Louisiana, 1929. Lucius Malfoy, father of Draco Malfoy, has brought his wealthy estate across the dimensions of time and space by mysterious means. Taking advantage of the rate of unemployed African American workers at the height of the Great Depres...
They broke her body, yet they didn't break her resolve.
While "working" there in the catacombs, Alicia rallied the enslaved men during the water breaks. Penz only found out what she had planned when she came to him last. "After our next break, I want you to pick a fight with Rufus over there," she pointed to one heavyset man who stood close to seven feet tall. Next to Penz (and recently Alicia), Rufus was the tallest and strongest worker there in the catacombs. He would carry rocks twice the size of regular men and load them into the wheelbarrows.
A man of his size and strength could've broken out of there anytime; but Malfoy's guardsmen had their guns and clubs fixed on him at all times, ready to strike if Rufus so much as sneezed.
Penz didn't know what Alicia had in mind overall in her plan. Nonetheless, he followed through with it, purposely bumping into Rufus as they returned to work. "You watch where you goin', boy!" Rufus roared to him.
"I would, if yo' big ass weren't in my way," Penz screamed back.
Their shouting transpired into shoving, prompting the guards to try and break them up. It was exactly what they wanted them to do. Rufus landed one mighty punch across the face of a rifle-armed guard, knocking him out cold. Penz followed by laying out the other that moved in on them. Soon, all the other guards retaliated, only to have been overpowered by all the other slaves Alicia rallied to her escape plan.
They freed themselves from the cavern, following a specific path Penz directed them to that would take them to a clearing in the woods and lead them back home to the boonies. Skeeta patrolled near the clearing every few hours, just in case a slave or two managed to escape the catacombs. He's gonna have his hands full, once he sees the load he'll have to guide, Penz thought as he ensured every man was out through the secret tunnel.
All except for Alicia (and Samuel, who was somewhere upstairs in the manor, fetching more water) fled from their enslavement. Penz found her staring down a tunnel that led much further underground. "Watchu doin', gurl?" he asked her. "Ain't you wanna be free?"
"It wasn't my intention to come down here, Harris, but I'm kinda glad that I did," Alicia said. "What you told me about Henry Dobbins and the monster that he saw...it's gotta be the thing that I've been looking for...Cthulhu."
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In that moment, Penz wanted so desperately to drop his cover and tell this brave woman – his niece – that he was there for the same reason. All that held him back were the freed men who would need his help in getting back home. He could only keep playing the "dumb, illiterate colored man" act and tell Alicia, "I dunno watchu lookin' fo', gurl, but I bettah see you later up top."
He left her after that, praying in his thoughts that she wouldn't find Cthulhu before he and Skeeta did.
