Before You Start A War

Chapter Twenty-Four

"I haven't seen or heard from Gemma or my mum since I went to war." Harry explains after Niall wakes up from a fifteen minute nap. "It was stupid, ya know; my reason for fighting. I honestly didn't have anything else to do but I needed a job to remain over here."

"So you decided to fight and possibly die just for some money?" Niall asks. His voice is still weak as he takes small sips from his water.

"Yeah. It was dumb of me, but I've made it this far, plus, I met you in the process. Seems like a win to me."

Niall chuckles, commenting, "And you say I have a death wish."

"Well, you do. Or at least you did."

"Not anymore." He goes silent for a moment as he takes a sip. "There's plenty of people that went to war for the same reason as you, ya know. A lot of people thought it'd be over soon. No one foresaw it lasting this long."

"What about you? How'd you... I know you said you went for Elliot, but was there anything else?" Harry questions, hoping Niall is willing to talk about it.

Niall sighs, wincing as his skin stretches. "Elliot was the main reason, yes, but I also feel like this place, as fucked up as it sounds, is the only place where I felt... strong."

"How so?"

"I... I've always been a bit... measly. I already told you about the molly-house, but whenever I came here, people didn't like me for different reasons. They all knew me as 'that guy who's friends with the slaves'. I always hated seeing people mistreated, no matter their skin color or title. People should be treated as people, not objects or merchandise.

"Well, I'd come here and work on my uncle's farm, and he'd send me to town to sell his crop. Whenever I'd see slaves in town, running errands for their master, I'd slip food to them, not for their masters or anyone else. Just them, and their families. Then, my uncle caught wind of this, obviously, because he'd calculate how much profit I should make and I always came back short. I was afraid he would send me back to Ireland immediately, but he was actually happy. He said he always wanted to help too, but felt as if he'd be a hypocrite since he does technically own slaves, even though he doesn't treat them like that.

"Anyways, my uncle always had this salve solution he'd use whenever someone would get hurt in the field. He told me he wanted me to bring it to town and, whenever I'd see them, especially those that were injured or had been beaten, he'd tell me to give them some so they could heal better. My uncle was always afraid to do it, but since I already was, he thought I might as well do both at once. It worked out for a long time.

"The people in town didn't really like me, or my uncle, or Elliot, or Mary, Elliot's mother. But since I left after summer and my uncle was respected by the mayor and the slaves, they never did anything to him.

"And then... this war came along. All the townsfolk were sending their slaves to fight, and the war was gaining a lot of support, even by the mayor. They kept pressuring my uncle to send Elliot, but he kept saying that he was too young and they wouldn't accept him anyways. A few years passed and pretty much all the old slaves I knew had been sent to war and never returned, and all the new slaves were too afraid to accept my offerings, thinking they'd get beaten and sent to fight too. It got bad. Then, when I was visiting this past summer... Elliot turned thirteen. Everyone kinda considered that the minimum age someone could be to fight, so the townsfolk started to get really aggressive with my uncle. They stopped buying his crop so he wasn't making profit, and a new mayor was elected, who was not on my uncle's side.

"They threatened to burn all of my uncle's crop and his house and kill Mary if Elliot wasn't sent to fight. They already started to pluck out corn stalks and steal food. Eventually, my uncle broke down and was planning to send Elliot, but I wasn't having it. I told him I would fight if he would promise Elliot wasn't sent. He agreed, and off I went, only days before I was supposed to board a ship back to Ireland.