Disclaimer: If you haven’t figured
it out by now, I don’t own Newsies. Disney owns Newsies. I just own the plots.
Or lack thereof.
Jack
“Jack.”
I saw that
black-haired boy coming before Jack did. If he ever did.
“Jack!”
I was yelling,
trying to warn him, but he couldn’t hear me. The crowds in the street were too
loud, my cries were drowned out, and that kid behind him was coming closer…
“JACK!”
A short piece
of pipe was held in the black-haired kid’s raised hand, the choice weapon of
“JACK!”
Look out! But
it was too late to warn him. I watched the length of cold steel pipe come down
heavily on his skull and
“JACK!”
as he crumpled
to the ground at the side of the building I watched the confused expression
leave his face and his eyes slip closed before he was out of sight. The scab
that had hit him ran away, darting out of the alley and into the crowd.
“Jack!”
I was running
to the spot where he had fallen, pushing and elbowing people out of my way. I
had to get to him. I pushed a man aside and
“Jack!”
I could see
him again.
“Jack…”
And there was
blood in his hair, blood in a bright stream on the ground, soaking his dropped
papers, staining his face as well as a hand.
“Jack…”
I fell to my
hands and knees at his side, calling his name, trying to rouse him.
“Jack…”
His eyes
stayed closed; his expression stayed blank. He didn’t hear me.
“Jack.”
I pushed him
roughly.
“Jack!”
He didn’t
move.
“Jack.”
He wasn’t
breathing.
“JACK!”
A crowd was
gathering around me and the fallen boy. Desperate, I pressed my lips to his
lips, ones I had kissed so many times, and even now they were soft as they
always had been as I tried to breathe life back into his unresponsive mouth as
I’d seen a doctor do once.
“Jack.”
But I couldn’t
do it. I didn’t know how.
“Jack…”
The sound
barely escaped my throat, and I felt hot tears itching in the back of my eyes,
and trying not to let them fall, anger suddenly erupted into my mind, and I
pounded on his chest futilely.
“JACK!!”
But there was
no answer. He was gone. One stroke and they had taken him from me.
“Jack…”
I moaned,
curling up next to him and laying my head on his chest, the tears I had held
back pouring from my eyes and down my face to spill onto his dusty shirt.
“Jack…”
I was sobbing
his name now, in big wet gulps, and people were coming forward from the circle,
trying to pull me away, saying it wasn’t healthy for me to be with him like
this, to see him like this.
“Jack…!”
I clung to his
lifeless form, resisting them, his still fingers laced in mine as the crowd
pulled at me.
“Jack!”
My body was
lifted away him his despite my struggles, his hand slipping limply from my
fingers as I choked out what I hadn’t been able to tell him while he was
living…
“I love you…”