He held up a white blouse. Toward the bottom was a barely-noticeable bloodstain that tarnished a few fibers. Mairead swallowed hard, her heart pounding and her knees growing shaky. "Y-yes, sir," she whispered, making eye contact with the man.

"Eyes to the floor, girl!" he barked, drawing his hand upward as if to strike her. Mairead flinched and did as he told her.

Emma had long since backed away and was pretending to be busy with her loom. The man turned to her. "You watch her, girl, do you hear me? If she stains one more thread, I swear I'll - "

"Mr. Tanner, there you are," Jacob, the fixer who had cut Mairead's hair off, said as he rounded the corner. "I meant to tell you about this little wench yesterday."

Mr. Tanner shifted his icy glare from Mairead to Jacob. "What else has she done?"

"I caught her without her hair pulled back, so I took the necessary actions," Jacob answered with an unfeeling smirk at Mairead.

Mr. Tanner looked back at Mairead for a moment. "Who gave you this job?"

"S-some friends of mine brought me here, sir," she answered shakily. "A man at the front of the building..."

Mairead trailed off. She noticed a thin, curving wisp of black smoke rising from a machine two rows over.

"Finish your sentence, girl," Mr. Tanner urged. He noticed that her attention was turned away from him. "What are you gawking at?"

Before Mairead could answer, there was a loud cry of, "Fire!"

Jacob took off running toward the source of the smoke. Several of the workers ran to get water to douse the fire with. The overseers unlocked the huge doors and allowed them to race outside to fetch it. After a moment, the commotion died down and Jacob returned, his face smeared with grease and sweat.

"The machine, sir," he said as Mr. Tanner stared at him. "You may want to disable it for the time being. It - "

"I will disable nothing, Jacob! It is obviously safe enough to turn out several yards of fabric a day. Keep it running." The businessman's icy eyes could have frozen over magma as he stared hard at the fixer.

Jacob opened his mouth to say something further, but decided against it and instead answered, "Yes, sir."

Mr. Tanner averted his attention once more to Mairead. "And you, girl," he began, pointing a finger in her face, "don't you forget what I've said to you."

Mairead opened her mouth. "Yes, si - "

"DON'T YOU FORGET IT, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Tears threatened to pour down Mairead's cheeks as she managed to nod. Mr. Tanner spun on his heel and walked off without another word. Jacob tried to give Mairead a half-apologetic look, but quickly walked away himself without a word.

"Fool!" Emma murmered to herself. "Running that machine even when it's already been on fire. He's going to get us all killed."

Mairead lowered herself to the curb outside the main gate of the mill and sighed heavily, loosening the laces on her shoes. She munched halfheartedly on her bread that she'd bought earlier that morning, staring into the street and the people passing by. Glancing down at her hands, she winced. They looked horrible.

"Mair? What happened to your hands?"

The sudden voice scared Mairead to death, and she jumped a little, soon finding herself looking into the face of Kid Blink. Her facade dropped slightly as she registered who it was.

"Why do you even care what happened?"

There was an awkward silence. Mairead shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground as Blink abruptly sat down beside her.

"I wanted to talk to ya," he began hesitantly. "I'm sorry for what I said...y'know..."

Mairead looked over at him. "It's done now."

Blink's head dropped slightly and he rubbed the back of his neck, ashamed. His cheeks were reddening. Mairead continued, "But I forgive you."

His head snapped up and he looked her in the face. "Serious?"

Mairead shrugged slightly, trying to appear indifferent. "I suppose."

Blink sighed with relief. The two shared another brief silence until he broke it again.

"You never told me what happened to your hands."

Mairead looked down again self-conciously. "The machine."

"I feel really bad that I made ya work here, Mair," Blink said. "I didn't know it was this bad. I thought I was protectin' you."

"I know you meant well," she said. "I wish I could quit."

"Why don't you?"

Mairead was silent for a moment, and then shrugged slightly. "I don't know...perhaps I should consider it in the next few days."

"Quit now," Blink said. "Get a job with a seamstress or something."

"Are you still trying to keep me from selling papers?" Mairead inquired, watching the blonde- headed boy adjust his hat nervously.

He nodded, fumbling with his straggly bootlaces. "I still don't want you out there alone. I mean, who knows what could happen to you? Too much goes on in back alleys and dark corners that I don't want you to be a part of. I don't want you to see it. You don't deserve that."

Mairead pushed her now-short hair behind her ear and watched Blink twist his bootlaces around his fingers, callused and blackened by the ink of the newspapers and the grime of the streets. "Why do you worry about my well-being so?"

Blink didn't answer, but stood to leave. Alarmed, Mairead stood as well. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he had planted a quick, firm kiss on her lips and stepped back several feet. Her head swam.

"Quit your job, Mairead. It ain't safe."

That was the last thing Blink said to Mairead before turning quickly and walking away.

"Why do they lock the doors?"

Mairead and Emma were busy at their looms, watching the threads and bobbins intently. Emma couldn't hear Mairead over the whir of the machines. "What?"

"I said, why do they lock the doors?" Mairead repeated, this time much louder.

Emma shrugged. "They've always done that. You just notice?"

"Well what if we have to get out? What if something happens and we can't get out because the doors are locked?"

Emma didn't say anything for a moment. Finally, she answered, "Well, I guess we all die."

"They've no respect for human life," Mairead said angrily, more to herself than to anyone else.

"It don't take a brain surgeon to figure that one out."

Mairead turned to face Jacob. "I wasn't talking to you."

"Oh, now she's too good for me," Jacob mocked, picking up a near pair of scissors. "Snip, snip, girl."

Mairead expected her eyes to fill with tears, but instead she brimmed with rage. Her hands shook with anger as she attempted to change a bobbin, causing her to deeply gash her already-marred hands. She hissed in pain but refused to cry. Jacob was still watching with a smug grin on his face.

"Can't wait to see what Mr. Tanner says about the bloodstains on the cloth this time," he spat. "I hope he fires you."

"He won't get the chance," Mairead snapped back. "I'm quitting."

Before Jacob had a chance to snap back, there was a loud popping noise two rows down. Suddenly, there were shouts from all around that echoed back and forth across the large room. Mairead whipped her head around in time to spot large, menacing orange and red flames leaping high into the air. Sparks flew as the flames grew larger and the men rushed for water. But something was wrong.

Frantically, the men and boys pounded on the huge locked doors. There were no overseers there to unlock them. The sudden realization hit Mairead and she ran for the doors as well, followed by Emma and Jacob. "Let us out!" the men screamed, pounding with their fists on the doors.

The room began to grow swelteringly hot as the fire spread from machine to machine, leaping from fiber to fiber and taking hold of the atmosphere. It began to grow hard to breathe. Mairead sank to the floor. Emma tried to pull her back up, but she refused. "It's cooler down here, Emma..."

Finally, Emma lay down on the floor beside Mairead, tears in her eyes. "You were right," she said over the noise of the workers' frantic cries for help. "It is cooler."

eight