It was freezing in the warehouse. Penny and Elise huddled together, shivering. It was dark – the candle that had been left in the room had long gone out thanks to the draft coming in through the cracks in the ancient, crumbling walls. Little slivers of light peeked in through those cracks, but not enough to tell whether it was daylight or not. God knew how long they'd been there.
Elise muttered something incomprehensible under her breath. "What?" Penny replied, but all she got was a sob in return. Penny was trying to keep her composure, to keep strong for Elise. She needed it... neither of them had any idea what had happened to Killian.
What if he's hungry? Elise thought. Or cold, or sleepy, or alone?
She couldn't bear it. She hugged her knees to her chest and rocked.
Penny wrapped her arms around her cousin, holding her close both for warmth and for comfort. "Things will be alright." There was no hope in her voice, just flat, dry surrender. Try as she might, optimism was far beyond her at this point.
Elise just whimpered and shook her head, though it couldn't be seen.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before the door opened. Light flooded the room for a moment while a loaf of bread was plopped down in front of them along with a pitcher of water. "Keepin' you worthless prats alive is a waste o' my time," the gruff voice hissed at them, though they couldn't place whose exactly it was.
The door swung shut and the light was gone. They heard the hollow click of the lock, and Penny fumbled for the loaf of bread. "Hungry?"
Elise finally spoke. "No."
"Elise, you need to eat. You need strength for when we get out of here, for Killian."
She made a small noise of defeat at the sound of his name. She tore off a chunk of bread and shoved it in her mouth.
"Should... should we tell the police?" Crutchy stood in the doorway of Elise's room, staring at the destruction.
Skittery scooped Killian up off the floor, trying to quiet him. "The bulls ain't gonna believe a couple'a ratty newsboys." When Killian continued screaming, he held him out to Crutchy. "Here, he knows you better. Maybe you can get him to calm down."
As Crutchy balanced the fussing child in his arms, he continued to watch Skittery. "So what do we do?"
Skittery sighed and picked up some of Killian's blankets. "Well, first we gotta find someone to take care of the baby. Then, we gotta tell Spot, an' Jack, an' then let the rest of the newsies know." He looked over the chaos of the normally neat, small room, and shook his head. "An' I gotta figure out a plan, 'cuz if I see these guys on the street I'm bound to kill 'em 'fore I get anything out of 'em."
Crutchy stayed silent, though he felt exactly the same way. Quiet hung tensely and awkwardly between the two boys, save for the still-screaming infant in Crutchy's arms. "Jesus, what's wrong with him?" Skittery was beginning to get irritated with the crying.
"Well, he misses Elise. Can prob'ly tell something's wrong." Crutchy bounced Killian a little bit. "Wouldn't you be worried if your ma just up an' disappeared?"
"Wouldn't know," Skittery shrugged. "Can we get 'im some milk or somethin'? Get 'im to quiet down?"
"I'll go talk to the caretaker's wife... she helps Elise with him anyway." Crutchy slowly made his way down the stairs, balancing both crutch and baby with great care and newly-acquired skill, and left Skittery to stand and worry, and to plan.
"Whattaya mean, gone?" Jack took a long pull on his cigarette before tossing it to the ground and stubbing it out with the toe of his boot.
"I mean gone. Kidnapped, or somethin'." Skittery leaned back against an exterior wall of the Manhattan lodging house, sighing. "Everything in Elise's room is torn up an' thrown around. The baby was on the floor, by hisself, screamin'."
"So where's he now?" Spot sat on a stack of boxes, listening to the conversation with an expression on his face that was a cross between violent anger and confusion. "Killian, I mean."
"Caretaker's wife's takin' care of him."
"Well, what're we gonna do?" Crutchy piped up, getting impatient.
Jack stood for a moment, with several expectant pairs of eyes resting on him. "I don't know."
Spot shook his head. "We're gonna track 'em down, stupid." And he jumped down from the stack of boxes, swearing. "We can't do a whole lot 'til mornin', but tonight, I want you to tell your boys about this. Tell 'em to be on the lookout for these McKennon fellas. Me, I got connections around the city. I'll spread the word."
"And if we run into 'em in the street?" Skittery lowered his eyes to Spot's.
"If you see 'em on the street, Skitts, I want you to keep your paws to yourself 'til after you find out where Penny and Elise are." And though his face was serious, almost vicious, Spot winked before gathering those of his newsies who had accompanied him and headed back to Brooklyn.
"I think it's getting dark outside." Penny had her face pressed up against the wall, peering through one of the cracks. "Yes, it's definitely getting dark." She looked around a little more, desperate to find out where they were, and then gave up and felt her way back across the dark room to Elise.
"You think they're in the building somewhere?"
Penny laid down on the floor beside her cousin, inhaling sharply as her bare arms touched the cold cement. "I don't think they'd risk being too far away from us."
"So, they should be in here in the morning." Elise turned onto her side to face Penny.
"Well, at least one of them should. I suppose." Penny huddled closer to Elise, shivering. "Why?"
"Penny, I have a plan."