Scar Island(34)

“Sebastian! Sebastian, come look at this!” Benny’s voice was triumphant and angry. There was an ugly delight in it.

Jonathan opened his eyes and looked over. Colin was still looking at him, his pale eyebrows knit together in worry. Jonathan jumped up and brushed past him to join the scene at the tables.

“I just barely caught it!” Benny was saying. He was handing a crumpled letter to Sebastian, who had stalked over with the sword in his hand. “Look! Look at what he wrote in the fold on the back!”

The rest of the boys had jumped up and were crowding around, wide-eyed in the candlelight, a few steps back. One of the older boys, skinny with black, curly hair and a twitchy face, was standing at the table in front of Benny, eyes darting back and forth between Benny and Sebastian. Jason was his name, Jonathan remembered. Walter had said he’d been sent to Slabhenge for stealing cars. He was frowning and chewing at the inside of one of his cheeks. He was one of the ones who had joined Jonathan’s group the night before, to listen to Robinson Crusoe.

Sebastian snatched the letter and turned it over. His eyes scanned the paper and then his lips tightened into a thin, angry line. He glared up at the black-haired kid.

“Really, Jason? You?”

The kid shrugged and looked down.

“Sorry, Sebastian.” His voice was a little shaky but resigned. He wasn’t crying. His eyes slid back up to Sebastian’s. “I hate it here. I wanna go home.”

Sebastian shook his head. He looked like he was going to spit. He held the letter closer to his face and read aloud.

“We’re in trouble. All the grown-ups are gone. Please send help.”

A whisper ran through the crowd.

Sebastian set the sword on the table and reached to pull a candle in a tall brass holder a little closer.

“We’re not in trouble, Jason,” he said, his voice cold and angry. “You are.” He held the letter out so that its bottom corner dangled in the slowly dancing flame. It caught fire and the flames licked quickly up the letter, curling it and crackling. The light in the room grew brighter. Sebastian’s face was washed in brighter shades of red and flickering orange. He held the letter as long as he could, until the hungry flames were right up to his hand, and then let it drop to the damp stone floor at his feet. He sucked on his fingers and looked at Jason.

“Mommy and Daddy can’t help you.” He picked up the sword and tilted his head back and looked down his nose at Jason. “We don’t need their help. They’re the ones who sent us here, man! Screw them! And you want to, what, go running back? So they can blame us for what happened and send us to some other craphole? And you wanna do that to all of us?”

“No. I just wanna go home. I’m sorry, Sebastian.”

Sebastian shook his head. “Home? Home?” His face twisted, then darkened. “No,” he snorted. “You’re not sorry. But you’re gonna be.” He pointed with the sword to the shadows where Colin and Jonathan had just been. “Sinner’s Sorrow. Twenty minutes.”

The watching boys gasped. Jason’s face went pale.

Jonathan’s knees were still burning. And he’d spent only a couple of minutes on the Sinner’s Sorrow.

“You can’t do that! That’th too long,” Colin protested.

“Damn it, Colin. I’ve warned you to shut up.” Sebastian turned to face Colin squarely. His face was etched in hard lines of anger. His eyes bore black holes into Colin’s. He pointed the sword at Jason. “He gets twenty.” The sword swung until its point was inches from Colin’s nose. “You get ten.”

“You can’t make me.”

“The hell I can’t.”

“I won’t.”

“Really?” Sebastian’s eyes roved wildly through the room. They found Jonathan, and his jaw clenched. His sword swung to point at Jonathan. “Then your little buddy Johnny gets twenty. Is that what you want?”

Colin looked back and forth between Sebastian and Jonathan. Jonathan’s mouth went dry and he tried to shake his head, but his neck wouldn’t move. Colin sniffed and pinched at his neck.

“Okay. I’ll do the ten minuth.”

Sebastian smiled. “I know you will. I’ll be running the watch.”

“No.” Jonathan’s voice finally croaked free of his throat. Sebastian’s gaze swung to him. “I’ll do it. I’ll take the twenty.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

“No. Not you. This is Colin’s. And then he gets tonight’s coal duty. And no dinner. Come on. Jason’s first.”

Jonathan took one look at Benny’s hungry leer and swallowed his protests.



The windows showed pure night blackness when Colin and Jason limped up from the coal room. Sebastian and his favorites had already gone up to their rooms, and the only light in the dining room came from the three candles set on the floor in the middle of the circle of mattresses. Jonathan and the other boys were already in bed, lying awake and waiting.

Colin crawled into his bed with a little grunt. His face was smudged with black coal dust. Jason fell onto his own mattress and pulled the blanket over his face.

“Are you okay, Colin?” Walter asked in a hoarse whisper.

Colin was lying on his back with one arm thrown across his eyes.