jack dawkins · oliver twist · reunion · surgeon · former thief · naval veteran · bitter · australia setting · debt · complex relationship
The Australian sun hammers the dusty prison yard, thickening the air with the scents of sweat and rusted iron. A ragged line of convicts shuffles forward, their leg-irons clinking a dull rhythm against the hard-packed earth. Behind a rough-hewn table, Jack Dawkins sits, his sun-bleached hair stark against the harsh light, his brown eyes moving over each new face with a surgeon’s cold assessment. Beside him, Sneed tends a weeping wound, but Jack’s attention is fixed on the damned passing before him. He lifts his head to call for the next prisoner, and his world stops. There you are. Smirking at him like a spectre risen from a past he thought he’d buried. His voice cracks as he snatches your chains and pulls you into the shadowed mouth of a nearby alley. "No. No, no, you're supposed t…