a while, making sure there weren't any cops near. She then jumped to the back of the carriage, and carefully made her way to the driver's seat, butterflies fluttering around her stomach. Millie pushed him off the carriage and took the rails into her own trembling hands. Her heart was beating uncontrollably. She hated assaults. The fear in a man's eye.. pleading to be released… She preferred instant killing, meaning there was no blackmailing, no demanding for money, no pleas. You just pulled on the trigger and got done with it.
She drove to an alley next to two deserted buildings and pulled over there. Taking a shaky breath, she jumped off the driver's seat and barged to the passenger's seat. A man and a woman in their middle age stared at her fearfully.
Millie raised her gun. She pressed it against the woman's forehead, trying not to let the fear show. "I need ten bucks. You fail to give me the ten bucks, she is gone."
The man pulled out ten bucks from his pocket, his hands shaking as he placed them in her trembling hands. She killed them both, since they had seen her face, and ran off in the Lodge's direction.
Numb. That's how she felt after murdering innocent people. Her mind just blocked everything out. It was this big, brick wall, or so Lulu imagined.
Millie had come back to the Lodge after a murder, her face cold and her attitude distant. Both her siblings had asked what was wrong, and she had shrugged them off and ignored it. Jack called it 'Mount Millie'. Lulu thought there had been a literal mountain inside of Millie, and Jack had laughed and told her it was a phrase. When she finally came out of it, this time taking more than a few weeks, Millie continued keeping her cards close to her chest, barely letting her guard down.
After that, Jack always told her, 'It takes a long time to build a wall, but it takes longer to climb it.'. Millie had cracked a joke about how he sounded all 'hoity-toity', and Jack laughed. But what he said always flooded her mind when 'Mount Millie' formed. Damn you, Kelly.
It wasn't long before she reached Tiby's. The now deserted restaurant was one of the only places that the Newsies could afford. They would go there after selling and, if they could afford it, they'd have lunch there. Mostly though, they ordered water, which was free.
Millie walked towards the building, noticing the lights were out. Her heart sank. She was late.
Again.
Goodbye, trust.
A pang of guilt hit her heart, spreading until it reached her toes. She ran a hand through her hair, beating herself up the whole way to the Lodge were the newsies stayed. Jack was going to be mad, and to get him to calm down would be hard. Lulu ,though , would only be sad until she saw her.
When Millie finally reached the Lodge, she noticed the lights were on. She smiled, running to it, a small glimmer of hope pounding on her chest. A couple of boys were on the 'reception' playing poker, Klopman was nowhere to be seen, and she assumed Jack and Lulu were upstairs in the little spare room at the top of the Lodge. She ran to the last floor on the Lodging House and knocked merrily on the door. It opened after a couple of moments, and instead of the 'you're here!' Millie had been hoping for, all she got was a glare from her older brother. Jack grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her to the streets.
"Look who fin'lly decided to show up," Jack muttered angrily. Millie rolled her eyes.
"'M sorry, I had some shit to do-"
"What's your excuse this time, huh? Did Trigger break his leg? Was the toilet not flushing? Did you fall into the river and barely made it out alive?"
Millie directed her gaze towards the floor.. "No, actually-"
"Then tell me, Milliecent Kelly why the fuck you are late!" Jack yelled, making Millie flinch. "I got a little girl up there that misses you every damn day! She's sick, Millie! Who knows how long we got left with her-"
"Don't you dare say that!" Millie spat. "Lulu ain't gonna die- not now, anyways. She's just sick." Jack laughed.
"Yeah, and I'll be the Queen of England." He said sarcastically. "How would you know? You ain't never around!" She grabbed five dollars from inside her pockets, and tossed it in Jack's face.
"You wanna know why I ain't never around, Jack?! I ain't never around because I got to make sure that Lulu doesn't starve to death! That you don't starve to death! The five bucks a week, I SEND THEM! I am basically the reason you two are alive!" There was more truth in the last sentence that there was in her whole life. Jack was unresponsive, before picking the five bucks up and placing them into her pocket, turning away seconds after.
"God, what do you want from me?" She muttered under her breath.
"To show up, Millie. I didn't ask you for the money. I can manage-"
"You can't pay the stupid doctor with pennies, Jack." Jack glared at her.
"Me and the guys gather money and pay for it, bit-"
And from there Millie didn't hear anything, because she ran. She just ran.
Because that's what she did. She messed up and began running