Thank you to Austra, Paisley, and Spazziness, who have so kindly given me their overwhelming support! Izzie wishes you a Happy New Year :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies or any of its characters, but I do own all others.
My heart may have dropped to my toes at the sight of my most dangerous nemeses, but it was a sad fact that I was used to such surprise occurrences, and I had Jack Kelly to thank for that.
Both David and I jumped up when we saw the bulls, simultaneously knocking our chairs to the ground. As the kids around us realized what was happening, chaos became more and more inevitable. Hundreds of bodies crashed against each other in a desperate attempt to reach any and every exit, and the blood and gore I had managed to avoid with Carlos and Spot Conlon was suddenly surrounding me in an unexpected ring of red.
Jack was on the stage with Medda, ignorant to the abounding dangers around him. David turned to me.
"Izzie, take Sarah and Les and get them out of here. I'm going to get Jack."
"What? But I – "
"Look, I think there's an exit over there. Just get them out of here, all right?"
He dashed off towards the stage. Dear David, whom I had known to be quite sensible, was going straight into the fray.
I turned around and saw Sarah and Les, sitting terrified in their seats and clutching each other, watching helplessly as their brother ran off to save the day.
"Come on," I said. "We've gotta go."
Pulling a reluctant Les into my arms, I grabbed Sarah's hand and made for the door David had indicated. I stopped for a moment and looked around desperately for Carlos. Yes, despite the fact that I knew he wanted to cut all the hair off my head, I wanted to make sure he was all right.
Chaos reigned. People were running left and right and I wondered if Carlos had already managed to escape. I turned around in circles (looking quite ridiculous, I'm sure), Sarah watching me confusedly nearby, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Carlos being dragged off by the police, his hand clutching his bruised stomach once again.
Upsetting? You bet. Not only had I socked my best friend's brother in the stomach, but I had a pretty strong hand in his arrest as well. It was not shaping up to be the best of nights.
Les pulled at my shoulder and I realized we had no time for mourning. Sure, I was devastated that Carlos was being hauled off to the slammer, but I had been given a responsibility, and I wasn't about to let David's siblings suffer the same fate. Besides, it wasn't likely Carlos was going to accept help from his earlier aggressor anyway.
I nudged Sarah forward and we ran, Les jangling around clumsily in my arms. Yes, we were on our way, but not before I caught a good glimpse of one of the officers glaring at me with hateful, burning eyes.
Yes – out of a room full of bulls and newsies, the one I had made crash into an innocent woman days earlier was there, and he had spotted me.
My arms squeezed Les so tightly he whimpered and I let him go a bit. With Sarah's hand in mine, I dashed to the doorway, praying there wasn't a hoard of newsies trying the same door.
We ran down the narrow hallway, the sound of thousands of feet shaking the wooden floor beneath us. At every other step I turned around, dreading to see the face of my tormentor and hoping the mass of kids were blocking his way.
We stopped near the end of the hallway and saw its door hanging open. I stopped cold, nearly knocking Sarah to the floor with my shoulder. I could see the moldy bricks of the alley outside calling to us, but I knew better than to trust an open door. Best case scenario: other kids had found the same way out. Worst case scenario: police officers were searching the area and carelessly left the door ajar.
The heavy thud of boots on the outside pavement proved my theory.
There wasn't time to run all the way back down the hall to the theater with a bitter officer on our trail, so I looked around for an alternative escape. Sarah must have been doing the same, because moments later I felt her grab at my sleeve.
"Izzie, look," she said as she pointed to the only door next to us.
Stairs.
I could have thrown myself into her arms for relief, but with a small child clinging around my neck I figured such a gesture wouldn't end well. Instead, I pushed the door open, grabbed her hand and the three of us made a mad dash up the (albeit rickety) metal stairs.
We were about halfway to the top when the stairs jolted beneath us. I looked down between the stairs and sure enough, a red face with a blue uniform was hurtling up the rickety structure. Clearly there was no time to waste.
We scrambled up the remaining stairs, never stopping even when the door to the roof jammed on us. I handed Les to Sarah, who stood by, breathing hard and making me nervous, while I threw my body weight against the door while jangling the handle.
The door flew open violently and I spilled onto the roof. I heard Sarah let out a cry of what I assumed was worry, but I ushered her and Les out and slammed the door behind us. Before she could reach out to check on me, I got up, ran to the edge of the building and looked down for some sort of escape.
Nothing but concrete.
I ran to the next edge – the same sickening pavement. I could hear the officer coming up the stairs, much more nimbly than I had anticipated.
The last edge was the same as all the others, but with one crucial, beautiful difference: the border it shared with the building next door was much closer than the rest.
It was decision time for Izzie Romero: wait for the officer to drag us away or jump.
Had I been alone, the decision would have been easy: me and my willful pride never would have accepted being captured by the enemy.
But I wasn't alone. I was in charge of David's sister and little brother. Jail and familial disappointment could be bad, but plummeting would be worse.
Luckily, the decision was made without me.
"Go on, Izzie, jump. We'll come after you."
I turned, dumbfounded, to face Sarah, who was still cradling a surprisingly calm and silent Les in her pale arms.
"No, no, there has to be another way. I just need a minute to think."
"Izzie, it's the only way. We have to do it." She gave me a wavering smile.
I stood staring at her. Should I believe her? Was she only saying it because she wanted to protect me?
A body slam against the roof door threw me into action.
I took Les from Sarah's arms. "You have to go first, Sarah."
She looked terrified, but I knew there was no other choice. "You have to trust me. Just take a long jump and stretch your body out as much as you can."
"But what about you and Les?"
"I'm used to carrying heavy things while I'm running. Jumping can't be any different." She nodded as if she believed me. I certainly wasn't going to tell her that hats were significantly lighter than unexpectedly solid Les.
She turned to face the challenge. She climbed unsurely onto the ledge, her hands clearly shaking. Oh, how I wished in that moment I had never met Jack Kelly!
Was Sarah thinking the same thing?
Another slam against the door nearly sent Sarah into the dark abyss at her feet. I screamed, she screamed, Les screamed, and I grabbed her dress as she tried to balance herself. After a moment of heavy breathing and with a commendably brave, concentrated effort, Sarah stood up on the ledge again.
I had to force my eyes to stay open as she jumped.
The entire scene passed in slow motion in front of me, likely from the chilling terror I was feeling. Her dress was like gossamer as it flew through the night air, freely dancing in the wind, unaware of the dangers we were escaping. It would have been a moving sight, if the officer hadn't broken down the door the moment Sarah landed.
I looked back at the officer stumbling through the broken door, then turning to look at Sarah who was, thankfully, safe on the other side. Clutching Les tightly, I climbed on the ledge.
"I'm sorry, Les," I whispered without thinking.
He moved his head closer to my ear. "It's all right, Izzie."
I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined myself jumping across. My breathing slowed, my muscles relaxed a bit, and I saw myself flying, Les with his arms extended, across the towering buildings.
But there was something wrong. I opened my eyes and hopped off the ledge, walking a few paces back towards the door and the officer.
"Izzie, what are you doing?" I heard Sarah scream. Les's earlier tranquility vanished, and he scratched desperately at the skin on my neck.
My mind and body were calm as we walked, and I saw the officer hesitate for a moment, as confused as anyone as to why I was walking toward him rather than away.
I was right where I needed to be.
Turning around in a flash, I took off, Les as secure in my arms as a precious velvet hat box. I could feel miniscule drops of blood glide down my neck as he scrambled to hold on to me, suddenly frightened again.
Momentum built up as my feet dashed across the roof, one after another. My eyes focused on Sarah on the other side, whose mouth was moving in a scream but no sound reached my ears. This was my mission – no amount of screaming was going to stop me now.
We got to the ledge and I felt my body lift, my feet barely touching the cement before both Les and I were flung mid-air.
I had felt Les's body pulse with a scream, but the moment we were in the air he stopped, as if his lungs had suddenly collapsed. It was a terrifying moment, I'll certainly not deny that, but I felt an adrenaline I had never felt before, not even as I sat next to Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper magnate extraordinaire.
We hit the roof with a thud and a crouch, and I saw that Sarah had stopped screaming. I gave her a quick smirk, stood up with Les and pulled her to follow me.
We certainly weren't out of the woods yet.
We pelted across the roof while the officer screamed obscenities at empty air. He obviously felt the same hesitation at jumping we had, but I had no doubt he'd do it at some point or another, and I didn't want to be around when he did.
We came to the end of the roof. We needed a definitive escape – running all night across the Manhattan rooftops wasn't going to cut it. The officer was gaining on us, and I knew we hadn't stopped him for long with that little trick.
Thankfully, the perfect (yet dangerous) escape found us this time. The clotheslines strung from window to window, roof to floor, made it apparent we were atop a tenement building. At our feet were clotheslines anchored to the roof, connected to a massive wooden pole in the middle of the courtyard – a geometric tree of string in the middle of the city.
Ideas were swimming through my mind as I heard the wallop of the officer falling onto our roof. I looked back and sure enough, there he was, grumbling and moaning, pulling himself clumsily up as fast as he clumsily could.
I turned back to our escape and saw that Sarah had already captured the vague ideas floating in my mind. With nary a word, she lowered herself (shaking perilously, if you ask me) gingerly onto the thickest of the clotheslines. With both hands on the rope, she dropped, her hands gripping our only salvation.
I nearly vomited everything I had eaten for the past month. Which I should have, now that I'm thinking about it – the rope would have appreciated a lesser load, I'm sure.
When she stopped swinging around like a light bulb on a wire, she moved one hand in front of the other, inching herself towards the center pole.
Not wanting to waste any time, I plopped Les down on the roof. As silently and complacently as his sister, he followed her along the rope in her acrobatic dance.
I turned to get one last look at the officer, who had seemingly hurt his ankle in the fall and was careening from side to side with a murderous scowl on his face. I smiled – perhaps by a hair, but we were going to make it.
I climbed onto the rope next to Sarah and Les, who were nearly at the central pole. It wobbled and I dropped a bit, nearly screaming, but to my eternal relief it held fast. Arm muscles burning, hands chafing, I made my way to the central pole which Sarah and Les had already managed to climb down.
With both arms wrapped tightly around the wooden beam, one hand then the other let go of my rope and slid down, garnering splinters everywhere. At each rope below me I stopped, caught my breath and slid down a bit more until I was at the bottom.
After a moment of bewilderment, the three of us exploded with laughter. It was a moment of victory we were never expecting. Even if the officer had seen where we went, which surely he did, none of the ropes would have held his bulky weight. I hoped he knew it too, because I didn't want to be a witness to an accidental fall.
Even if he went back down to the theater and around to the tenement building we were currently standing in the middle of, he would have to get a search warrant for the entire building, and that wasn't going to be easy.
As if on cue, we heard a shout from above. Even in the dark I could see the purplish hue of my pursuer's face as he gave full use of his vocal chords. I gave him a wave and he disappeared into the bricks above.
It was a moment of freedom for the three of us, until we realized we were blocked in the middle of a courtyard, in the dead of night. There was no easy exit out of this one. The three of us split up to walk around the square courtyard, looking for a hole in a wall or an open door through which to escape.
"Here! Over here!" Les cried.
Sarah and I jogged over. It was a door, just like all the others.
"Les, you were supposed to find an open door," I said, turning back to continue the search.
He grabbed at my hand and pulled me back. "No, Izzie, look. It's open."
I leaned forward and sure enough, the warped wood caused the door to hang ajar. A good find, and just what we were looking for, but I was no fool: the chances were slight that the door would lead us right outside. Likely we'd face another barrage of obstacles before even coming close to the streets outside.
But what choice did we have? Either wait for the officer to get his warrant or risk running into a disgruntled tenant.
I looked at Les: giddy with pride. I looked at Sarah: no expression. It was my call this time.
"All right. Follow me and whatever you do, don't stop, don't look back."
They nodded.
Did I knock quietly in the hopes that some insomnious tenant would generously let us in?
Of course not.
Still high off of the adrenaline of our high-flying upside-down trapeze act, I ran through the door at full force. Thankfully, it gave way easily and we were able to bolt down the hall. We jumped over a dog sleeping in the middle of the hall. Some dog it was, because it only gave an exhausted bark and set its head back on its paws.
The hallway we were running through was coming to an end. A door to the left, another hall to the right. Of course, we turned to the right, but at that precise moment the angry drunk man I had invented in my worst case nightmare came out of the door of the left.
"What in the hell?" he bellowed, rubbing his eyes with a cannonball fist.
Sarah gave a small yelp as we hurtled by him, snapping him out of his sleep.
"Hey!" he said, and started towards us. "You damn kids, get the hell back here!"
"Don't look back!" I screamed at Sarah and Les behind me. "Just keep going!"
The hallway led to the kitchen with dirty pans and plates laid out in careful disarray. Les slipped on a greasy pan, nearly sending him face first into a pile of who-knows-what-muck, but I grabbed his hand while Sarah pulled him up by the shoulders.
Did we make it? Are you on the edge of your seat?
All right, all right, we did, but not before I smacked my head against a low-lying shelf and Sarah scraped her knee against the kitchen table. We managed to cross the kitchen and found ourselves at the front entrance, only to find the door was locked.
But of course.
The fat man nearly grabbed Sarah's hair as I got the door unlocked with a flip of my hand.
We flew out of that front door like a thief fleeing from his disappointed (and strong-armed) mother.
Curses flew at us from behind, but we kept on running, as far away from the theatre as possible. Sarah led the way to her apartment.
"Please, Izzie, just stay the night. You shouldn't be walking around by yourself."
I shuffled my feet at the door. "I'll be all right; I can find my way back." As nice as the thought was, I was certainly not in the mood for Mrs. Jacobs's kindly scowl again.
Sarah furrowed her brow, but let me be. I was anxious to get home, but something in her frown told me she was worried about something other than my trip back.
"Don't worry, Sarah, David will be fine." Thinking for a moment, I added, "Jack too. They know how to take care of themselves."
She gave a resigned smile. "I hope so."
"They'll be fine," I said and hoped my overconfident smile didn't give me away.
I could only hope that they were. Oh, and that Lola would help me get her brother out of jail.
Truthfully, I was more worried about the latter than the former.