Long Hair covered his face with his hands. Buzz Cut punched Bram in the stomach. He doubled over for a second and then recovered quickly, punching Buzz Cut in his stomach. Dorian jumped in to defend our brother, and Josh couldn’t be left out. Keira and I screamed for them to stop, but of course, they wouldn't listen.
Sirens rang through the air, and four Watchers ran toward us. I had no idea where they’d come from. I pulled Keira away from the fight.
The Watchers pulled the two Litropolis boys away and threw them to the ground. The boys cowered on all fours, looking at the gravel beneath them, almost like animals. I recognized one of the Watchers as Reynold.
Reynold stroked his black beard, standing over the boys. "Let's see what we have here. Wandering out of your confines, trespassing, and violence against fellow Grims. What do you have to say for yourselves?"
Long Hair sat up. "I'm sorry, sir. Very sorry. We didn't mean to cause any trouble."
"What's your name, boy?"
"Starkin, sir."
"Yours?" Reynold asked the other.
The boy sat up straight, but wouldn't look at Reynold. "DeCarlo." Starkin nudged him. "DeCarlo, sir."
"Well, Starkin and DeCarlo, you've earned yourselves a lovely stay in Gattica."
"No!" Starkin yelled. "Please, it was just a misunderstanding! Please, just let us go back home and we will never cause trouble again."
A knot formed in my throat from the desperation of his plea.
DeCarlo looked at the ground, his face sullen. "Stop begging, man. It's pointless."
Starkin began to weep, and I was embarrassed for him. "But I don't want to go to prison."
Two of the Watchers yanked the boys off the ground, pinned their arms roughly behind them, and slapped handcuffs on their wrists. DeCarlo started to fight. I couldn't blame him. Anyone who got put away in Gattica was automatically given a life sentence. There was no trial, no process to see whether you were guilty or not—if the Watchers said you had broken the law, that was it.
The Watchers hauled the two boys away. DeCarlo screamed obscenities, but Starkin turned to us with tears in his eyes. "Please, tell my mother. She won’t know what happened to me, and she'll be worried sick. Her name is Claudia. Please tell her."
The Watchers wouldn’t have the decency to inform the boy's families of their imprisonment. They were only Litropolites, not worthy of such consideration.
Reynold turned to us. "Now, what are you all doing outside of Farrington city limits?"
I looked at Bram and decided to let him do the talking—after all, he had gotten us into this mess.
"I told them to come with me," Bram said. "I wanted to get a tattoo for our upcoming assignment. It's very important. I want to do my best, so I thought a tattoo would help. You do know about the assignment, right?"
Reynold nodded. "Yeah, I know about the assignment. You children get home," he said, before following the others.
We turned to obey his directions. It was only then that I noticed Dorian holding his hand over his eye. I pulled his hand away. His eye was purple and swollen.
"Nice going, Bram." I told him. "Why did you have to fight with those boys?"
"They should have stayed inside the wall where they belong and not followed us."
"They're going to prison because of you, and you should have paid that man," Keira said.
"You don't care about anyone but yourself," I told him.
Bram yanked his hair. "Just shut up! All of you, shut up!" Then he barged across the stream.
At home that night, I tried to forget about what had happened, but all I could think about was how those boys’ families must be feeling, wondering where their sons were.
Naomi Grim (The Silver Scythe Chronicles) Part 1 Page 8
