Danny's Truth

Danny Santos's POV

Danny jumped when the cell door slammed shut after Tommy left with the guard. Now he was alone again, and the silence felt scary. But at least Tommy believed him. That was more than anyone else had done.

Danny pulled his knees to his chest and tried not to think about his little sisters at home. Were they safe? Did Mama know where he was? The cops had arrested him so fast, he barely had time to say goodbye.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. Someone was coming back.

Danny hoped it was Tommy returning from his meeting with the lawyer. But when the footsteps stopped at his cell, it wasn't Tommy at all.

It was the guard who had taken Tommy away. The mean one with cold eyes.

"Santos," the guard said. "You got a visitor."

Danny's heart jumped. "My mama?"

"Nope. Someone more important."

The guard opened the cell and put handcuffs on Danny's wrists. They were too big and heavy for a sixteen-year-old.

"Who wants to see me?"

"You'll find out."

They walked down a long hallway Danny had never seen before. This part of the jail felt older and scary. The lights flickered, and the air smelled like mold.

The guard stopped at a door marked "PRIVATE INTERVIEW." He knocked twice.

"Come in," said a voice from inside.

Danny's blood turned cold. He knew that sound. He'd heard it in his dreams every night since the factory fire.

The guard pushed Danny into the room and left, locking the door behind him.

Sitting at a metal table was the man from that terrible night. Silver hair, expensive suit, and that scary smile that never reached his eyes.

"Hello, Danny. Please, sit down."

Danny didn't move. "You're the one who threatened my family."

"I'm the one who's trying to protect your family. There's a difference."

"You said you'd send them away if I talked."

The man leaned back in his chair. "And have you talked, Danny? Have you told anyone about what you saw behind the factory?"

Danny's hands shook in the bonds. "I told the cops I didn't burn down the factory. That's all."

"That's not what I asked." The man's voice got colder. "Have you told anyone about the trucks? About the barrels with the skull symbols?"

Danny tried to stay brave, but this man scared him more than anything. "No."

"Good. Because your little sisters are very pretty girls. It would be a shame if something happened to them."

"Leave my family alone! They don't know anything!"

"That depends on you, Danny." The man pulled out a folder and opened it. "I have some photos I'd like you to see."

The first picture showed Danny's house. His mama's car in the yard. His little sister Rosa playing in the front yard.

The second picture was taken from inside their house. His girls sleeping in their beds.

Danny felt sick. "You were in our house?"

"We go where we need to go, Danny. We see what we need to see." The man flipped to another shot. "This one was taken this morning."

The picture showed his mama at work in the hospital kitchen. She was crying.

"Mama..."

"She's very worried about you. She doesn't understand why her good boy would burn down a plant." The man's smile got bigger. "But she's going to understand something much worse soon."

"What do you mean?"

"Danny, do you know what happens to families who aren't legal citizens when they get in trouble?"

Danny's heart stopped. His family had been trying to get their papers for years. It was taking forever, but they were doing everything right.

"We're going to be legal soon. My mom works hard. We follow all the rules."

"Rules can change very quickly." The man pulled out more papers. "Especially when someone in the family is a convicted arsonist."

"I'm not convicted of anything yet!"

"You will be. And when you are, your whole family becomes what we call 'undesirable.' That means they get sent back to Mexico. Tonight."

Danny couldn't breathe. His little sisters had been born here. This was the only home they'd ever known. And his mom... she'd worked so hard to build a life for them.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to confess."

"Confess to burning the factory?"

"No, Danny. I want you to admit to something much more interesting." The man slid a piece of paper across the table. "I want you to say that you saw Jake Morrison at the factory that night."

Danny stared at the paper. "Jake Morrison? The lawyer?" "The same Jake Morrison who's supposed to protect your new friend Tommy Whitfield. I want you to say you saw him there, acting strange. Maybe carrying oil cans."

"But that's not true! Jake Morrison wasn't there!"

"Truth is what we say it is, Danny. And right now, we need Jake Morrison to look like a thief."

Danny understood what was happening. They wanted to get rid of Jake Morrison because he was trying to help Tommy. And they wanted Danny to lie to make it happen.

"If I don't do this, you'll hurt my family?"

"If you don't do this, your family disappears forever. But if you do this, something wonderful happens."

"What?"

"You get out of jail. All charges dropped. Your family gets their citizenship papers accepted. And..." The man smiled. "Your mama gets a much better job at the hospital."

Danny felt torn between trying to save his family and knowing that lying was wrong. If he blamed Jake Morrison, an innocent man would get in trouble. But if he didn't, his little sisters would be sent to a place they'd never seen.

"I need time to think."

"You have thirty seconds."

"That's not enough time!"

"Twenty-five seconds."

Danny's mind raced. There had to be another way. Some decision that didn't hurt innocent people.

"Fifteen seconds."

"Wait! What if I just keep quiet? What if I don't say anything about Jake Morrison, but I also don't talk about the trucks?"

The man's smile disappeared. "That's not how this works, Danny. You either help us, or you don't. And if you don't help us..." He pulled out his phone and showed Danny a text message he'd already typed: "Take care of the Santos family. Make it look like an accident."

"No! Please!"

"Ten seconds, Danny. What's it going to be?"

Danny closed his eyes. He thought about his mama working extra shifts to pay for their lawyer. He thought about Rosa, only eight years old, who wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. He thought about baby Carmen, who was just starting to walk.

He couldn't let them get hurt because of something he saw.

"I'll do it," Danny whispered.

"Excellent." The man put away his phone and pulled out a recording. "Now, let's practice your story. You were walking by the plant that night when you saw..."

But before Danny could say anything, something terrible happened.

The lights in the room went out totally.

Emergency sirens started screaming throughout the jail.

In the darkness, Danny heard the man curse. Then came the sound of a chair falling over.

"What's happening?" Danny called out.

No answer.

Red emergency lights flickered on, making scary shadows on the walls. In the dim light, Danny could see that the man with gray hair was gone. The door stood open.

From somewhere in the jail came the sound of screaming. Not just one person, but many people. Guards shouting. Prisoners yelling.

Then Danny heard something that made his blood freeze.

Gunshots.

Multiple guns firing at the same time.

Danny's handcuffs were still locked, but the door was open. He stumbled into the hallway, trying to figure out what was happening.

More screams came from the direction of the main cell block. That's where Tommy was meant to be meeting with Jake Morrison.

Danny ran toward the sound, his handcuffs rattling. Whatever was happening, it was bad. Really bad.

As he got closer to the main jail area, he could smell smoke. And something worse. Something that looked like...

Danny didn't want to think about what that smell might be.

He reached the corner and carefully looked around it.

What he saw made him wish he'd stayed in his cell.

The main hallway was full of smoke. Several doors hung off their springs. And lying on the floor were two guards, not moving.

But the worst part was what Danny could hear coming from the interview room where Tommy was meant to be meeting his lawyer.

Shouting. Fighting. And Tommy's voice screaming: "Jake! Behind you!"

Then more gunshots.

Danny realized what was happening. The power outage wasn't a mistake. Someone had attacked the jail to get to Tommy and Jake Morrison.

The same people who had threatened Danny's family were now trying to kill his only friend.

Danny looked at his handcuffed hands. He couldn't fight anyone like this. But he couldn't just hide either.

As he stood there trying to decide what to do, he heard footsteps running toward him from the smoky hallway.

Someone was coming.

Danny pressed himself against the wall and held his breath.

A figure appears through the smoke. It was Tommy, running as fast as he could. His face was covered in blood, and his eyes were wild with fear.

"Tommy!" Danny whispered.

Tommy spun around. "Danny! You have to help me!"

"What happened? Where's Jake Morrison?"

"They shot him! They shot Jake, and now they're coming for me!"

"Who shot him?"

"I don't know! Men with masks broke into the interview room. Jake pushed me out the window, but they grabbed him!"

Danny felt sick. Jake Morrison had been trying to help them, and now he might be dead.

"We have to get out of here," Danny said.

"How? The whole jail is surrounded!"

That's when Danny remembered something. Something that might save them both.

"Tommy, when I was little, my papa worked construction on this jail. He told me about secret caves underneath. Old caves from when this was a Civil War fort."

"Where?"

"The basement. There's a door marked 'MAINTENANCE.' Papa said it links to tunnels that go all the way to the river."

Tommy grabbed Danny's arm. "Can you find it?"

"I think so. But Tommy..." Danny's voice dropped to a whisper. "What if this is all part of their plan? What if they wanted us to escape so they could hunt us down?"

Before Tommy could answer, they heard voices coming through the smoke. Cold, mean sounds that made both boys freeze with terror.

"Find the kids. The boss wants them living, but just barely."

"What about Morrison?"

"He's taken care of. Now we just need to clean up the loose ends."

Danny and Tommy looked at each other with growing fear.

Jake Morrison was dead.

And they were next.