Broken Silence

Malina yelped and used a towel to put out a small fire she’d made. Her Aunt Catarina helped her, laughing softly at the terrified look on Malina's face.

“Relax, my dear,” she chuckled. “It wasn't a large fire.”

“I can't do anything right,” Malina whined.

“Of course you can,” Cat said, shaking her head. “You must have inherited your cooking skills from your father. He can't boil an egg, even if he tried.”

Malina sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. Cat was trying to teach her how to bake a cake, but clearly, it wasn't going well. She watched quietly as Cat cleaned up the charred mess, looking over her shoulder at Luke as he entered the kitchen.

“Perhaps you need a little fresh air. Could you please pick some things up for me?” Cat asked, handing Malina a small list from her pocket.

“I'll come with you,” Luke said quickly.

“I can manage it on my own,” Malina promised him, though she knew it useless to try arguing with her uncle.

Luke was already heading towards the door. Malina quickly untied her apron and laid it on the wooden bar top, jogging to catch up to Luke. She took his arm and happily let him lead the way, enjoying the few minutes of fresh air they were getting. The place did get a little stuffy, sometimes.

As they walked, Malina found herself looking at the crowd in the alley again. They'd gotten larger, and louder. She paused to look, tugging on Luke's arm lightly.

“Uncle Luke, what's that over there?” she asked.

“Oh, just some sweaty old filth trying to beat each other senseless for a little extra coin,” Luke said, a bit disgusted. “Gamblers. No one really wins. Even if you have a handful of money, you're still walking away with a lifetime of scars.”

“I want to see,” Malina said.

“Why on earth would you want to see that?” Luke asked.

“I just want to see,” she pleaded. “Otherwise I'll be thinking about it and wondering why all those people are so excited.”

Almost as if on cue, the crowd erupted in cheering. Someone must have won the fight. Luke sighed and gave in, knowing it was better to go with Malina rather than tell her she couldn't, and have her going off to see it on her own. He helped nudge people aside so she could get to the very front, keeping a hand on her shoulder as she watched. She couldn't stop wringing her hands nervously as the fighters circled each other.

On one side was a large, somewhat older man that Malina vaguely recognized because he frequented the tavern. He loved whiskey, and would throw tantrums when Luke told him there was none. The other was someone Malina hadn't seen before. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than her, though he clearly came from a different world. He wasn't as battered and bruised as everyone else, but he was certainly as filthy as Luke said the fighters were. Like he'd slept on the side of the street. Yet somehow, Malina couldn't stop looking at him.

He ducked as a fist swung over his head, dodging until his frustrated opponent was a little too close, then gave him a knee to the stomach. His opponent doubled over, the air knocked out of him, and the smaller fighter stopped to look at the crowd for a moment. His eyes landed on Malina, and for a few seconds, they just stared at each other. Malina couldn't stop wringing her hands, and his cheeky, confident grin had disappeared, replaced with a somewhat blank one. It returned moments later, and he gave Malina a quick wink. She blushed hard and looked down at her feet, her head snapping back up when everyone around her gasped. The smaller fighter had taken a punch to the face, and was touching the blood dripping from his nose like he simply couldn't believe it existed.

“No one has been able to land a hit on him, yet,” a gambler said to Luke. “The boy has been effortlessly undefeated so far.”

The fighter looked like he'd been personally insulted by the hit. He glared at his opponent and drew back a fist to throw another punch, but Malina didn't get to see the rest. Luke was ushering her away.

“That's enough of that,” he said, a little pale. “Your father would murder me if he knew I was letting you watch these things. As if he didn't already hate them enough because of Colt-”

“Uncle Colt did street fighting?” Malina asked, perking up slightly.

It was no secret to his children that Percy had horrible life prior to meeting his wife, though the details as to why were rare. Malina picked up a few things here and there about her grandfather having been abusive, her grandmother (and namesake) having been sick, and all the other negative things that came with growing up in The Smokes. She knew that Percy only had one biological brother, and the two of them gave up a proper education to beg for money on the streets, by order of their father.

“The Everett boys did whatever they could for money,” Luke chuckled. “Your father didn't fight. Believe it or not, he wasn't very much bigger than you until he was fourteen or fifteen years old and he turned into a giant. Colt was good at what he did. Even though he died many, many years ago, he still has quite the reputation here.”

“I wish I could have met him,” Malina frowned. “He was about my age when he died, wasn't he?”

“Just a couple years older,” Luke sighed. “Just barely nineteen years old. Far too young, especially with a man who had such promise.”

Everyone talked about Malina's Uncle Colt like he was one of the greatest people to walk this earth, including her mother, who claimed only to have seen the ghost of him. Malina tried picturing him and his infamous blue eyes that a couple of her brothers had inherited, as they bought what they needed from the marketplace. When they were walking back, the crowd had gotten significantly smaller, and the cheering a little less excited. Malina figured the undefeated fighter might have left, taking his fans with him.

“Did you remember carrots?” Cat asked Luke as they returned to the tavern.

“You didn't put carrots on the list,” Luke frowned.

“Always the carrots!” Cat yelled at him, waving a wooden spoon around. “You always forget the carrots!”

“You didn't put them on the list!”

Malina ducked out of the way as Luke and Cat started arguing, picking up her tray and going over to another table.

“What can I get for you?” she asked them quietly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed several new people enter the tavern. Four men, accompanied by a couple scandalously dressed women. Among these men, Malina realized, was the fighter from earlier. She tried not to stare as they sat down on a table together. The fighter hadn't noticed her yet, but why would he? He was sitting rather closely to one of the curvaceous women, and whatever she was whispering to him was making him smile. The thought made Malina a little bitter, though she wasn't sure why. Thankfully, Luke went to take care of them, so she wouldn't have to.

“Did ya get any of that?”

Her attention snapped back to her own table, realizing she hadn't heard any of the orders.

“Scotch all around,” one of them repeated with a sly grin. “Your company would be quite appreciated, as well.”

She squeaked softly and turned away nervously. “I'll get the drinks...”

As she walked back, she couldn't help but glance in the direction of the table on the other side of the tavern. She couldn't keep her eyes away.