Red Hood's Arc

Chapter 6 of 8

The children walked ahead of them down the ridge. Red Hood kept one hand on the rope at his belt. The tied man stumbled every few steps, testing the slack. Deku walked on the other side, his right arm still stiff, his green hair damp with sweat. The sun was up now. The fort was close. Red Hood had won the fight in the cave and had no place to put the man he had won. "He can't go to the fort," Red Hood said. "The children are there. Karen has her hands full already." "Town jail?" Deku asked. "He paid someone in that town. He had to. Two of his men wore uniforms under their coats." Deku frowned above his mask. "Then we hold him ourselves. Somewhere he can't shout out of." The tied man smiled at the ground. Red Hood stopped walking. Off the path, a black shape leaned out of the slope — a tall rock split with jagged cracks, shadows pooled in every seam. A dry hollow yawned at its base, deep enough for a man, narrow enough for one door. "There," Red Hood said. They moved the children on to the fort first. Karen Hagglewood met them at the gate. Her scowl found the tied man at once. "Not here," she said. "Not here," Red Hood agreed. "I need chain. The good kind. And a lock." She went inside and came back with both. She pressed a small blue stone into his palm on top of the chain. "For the door," she said. "He won't cross it while that sits on the sill." Red Hood closed his hand around it. "Watch the children." "I always do." They walked the man back to the split rock. Deku ducked into the hollow first and tested the stone with his good hand. It held. Red Hood pushed the prisoner inside and sat him against the back wall. He ran the chain through the man's wrists, around a knob of rock, and locked it. He set the blue stone on the lip of the opening. "You'll starve me," the man said. His first words all morning. "I'll feed you," Red Hood said. "I'll bring the sheriff from two towns over. He doesn't know your name yet." The man's face changed. Red Hood saw it and knew the guess was right. Outside, Deku sat on a low stone and pulled off one boot. The sole had split down the middle during the run at the cave. He stared at it a moment, then dug a folded pair from his pack — bright sneakers, blue and red, stitched tight. He laced them on without speaking. "You leaving?" Red Hood asked. "There's a call from my school," Deku said. "A woman keeps writing about a shop. She says a hero should come. I said I would." "Go." Deku stood. "He'll try the chain tonight." "I'll be here." Deku ran. Red Hood turned back to the rock and sat down to wait.