In a Heartbeat
"Echoes of Yesterday"
a/n: I changed Hank's timeline, also the grammar mistakes go with how people talked in this time.
Disclaimer: Don't own IaHB, Disney does...though they don't deserve it because they're canceling it for us in the U.S…okay enough of my ramblings of hatred for Disney let's get on with the chapter…
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In the real world
As in dreams,
Nothing is what it seems…

Chapter 4- The Second Echoes
Hank-1864

We shall overcome…

Hank woke up late one night to hear his older brothers whispering. A small fire glowed in the hearth as the last coals burned down from the fire Mama had used to cook supper. It was the only light in the windowless cabin. But with the summer heat just made it hotter. His younger sister slept next to him making it worse. He silently regretted letting her sleep with him. Ruthie lay close to Hank, her steamy breath blowing into his face.

"What you two talking about?" Hank said quietly.

"Nothing you would want to know ." said Ben.

"Why don't you tell me anyway." Hank questioned. Ben and Henry had always been close, but now more then ever they were distant, always whispering.

"Hush Hank, you don't want to wake up Mama, Papa, and the girls."

"Then tell me now and I'll be quiet."

"We talkin' about running. Up north to join the war."

"There ain't no reason to run. The war is gonna be over soon and then we'll be free." Hank reasoned.

"We've done told you before little brother, the union soldiers ain't nowhere near our part of North Carolina. Who knows when we gonna be free." Henry retorted.

"If we just follow the rules-"

"If we follow the rules, we lose ourselves." Henry pointed to fifteen year old Sarah and four year old Ruthie. "They had the children out in the fields all day worming the tobacco plants, and Mama, though she be having another baby soon , Mas' Freeman makes her cook for him in the Big house whenever he calls. Do you want to see them tiring themselves out everyday and not getting paid?"

" We can't lose nothing by waiting. We all together here."

"With this war, times hard. Money is real tight for the masters. A whole group of slaves were sold off the Gilmore plantation because Mas' Gilmore couldn't feed or clothe them anymore."

"He would never sell us. We work hard for him. We do everything he tells us."

"You do. With your 'Yes, Master, no Master.' But I'm sick of it."

Hank didn't like what he heard. Ben the oldest of all of them was hot heated, and was always grumbling about not wanting to work for the master and he's take it out to the fields. Hank suspected that he thought of running but with Henry around he didn't think he'd ever go through with it. Though Henry rebelled in his own ways. Smart and quiet he had taught himself to read by listening to Mas' Freedman's children's lessons. Now Henry wanted to run away too. To gain a kind of freedom that many slaves had died to achieve.

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That's it for now. What do you think? Did you guys notice that Alex pops up in each story?