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Hell is a Sober Crawl	By : Glitter_Ink Category: M through R > Newsies Views: 499 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies. Otherwise, names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of my imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
HOUSE OF REFUGE, 1897 - WEEK 2
"Grim, what the hell was that?"
And with those words, Atlas spoke for all of them.
"It had to be done," Grim replied, calm in the face of everyone else's panic. Jack couldn't get the look of sheer rage the Warden had given them out of his mind. He knew he wouldn't sleep that night.
"Are you kidding me? That's all you have to say?" Crazy Cohen continued, collapsing onto his bed. "We are all so fucked because of you."
"I'm the one who'll get in trouble, not you," Grim replied. "Besides, I can take a beating if it means I did something."
Atlas sighed, shaking his head. "It's not worth—"
"Don't you dare say it's not worth it," Tide interjected, giving Atlas a sharp look on his friend's behalf. "Don't you dare."
Jack couldn't tell whether what Grim did was brave or foolish, or a bit of both. He didn't even look scared. Jack knew he couldn't afford to be so reckless, couldn't afford to have time added to his sentence. What would happen to Sophie if she were left to fend for herself?
He looked toward Calico's bed where Doc helped him sit up to drink water. "Come on, Hans, you need to drink," Doc said in that calm voice of his, urging Calico to take the tin cup.
"It h-hurts, Doc," Calico managed in a raspy groan, gesturing to his throat. "I can't."
"Two sips," Doc replied, holding the cup to Calico's mouth until he parted his lips, allowing the liquid to go down. "There, that's good."
"My throat hurts," Calico mumbled, curling back under his blankets. "Everything hurts."
"I know. That's why you have to stay hydrated."
Jack turned to see Grim watching the scene from his own bed.
"My Ma had tuberculosis," Jack heard Muggs say from somewhere behind him. "She used to cough like that."
"And?" Cards replied.
Jack looked over his shoulder to see Muggs shrug. "She was dead within the year."
"I'm sorry."
Muggs tilted his head, making a 'meh' face. "Sorry for what?"
Lion Valentino exchanged a disturbed look with Jack. "Muggs, that is your mother."
"Was," Muggs corrected him with a smirk before heading into the washroom.
Lion and Cards raised their eyebrows. "Madonna santa," Lion whispered, shaking his head. "He ought to be psychoanalyzed."
That night the dormitory was lit by a dim lantern as the Warden and a few guards, including Mr. Whalen, made their way in. Snyder preferred to catch his prey off guard, Jack learned.
The sudden slam of the door against the wall and the clatter of boots woke the whole dormitory in a matter of seconds. The boys, upon seeing who it was, slumped back into the shadows, staring a bit wide-eyed in nervous anticipation.
"Such disrespect!" Snyder roared for the whole dormitory to hear. "Such defiance will not be tolerated in my Refuge!"
Jack watched Mr. Whalen grab Alexei in bed by a fistful of his shirt and punch him hard in the nose for no other reason than to intimidate the others. "Anything to say this time?" He taunted.
Alexei groaned as Whalen did it again, his eyes rolling back as he slumped to the side when the man let go of him. Blood poured from his nose, making Jack feel sick to his stomach. This was it. Consequences.
"Krause!" Snyder yelled, throwing back blankets and shining a lantern on faces until he found Grim's bed. "On your feet!"
Grim froze for a second, having seen what happened to poor Alexei. "You going to bash my head in, too?" He asked in a steady voice, his eyes meeting Whalen's in a power play of strength. "Or don't you fight fair? The whole thing was my idea, not theirs."
Whalen seethed, moving as though he were about to strike Grim when Snyder calmly held up his hand to stop him. "Bite your tongue, boy," Snyder ordered, gesturing for Whalen and another guard to grab the boy. "I would start praying if I were you," and to Whalen, "Take him to my office."
Grim showed little signs of a struggle.
Jack wondered why Grim was the only one punished. He knew Snyder hadn't forgotten the entire dorm had followed him.
In the meantime, Jack couldn't fall back asleep.
When Grim was dragged back to the dormitory after what felt like an eternity later, he looked unconsciousness. Jack could make out blood, but he couldn't see the source, leaving a light trail of droplets as the guards dragged him by either arm. Grim didn't cry, but Jack could hear his struggle to breathe, groaning like someone waking from a deep sleep. As haunting as it sounded, Jack likened the wounded noise to half-hearted laughter.
Calico began coughing again, prompting Doc to go to switch between tending to both the sick and the injured.
An hour later, Grim woke in the middle of the night in immense pain. He cursed, touching his mouth and nose, the latter of which was broken. He groaned, rolling over to see Alexei asleep in the bed next to him, his nose caked in dried blood, staining his pillowcase.
From somewhere in the darkness, Grim thought he heard someone mumbling. Groaning.
That's when hell broke loose. Cards' deep, guttural cries for Doc to help Calico jolted Jack out of his sleep at once.
Where was he?
Jack had been deep in sleep. It took him a moment to distinguish whether he'd heard the cries before he fell asleep, or just now, or was it cry he'd heard in a dream?
Before he could take in the dark surroundings, the painful, hysterical shouts echoed again, somewhere in the shadows, drawing louder and louder.
Calico began thrashing around in his bed, crying that he couldn't breathe. Such cries were a terrifying sound to wake up to. The door might've been blown off its hinges with his howls.
In a matter of seconds, several of the boys including Jack sat up in bed to see what was happening. Calico was screaming and crying, tangled in his blankets, shivering.
Tide was up in a flash, holding Calico down to get him to stop moving around before he hurt himself. "You're okay, Hans, breathe!" Tide bellowed. "What? What is it? What do you need?"
Jack wrapped a scratchy blanket around his shoulders, watching in a slight daze.
"Where's Doc?" Jack asked, noticing his absence.
From his bed, Grim was in too much pain to be of any aid. He met Jack's eyes, as if urging him to step in, before passing out again.
Jack ordered Atlas to grab Calico's arms. Another boy, Z Petronelli, hurried into the washroom to get Calico a cup of water. The rest of the boys scrambled, waving hands, gnashing teeth. Utter chaos.
Calico convulsed in his bed, screaming about demons coming closer, trying to eat his heart.
"I can't do this, I can't do this," wailed Fleet Mooney, a usually happy-go-lucky inmate, panicked at the sight of Calico in such a state. "My brother died from tuberculosis. I can't watch!"
Jack swallowed hard. How had he ended up in such a god-forsaken institution to begin with?
"Move," Jack said to Fleet, pulling the frightened boy away from Calico. "Cards!" He yelled, looking around.
"Right here," Cards said from beside him.
"Stay with him," Jack said, setting Calico's clammy hand in Cards' reluctant but open one. "Hey, Lion! Watch Fleet."
Lion nodded, grabbing Fleet, who looked like he was about to burst into tears at any second, and moving him away from the action.
Jack turned to Tide. "I'm going to find Doc. You got this?"
"Yeah," Tide nodded.
Cards took over, crouching next to Calico and trying to comfort him while Lion tried to settle Fleet. Jack left, leaving Tide in charge while he hurried downstairs to find Doc, not sure where to start looking or what his excuse would be if he got caught.
He bumped into Doc around the corner, making both their hearts stop in absolute terror until they realized who one another were. Jack wasn't sure what he was doing out of bed, downstairs no less, but he didn't have time to ask.
"Doc," Jack whispered, grabbing the boy's arm, and pulling him down the hall. "Come on. It's Calico. He's dying."
"I know," Doc nodded, clutching the small vial of laudanum closer to his chest, the one he'd moments ago managed to obtain with a bit of bribery.
Back in the dormitory, the boys were frantic as Calico grew worse.
"Get his legs," Cards was saying to the others. "Hans, listen to me. Calm down or we can't help you."
As Tide paced, the boys tried to hold Calico's thrashing limbs.
Cards tried to reason Calico out of his terrified fit, while Fleet exacerbated matters by shrieking, "He's gonna die! I know he's gonna die!"
Cards, frustrated, leaned close to Calico and insisted, "Hans, look at me. Don't listen to him. Look at me. You're gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be okay. Keep still, pal, everything's fine."
With that, Calico swung his arm out and caught Cards' nose with his elbow, knocking the boy back.
"Jesus Christ!" Cards cursed, lifting his hand to his nose as he winced.
Calico didn't notice – groaning, writhing, covering his ears with his hands. His eyes darted around in a frenzy as though he didn't recognize the faces surrounding him. Shakespeare Lindy, on whose lap Calico's head was resting, ruffled back his friend's hair, looking as though he might faint if he didn't convince himself this was all a nightmare.
Sudden yelling from the Refuge orderlies from the floor below became audible, and set Fleet into a complete fury, cussing out Warden Snyder for letting them suffer like this.
Tide threw Fleet against the wall and shouted, "Fleet, listen to me, Fleet! Shut up! They'll throw you in solitary, and that won't help anyone! Listen to me! Sit down!"
Cards held Calico's hand. "Stay calm, Doc is coming. He's on his way," he said, looking around, his eyes growing wider. "Where the fuck is Stefano!"
Grim forced himself to sit up, realized what was going on, and crawled out of bed to help in any way he could, ignoring the screams of protest his body was sending.
"Doc is on his way," Alexei assured Calico, wincing from the pain of his injured nose. "You'll be okay."
Jack returned to the gloomy dormitory with Doc on his heels. Doc dropped the vial at his bed and hurried over.
"Alright, Calico, you got Doc," Cards said, squeezing his friend's hand. "Doc's here. You're okay, take it easy."
Grim and Doc knelt next to Calico, checking his airway, and feeling his neck. All other noise died. The only sound was Calico's labored breathing and Doc's sincere yet pointless assurances that he'd be okay.
He propped his fingers against Calico's open mouth, trying to look in.
"Okay, okay," Doc said, smoothing Calico's hair back from his face. He turned to the others. "I can't see. I need light."
Calico began crying, looking both confused and terrified. And that scared Jack more than anything. "Please," he sniffled, "Tell Warden Snyder that I'd like to go home now," he said. "I have to go home." His words trailed off, as his voice grew faint. "They'll think I'm dead."
The others looked at him and at one another, shaking their heads, not knowing what to do.
"Snyder ain't here," Atlas said after a beat. "It's just us."
Calico's eyes shifted around the room, as if nothing registered to him as reality. "I'm already dead?"
"No," Shakespeare replied. "You're not dead."
"Can I go home?" Calico asked, tears staining the pillowcase. "Please, I want to go home."
The boys shifted.
"Calico, you don't have a home," Z whispered.
"Ich will meine Mama," Calico cried, thrashing about again. "Ich will nicht sterben! Ich will nicht sterben!"
"It's okay, Hans." Doc and the others tried to settle him.
"Ich will meine Mama!" He kept crying.
"Take it easy!" Cards said, grabbing his hands so he couldn't hit anyone again. "What's he saying, Grim?"
Grim stared at Calico. "He says he wants his mother," he replied quietly.
Doc exchanged a look with Grim, as if to say the situation was far beyond his ability. "We have to get him out of here," he said, emitting in his tone that this could soon be all over.
"It's okay, it's okay," Shakespeare kept whispering. "You're alright, Hans."
Jack winced, realizing how dangerous it was to be this close to a possible tubercular. The whole dorm would be infected by the end of the month, he knew it.
"Ich will meine Mama, ich will meine Mama, bitte! Bitte!"
Doc held out his hands to help Calico sit, reaching for the cup Z had filled with water. Doc had steadied Calico into a sitting position when he leaned forward and vomited all over Doc's hands and lap and the blanket below him.
"Fuck!" Shakespeare yelped, jumping back as if he'd been burned.
Doc closed his eyes but nodded, turning to Cards, and requesting a bucket of water from the washroom and rags. "It's the chloral. It's okay."
"I'm sorry," Calico moaned, his eyes rolling back, reminding Jack of a swooning plague victim in a renaissance painting.
"It's okay, Hans, get it out if you have to," Doc replied, handing the cup of water back to Z. "Laudanum, get it from under my pillow," Doc said to Jack.
Jack froze. Laudanum?
"Go!" Doc yelled, bringing Jack back to the present. Jack rushed to Doc's bed and fumbled around in the darkness, grabbing the vial from under the pillow.
Doc let go of Calico for a moment and poured the laudanum into the water, mixing the contents to dilute it a bit. "Hans, I need you to drink it. And keep it down. You'll feel better, I promise, please drink."
Calico shook his head, leaning away from the cup.
Muggs rolled his eyes and pushed his way over to the bed, grabbing Calico's head and prying his mouth open with his fingers. Doc glared at Muggs who shrugged. "Do you want this to be over with or not?" Muggs asked.
Jack reached out and took Calico's other hand, squeezing it for reassurance.
Doc brushed away Muggs' aggression and poured the contents down Calico's throat. Muggs held a hand over his mouth so he had no choice but to swallow.
Calico cried out afterwards and seized before going limp, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth.
Nobody moved. Nobody said anything.
"Doc…" Lion whispered, a look of horror on his face.
"I…" Doc ran a hand through his hair, his eyes wide. "It was supposed to induce sleep, not…"
"Someone needs to get Snyder," Z said from beside Jack.
"And explain what?" Atlas asked, throwing his hands up. "How just we malpracticed our friend to death?"
Doc threw the water cup, and Jack could see Fleet shaking his head, his eyes red from crying. No one said a word.
A haunting silence followed, a sense of uneasiness enveloping the room like a dark cloud. Doc wiped his eyes and looked away, angry at the injustice of it all.
Cards shook his head, turning toward the rest of the boys and letting his shock say it all.
Grim grabbed the ragged blanket from around Jack's shoulders and carried it toward the motionless Calico, gazing at him for a moment before draping it over his body.
Snyder had left them there to rot, and Calico was gone. There was nothing anyone could do.
Jack looked at his hand, realizing he was still grasping Calico's hand. A single tear drop slipped down his cheek as he brushed his thumb over Calico's wrist.
A faint thump against the skin made Jack pause, his breath catching in the back of his throat. Jack brought Calico's wrist up, placing his thumb over the veins, and waiting in silent desperation. Another light pulse.
Doc, who had already been watching Jack's movements, reflected his look of shock and tore off the blanket, grabbing at Calico's shirt and unbuttoning it. Doc pressed an ear to Calico's chest, listening.
"Grazie a Dio, he's breathing," Doc murmured as everyone came to life at once.
"What?" Fleet stammered, coming closer and checking Calico's pulse himself. "He's still alive."
The others couldn't believe it, staring wild-eyed.
Doc placed his hands at the center of Calico's chest, pushing hard and by the second. With no hesitation, he opened the boy's mouth again, lifted the chin, pinched the nose, and sealed his mouth on top of Calico's. He began blowing into it and checked to see if his chest was rising. He repeated this action until Calico began to cough up a mix of blood and vomit.
"Fucking twice," Shakespeare groaned as he turned away, looking like he would be sick himself.
"But…I don't understand," Jack mumbled. "I thought for sure—"
Doc moved to grab the rags Cards had brought over and dipped them into the bucket of water. He began dabbing the sleeping boy's sweat-drenched face, turning to Jack.
"So did I," Doc replied, answering Jack's question. "He's going to sleep for a while."
At that moment, the orderlies barged into the dormitory, demanding Calico be woken up and taken to solitary.
Mr. Whalen looked at the mess, shaking his head in disgust, as Doc hid the empty vial.
The boys all begged the guards to let Calico sleep, but Mr. Whalen grabbed Calico from his bed by his hair. He shook Calico twice, waking him, and delivered a powerful punch to the delirious boy's jaw.
Calico reeled for a second under the laudanum.
He grabbed onto Grim's sleeve. "Please don't let him take me," he said, his voice cracking.
Jack bit his lip, knowing Grim couldn't help.
"Let's go, boy, move!" Mr. Whalen yelled, prying Calico's hands off Grim's sleeve. "Tell the warden we've got him," he said to another guard. "He wants him locked up. Alone. We'll see about this disruptive behavior. That act ain't fooling me."
Jack knew Grim was about to say something. Something that would get him hurt. He couldn't take another beating, not in his condition. Jack got up and followed the guards to the door.
"It ain't an act," Jack said, surprising everyone and himself. "You're killing him. He could've died tonight."
"Shut your mouth, boy," a guard grabbed Jack and slammed him against the wall. "Another word out of you, and I'll see to it that you're strung upside down in the cellar for the rest of the night!"
Jack could feel the eyes of the other boys on him. He grabbed the guard's hands and ripped them off his shoulders. "Fuck you," Jack whispered loud enough for the guard to hear.
"Okay, you know what? Maybe you need some time in solitary, too, huh?" The guard taunted, slamming Jack against the wall again. "Think you're tough? You think you're tough, you little shit? Let's see how tough you are."
With one quick movement, the guard had struck Jack on the side of the head with his baton, making the boy drop to the floor. He grabbed Jack again by his collar and delivered a powerful right hook, making Jack see flashes of light in the darkness.
"Stop!" Cards yelled, standing. "If you take him, you'll have to take me, too!"
Jack forced his eyelids to open, unsure of what he'd heard.
Calico was already unconscious, held by the two guards who had a grip on his arms.
"And me," Lion said, standing at Cards' side.
"And me," Shakespeare replied, stepping forward, followed by Z, No Name, Fleet, Charles Marquette, and River Markowitz.
"I could use time in solitary. I got nothing but time," Atlas said, folding his arms at Mr. Whalen. "What do you say boys?" He asked, turning to Crazy, Alexei, Tide, and Rails Westwood who joined him and voiced their solidarity.
Grim gave Jack a slight smirk in disbelief, nodding. "It's settled," he said. "Guess you'll have to take us all," he said to Mr. Whalen.
It hadn't been his plan to stage a coup, but it was too late to back-pedal, Jack reasoned, so why not go out together?
Jack lifted his head, seeing the entire dorm rally to his side, boys he'd known for less than two weeks. He smiled, which infuriated the guard who had him pinned. "Wipe the smile off your face," the guard growled, punching Jack in the stomach, making him double over.
Jack clutched his stomach, wheezing a bit. Jack began laughing, an involuntary reaction to the blunt force, struggling to stand. Rage coursed through his veins, a sudden kick of adrenaline threatening to take over.
"Had enough?" The guard asked in Jack's face, gesturing for Mr. Whalen to take Calico to solitary so he could deal with Jack.
In turn, Jack shrugged. As quick as a flash, Jack had thrown his head forward to collide with the guard's nose, making the man roar in pain and reel backward.
"I don't know," Jack replied, wiping the blood from his own nose. "Have I?"
The other boys looked on with a mixture of shock and admiration.
Muggs uncrossed his arms, a dangerous flicker of hell and excitement in his eyes. "Fuck it, this is what we're doing?" He mumbled with a smirk, already approaching the guard Jack had hit, cracking his knuckles. "Fine by me."
In a second, the guard was sprawled on the floor, with Muggs standing above him, shaking his wrist, knuckles bloody. Atlas jumped in out of nowhere, tackling another guard to the ground, punching him. And then, pandemonium.
Everywhere Jack looked, the boys were yelling, attacking the guards, pushing them out of the dormitory. Crazy got his hands on a guard's baton, striking one of the guards repeatedly on the ground.
Whalen came back to the find the place an absolute madhouse. He blew into his whistle, alerting more guards to come in and keep order. Jack could hear shouts in the hallway as more orderlies rushed up the stairs and down the corridor, knowing it had been a good try while it lasted.
Grim pried a guard off No Name, Shakespeare and Cards shoved beds against the door to barricade the other guards from coming in, and Lion, Marquette, Alex, and Z threw any objects they could find at the guards trying to push down such barricades.
Windows were smashed – how, Jack did not know. Blankets were strewn everywhere, lanterns shattered, feathers from pillows snowed from the ceiling.
It was as if all the pent-up anger and misery and starvation that had been bottled inside the boys just exploded.
Jack couldn't hear Whalen's whistles over all the noise. The guards pushed their way through the stacked beds, Warden Snyder hustling in after them, a pistol in hand. He aimed it at a mattress and shot.
The noise halted the world, bringing everything to a sudden stop. The boys froze, staring at Snyder as they panted, reality sinking in.
"I don't want to hear a goddamn word out of any of you," Snyder said in a steady, deep voice, lowering the pistol.
"I'll see to it they're punished, Warden," Mr. Whalen shouted. "You can be sure of it!"
"Oh, yes you will," Snyder replied, glaring at the boys in the dormitory. "As for the rest of you, your time is all doubled." He turned to Whalen. "No meals for any of them tomorrow. I want this dorm cleaned at once. And I will see you all in the morning," he said before leaving.
"Alright, the show's over," Mr. Whalen pointed his baton at Grim. "Take him away," he said to the guards.
"He didn't start it," Jack blurted out, stepping forward. "I did."
Whalen approached Jack, eyeing him up and down. "I know. But ain't he the one who pays?" The guards dragged Grim away as Jack slumped to the floor.
Grim looked like he wanted to say something but stopped himself. The guard, whose nose was crooked from the beating he took, squeezed Grim's jaw. "Got something you want to say?"
Grim furrowed his brow, shaking his head in resignation.
"This dormitory will be clean in four hours or else!" Whalen called over his shoulder before closing the door, this time locking it behind him.
The following day was a small ray of lightness. The first Sunday of the month. Visiting day. Sixty minutes to see Sophie, supervised of course but a privilege, nonetheless. A privilege Snyder could have taken away. But he had another punishment in mind.
That first visit happened to be Sophie's birthday. Jack had managed to scrape together a piece of faded newspaper and a pencil dropped by a guard in the chaos. If only he could remember how to draw.
The sun began to rise over the Refuge as Jack stood alone near the dormitory window. Through the bars he peered out at the river, following the ferry that drifted across the water toward the island. His concentration was melancholic, his breathing becoming heavier and heavier with a strange intensity. It was as if at any second, he could rip off the bars and fall head-first into those icy waters below.
"Sullivan!" A voice boomed from the opposite end of the room near the door. Jack turned with a start, meeting the gaze of the guard he'd fought the previous night. "You have a visitor."
Inside the Refuge's waiting area, Sophie sat beside several other men and women. They all looked gaunt and ragged. A wave of nerves washed over her like a hurricane.
A door at the back of the room opened as a pair of nuns stepped out. The guard on duty motioned to Sophie it was her turn to enter.
As she moved into the adjoining private one-on-one room, Sophie looked surprised to see a large metal grate running down the center of the room. Jack stood there, waiting on the other side.
Jack and Sophie smiled between the grates. It was a strange reunion, to be sure. Both had missed one another so much. And neither of them knew what to say.
Jack took the opportunity to turn to his pocket, taking out the crumpled paper. "Hey," he whispered as the guard stepped out. He handed her the folded drawing. "Happy birthday."
A look of surprise lit Sophie's face as she opened the paper. She traced her finger over the drawing of her face, sketched with a simple style but a captured likeness of beauty.
"Oh my," she gasped, her dimpled smile reflecting Jack's identical one. "It's perfect. Thank you."
"It's not much," Jack continued as the guard walked back inside.
Sophie folded the drawing, sticking it into her dress pocket. "What happened…" she asked, looking at her brother. His dark blue uniform of the institution makes him look unfamiliar. The bruises on his face made her stomach sink.
"Don't worry about that," Jack said, shaking his head. "How are you?"
Sophie hesitated. "Better than you, I guess."
"I guess," Jack mimicked her inflection. "It's been a month. So far, it ain't bad."
"Why is this here, this wall?" Sophie asked, nodding toward the grate. "It's like a cage."
"I don't know," Jack shrugged. "Prevents escape."
"Escape? Have you tried to escape yet?"
Jack hushed her, looking over Sophie's shoulder at the guard by the door. "No. I can't."
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.
"Are they mean?" Sophie asked. "Is it scary?"
Jack's smile faded. "It's not scary, no…" he answered. "It's different from the lodging house, that's for sure. At least I don't have to pay for a bed," he added with a wry smile, attempting humor.
Sophie forced a soft laugh. "I suppose Warden Snyder isn't as kind as Kloppman?" She gave him a disappointed look, knowing he withheld the truth. "They'll let you out soon."
Jack shrugged, avoiding her gaze, not ready to tell her his sentence had been doubled. "I'm going to do six months now. Started a fight. They add time for that, you know."
"Jesus Christ, Jack, I can't make it a full year by myself," Sophie whispered, her eyes welling with tears.
"Sophie, please…don't cry," Jack said, biting back his own tears, desperate to keep his face neutral.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, sorry," she managed, scrunching the material of her dress in her fists, tilting her head upwards.
"I miss you."
"I miss you, too."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "How've you been holding up?"
"Okay, I guess," Sophie hummed. "Medda wants me to work for her. I don't know if I'll do it."
"Work? What-what work?" Jack asked, shaking his head as he thinks it over. "Soph, I—"
"Time's up," the guard said from the other side of the room. He turned to Sophie. "You need to go, young lady."
Sophie wiped away at her tears, feeling her heart sink. "What? It's not time yet."
"There are folks waiting," the guard insisted, opening the door, and standing by it.
"I'll see you next month. It'll go by fast," Jack assured his sister as the guard took his arm.
"Wait! Wait! Jack, please, wait," Sophie touched the metal grate as her older brother looked at her. "Can I…can I hug you goodbye? For a second? Is that allowed?"
Jack stared at her. "We can't, Soph, I'm sorry. I'll see you soon, okay?"
Sophie felt her lip tremble as the guard began to usher Jack out. "I love you."
Jack was pulled out of the room before he could reply, leaving Sophie crestfallen and alone.
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Hell is a Sober Crawl