The Disgraced Newsie( Rewritten)

Chapter 4: Jack Kelly's POV

When I regained consciousness, I was still near the fireplace, which was burned out; but I was in serious pain and in a puddle of blood. Everyone must be asleep by now, so I should get out of here before anyone notices that I am still here.

I carefully stood up from the ground and limped all the way toward my penthouse, hopefully without waking up the other boys. Once I managed to make it to my penthouse, I started to think about everything that happened. I probably should have seen that coming, especially since I just punched the newest leader of the Manhattan newsies. But... Crutchie, I didn't expect him to... do that to me. Well, I shouldn't be surprised since it was my fault that he got arrested and beat up with his own crutch, so might as well get his well-deserved revenge by returning the favor.

I really didn't want to do this, especially to them, but since all of them made it clear that they no longer want me around anymore, what is the point of even sticking around?

I would hate to leave without saying goodbye to any of them, but it is not like any of them would actually be upset that I left. If anything, they would happy and just say "good riddance".

I packed up everything that I had, which wasn't that much, then I started to climb down the fire escape, but then I decided that I should write a letter to them since it just felt that I was abandoning them, even though I was more than certain that none of them would even care enough to read it.

Dear fellas,

Even though I doubt that any of you would care enough to read it or probably wouldn't even see this letter, but it just didn't feel right to me if I just left and not even say goodbye in some form.

I hate that it had to come to this where I would have to leave the Lodging House. At least not on my own terms, but I just can't take it anymore. Normally, I would not care about the constant abuse from all of you because I always felt that I deserved it, but now, it is just too much for me to handle.

I hate what I had done at the rally, but if any of you guys had known the truth, then you would have known that I did it for you guys. I'm not going to waste any time on explaining why I had done what I did because no-one would ever believe me.

Anyways, I think that this will be better for everyone, especially to every newsie in New York since no-one will have to deal with the disgrace anymore.

Thank you for being the best family that I could ever ask for and giving me the best years of my life. Despite everything that happened, I still care about all of you and still consider all of you my brothers, even though I lost the right to be considered your brother.

If any of you decide to read this letter and somehow some of you still care about me, don't waste your time trying to look for me because I don't want to be found by anyone.

Goodbye forever.

From,

Jack Kelly

A coward

A liar

A traitor

And a disgrace.

As soon as I finished the letter, I climbed down the fire escape ladder. Once I reached the ground, I started to walk away from the Lodging House. I don't know what I was going to go, but it had to be somewhere, but any of the lodging houses in New York.

I turned back toward the Lodging House one last time, let a small tear roll down my face, then continued to walk down the street, never looking back at the Lodging House.