Now
- Shorty wakes up and can't see anything. It's pitch black all around him, and even closing his eyes is lighter than opening them. At least that way he can see his eyelids and his blood swirling around.
- He's been dreaming about Toussaint, since Dread Wilme told him about the guy.
- Then he gives us the deets on Dread. He's a big shot in the Site where Shorty lives. Drugs, weapons, and power all come pretty easily to Dread.
- Sure, the guy might be in charge of a gang (Route 9), but he helped make Shorty what he is today.
- Back when Shorty was only eight, his Manman told him and his sister that Dread wanted to pay for their education. Why? He thought twins were magical… and wanted their help with something.
- Shorty fills us in on how Dread's operation works: If someone steals, he cuts off the thief's hand. He doesn't tolerate people speaking back or questioning his judgment. Ever.
- We can tell Dread's a dangerous guy to deal with, especially when Shorty lets us in on the fact that their dad didn't know the guy paid for the twins' education.
- Manman knew it would just cause problems, so she made Shorty and Marguerite pinky promise not to rat her out to dad.
- In exchange for bankrolling the twins' school, Dread wanted them to perform for crowds.
- They would go to this place and do this special voodoo thing where everyone thought they had the power to cure diseases and predict the future. People called them Marassa.
- Even though Shorty tells us it was completely fake, he and Marguerite would pretend to know stuff and tell people lies about what's to come.
- Crowds would gather to be healed, and the twins would touch them and pretend to bless them. They knew it wasn't exactly legit, but the people brought money, toys, and candy.
- Short and Marguerite even got to pocket the candy. The rest of the gifts went straight to Dread.
- Sounds like a win-win, right? The only bad thing about all this was that the twins had to diss people sometimes.
- They figured no one would believe them if they only gave out cool stories and promises of healing, so sometimes they told people their husbands were cheating or that they were ugly.
- Yeah, it wasn't awesome, what else could they do to keep up the façade?
- About a week before their dad died, Shorty and Marguerite were performing as usual when suddenly their dad showed up and took them home.
- They could tell he was angry, but he didn't yell at them. In fact, he was more annoyed at Manman than the kids.
- Later, when they were playing outside, Shorty remembers hearing his dad tell his mom they were exploiting sick people and shouldn't get involved with Dread since they were only kids.
- Shorty's not sure he buys it. He knows his dad is just being protective, but no one is really a kid at the Site.
- There are drugs and murders all over the place, and a morgue down the street specifically for kids.
- When the twins are playing outside one day, they hear their mom scream. Shorty rushes over to see what's going on, but before he knows it, a man grabs him and punches him.
- They kill his dad and grab his sister from right in front of him. Before he blacks out, Shorty guesses that they'll rape his mom next.
- When he wakes up, his mom lifts him up and takes him down to his dad's boat that he used for work as a fisherman.
- She explains to Shorty that those men where Boston and wanted to teach them a lesson.
- It's clear that she's upset and scared, but she tries not to show it to Shorty.
- She tells him that they should count their blessings—at least they are alive and have each other.
- Shorty doesn't get why they took his sister and not him, but his mom explains it's because she's a girl and might fetch a price one day.
- With that, Shorty promises to get her back someday. No matter what.