Author's Note: I know it has been way too long between drabbles but between Biddy's and Half-Pint's (whose should be up soon), I've been challenged too hard. Add weekly updates of Diabo and A Virgin's Touch among other stories that I've started (Curiouser & Curiouser) and updated (Never Enough), I've been tapped lately. Hopefully my inspiration juice starts running again.
This next drabble was written for the awesome (and patient) Biddy. She wanted a drabble featuring her OC, Rachel, Skittery and some sort of blood/death/violence type thing. The challenge was extremely open which, I think, is what gave me such a hard time with it. She wanted a drabble that had Rachel and Skitery trying to find some sort of inner peace amidst their troubled lifestyles. I took the philosophical route with this, pondering mortality in a way. Let's see how it turned out.
Enjoy.
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Title: Sometime
Featuring: Rachel Harpen & Skittery
Challenge: a scenario challenge: Skittery and Rachel attempt (and most likely fail) to find some sort of inner peace amidst the various troubles of their difficult lifestyles.
Word Count: 882
Written For: Biddy
SOMETIME
When her younger brother Danny came rushing into the cramped apartment that the Harpen family shared Rachel thought nothing of his antics. He was an excitable boy by nature and was always getting into some sort of trouble; it only followed that, in her opinion, this time his troubles had accompanied him home. She looked up from her piecework and narrowed her dark blue eyes at the young boy. As excitable as Danny could be, the noise was unnecessary and she intended to tell him as much. But that was before she saw the blood that stained his shirt.
She placed her sewing down onto the wooden floor and rose from her chair. Without saying a word, she approached her younger brother and knelt down upon her blue stockings, mussing her long grey skirt, so that she could look him in the eye. She placed a hand each on his shoulders, using her touch to calm him down.
Danny seemed to calm down slightly – as much as it was possible for a young boy – before saying three words. The three words that sent her, quietly, out of the apartment, with Danny on her heels: Andrew's been hurt.
- - -
When she arrived at the Newsboys' Lodging House on Duane Street – once they had left the apartment, Danny had led the way to where his brother was until she figured out they had brought Andrew to the Lodging House – she ignored the pitiful gaze that the old man behind the counter gave her. He must have know what had happened to her brother.
There were other boys hanging around the lobby, crowding the stairs, but none said a word to Rachel. It was times at these, times when one of their number was gonna disappear, that they all remember just how mortal they are. It may be Andrew Harpen today but could it be Racetrack Higgins tomorrow? Or Mush Meyers? Or Kid Blink? It was at moments such as these that the 'fine life' of a newsie seems anything but.
She saw him almost immediately. They had stuck Andrew in the bunk closest to the door and, apart from one boy who was kneeling at his bedside, they all gave him a wide berth. Almost as if whatever had happened to the young boy was catching. But can you catch a knife wound?
Rachel had a way of entering a room and announcing her presence without saying a single word. Her brown boots padding up the stairs followed by Danny's manic pace prepared the other boys for a visitor. Just as she entered the room, the dark-haired boy at the foot of Andrew's bunk looked up at her. "Rachel."
"Skittery." One of the only boys that she had encountered smart enough to hold a conversation, she and Skittery had taken many a walk around the City together, discussing life. Have we ever discussed death, she wondered, looking down on the ashen face of her younger brother. His eyes were closed.
She looked down and saw where he had been hurt. On his right side there was a slight blood stain, not large enough to be fatal – she hoped – but wide enough to cause some alarm.
Skittery gestured to Andrew. "Kid got in the way of some bum with a score to settle. Guy was waving a blade around all while and he nicked Andrew. I saw it and got there in time to scare the bum off. I brought him here and sent Danny out. Good job," he added when he saw Danny, panting slightly behind Rachel.
She listened to Skittery and nodded before kneeling beside the bed. Skittery took that as his cue to back away. As he got up and stood behind her, Rachel began to speak. "It's always the good ones that get it. I just don't under—"
Andrew interrupted her with a slight wheeze. He opened his eyes slightly and looked up at his elder sister. His first instinct was to apologize. "I'm sorry, Rachel. It was an accident."
Rachel shook her head and smiled a motherly smile. "Don't you think on it, Andrew. It's only a scratch – you'll be fine." Her voice retained its emotionless feel despite her words. She didn't think that the cut was as serious as the other boys though – she had seen much worse – but it was as if reality was being thrown in her face. He had gotten in the way of a vagabond with a knife and was hurt. What could happen if Skittery hadn't been there?
She had dealt with death before; her parents had left her alone to care for her siblings. But for one so young to die? She knew it happened – she wasn't ignorant. But she just hadn't thought it could happen to her brother.
Andrew nodded and closed his eyes again. His side hurt too much to do anything else.
Skittery placed a hand on her shoulder, not concerned that the ink stain would transfer to her off-white blouse. In that gruff manner that he had he tried to comfort his friend. "We all gotta die sometime, eh, Rachel?" Like always, he seemed to know what she was thinking.
And, strangely enough, it was those words that brought her some kind of closure on the incident.
