Reincarnated ~ A Modern Newsies Au (Nowsies)

Santa Fe | September 13, 1921

I can't wait for this!!

This chapter is based ... just barely over a hundred years ago.

So Jack is ... what, at least 39 right now?

So yeah, this oughtta be interesting.

This flashback chapter ... lot more action. I mean it's angst, but Jack's a cowboy, so.

Enjoy! :)

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Warning: violence and once again death :(

Jack runs through the streets, desperately trying to escape the guys chasing him, being both completely focused and completely out of it at once.

It's not a new feeling for him, honestly. 

There is exactly one clear thought going through his mind right now: get away.

Fight or flight. The very basic primitive instinct going as far back in time as the origin of all species. The instinct that no living creature can escape from.

Jack's choosing flight right now.

And by the way he's running, great leaping bounds, as if he can go on forever, it's nearly like he is literally flying as well.

This was the dream, wasn't it?

This is what he's always wanted.

What he wanted was to make it to Santa Fe. And now he's here.

What he wasn't counting on was this.

He still isn't entirely sure how he got here, how he got to this very moment in time when he's being chased by bad guys--or at least, bad guys from his perspective.

Okay, he does know something. He was in the saloon, gambling with a bunch of other men. He made a smart move while they were playing cards--he never could forget how much Racetrack, even though he was younger, taught him about gambling. Not only was he good at cards, he got all of one of the other guy's money out of his good strategy too. And not only that, but he has a way with words too. A strategic man with a strategic hand and a strategic mouth and therefore has a strategic brain. All very dangerous, especially for the small-minded and quick-tempered.

Someone accused him of cheating.

Someone said he looked like the guy on the WANTED posters in the back of the saloon.

No matter how much Jack claimed that he didn't cheat, and that the guy on the poster wasn't him, they weren't convinced.

It's not Jack's fault he apparently has a doppelgänger. 

An evil doppelgänger at that, seeing at how whoever that guy was is now getting Jack in big trouble.

Jack can contemplate all of his life's choices and where things went wrong after he escapes these guys.

Luckily, he grew up a newsie in New York; he's had his fair share of thugs to run from.

There! He spots a dark alleyway. He's lived here for some time now; he knows very few people come around here. He ducks inside as fast as he can. He finds the perfect spot to plant himself, where he'll be completely hidden by shadows, not to be seen by anyone looking in, not moving a muscle, barely breathing.

He holds in the biggest sigh of relief in his life as he hears the thundering footsteps of however angry men wanting rewards for turning in the "wanted criminal" fade into the distance and their voices fade until they're no longer even a whisper. He has successfully dodged a very big bullet. That could have ended very badly!