The Gilded Cage

8 - Buried alive...

With that thought, Pepper caught scent of a predator and reared up on her hind legs, tossing Ethel right into his ass. He groaned, yanking himself off the dirt path and tumbling down the small hill into brush. His chest heaved and he thought back to the time Colm had buried him in a coffin, to make sure he knew how to get out. The burn in his chest and ache in his shoulders reminded him of his first few moments after pulling his head above ground. He sat there crying and dry heaving for a long while before eventually pulling his sorry ass the rest of the way out. If he had survived that, he could survive this. He closed his eyes and quieted his breathing. The man sent after him grumbled about always being sent away from the action. The man stopped talking to himself for a moment. Ethel held his breath.

"Well look at that. Darlin, hiding under a dead bush ain't gonna do you no good when you're wearing a strikin blue bandana on your face." The black haired man laughed, easily wrenching the smaller boy out by a strong hand on his bicep. He pulled him up and Ethel looked him in the eyes, fear clouding his thought process.

"Let go of me, snake!" Ethel screeched, landing a nice punch on the man's jaw. He heard a crack and he was almost 100% sure it didn't come from anything on the other. He couldn't feel it now but Ethel was sure it'd be a bitch tomorrow, if he lived that long, that is.

The black haired man reeled back, clutching his aching jaw. He scowled something fierce at Ethel and shoved him into the tree trunk behind him. He kept his hand flat on Ethel's chest, keeping the boy pinned down but also at a far enough distance where he didn't have to worry about being struck again.

Ethel squirmed and struggled and kicked to no avail. All he had was a knife in his boot that he couldn't reach. He didn't like being pinned like this. So he took and deep breath and settled down, watching the older man soothe his aching jaw while awaiting his gang's arrival.

"I know this sounds far fetched, but I really want nothin to do with your gang." Ethel spoke, "I'm trying to get away from my own gang. I promise I ain't gonna do nothing. Let me run." He didn't like begging, it actually went against everything his father had ever taught him, but Ethel decided that maybe it was a good thing to not follow his father's orders for once.

"I ain't trusted an O'Driscoll since I was part of my mom, I ain't about to start now." He replied coldly, staring down his nose at the attractive young man. Cadence couldn't help but wonder how the boy had lasted so long out here with such a pretty face and not a shred of common sense to his name. He was almost a phenomenon of nature.

"I ain't an O'Driscoll anymore. I made my decision back there. I'm an innocent as of right now." Ethel tilted his chin up, restoring a false air of confidence he usually used to get by.

"Innocent my ass. Your kind don't do anything but kill and pillage and steal. And if you're not doin that, then you're committing acts just as bad." Cadence announced, watching the boy think for a moment, observing him.

"Ain't nothing bad as murder." Ethel replied solemnly, thinking back to the night he had helped kill an innocent barkeeper.

"Just like an O'Driscoll to rank one crime above another. They're all just as bad, fool." The man shook his head condescendingly. For the first time, probably ever, Ethel had felt like an idiot. He grew up in a gang of racist white men (many who were ex-confederate soldiers/wife-beaters) who drank themselves stupid every day. He had always been the smartest person in the room, in his opinion. And he was probably right, considering his competition was Roy (chronic day drinker and prostitute employer) and Colm (who thought that women didn't use the bathroom at all until 3 months ago). For the first time in his life Ethel was feeling stupid.

So he decided to shut his mouth. This certainly hadn't been in his playing cards for his grand scheme. How was he supposed to get out of this? Ethel scootched down the tree trunk until he plopped onto his ass, promising not to run. He was defintely planning on running the second this guy turned his head.

"Ah! Cadence, did you catch the little rascal?" An old man called, leading a stampede up the trail that Ethel had been chased up just moments prior. He seemed pleased to see that Cadence had, in fact, managed to capture the kid.