Sorry, chillin's. I know this chappy's a bit slow, and a lot dappy. Don't worry, the next one's gonna be better. Uh… hopefully.
THANK YOU for all the reviews!
The Omniscient Bookseller )( Don't you worry, we haven't seen the last of the four girls yet. I wouldn't kill myself off so easily without a fight, now would I? Jack and Race make their reappearances in this chappy… they were THERE in the last chapter, just not really with any purpose. I tend to forget just how many people I'm supposed to be writing about. Whoops. We don't have fashion shows, dress-code appropriate or otherwise, at my school. But that's all right, because Mush puts on fashion shows for me all the time. He just happens to "forget" (aka I steal) his clothing for them. **Mondie shrugs nonchalantly** Hey, what can ya do? ;D Thanks Omni! I hearteth youeth!
rumor )( No problem! Hey, thanks for emailing me! My hotmail was being RETARDED and didn't want to let me send anything back to you (unless you got it— ?) but I *did* read and enjoy that chapter! Mush ::ahem Portman:: in drag… oh dear!!! It made me go into a total Mighty Ducks mood and I couldn't rest until I'd watched D3's last 10 minutes. WHOO WHOO! You got my Ferris reference with the "choice"ness of Tobey's butt. That is EXACTLY where I stole it from. "And I love driving it. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up." HAHA! I TOTALLY heart that movie. It's one of the best ones out there. Actually, Aaron's in like 3 episodes of Sister, Sister… I've only seen that one once, and PART of one of the others in an episode where it was like them looking back on all sorts of stuff, and he's in it being a jerk again. He's so cute. **Mondie huggles Aaron Lohr**
Falco Conlon )( **Mush looks in interest at waffle and pixi stick, then throws them over the shoulder and begins scribbling across a picture of Ryan Phillippe with his tangerine crayon** **Mondie sighs** He's a bit aggravated with me for saying that I love Ryan's butt in Cruel Intentions. But if HE doesn't want the waffle and pixi stick, I'll be glad to take them. **Mush glares and brandishes the tangerine crayon at Mondie** Fine, fine, you keep them! Really, he's horrible. Or not. Maybe just beautiful…
Ali )( I *do* feel guilty. Sorry about the heart attack, there. :/ Hmm. Mmmm, Mushy cheerleader doing pelvic thrusts?? WONDERFUL! Spirit crayons! He'd like those very much. **Mush nods insanely, his eyes wide** Uh-oh, now you gotta give them to him. Or he'll go crazy. Which would not be very pretty. Thank you very much for reading the whole story and leaving such an exuberant review!
Shade of Temair )( Yeah? Yeah? YEAH? Well, I'm gonna stalk Aaron Lohr some day. As soon as I get a car. And some gas. And find out his street address. I'm gonna go break into his house and make myself a frozen pizza while coloring him pictures. Then he'll come home and fall in love with me and my excellent frozen pizza and we'll get married within the next week. I enjoyed the last sentence of your review… bwahaha but I'm not gonna tell you what it is in case you forget so you have to go look at it yourself. SO THERE! **Mondie runs away, screaming at the top of her lungs** *Mush shrugs and goes back to coloring a picture of a Christmas tree* FIFTEEN DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!
misprint )( Awww, I miss reading Romeo and Juliet… that was freshie English… then we watched the movie. The Leo DiCaprio version. We all laughed and pointed at the screen a lot. It was grand fun. Mush loves his crayons. It's good fun, because now my reviewers have started leaving him crayons in their reviews. It makes him unbelievably happy, because their crayons replace the ones he's eaten. Swing dancing… one year, we had this dance (I think it was for Renaissance, but I'm not sure… Renaissance is this like incentive-program at out school) in the middle of the school year… soph year, I think, and up on the balcony of our gym there were tables set up for the poker tournaments, then there was dancing down on the gym floor. Well, like NOBODY came to it, so it was wonderful! They played all sorts of FABULOUS old songs, and did some swing dancing numbers, and everyone on the floor was going all out and we had THE best time ever because it was basically just like my friends and I. I think I won some free movie rentals as a door prize, too. But the swing dancing songs were the fun ones. We all spread out all over the gym floor and just danced our hearts out. GAH! That was like the best dance I've ever been to. Plus they didn't blast us out with pure rap songs. OH, you guys don't even know the HALF of the foreshadowing I've been sticking in! A lot of it, I don't even know that it'll be foreshadowing until I'm reading over past chappies and I'm like, HEY! That works out here as this… I think it would make more sense if I uploaded like the whole story and people read it in more condensed versions, but since that is like impossible as I haven't written the rest of the story, ah well. I've tried to watch Velvet Goldmine! Really I have! It's just that none of our thirty bazillion video rental places HAVE it to rent! **Mush grabs pink crayon and draws lip marks on one of Mondie's white elbow gloves from prom last year** Here's yer glove! Inflammable is the stupidest word ever. WHY did they make it so that it means the same as "flammable"? I'm glad I'm not a foreigner trying to learn English. It would take FOREVER. How can you be having trouble with Eclipse?? Didn't you and Shade come up with the entire plot line, start to finish? Because you said it was gonna end dappy and I was gonna hate you for it! Anyhow. Thanks for the wondrous review!!! LOVE YA MIS! Oh, and I tried to make your part bigger in this chappy… but it was a bit of a struggle, and turned out very dappy. Sorry!!! I *did* try.
Hottie5Star )( Oh, Mush has got such WONDROUS insight, don't he?? **Mondie huggles Mush** He's so sexy when he's all authoritative! Thanks for the reviews. Seriously!!! :D :D
Aki )( Thank you so much!!!!! I really can't tell you how much that means to me. I HEART YOU AKI! There *will* be more Untouchables shortly. I'm kinda stuck because I don't know how to do this without messing up my chapters. Dang story, taking off in its own directions. Gah. I hate it when that happens. Mush says THANK YOU for the crayon!! He is getting quite a collection from you reviewers now. Which is good, because it replenishes how many he's eaten. **Mush sniffs at London Blue Topaz interestedly** No, Mush, the new crayon is too pretty to eat! **Mush, instead of eating it, draws Aki a picture of a bluebird**
bittersweet )( Ah, no jealousy, mon amie! I know, Mushy Darling's so SMART now! **Mondie huggles Mush AGAIN** I love him in this story. I've never written Mush so serious before. Well, except in that angsty fic where he hated the whole world. But other than that. Mush and I would love to double with you and Jack! Name the day. Mush and I are almost always free. It's sad. We have no lives. **Mush nods and continues coloring the picture of a bluebird for Aki** Lucky stiff, we missed all the crazy snow. :( Then again, we got the crazy tornadoes earlier. So I guess we're even.
gEMINI KELLY )( Haha someone went a bit psycho with her caps lock, no? We sang that song when we went on our 6th grade trip to Chicago… since it's about Chicago and all… we were odd children in 6th grade. **Mush nods with Mondie then slowly unwraps his lime green crayon to eat it** Thanks for reviewing Gem! I heart you! I've already gotten started on the next chappy… your re-admittance into the story. Oh, it's so good! I love it already. Heh. Actually, I wrote most of your chappy before I wrote this one… LOL!
Alison224 )( Thanks thanks thanks! You're a sweetie!!!!!! :D :D :D
kimimay85 )( Mrs. Cron is friggin senile. And we have percussion at 5 pm today and then a concert at 7:30. How retarded!!!!!!! I hope I'm not the only one to show up to move equipment. I wonder if you're coming… hmmm. Guess I'll find out, huh?? :D My dog is asleep and insane. It's a great combination. Love ya hun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the review!
NDBT Chapter 6
Misprint wasn't seen for a week after that. The other four boys seemed to be getting anxious over her abrupt vacancy, but Mush was using his newly found ability to read minds to keep tabs on her. She was still in the city, and oftentimes quite near to the boys as they went about prowling at night.
Spot had begun to completely adore his vampiric life. He lived for thrill. There was nothing he loved more than the look of surprise on his victim's face when he or she saw his fangs bared at them. He adored playing games with them, luring them to follow him and to force them through a grotesque skipping game with him as the almighty, jeering puppeteer. He didn't even mind any longer the fact that Mush had commanded him not to drink innocents' blood, because New York City was a hotbed for crime and he never lacked subjects to sink his teeth into.
Racetrack, by comparison, seemed a bit less taken with this life. He too enjoyed terrifying the evildoers who had already inspired terror in others, but he would much rather roam the city, looking at the skyline and the stars with his heightened senses. He delighted to watch people rendezvousing on their rooftops while he carelessly thumbed through his deck of cards, a light whistle often perched upon his lips. Mush noticed that he seemed more withdrawn, but he'd once had the audacity to read Racetrack's thoughts as he stared at a piano player's fingers in a tavern, and was astounded to find that Race was thinking about Misprint. Mush had quickly left the walls of Race's mind, not wishing to hear more. It was evident by now that he was the only one with the power to read the others' thoughts, but he knew that he would be mortified if they could read his. He tried not to do it after that instance, but had been wondering ever since what he would have heard had he listened longer. Was Racetrack merely worried about one of their fellow vampires? Or was it something deeper? He'd never heard Race mention Misprint's name lewdly before, when the boys jested about the girls they (or their friends) liked, but Racetrack had never been one for sharing his feelings much. He loved being the center of attention and had the sarcasm to prove it, but openhearted? Racetrack, Mush was sure, would rather give up gambling for life.
Jack had become slightly wilder. He had developed a rather unusual way of surprising his foes; he tended to lie on the sidewalk, pretending to be hurt and in pain, and wait for a cutthroat to try and steal his money or some other frivolity. Then he would jump up and start hollering cowboy phrases, waving his hat around. After he'd successfully lasso the fiend, he'd draw up closer and closer until mere inches away from the man, and then bare his fangs slowly. Then, without giving time for the creature to think, he'd bite. Jack was the one who was least likely to be with the group, surprisingly; even Spot tended to stay closer to the others more than Jack. One thing notable to see was that when Jack's skin had turned porcelain white like the others' (it apparently was some side effect of becoming a vampire), his hair had changed to a shimmery auburn, rather than the greasy golden honey tone everyone remembered. It was a general consensus amongst them that he looked much the better for it.
And Kid Blink. When he'd become a vampire, he'd regained his sight in his left eye. No one was particularly positive how this happened, but he now didn't wear the eyepatch. It had startled even Mush the first night he'd strutted around sans it. He hadn't seen his friend without it in nearly five years. Kid hadn't changed all that much. He bit people, but didn't take the same sadistic pleasure that the others did from it. In fact, had he still worn the eyepatch and not owned fangs, Mush would have wondered that he had made Kid a vampire at all. As soon as his feeding was done, he'd be ready to go do something else. Often, he and Mush, who hardly ever needed to drink any blood, as Chalereux had told him, would wander through the city, just the two of them. Occasionally Racetrack would accompany them, but even then he seemed to dreamily float along while Mush and Kid Blink spoke in quiet tones. The city belonged to them at night. All of its beauty, all of its charm, all of its wonderful independence—it was theirs to claim. They began to branch out, to visit boroughs they'd never been to before. Never once, however, did they meet any other vampires.
Mush began to find his daytime life becoming dull and monotonous. He was the only one who could walk freely in the daylight, when his vampire peers needed their sleep. Yet, he couldn't visit any of his previous haunts. His disappearance, along with Blink, Race, Jack, and Spot (he'd heard the thoughts of a Brooklyn boy when just realizing the extent of his power, and the child had been mourning the fact that Spot was gone), was unexplained in the newsie world. He knew that he'd have a lot of questions to answer if anyone caught sight of him and realized who he was. Therefore, he preferred to stay apart from everywhere familiar.
During the day, he'd ask a sleeping Misprint where she was through his thought-speaking. Her subconscious would think of the spot, and he'd go there first thing in the morning. It made him feel slightly better about the situation. She was still hurting sorely from the loss of her friends, and so he didn't want to bother her when she was awake and mourning. He still felt protective of her, though, and thus checked on her to make sure that she was hidden well, and out of the way of any sunlight that could possibly stream into where she slept and burn her. After that, he'd go up on a roof and watch his 'normal' friends leaving the distribution office, yelling out wares, just to see how they were doing. The topic of the boys' disappearance and the burned-down girls' lodging house were all the news the newsies passed to each other, and it had put a bit of a damper on their spirits. He knew that the four Manhattan boys who were now vampires, himself included, had been some of the ones who had held the group together.
One week after Misprint had gone sprinting from the scene of fire, Racetrack appeared particularly sullen. "Mush," he whined, sounding a bit anxious. "Wheah da hell is Misprint? When's she comin' back?"
Mush sighed. "Race, she's hoitin'. She's safe, though, I look up on her."
Race's face compacted into a grimace. "Yeah, well, how's about I look up on 'er?" He began to shuffle his cards, almost nervously. "C'mon, Mush. I'se woirried aboudder."
"I tol' ya, she's fine," Mush answered.
Kid, the only other one walking with them, rolled his eyes. It was particularly humorous when he did so, because while his right eye had had plenty of practice of rolling during the past few years, when he'd hit puberty, his left had remained idle. Now it seemed to be playing catch-up, and often rolled faster or slower than the right eye. He also had the tendency to become off-balance and walk into walls and signs and doors. "Mush, jus' tell 'im so 'e can shaddup an' stop playin' wit' dose ridiculously loud cahds."
Mush didn't particularly find Racetrack's cards to be loud, but knew he wouldn't win this fight. Racetrack's lip was set too determinedly, and Kid Blink (who had just slammed, rather forcefully, into a corner he'd been attempting to turn around) sounded too testy to put up with much else. He concentrated for a moment, and could see the areas that Misprint was seeing. He couldn't ask her with the thought-voice where she was, because she would only get agitated and angry, but she couldn't sense him looking through her eyes. He waited until she turned a corner into a section he knew well, then smiled. "She's at Midtown righ' now, Race. Ya betteh hoiry, I don' know how much longah she'll be dere. She's jus' lookin' fer someone ta bite."
Racetrack nodded, a slight grin splitting his face, before turning on his heel and sprinting away, far faster than any mortal could. He was soon out of sight.
Mush turned to help Kid Blink steer across a street, and wouldn't let his mind wander to overhearing Misprint and Racetrack.
He would never positively be sure of what had occurred between the two, but Misprint came with Racetrack to the boys' sleeping spot that night. She looked a bit sheepish and upset, but after Mush hugged her to him firmly, she seemed to feel a little better. He also made note of the fact that she'd slipped back into a skirt, having apparently found the trousers much to her discomfort. She'd remained in the striped shirt belonging to Kid Blink, however. As the last hour of nighttime sped to a close, she stayed swift to Racetrack's side. Race didn't even join in the game of poker with the other boys, amazingly, but stayed on the sidelines with Mis. Mush looked over at them once, just to make positive that Race wouldn't want dealt in, and had to smile at the scene that met his eyes. Race was whispering something lightly into her ear, and she was giggling softly. Their hands were clenched together between them. Mush wondered to himself if they'd been dating before or if this was a new development.
That day, as his friends all slumbered, Mush made a mistake. He was walking calmly down a street, at a pace that felt slow to him, but was still faster than anyone else was cantering along. He wasn't paying much attention to the day or the time or his direction; otherwise, he might have realized that it was opposite the route that Skittery always took at 10 am on Thursdays, to visit his girl, Jennifer, in the Bronx. He rounded a corner unsuspectingly, and found himself face-to-face (well, truthfully, face-to-chest, since Skittery is far taller) with Skittery.
He instantly cursed his luck, as Skittery's face relaxed in a thoughtless smile of recognition, then slowly turned back to a confused frown. "Wha… Mush?" he asked incredulously. "Wheah have you been? Why's you so pale?"
Mush didn't speak a word to him, only gaped. He spun on his heel and ran as fast as he could back down the street, not caring who saw him and realized he was moving too fast. He ran around the block and then up a deserted staircase, where he sat down quickly, not even out of breath. He instantly began to read along with Skittery's thoughts, wishing that he hadn't blown it for him and his friends.
Skittery's thoughts, however, were a jumbled mess. He didn't seem to know what to make of Mush's sudden appearance and disappearance. As he neared a corner containing Boots and Snipeshooter, his breath came hurtling out, carrying words. "Mush… his ghost… or somethin'… jus' saw it… Mush…"
"Wha' is ya talkin' 'bout, Skitts?" asked Boots, looking interestedly at Skittery.
Skittery was still trying to make sense of the scene in his mind. "I saw Mush… jus', like, a shimmery white image a' him. An' den 'e toined away, wit'out a woid, an' floated off, fasteh dan anyt'ing you's eveh seen. Oh, Gawd… oh, Gawd Almigh'y! Does dis mean den…"
Boots surveyed Skittery carefully, then said slowly, "I t'ink dat seein' a spirit is supposed ta be a sign dat, like, da poisen ain't comin' back no more."
"Does dat mean… maybe I saw dat so… we all know dat our boys is gone? Dat dere's no more Jack? No more Race? No more Blink? Or Mush?"
"Maybe," Boots answered. He sounded suddenly distraught. "Gawd, I was really hopin' dat dey was jus' on a nighttime-leavin', week-stayin' trip ta Brooklyn or somet'in'."
"We all was, Boots," Snipeshooter said softly. "We all was."
That night, Mush, fervently glad that they all had the same white cast under their original tones, had them all steal up the stairs of the lodging house into the bunkroom, save Misprint, who sat on the fire escape, and Spot, who had insisted upon instead going to feed some more. The Manhattan boys silently glided from bunk to bunk, until everyone was, however sleepily, awake. A few candles were lit, and some murmurs of "whass goin' on?" and "who da hell woke me up?" around thick tongues were uttered. Then Specs gave a gasp and sat up straight in bed.
"HOLY SHIT!"
Mush had found a new power. He realized that he could make himself levitate, and, if he concentrated very hard, the others, too. He felt himself growing weaker and weaker the longer they floated there, but wouldn't give up.
"Ghosts. Ghosts. Ghosts. Lawd almigh'y, dere's ghosts!" Bumlets said in awe.
"Mon Dieu," whispered Pie Eater.
Without a word, Mush motioned at his fellow vampires, and wafted them back down the stairs. Jack, of course, couldn't resist tipping his cowboy hat, and would have shouted a "yee-haw!" had not Mush given him a thought-warning not to. And poor Kid Blink nearly fell down the stairs after bumping into the banister and nearly breaking Mush's mind control over his floating. As soon as they were outside, he let them all fall back to the ground with an emphatic "oomph!"
From that point on, it was never debated between newsies whether the four Manhattan boys had died or not, and the newsies that lived to go on to better lives told scary stories to their grandchildren about 'the night the ghosts visited'.