Strangeways

by Matthew Samm

  Domenyck gave up any pretence at holding back the tears and the floodgates silently opened. Great gobbets of salty tears dripped from his eyelashes and his nose, sending dust and mud particles scattering when they impacted the ground.

  Alix stood back up and patted him on the shoulder. She looked at Yulia and silently motioned for her to drop the cabling. Alix reached behind his neck and unwound the steel coiled around his throat like a python. His neck pulled when the steel popped free, leaving behind grooves in his neck flesh that were already beginning to redden and welt.

  When Domenyck realized his neck was free, his chin rose, and a tiny smile sprouted across his lips.

  Alix unwrapped all the cabling from around his body, leaving him rooted to the chair, but free to make a move if he so chose. Alix didn’t think he would. The women in the room were unsure and Alix caught more than one nervous look exchanged between them, especially from Yulia, who’d been choking him moments before. If there was anyone who would feel any retaliation, it would be her.

  No reaction came. Domenyck simply raised his hands to his eyes and wiped the tears away. He sniffed back some phlegm and then chuckled.

  The air felt lighter in that front room as if Domenyck had shown the world his true self and it hadn’t been as bad as he’d thought it would be. No one was laughing at him. No one was hurting him. It might be different in changed company, but at this moment, he felt the weight rise from his shoulders. Everyone else in the room felt it too.

  He looked at Alix again, taking a deep breath and gathering himself. “I can help you,” he said. “Why do you want to find him?”

  A warning siren buzzed in Alix’s brain. Progress had been made with Domenyck; he’d felt his pressures lift, even for a moment, but the answer to this question might dictate how her mission progressed. She was dealing with his loyalty to his father and his life on Strangeways. He might hate his father. He might despise him. He may want him dead, but none of these things guaranteed his help. Family blood and loyalty roots down to a person’s core and very rarely could those roots be pulled without felling the whole tree.

  Alix considered her options. She could tell him the truth, that she was here to save her brother, stolen by Mad Jack and in the process, she would take him back to the city to face punishment in the cells. Or she could miss out certain aspects of the truth and tell him she wanted to reclaim something that was hers anyway and nothing else. If Domenyck loved his father, he might help her more if she lied to him. So, she did.

  “Your father has taken something very precious to me and I want it back,” Alix told him, trying to give as little information away as possible while still telling him as much as she could.

  “No, no, that’s not possible. There’s nothing comes to the island that’s not in a crate. Besides, look around! There’s nothing precious here. It’s all rotten!” He sniffed again and wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve. “There’s only been people come here.”

  9

  Alix stared at Domenyck, trying to keep her cool and not betray the joy at this revelation. It had to be her brother and Domenyck knew where they would be. He had to. If he knew that only people came in, one of them would have to be her brother. Domenyck was on the inside; Mad Jack’s son and he received the same style of tests that she did. Perhaps Domenyck was being trained to assume command of the idea when his father’s time was through, like Alix probably was. If he was, he’d have all the inside information. “How many people arrived?”

  Dom thought for a moment, the cogs turning inside his brain. “Not many, fewer than normal.”

  Another alarm bell. The only people coming to the island should be those for whom the cells have failed, either because they reoffended or, like Mad Jack, won their bouts. She knew her father had sent five criminals to the island in the last month. If Domenyck was, as she suspected, being lined up to take over, he’d know this number. “How many arrived?” she asked him again.

  His mental cogs whirred. “Twelve,” he said.

  “Twelve? That’s fewer than normal?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, there’s normally more, some months are worse than others. I can write, so my dad makes me keep the numbers. He wants to know who’s on Strangeways, so he knows who’s on his side and who’s on the others.”

  “I want to know more. Tell me from the start. When do these people come?”

  “They can arrive at any time really, but they always come to my father first. They get put in this cage and at the end of the month, he lines them all up in front of them and has a look at what he’s got. Sometimes he puts them through their paces, you know, makes sure the best come out on top, and then he puts them to work for him. If they don’t make the cut, he kicks them out and they’ve got to survive any way they can. Normally, they walk about Strangeways until one of the other gangs picks them up and that’s why my dad wants to know who’s here. He takes their names, he makes me write down what he thinks of them and then he knows who they are and what he thinks of them, you know, where the dangers might be with them. He’ll even put them out into the wild in certain areas so that he knows who’s probably going to pick them up. He’s thought of everything and that’s how he rules the island. He knows who’s here and he knows how strong the others are. I can only think of one time when he’s taken one of the rookies right away, without waiting until the end of the month. I hope that’s not what he’s going to start doing. I’ve got a system and he’s going to screw it up!”

  “What do you mean that he took a rookie right away?”

  “It was last night. I was asleep and he just barged into my room and told me to get up. I had to bring the book and pens. There was this young lad came on the island. I don’t know why he didn’t just put him in the cage until the end of the month, but for some reason, he wanted to see this one right now.”

  Alix could barely contain herself. “What happened?”

  “He had a look at him, checked his teeth, checked his muscles and how he walked and moved. He started throwing the rock at him…”

  “The rock?” Alix interrupted. “What’s the rock? Is it what it sounds like?”

  “Yes and no. It’s not made of rock. It’s made of wood. I made it. I took a block from an oak tree. It had to be the best quality, so I made it from a tree in its prime. I had to cut the tree down and everything…”

  Alix smiled. She’d stumbled on a topic he loved. He was so excited to be talking about wood and making whatever this ‘rock’ was.

  “…it took me ages, but when I’d found the best bits from the tree, I had a solid block. It was massive, but I cut it into a solid ball. Didn’t need to measure it or anything! I did it all freehand.”

  Alix found herself grinning and the smile stuck. His passion for cutting down a tree and making a ball was infectious and innocent. She felt his passion and loved it. In a place like this, it seemed to be kindling, like it should be incinerated. Surely, there was no place for such innocence on Strangeways? She took a moment to peruse his features.

  For the first time, his hands were moving, reliving his process to everyone in the room. Alix glanced at their faces. All the other women were smiling as well, loving this moment of sweetness in their otherwise daily drudgery. The young girl, the one he’d nearly whipped just a few minutes before, had sat just in front of him, staring up doughy-eyed, her chin resting in her hands, her eyes alight and sparkling. This was the real Domenyck.

  He paused and silence lengthened. His face grew shallow as a memory wormed itself into his foremind.

  “Go on, Dom. Carry on,” said the young girl at the front, desperately wanting the silence to end and story time to resume.

  His eyes glanced downwards to her. “Sorry, Keira.” He looked so sad now, the pain filling him and threatening to pour from his eyes again. He reached down and ran his hand over her head, tracing the contours of her jaw and resting her chin in the palm of his hand, his fingers, desperate for as much human contact as possible, rested on her cheek.<
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  It was filled with care and affection. “I’m so sorry, Keira.” He was speaking directly to her now and clearly reliving the moments of recent history where he’d nearly lost himself completely and done something that would have split his soul in two, rending it into a shadow of the person he was now. A drop of moisture escaped and found the groove running beside his nose, racing to his top lip, where his tongue lapped it up, destroying forever the pain held within.

  Alix found herself wanting to know more as well. “You were saying about the rock?”

  Dom released his cradle of Keira’s face and looked back up at Alix, arching his back and shifting his feet in the chair. He had an audience and from the aura in the room, this wasn’t the first time, but he wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. It seemed so out of character for Strangeways, a land without law. Such simple innocence and joy couldn’t exist in a place like this. Could it?

  “My dad didn’t like it. He said I’d wasted so much time making a ball and I should have just done what he’d asked. He wanted something he could throw, not a work of art.” His sadness intensified. “Then he gave me a load of metal. The bits were all sharp at one end. He’d filed them down, so they were like razors. He told me to make it ‘something a man could use’. I didn’t want to, and I told him so, but you don’t say no to him. I think I’m lucky I’m his son. Most people don’t get to say no to him.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I had to take the bits of metal and put them into the ball, so they stuck out like daggers. When I gave it back to him, he was much happier and started calling it the ‘rock’, even though it’s made of wood!” There was a hint of teenage angst in these last words like his father just didn’t understand anything about anything.

  “So, what happened last night with the rock?” Alix asked.

  “He started throwing it at this new guy, really trying to hurt him. I had to make notes on what I saw and put it in the book. This guy was so fast. The rock never even touched him, and Dad really tried to hurt him.”

  Alix flashed red with anger; the cloud of innocent reverie destroyed in her eyes. This had to be her brother and Mad Jack had dared try to hurt him. He’d pay! She’d make him pay. “What happened to this new guy?” Alix said, her voice low, struggling to keep her anger in check. “Was he hurt?” She clenched her fists in anticipation of his answer. She didn’t know whether she’d lose control if he said the newbie was hurt.

  “Nothing! Dad couldn’t catch him. He dodged and ducked every throw!”

  Alix felt relief wash through her and her fists unclenched. “Was that it?”

  “No. He ordered one of his guys to fight him, but he could barely get near him. The new guy put him down quick. Dad had this huge smile on his face like he was so proud of what he was seeing.” Dom went quiet again. He longed to see that smile directed at him, but it had clearly never happened.

  “What happened next?”

  “That was it. Jack was happy with this guy and ordered one of the guys to take him to Hellcat.”

  A semi-audible gasp filled the room and Alix glanced about. The women knew more of what this meant. It wasn’t good.

  “Hellcat? She was outside with you before, wasn’t she?”

  Dom nodded, but his eyes had darkened. Merely mentioning Hellcat’s name made him uneasy and sent blood pounding through his body. Alix could almost hear it.

  “This Hellcat woman. Where is she?”

  Dom shook his head. “Don’t go there. You shouldn’t go there. It’s a mistake. She’ll…” Dom broke off, not wanting to even entertain the thoughts going through his head.

  “She’ll what, Dom?”

  There was a brief moment when their eyes met, Dom noticing her use of his nickname, ‘Dom’. Alix had used it to further their relationship. Make him more likely to help her. Then he went back to the question. “She’ll kill anyone and anything. She loves it. She’d do it for fun. Dad sends all his best newbies to her. If they survive her training, they’ll survive anything. That’s what he wants. He wants her to break them, to kill them if necessary and she doesn’t need any pushing to do that! That new guy might already be dead!

  “We have to go then, Dom. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen!” Alix was urgent and she’d given away too much.

  “You know this guy, don’t you?”

  Alix became furtive, realizing her mistake. There was nothing left for it. Full disclosure. “He’s my brother.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “Maybe she won’t kill him. Some people survive her training you know. He’ll be OK, I bet.”

  Her anger flared again. She wouldn’t be patronized by a criminal. “Put it this way, Dom, if she does hurt him, I don’t see why I shouldn’t return the favor to someone close to your father.”

  Dom’s face recoiled in shock, although he tried to hide it. It was like he’d snapped back to reality. They weren’t buddies. This was an interrogation. His eyes dropped to the ground again and his shirt collar gaped.

  Alix was stood over the top of him. Her threat was empty…probably. She’d only used it to try and scare him and remind him that they weren’t friends. He would do as she asked, but she wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t like the others on the island. She was civilized, unlike the Hellcat and all the others on this godforsaken stretch of anguish. She caught a glimpse down the bulging neck of his shirt. That was the first time she saw the scar. She’d noticed he’d been rubbing and pawing this area while he was speaking. Now she saw what it was. “How’d you get that?” she asked, pointing to the pattern of deformed flesh.

  Dom tried to cover it and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  Alix didn’t push the matter. Some scars are personal, their cause never to be revealed, unknown except to the person who’s body they adorned, like an evil tattoo. She nodded. “You know where Hellcat is?”

  He nodded.

  “Is it far?”

  He shook his head.

  “Take me.”

  He shook his head again. “I’m not going there.” He was rubbing the scar again.

  “You will.” He expected another threat and she saw defenses come up. They weren’t strong. She knew she could force him and that’s exactly what he was expecting. Alix knew a better way. Kindness had already worked with him. “I know you will because you’re not like them. You’re better. You don’t like what goes on, and you want to stop it. I know you do. You’ve got that look; the look that tells me you know what goes on here is wrong and you want to stop it, but you don’t know how. You tell yourself that you can’t help it, that this is how the world works, but you know it’s not. You know it shouldn’t. I can stop this from happening and to do so, I need your help. Will you take me to Hellcat? I need to save my brother.”

  As she spoke, his head sank lower and lower. Finally, his forehead almost between his knees, he nodded. “OK.”

  “Thank you.” She clapped him on the shoulder. It was supposed to be comradely, but he flinched as she did so. What had gone on in Dom’s life to bring him here? Despite herself, she wanted to know. She had to know. Maybe it was her love of justice and innocence that drove her to ask the questions and get the answers, maybe she just wanted to know for herself. Either way, something had happened to Dom to bring him to this point and whatever that was, it wasn’t right. It was a wrong that should be righted. Alix was going to punish his father. Maybe he wouldn’t care. Maybe he’d be glad.

  She pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  “Now?” he quivered, his legs turning to jelly and threatening to sit him back on the chair.

  “Yes. Now. If this Hellcat is as bad as you say, we have no time to waste.”

  He tried to steady himself and his legs strengthened. He nodded again. “OK.”

  “Maybe on the way, you can tell me how you got that scar,” she joked, trying to boost their spirit of teamwork. They were now working together and teams, bonded and pulling in the same direction, were always a force to be reckoned with.r />
  “You should ask Hellcat.”

  Then he was silent, heading to the door. The young girl wrapped her arms around his leg. “I forgive you, Dom,” she said, her voice soft, beautiful and almost punishing. Alix knew he’d live with the shame of what he almost did. It would eat at him until, in his mind, he’d made it right. Dom leaned over and gave her a hug. In the background, her mother cried, pride pushing trails through her grimy face. He let her go and she ran back to her mother.

  He led the way outside and when they were clear, he stuck out a hand. “I’m Dom,” he said.

  Alix took it and they shook. “Alix,” she replied. They were teammates now. Maybe they were friends.

  “Come on, Alix. It’s not far.”

  10

  They walked in silence, as they had for the last half hour. The journey had started promisingly. Alix felt a burden leave her shoulders when they shook hands. Dom had given her a direction; a guide to the island. He’d been there for a time already, possibly years and he knew where the territories were.

  Strangeways was split into territories, although they had no defined borders and they were constantly in flux. Mad Jack’s gang, if that’s what you call them, were the largest and owned the lion’s share of the resources and space. Dotted around the exterior of the island, especially further north, where the terrain grew and rolled into uneven crags and treacherous fells, were other gangs. Some were powerful, but Mad Jack, using intelligence gleaned from meeting every new member to the island, knew exactly who he was facing, and his ‘tests’ allowed him to cream off the best recruits for himself.

  Alix watched Dom lead the way. They made good progress, probably; at least, it felt like they moved swiftly through the undergrowth. He knew the trails and ensured they never snagged on dense brush or fell down unseen gorges. From behind, he seemed stronger, more authoritative, especially how he picked his way through the verdure. On his own, and away from the other members of his gang, he was a new person, strong and confident; a far cry from the whimpering gangster wannabe evident inside the hut. “Are you a part of the gang because Mad Jack’s your father?” she asked.