Author's Note ~ Well, I'm off my second ff.net suspension – even though I have no clue why I was even suspended the second time. Oh well, let sleeping dogs lie, eh? Anywho, just a reminder, this is the second to last chappy – therefore pay close attention to this chappy, k? That way the ending will make sense. Cool, huh?
Shout Out's ~
Cards ~ I know cliffies are evil, that's why they are so much fun : )
Dragonfly ~ Iris better do something, I don't want Jack to die either : )
Mist ~ Sleep is a good thing! And, yes, Jack is too cute *huggles Jack*
Iris ~ I'm sorry to hear about all of those bad things happening to you *hands you a gift wrapped Spot* Feel better! And I hope you don't mind about me using your character *puppy dog eyes* I just thought she fit in so well with the part.
Sami ~ You know it! The two of them are so twisted, though, it's great!
Emu ~ *gasps* How did you guess my secret? Yes, I *am* the psychopath! Mwahahahaha!! *watches as all the readers run away* Umm, did I just say all of that out loud?
Rae-zin ~ Yes, as of right now there will be a sequel! I just need to finish off the last chappy first : )
Aki ~ *raises her eyebrow* Are you peeking at my Jack in the shower? *grins* Don't worry, there's enough of him to go around *wink*
Vix ~ Oh no, not another insanity case! I hope I got this out in time to delay any more of your insanity, lol!
Raider ~ I know, right? Shoot, if that was me I would have so read that journal right away. Unfortunately, I kinda got killed in the beginning of the story : )
Blank ~ Evilness is fun! And Iris was all slick-like reading that journal, hehe. As for Secrets, dude why is she listening to Kisses? Weird people, I swear *totally ignoring the fact that I created them, hehe* : )
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"I gotta go find Jack an' warn him," Iris whispered to herself as she struggled to get to her feet, the weight of what she had just found out keeping her down on the ground. "I gotta go find Jack," she announced, louder, more sure of what she had to do. She had to warn him, she had to stop Secrets...But where would they be? "Tibby's." Iris knew that all of the newsies had made plans to meet up at Tibby's, for old time sakes, that afternoon. They all figured that by selling papers and hanging out down at Tibby's, maybe they could get past all the horror of the past month.
And little had they known that one of their own was responsible all along. Secrets...
Iris laughed hollowly to herself as she pocketed Secrets' journal and hobbled out of the changing stall, her knees shaking too much to keep her from walking normally. All along it had been Secrets...It had never occurred to her, or anyone of the others for that matter, that one of them -- a newsie like the lot of them -- could be the person responsible for killing Stress...Morris...Kloppman... So many innocent lives taken and for what? Iris thought of the journal in her pocket as she made her way out of the lodging house, the brisk afternoon air calming her down and helping the strength return to her legs. There weren't many answers in that journal, but I intend to find out why -- how -- anyone could do this, let alone her...
***
Secrets smiled in satisfaction as she heard the click of the lock. It was time.
Pushing a lock of her behind her ear, she removed her leather pouch from her shoulder and peeked her head inside once more. "Yes, Layna, it's time. You know what to do," came a voice from her own lips – one she recognized as her own, though it wasn't. Not really. But that wasn't important right then… What was important was the task at hand.
Fighting the electrical pulses coursing through her body, Secrets began to slowly walk up the stairs, heading for the bunkroom of the boys' lodging house. When she got there, she approached the semi-closed door and pushed it open, drawing Jack's attention right towards the door.
"Secrets? What are ya doin' heah?" Jack asked, puzzled, as he placed down the crumpled newspaper clipping he was reading and jumped down from the top bunk he was sitting on.
Ignoring his question she pushed passed him and reached for the newspaper clipping. She knew what she had to do, but sometimes her curiosity was just a bit too strong and she was dying to know what Jack was reading. Ignoring the embarrassed glare of Jack, dodging to the side as to avoid his snatching the clipping out of her hand, Secrets quickly skimmed the article. By the time Jack was able to take it back she knew what he had been reading – the article from the New York World published the day that Stress' body was found. She smiled as she remembered Stress and her message. "Don't worry, Stress. I'se gonna help ya out an' send ya yer Cowboy," she thought to herself before looking into Jack's annoyed brown eyes. "Hey, Jack, ya know what's so funny?" she asked, taking a step away from Jack and looking him up and down.
Jack's cheeks flamed. Not only was she entering the boys' lodging house by herself and grabbing at his personal belongings, now she had to give him a once-over? "No, Secrets. What's so funny?"
"Yer sittin' heah, readin' 'bout yer goil, when ya could be seein' her."
"Whaddya mean?" he responded quickly, his heart beginning to flutter. It couldn't be possible – could it?
"Well, I saw her."
"When? Wheah? How?" Jack took a step forward, a step right up into Secrets' face, awaiting her answers.
"I saw her yestahday night, durin' one o' me dreams…" Secrets answered, flinching at their proximity.
Jack slumped his shoulders as any illusion he had in mind deflated. He should have really known better… "Dat's O.K., Secrets. I see her in me dreams too."
"No, it wasn't in a dream. She woke me up from me sleep an' I saw her, standin' right befoah me," Secrets said, almost pleading with Jack to believe her.
But he knew better than to get his hopes up. Sighing, he reached out to pat Secrets on the shoulder, in an effort to comfort her. "Lissen Secrets, wheah didja see--" he began before he was interrupted.
"Don't touch me!" Secrets screeched as she scrambled away from Jack's touch. "Nooo!" she continued when Jack's arm landed on her shoulder before he hastily pulled it back, watching in horror as Secrets fell back at his touch and landed on the floor of the bunkroom.
"Secrets?" Jack asked hesitantly, looking down at Secrets' petite, quaking form.
"Me name is Layna, mistah police officah," she whispered, her voice hiding a hint of a lisp, as she lifted her head, allowing her raven tresses to cover her now clouded blue eyes.
"Layna? Yer name is Secrets. Ain't it?" Jack couldn't remember for the life of him what Secrets' real name was; Was it Layna?
Secrets pulled herself into a sitting position and brushed her hair from her face. When she was able to actually see who was standing in front of her, she scooted back and pointed an accusing finger in his face. "You'se ain't a police officah, you'se Nicolas!"
Jack looked over his shoulder to see if there could be anyone else that she was directing her hysterics toward. Nope, they were the only two occupants in the bunkroom. He shook his head, debating how to approach this before huffing in annoyance. Why couldn't Dave be there to take care of his loon of a girlfriend? First she turns up at the lodging house when she should have been at Tibby's with the others, then she tries to tell him that she has talked to Stress after her murder and now this. And what was Secrets -- Layna? -- doing at the boy's lodging house -- alone -- anyways?
As Jack stood towering over her, Secrets tensed up and glared at him. "Nicolas? What are ya doin' heah? Ya shouldn't be heah! Kisses is angry atcha an' ya know how she gits when she's mad."
"Secrets? Who is dis Kisses poison? An', tell me 'gain, 'bout Stress. How didja see her if she's de-- dead?" he choked out, his mouth still unable to form the word "dead". Call it delusional if you'd like, Jack just didn't want to come to terms with the fact that both Stress and Kloppman -- heck, even Morris -- were gone.
But now Secrets didn't answer him. First she just stared at him, as if she no longer recognized him. Then she began to laugh -- a cruel, high-pitched laugh that would have suited an elderly crone, not a fragile eighteen year old girl.
The laugh took Jack by surprise and he flinched at the sound. "Secrets? Are you'se O.K.?"
"My name is not Secrets, Cowboy. Don't you know that?"
Oh no, not this again. "Well, what's yer name dis time?"
"My name is Kisses, and I'm sure you'll remember that before long. I mean, before I was done with that Stress slut, that Delancey scum and that pitiful old man, they sure as hell knew my name," Secrets smirked as she sat crossed leg on the floor of the bunkroom, drawing the leather pouch, with her knife still inside, onto her lap.
Jack narrowed his eyes and stared down at her. "What didja jist say?"
"You heard me, Cowb-- Nicolas, I tried ta warn ya. Now Kisses is really mad an' she's a comin' fer ya. You've been a bad boy an' you'se gonna be punished!" Once again, this time in the middle of her sentence, Secrets' eyes flashed and her tone of voice abruptly changed. If Jack didn't know any better, he would have thought that he was dealing with more than one person.
But he wasn't -- he was dealing with just one. And she was driving him crazy!
He threw his hands up into the air. "Dat's it, I give up," he said, frustrated, turning his back on the still-sitting Secrets. He needed this insanity like he needed a bad headline.
As she watched him walk away, Secrets slowly stood up. Then, with an evil glint in her eyes, she took off at full speed, charging straight at Jack. "Don't you'se walk away from me, Nicolas!" she yelled before tackling Jack and knocking him down on the ground.
Clunk.
Secrets smiled and climbed off of Jack when she saw heard the crack of his head against the floor and saw his eyes loll into the back of his head. Nicolas wasn't going anywhere now...
With a smirk and a quick toss of her mane, she got to work in securing her captive. She couldn't risk him getting away from her again. Kisses was right -- Nicolas was a bad boy and he had to go...
***
To Iris the road to Tibby's never seemed so long. "C'mon, hurry," she whispered harshly to herself as she urged herself forward, eager to get to Tibby's though not too eager to confront Secrets. What was she planning to do and what would happen if those plans were thwarted? Iris didn't want to know. But still she pressed on.
When she was only a block away from the cozy little restaurant, she rushed forward as her eyes spied one of the three people she needed to find. Right in front of her, his hand resting on the handle of Tibby's front door, was David.
"Dave?" came her strangled cry as she stopped dead in her tracks, surprised that she had found at least one of them. She didn't know what she would have done if none of them were at Tibby's.
David dropped his hand and turned to look down the end of the block. "Iris, is that you?"
She nodded slowly, her feet glued to the ground. Now that David was standing right there, she didn't know how to tell him.
David noticed her hesitation and began to walk towards Iris. "Are you allright, Iris? You don't look so good," he added once he was directly in front of her. Her normally bright brown eyes were clouded behind her glasses and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying as the shock of everything she found out began to wear off. "Iris?"
But she couldn't answer. Instead of looking into David's blue eyes, Iris removed her journal from her pocket and flipped to a random page. It really didn't matter what page she landed on since the entire journal was full of incriminating statements. "Dave, I t'ink ya should read dis," she whispered as she handed him the journal.
David blanched when he saw the dried blood crusted on certain pages and the binding on the book, but nevertheless took the book from Iris and began to read it. "'Layna -- I'm sorry, so sorry. I blundered once more. It's just that I was so anxious after seeing David treat you -- us -- that way, that I took my anger out on the wrong one. Damn, all I wanted to do was dispose of the one that turns your Dave against you, and I messed up again. I'm sorry, but, after all, it was his fault. If only he had let me get to Cowboy, I wouldn't have had to take his life. Oh well, what's one less? That just makes it all the more easier to me to get to my target. Next time. Next time... Kisses'. What does this mean, Iris? Who's journal is this? And who is this 'Kisses' person?" David asked, eagerly going through the journal as if the answers to his questions were written in the same neat print on the next page.
"I t'ink ya know who da joinal belongs ta, Dave," Iris whispered.
"Layna...That's Secrets' name..." David murmured aloud.
"Yeah, an' dat is Secrets' joinal. I know dat it ain't nice or nuttin' but I noticed dat she's awlways writin' in dat deah joinal an' I guess me curiousity got da best o' me cause when she left ta meet ya down at da distribution centah, I went ta wheah I saw her hide da joinal an' I began to read it. I nevah expected ta learn awl dat, t'ough..."
"Learn what, Iris? I'm afraid I'm a little lost here."
Iris sighed. She was having a hard enough time trying to come to grips with what she had discovered. Did she really expect Secrets' boyfriend to understand it right away? "Dave, I t'ink dat ya should read da last entry in dis joinal."
David nodded as he turned to the last page with writing on it. Iris knew that he had finished reading the entry when his normally ruddy face lost all of it's color and his normally running mouth dropped, and remained, wide open. "Wha--wha--wha--?" he stuttered, his right hand clutching Secrets' diary tightly.
Iris felt a twinge of guilt at showing David the journal; Secrets is his girlfriend after all. "Nevah mind, Dave, I'll figah dis out meself," she whispered, holding her hand out to regain posession of the journal.
But David didn't hand her the journal; instead he clutched it to his chest and muttered "Jack."
"What 'bout Jack, Dave?" Iris wondered, trying to get David to focus and stop looking so destroyed.
"Jack... Secrets is going to hurt Jack... We have to warn him!" David accented his statement by stomping his foot onto the cobblestone road, as if he was letting loose all of his frustrations in that one angry motion.
Before he could turn and do something -- anything -- Iris threw out her hand and rested it on his shoulder. "Wheah's Jack?"
"I don't know, I don't know..."
"Whaddya mean, ya dunno? Dis is serious, Dave!" Iris cried shrilly as she leaned in and stared at David. "T'ink... What did Jack say aftah ya finished sellin' papes taday? Did he say he was gonna meet up witcha at Tibby's or what?"
David anxiously ran his fingers through his curly hair, trying to remember exactly where Jack said he was going when the three of them -- Jack, Secrets and himself -- had parted ways earlier that evening. All at once he snapped his fingers, causing Iris to jump back in surprise. "I remember! Jack said he was going to head back to the lodging house and turn in early."
Iris, after her start, regained her composure before grabbing onto David's arm. "Well, den, what are we waitin' heah fer? Let's go!"
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Author's Note ~ Wow, there's only one more chapter left. *shakes head in disbelief* I'm so sorry to see this story go. I should have the last chappy for you really soon, unless ff.net decides to suspend me again. Wish me luck!