TW: Abuse/torture (I'll put *** before and after this part so you know when to skip)
25 April 1898
Y/N's POV
Some voices woke me up. I think it was like 3am.
"Hey Oscar, I heard that there's a girl next door."
"Oh, really?"
"Yup and the spider said we can see her."
Huh. I assumed those were the Delancey brothers. Didn't seem like they wanted to beat me up. Also they called him the spider which was weird. Don't they work here?
I didn't have enough time to think anything else before they walked in through the door that connected our rooms.
"Ah so you're the girl," the seemingly older one said with an unreadable expression. I was shaking at this point. Who knows what they could do to me.
"Oscar, you're scaring her!" His raise of tone only frightened me more.
"Please don't hurt me," I spoke just above a whisper.
The older one (I guess Oscar) now dawned a softer expression that became more readable as concern. "Hey we're not gonna hurt you."
"You're not?"
The other one spoke this time, walking towards me, "Nope you're okay. I'm Morris Delancey and this is my brother Oscar."
He sat next to me on the bed and put his arm around me. I jumped a bit at first but eventually leaned into his touch. Something about him made me feel safer.
"Y/N DaSilva."
I was still shaking a bit and Morris noticed so he started drawing shapes on my arm which had a weird calming effect on me.
"Don't worry, Morris and I hate Snyder just as much as you do."
"Wait what? Don't you guys work for him?"
"Yeah not by choice. Oscar and I are kinda forced to by our father and the spider."
"Oh... I'm sorry."
"Notcha fault, kid," Oscar said ruffling my hair.
I swatted his hand away exclaiming, "I'm no kid, I'm fourteen."
"Yeah, well I'm sixteen and Morris here is fifteen so go figure," he replied, shrugging before ruffling my hair again.
Rolling my eyes I returned to the topic of the conversation, "What do you mean by forcing you to work here."
"Hey you don't have to say anything if you don't want to," I reassured, sensing their reluctancy.
"No it's fine." Morris deeply sighed.
"Since our ma died, it's always been Oscar, our sister Katie and I against our father. He would constantly beat us half to death. One time he threw glass bottles at me. When he became friends with Snyder it got even worse. Snyder needed people who would work for him, our father needed the money the spider would give him and we needed Katie to be safe. Eventually we had a sort of agreement that Katie's allowed to stay at her own place away from our father and he can't hurt her and in return we'll work for Snyder so that he'll pay our father. However, that also meant the strict conditions of working here. When we do anything wrong or don't wanna do something they tell us to do, they'll beat us in front of each other. We don't wanna see each other get hurt so that just leads us to do worse stuff. Now it goes past working here. At our job giving the newsies their papers, we're forced to rough 'em up. Our Uncle Wiesel who also works there knows about all this but he can't do anything. I just wish we didn't have to do this stuff but when we go to Katie's place and see her happy, it's all worth it."
I was left practically speechless and the boys on the verge of tears. "I, wow I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry guys. Also I totally get the whole concept of doing anything for your sibling. I'm here because it was almost my twin brother who Snyder took. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it was him here."
There was a mutual understanding between us and I walked up to Oscar to give him a tight hug before returning to Morris. This time I buried myself deeper into his touch causing him to wrap his other arm around me, whispering, "We're gonna be okay N/N."
I then fell asleep in his arms.
When I woke up for the second time at what seemed like 5am, it was a much ruder awakening. I also noticed that Morris was gone so I was uncomfortable again.
The rude awakening turned out to be the spider banging on the door while shouting, "Alright girly, I've got jobs that ain't gonna do themselves!"
He then unlocked and opened the door before storming in, grabbing me by the shirt and dragging me who knows where.
Eventually we arrived at some room that he literally threw me into. There was a guy about my age who was also in there.
"Alright here's how this is gonna work, Y/N and Matt, you will make this room absolutely spotless. If there is even a speck of dust when I return in an hour, Y/N gets punished. Clear?"
How's that fair? I could tell that this 'Matt' had some sort of objection so I answered before he could make this worse, "Crystal."
"And you, Mulligan?"
"Yes sir."
"Perfect, then I'll see you in an hour."
With that, he promptly left the room and locked us inside. Here's the fact, there was no way the two of us were going to get that dingy room clean in an hour.
We both knew that.
Snyder knew that.
However it was cRyStAl ClEaR that any objection would make things worse and probably cause Matt to be punished. Speaking of which, "So how come you just let him punish only you?"
"What's the use in fighting? Besides it's better one of us than both of us. Also you're looking pretty beat up, can't have you dying on me," I said teasingly.
"Says the girl with the black eye," he responded with a smirk on his face.
"Touché Mulligan, touché."
We then did some pointless cleaning, while having mild conversation, knowing full well what was to come.
An hour later in came Snyder's big ugly face. "Mulligan, DaSilva, I see you guys are just as useless as I thought. Alright c'mon!"
He threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, causing me to yelp.
He then proceeded to literally throw me onto the floor of some other room.
"This is what happens when people don't follow my instructions," he growled.
***
He tied a rope of some kind around my neck and as I lost almost all ability to breathe, he dunked my head under water. My body was starting to convulse, my head was pounding, my breathing stopped and I was losing consciousness.
Just before I passed out, he abruptly pulled me from the water and untied the rope.
He then shoved me to the other side of the room causing me to completely lose orientation and fall to the ground.
When I looked up, there he was towering over me with a bat in hand.
"Now this is simple, I will hit you with this once for every minute you wasted. Guess what," he sneered.
"What?" I weakly spat out.
"That's sixty times," he mockingly said before going crazy with the bat.
The pain was searing through my entire body and I was screaming like crazy. I heard the sound of a bone cracking somewhere in my body but I honestly didn't have the consciousness to figure out where.
Bruises were forming all over and I was bleeding a lot.
Every time I opened my eyes, I would see him smirking at me.
Eventually I lost count but one of the hits to the head caused me to lose consciousness.
***
I guess at some point he must've thrown me back in my room because I woke up in my uncomfortable bed. My whole body felt like it was on fire and it hurt to try and sit up.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, DaSilva. You've been out almost all day."
"Oscar?"
"That's me."
"Is Morris here?"
"Nah, the spider got him caught up with... work."
I visibly cringed knowing what 'work' means.
Sensing his discomfort, I changed the subject, "You said you worked with the newsies, right? What're they like?"
"To be honest I envy them at times. Like sure, they have to work very hard just to eat, but they're a family. They always have these positive attitudes and don't let any of them hear I said this but it honestly brightens my day to see them everyday and give them papers."
He said all of this with a fondness that honestly makes me feel for the guy. The fact that he envies a group of poor orphaned kids, which I guess I am now, says a lot about his life.
"Life has a tendency to throw stuff at ya but that just builds character. It's impossible for you to have been who you are today without what you've been through. You and your brother are tough and I bet Katie is grateful for you guys protecting her."
He engulfed me in the biggest hug he could in my bedridden state. "How can someone so beat up be so optimistic?"
"The same way someone younger than you can be wiser than you?" I smirked.
"Hey, I'm wise!" he argued.
"I'm sure you are," I teased.
We had a peaceful silence as he wrapped my probably broken arm with a bandage he just so happened to have in his room. He then interrupted the silence with, "You know, you're the kind of girl Morris would be into."
"Oscar! Are you seriously trying to set me up with your brother?"
"I'm just saying," he shrugged, "you two would be cute together."
He ruffled my hair and I swatted his hand away!
"Oh, shut up!" I exclaimed trying not to look flustered and failing miserably.
"Aww someone's got a cruuush," he teased.
"I do not!"
"I'm sure you don't," he mocked in reference to my earlier comment.
"Okay but in all seriousness thank you. It hurts to have to do these jobs but it's for my brother and sister ya know."
"Totally get it. Family's important and sometimes you're stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Even though it physically hurt every fibre of my being, I stood up and gave Oscar a tight hug with my good arm wherein he started crying.
"Hey it's okay, just let it all out."
He was full on sobbing at this point and it shattered my heart. I started rubbing his back to calm him down. We pulled away.
"Everything will be okay, I've got a feeling about it. Now go rest up!" I exclaimed, ruffling his hair as payback for him doing it to me.
"Says the girl so beat up she could barely stand up. Seriously, your arm's probably broken," he retorted.
"Yeah yeah, Delancey. Tell Morris I say hi."
"You bet I will," he said with a smirk.
"Now don't you go setting me up with your brother," I said, lightly swatting him.
"Yeah yeah, DaSilva. I can't go makin' any promises," he remarked as he ran out the room.
"Oscar!" I exclaimed but he was gone.
'Those Delancey brothers are gonna be the death of me' I thought, shaking my head.