Tay can almost see herself in the reflection of the river of blood running down her hand. Her childhood was far from being filled with the whimsy and mirth of a typical childhood, but it wasn’t completely devoid of fun. She recalls a time in her youth, a few years before the events of Oswego, where the Marauders found themselves uncharacteristically far south. Mother had taken her and May to Candyland, an amusement park that was very uncharacteristically merry for Mother. Looking back on it, Tay was certain that Mother had planned such an out of the way excursion not in order to entertain her daughters, but to seize some big score. Tay didn’t know what, and at the time, she couldn’t have cared less.
She remembers lots about the amusement park. Rides, food, music. As she looks at herself in the reflection of her blood soaked hand, though, the image that comes to mind is of the house of mirrors. She looked there how she looks in the reflection now: Distorted, misshapen, drenched in a crimson hue that makes her sick. How carefree she was back then. Mother started both her and May young, but Tay couldn’t have been older than 6 at the time. Old enough to be used in various cons, old enough to pick pockets, but too young to be useful in a fight. Too young to really understand what kind of world she was being brought up in. Too young to understand her family as being anything other than the providers and community that they were.
She wipes her hand against her tunic, smearing it with red and doing little to dry her hand. The gash on her left cheek from Warden Morgan’s keyring flail is bleeding heavily, running down her neck and shoulders all the way down to her hand. She wipes her hand off again, still to little avail. Instinctively, she reaches her hand down to where her satchel should be on the left side of her waist. It isn’t there, of course. It’s off in some closet several hallways away, hopefully with Cannon and Rach standing outside of it. For a moment, she wishes that she had elected for herself and Lex to have the job of clearing the path to the closet instead of taking the keys from Morgan. She shakes the thought away. No sense in regretting what’s gotten her to this point. She’ll do what she’s always done. Survive.
She breaks off into a sprint across the small room, barreling towards Warden Morgan with all the speed she can muster. She leaps at him and spins her body around, lashing at his face with a kick. Morgan lifts his arm up to block the strike, then hammers down on Tay with his flail. She watches through blood stained vision as the floor rises up to meet her, he world upside down and twisted with pain. As soon as she hits the ground, she instinctively rises back to her feet. Staying down for even a second could mean death, and she doesn’t plan on dying today.
She launches another attack against Morgan, which he responds to again with a block and counter attack. From the proverbial sidelines, Lex watches the miserable montage unfold. He stands behind Morgan’s desk, giving him a fairly well protected view of the slaughter. Tay continues with attack after attack, though it’s clear to Lex that each subsequent attempt has less gusto than the one before it. She’s getting tired. She’s getting hurt. Lex is sure she would deny it if he said these exact words, but she’s getting the shit kicked out of her. Every time she gets hit, she gets back up, only to get sent back down even harder. It’s difficult to be a spectator, but Lex can only imagine how much more difficult it must be to be the star performer.
Warden Morgan, who has broken very little sweat since the altercation first started, starts to frown. Every time he blocks and strikes, he grunts. What started as grunts of anger, though, have over time morphed into grunts of frustration. He starts to check the watch on his wrist after every strike. Deep lines from on his brow. A scowl sinks on his face.
“I don’t have time for this. Just stay your ass down,” says Morgan.
Tay rises to her feet. Her body is a mosaic of welts, bruises, and cuts. She spits out a glob of blood. “No.” She raises her fists and tries to run at Morgan, but the best she can manage is a dizzy stumble.
“You’re chewing at my last nerve here.” He smacks her down with the back of his hand. Lex can’t tell if his decision to not use his flail is an act of mercy or an act of laziness.
Tay lies flat on the ground. Every muscle in her body screams as she tries to force herself back up. “Then give me the keys. Let me go.” Her arms and legs quiver under the weight of her body and she falls back to the floor.
Morgan rolls his eyes. “I’m no executioner, but this would be a hell of a lot easier if you were dead.” He paces towards her and swings his lanyard above her head.
“Stop! Stop!” Lex runs out from behind the desk and places his body between Tay’s and Morgans. He very quickly realizes that this may have been a very foolish thing to do. If Morgan wanted to, he could turn Lex into sawdust just by looking at him. Lex knows he’d go down from one hit, and he didn’t have a prayer of fighting against the hulking man in front of him. Maybe, just maybe, Morgan is concerned enough with the possibility that Lex really is royalty, and that may dissuade him from striking. If not, then Lex could be about three seconds from his last breath.
And yet, as foolish as it may have been to place himself between the walking embodiment of law and the broken body of his would-be kidnapper, he doesn’t regret it. He’s under no illusions that Tay is any sort of friend to him. He’s naive, but he’s not stupid. She wants to take him back to her clan of bloodthirsty bandits. She’s lied to him, threatened him, and just generally made his life miserable since they first met. And yet, he can’t help but feel sorry for her. He wouldn’t want to see his worst enemy endure the beating that he’s watched her take. Enemy or not, a massacre is a massacre, and he’s not a big fan.
On top of that, she’s not really his enemy. Well, she is, but he’s a compassionate enough person to understand why. He doesn’t have access to the same amazingly eloquent and insightful narration that you do, so he doesn’t know what happened to Tay last chapter, but her whole tirade about her family told him more than enough. She’s a product of her environment. Lex knows the type. She’s a caged animal, and he’s her shot at freedom. He doesn’t want to be apart of her escape story - hell, he doesn’t want to be a part of her story at all - but he can’t help but be sympathetic.
He squeezes his eyes shut and holds his arms out over his head, hoping that doing so will somehow make Warden Morgan’s impending overhead strike at least somewhat less painful. He waits. Waits a bit more. Doesn’t feel anything. He considers the possibility that the strike was so swift and efficient that he’s been immediately sent to the afterlife, but that seems unlikely enough. He opens his eyes and sees Warden Morgan crossing his arms. Beneath him, Tay is starting to get back to her feet. She looks lightly embarrassed at Lex’s very unheroic pose.
He spins around and wraps his arms around Tay in the best cradle that he can manage while still keeping his body as blood free as possible. He’s very compassionate, yes, but he’s just as compassionate as he is squeamish. He doesn’t really know what to say, so he just says the first words that come into his head.
“Tay, you’re bleeding.”
She draws her arm along her face, clearing enough blood away from her eyes to make it clear that she’s rolling them. “Thanks.”
Lex nods. “Right. Guess you knew that. Tay, you need to stop. You’re not getting anywhere.”
She pushes her way out of his cradle, stumbling to the ground as she does. She finds enough balance to get to a knee. “You need to let me do my thing.”
“Is your thing getting the shit kicked out of you?”
“I’m not getting the shit kicked out of me.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know if you noticed, but you’re bleeding.”
“You need to shut up.”
“You need to shut up.”
“You both need to shut up,” Warden Morgan says. “And you both need to get back to your cells. I don’t have time to keep doing this dance with you.” He grumbles. “Got a situation to take care of.”
“Situation?” Tay asks.
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Lex gasps. “Oh shit. You already found Cannon and Rach?”
Morgan’s eyebrows perk up. “The hell? Rach and the pizza boy, they’re out of their cells, too?”
Tay elbows Lex. “You need to shut up.”
“You need to shut up.”
Morgan whips his flail against the wall behind him. The crashing sound of metal against metal explodes in Lex and Tay’s ears. They cram their hands against their ears and look up at Morgan, wincing from the pain of the noise. The warden shuts his eyes and presses his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “You’re gonna give me straight answers and you’re gonna do it now. What the hell are you all doing out of your cell?” He opens his eyes. “And are you responsible for what’s happening outside?”
Lex and Tay look at each other. “What’s happening outside?” Lex asks.
“What’s this situation?” Tay echoes.
Morgan shoves Lex out of the way and looms over Tay. He spins the lanyard above his head. “I sincerely hope you believe me when I tell you that I am not fucking around here.”
“Noted,” Tay says. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know what the fuck is going on in my town.”
“I’ll tell you if you give me those keys.”
Anger flares in Morgan’s face. He moves the flail behind him, readying to deliver a blow that will turn Tay into ground beef once and for all. “You fucking--”
“Waitwaitwait!” Lex exclaims, moving his body as close to the scene as he can to be noticed but far enough away to not be in the path of Morgan’s potential strike. “Look. You clearly want information, and we clearly want to not be dead and not be prisoners. Maybe we can figure something out here.”
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just kill you both right now? My town is going to hell in a hand basket and it all started with you two and that pizza boy.”
Lex says, “Well, for one thing, Diaz is dead.”
“What!?” Morgan growls.
“Lex, what the fuck?”
He puts his arms up to Morgan as if to calm a wild animal. “See? A little honesty, a little information. We’re not bad people.” He purses his lips. “Well, full disclosure, Diaz is dead because we killed him.”
Morgan growls again, this time barely even able to form a word. Tay wants to scream at Lex for giving away enough information to get them both executed without a trial, but she stops herself. He didn’t say that she killed Diaz. He said that they killed Diaz. Either he’s too scared to be thinking straight, or he’s trying to protect her.
Lex watches the anger in Morgan’s face start to give way to pensive thought. He closes his eyes. “You said that Rach and the pizza boy are out too, yes? So I’m to expect that they’re doing the same thing to the rest of my guards that you did to Diaz?”
Lex nods. “The exact instructions were to crack skulls, I believe. And my guess is that if you haven’t heard about their little romp through the halls yet, that means either that nobody has noticed them, or that there aren’t any guards who are conscious enough to report it back to you. I don’t know how well you know Cannon, but, well, let’s just say I doubt it’s because nobody has noticed them yet. Subtlety isn’t really his thing. So, yeah, safe to say that a whole lot of your guards are out of commission.”
“Lex,” Tay whisper shouts like she was quarreling with a boyfriend at a busy party, “Why are you telling him this?”
“Because,” Lex says loudly enough for Morgan to hear, “I’m trying to build a rapport. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s no fucking chance that our plan to get out of here is going to work. Even if Cannon and Rach managed to get to the closet, they’ll never open it. And there’s no way they’ll fight their way out of the entire town.”
“Let me get this straight,” Morgan says. “You’re telling me that you killed one of my guards. You’re telling me that two of your accomplices are currently out there, most likely, killing even more of them. And you’re telling me this in an attempt to, what, curry favor? Earn trust? Explain that part to me.”
“Yeah,” Tay nods. “Explain that a bit.”
“All I’m saying is, you have a situation. The town’s going to hell in a hand basket. Whatever’s going on outside, it seems like a pretty big deal. You were probably hoping to use the prison guards as extra troops to quell whatever’s going on out there. Right? But seeing as how they’re probably all down for the count, well, there’s not a lot of people here who are conscious enough to offer you any help.”
Morgan juts out his lower jaw and bites his upper lip. “Other than you four.”
Lex nods. “Other than us four.”
“You four who are, at your absolute best, self admitted murderers. And, at your absolute worst, are engaged in some kind of conspiracy that involves the Marauders, the Montego crime family, and the King of New England?”
Lex thinks for a moment. “Yeah, guess that kinda sums it up. But I promise, we’re much closer to the first thing than the second thing. I swear to you, I’ve never met any of these people before. None of us had ever met any of us until last night.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you?”
“At least long enough to help you with whatever you need help with.”
Lex can audibly hear the grinding sound coming from Morgan’s mouth, and he swears he can see the steam starting to rise up out from the top of his head as his face gets redder and his forehead crease deepens. He snaps his neck to the side as if to force himself to not lunge at Lex and swallow him whole.
“Bugs,” he says, his gaze firmly locked on the one window in the room. “Reports of bugs all over the city. No idea how they got in.” He looks at Tay the way one might regard a rat who’s just stolen their last Cheeto and is now choking on it. “Maybe it’s our gate security team has an Ethan shaped hole in it. Or maybe that our general town watch team has a Diaz shaped hole in it.”
“Bugs!” Lex says, jumping up and down excitedly. “That’s great! Well, no, I mean, obviously that’s not great. But that’s the kind of thing that Tay, Rach, and Cannon can help with! Cannon, I’ve seen what he can do, he just needs his weapons and armor. And Tay, I mean, she’s a Marauder. She’s tough as hell.” He looks her up and down. She’s standing upright by now, but she isn’t so steady on her feet. There doesn’t seem to be much surface area that isn’t blemished with blood or bruising. “She’s-- well, believe me, she’s--”
“Get me my cards and I can help.”
Morgan presses his fingers against his nose again. “So what you’re telling me is that you, the prisoners who have admitted to two murders and who are likely conspiring to do something even worse, are volunteering to help, and all I have to do is arm you with your deadly weapons.”
Lex nods. “That’s about right. Except for the part about the conspiracy stuff. Seriously, I promise, we’re not up to anything other than trying to prove we’re innocent. In kind of a roundabout way, I’ll admit. But none of us want to hurt anyone.” He looks at Tay. “We’ve all got our situations.” She gives him a weak nod. He returns with a weak smile, then turns back to Morgan. “Listen. Rach and Cannon have probably taken out the rest of your guys by now. Sounds like the situation outside is getting dire. Your best shot to save the town is to help us. Our best shot to not have you hang all of us is to help you. Let’s help each other out.”
Morgan considers this, but not for very long. He grunts. “You all are criminals. A man of justice doesn’t associate with criminals. No exceptions.”
Lex frowns. He runs his hand through his hair and thinks. “So what’s the deal with Daisy Montego then?”
“Excuse me?” Steam again starts to rise from Morgan’s face.
“Daughter of one of the most notorious crime families in York - the country that New England is currently at war with - seems to live here pretty peacefully. Then when she makes a ruckus, she ends up free as a bird and the guy who put her in her place ends up in jail.”
Veins bulge in the warden’s forehead. Through gritted teeth, he asks, “What are you suggesting?”
“I’m just saying that there’s clearly room for some gray area. I don’t know what kind of deal you have with Daisy Montego, but it doesn’t make you not a man of justice. I know you and I don’t really know each other, but I happen to be a very good judge of character, and I can tell that you’re a good guy.”
Tay has to stifle a laugh. The kid is so painfully clearly a horrible judge of character. However, Tay swears she sees change wash over Morgan’s face. She’s no expert at reading people, but Morgan’s jaw is starting to unclench and his forehead is starting to relax. If anything, he’s starting to look sad.
“A criminal is a criminal. Anyone breaking the law deserves justice. You’ll never convince me of anything otherwise. But justice costs money. New England levies taxes on its citizens, but they barely give enough back to Camp Trin to pay for gate watch. This place needs more. Order doesn’t come easy to a place at the edge of two warring countries. Raiding parties, bandits, bugs. Safety ain’t cheap. The Montego family pays me a pretty hefty sum of money, and I use it to pay the rest of my staff so we can keep this place running. In return, Daisy gets to have a vice grip on the city. Anything she wants, she gets, and she gets away with murder. I hate it, I know she deserves to spend the rest of her life rotting in a cell, but I give her free reign so I can keep every other criminal off the streets.”
Lex nods. “Tough call. But you’re making the right choice.”
“Spent a lot of nights with a bottle in hand trying to tell myself that. But letting a criminal run free is never the right thing.”
“It’s not black and white.” He glances at Tay. “Sometimes you have to work with people you don’t necessarily agree with.” He looks back to Morgan, but not before he sees a slight smile curl at the edge of Tay’s lips. “For the greater good.”
Morgan frowns. “Sully your morals for long enough in pursuit of the greater good and you start to think it might be like trying to grab the horizon.”
“Then let’s make a deal. We’ll help you. Not just with the bugs, but with the Montegos. And your money problem. After that, you get to be the man of justice that you are. No strings attached, no bad guys to answer to.”
Tay runs over to Lex. She’s feeling better in the sense that she’s now able to stand upright without any wobbling, but she’s deeply distressed at what the prince has just suggested. “Lex, what the hell? You can’t just speak for all four of us.”
Morgan raises an eyebrow. “How are you going to do that?”
“Well, as I’ve said maybe ten billion times, I am literally the prince of New England. I can talk to my dad and get the money flow to--”
“--Money tomorrow won’t stop bugs from eating half of Camp Trin’s population tonight. And it certainly can’t buy Daisy Montego.”
Lex smiles. “You just leave that to me and my team.”
“Right. Well I like your terms, but make no mistake. You and your ‘team’ are bad guys, and if you do somehow end up pulling through, I won’t be answering to you. If you run, I’ll chase.”
“Maybe you’ll at least give us a head start?”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Got a lot of stuff to get done before that.”
Warden groans, shakes his head, then grumbles something too quiet for Lex and Tay to hear, though Lex is pretty sure he hears something along the lines of “pieces of shit.” Morgan swings around his lanyard, then catches the keyring with his other hand. His fingers find one key in particular.
“Let’s go get you your stuff.”