Sorry… Okay I probably have like 3 chapter left of this story.. And I need 31 more reviews…. And I wont write the last chapter till I do…. Blackmail!!!!!! Mawhaha….. I will hold the last chapter hostage… so if u read this story please review because one of the reasons I don't write that much anymore is because I stopped getting reviews… Make me very sad! Thank u. Love you all…. And read my other stories to.. They only have 1 chapter each but hey… keep on the lookout for them. If you like this story then u will LOVE and I mean LOVE … Secrets That Wont be Hidden… also feel free to e-mail me or IM me…. But I am begging u to review… Because I love going online and seeing reviews… it just makes me want to write more
Chapter 68:
3 days later (the hearing)
"Your honor this girl killed in self defense, the only way she was taught to defend herself from an abusive father. If she didn't shoot him then he would have killed her. And for the murders before. Her friend and her were in danger. Thy were self defense killings. I know she is a street rat and that you all think street rats have no feelings. But this girl in front of us today does and so does everyone sitting over there," Fire's lawyer (that her mother paid for) pointed to the corner where the Manhattan and Brooklyn newsies were standing and sitting. "Look at that boy with the really curly hair. Mush stand up. He is her husband ad don't you marry people because you Love them. There's one feeling she has. Spot stand up. That boy is her brother, she cares and Loves for him, Another feeling. Dolly stand up. The girl she killed for. The only girl that took the time to get to know her, that saved her life. Your honor you would kill to save your best friend and child, may I remind you. Fire is fourteen about, are you really not going to give the fourteen year old a second chance to live a better life?"
"I have herd both of you and I have made my choice. Cleary "Fire Ice" Conlon, a run away, a newsies, a pickpocket, a slut, and a murder. This is not the kind of girl we want roaming our streets. Thanks to Mr. Honey we have realized all of this. She murdered more then once. I don't care what the reason was for. She had a gun and I don't understand why. Yes she lives on the street, but who is to say she wont kill again. And by the looks of her past, she will kill again. She has showed no mercy to her victims. She goes out looking for trouble. Yes she is fourteen, but the crimes she has committed has proved to me that she acts like an adult criminal and shall be punished by one. Cleary "Fire Ice" Conlon I order to a hanging, two days from today, that is final." The Judge stood up.
"No, please. You are just doing this because I work hard for my money! If I sat at home and drank tea you wouldn't hang me. You have no reason to hang me damn it. My baby needs me. Jimmy needs me. He needs me. Please. Judge let me go home to my baby. PLEASE! He needs me!" The judge turned and looked at Fire.
"You should have thought about that before you killed people, before you pickpocket."
"I needed to feed my son and no one was hiring me. What did you expect!"
"You had a family to fall back on!"
"My father would have killed Jimmy and me! He killed my unborn child! Please. Sir, I am dying anyway. Just let me die at home, in my own bed. PLEASE!" Fire fell to her knees. "Jimmy needs me!" Dolly turned her head into Race's chest. Dolly's strong protector, for the first time, was begging, begging some one for something and on top of that crying. Fire showed no sign of strength, courage, or self confident. She was someone no one had ever seen before, a girl, a girl who needed help.
"I told you it was final. Lock her up." The Judge walked out of the room, after winking at Mr. Honey, a dear old friend of Mr. Conlon, a dear old friend that locked Fire in a room with four other men when she was six. Mr. Honey grabbed Fire's arm. Fire looked up at him.
"You don't scare me any more Thomas Honey. Lord knows when I am dead I will haunt you. I will haunt you to the point where you kill yourself. You are giving me more power by having me hung. Two reason. I could kill you right now because it wouldn't make a difference and the second I get to scared you for the rest of your life. Your gonna feel like someone is following you every step you take, it will be me. Your not gonna be able to sleep at night I will be in your every dream, or shall I say nightmare. You're a dead man Tom, you can count on it." Thomas let go of Fire's arm. "D-E-A-D. Dead man walking!" Fire yelled as the police pulled her out of the court room. "Your Dead THOMAS! DEAD!"
Later that night
"Hey lil' one," Race said as Conway opened the cell door. Race, Jack, Brass, Blink and Loons where all there together. Fire smiled but didn't get up for the cot. "Smile!" Fire looked at Race and smiled.
"I wanna piggy back ride, I wanna a tree, I wanna bag of candy, I want my brother to hold me and tell me everything is gonna be alright, I want to fight with Jack, I wanna go to Sheepshead races, I wanna look at my son and hold him in my arms, I wanna stay up late with Dolly and talk, I wanna be chased by Brass through the Lodging house, I wanna dance with Loons in the girls bunkroom, I wanna go to Books advice, I wanna run into the Manhattan Lodging house to see Kloppman all just one more time. You know its true, you never realize what you have till you loose it. My life was crap, but the people in it, I met the most important people to me because of my crappy life and I wouldn't change a thing in my life. If my father didn't beat me, Manhattan newsies, you guys wouldn't be a part of my life, even Spots. Then if Spot didn't leave me I would have never run away and met Dolly. If I wasn't in that horrible relationship with Slick, I would have never had Jimmy. And If I never was caught, I would have never realized how lucky I really was. I don't want to die, I don't want my son to think of me a criminal, but I look at it this way, them hanging me is saving me from a very painful and slow death, that's already started. I am suppose to die with in the next month, yet I feeling so much better. I am going to die, I have faced that, but I haven't faced that my life isn't complete. There's wounds I still need to mend, there's things I still want to do. I mean I never got to make love to my husband. Yeah he got me pregnant but I hated him!"
"If it helps at all Fire. I was jealous of you. You came into the Lodging house, after living on the streets for years and all the boys heads turned. Then the look on Spots face and Jack, Blink, Mush, and Race, they all knew. You were so beautiful and you were gonna be the center of all their lives again. Before you came, we would all be sitting at Tibby's lets say and somehow, someway a story of you would come up. All of there faces just changed. It bothered me that you were so important to them. But bothered me so much more when I saw how beautiful you are. They way they all talked about you was like they would drop all of us in a second just to get you back. I am such a bitch." Brass laughed a little. Fire touched Brass' shoulder.
"And to think, I was jealous of you." Brass looked at Fire. "My boys, my newsies had other girls in their lives. I didn't want to share them and I knew that they were in love with you guys and that bothered me even more. I was scared I wasn't important to them. When I was younger all I had to do was scream and they all came running. But not when I came back. I wasn't their first priority. It hurt me in so many ways. I wanted my boys back. I wanted them to come running." Fire wiped a tear off her face. "I wasn't their little princess anymore. I mean when I slept over the Lodging House. They didn't know I was awake, but each of them twice through out the night must have checked on me." Jack, Blink, and Race looked at each other. "I loved them and I wanted to make sure they still loved me."
"And we did," Blink said. "We still do. We never will stop. Fire you were our little sister. God Kloppman use to have to hold us all back when you would come in with bruises or cuts or stories or the rapes. We wanted to kick the crap out of them."
"King loved you too. God Kloppman would have to lock him in a closet." Jack laughed.
"I wish King was here. I miss him so damn much. But I bet he wouldn't be proud of me at all. In jail… Woohoo… go me." Fire sat down. "What am I doing?"
"Being the best damn person there is. Fire you got guts. You put others before you. I would give anything to be like that. You could have let Dolly; taken the blame and she would have been the one sitting in here. But you took it. And you said you don't want your son thinking you're a criminal, he wont, not with all of us around to make sure of it, because your not a criminal. You're a girl, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and a damn good friend. A criminal, just out of the question. You went through a lot of shit. A lot. Not many people would be able to deal with it like you did." Loons hugged Fire. "You helped us all. Believe it."
"I love you girl," Brass hugged Fire.
"Be strong until you die. Love you so much," Jack hugged Fire.
"That tree in central park will always be ours. Whenever I am missing you I am gonna be there, you better be there to Fire. God I love you." Blink hugged Fire.
"You still gonna be my lucky charm?" Fire nodded. "Good. I love you Fire." Race hugged Fire.
"Maybe you guys don't want to hear this, but you just made dying easier for me. Because I know there are people who are going to miss me and I mean something to. Yet you made it harder because of the same reason. I love you five so much. don't ever forget me." The cell door opened and Conway motioned for them to leave. "Bye." They all took one last look at Fire and walked away slowly.
"It's gonna be okay Fire," Conway whispered. Fire smiled and laid down on the cot.
"How can you be sure Conway?" Fire asked placing her hand over her eyes.
"Because Fire, you've got prayers going up to heaven from so many people and your strong."