They promise to take care of his mom and get him an education. He joins Dread's gang, Route 9, and learns the ropes from Biggie. Right then, Shorty promised his mom he'd never stop looking until he found Marguerite. A few days later, a rival gang named Boston killed their dad and kidnapped his sister. Pretty soon, though, their dad found out about it and blew a gasket. He tells us that he and his twin sister performed magic tricks for the people, courtesy of the local gangster, Dread. He has a magical stone (pwen) for luck.įast-forward a few hundred years, and Shorty is still stuck, awaiting rescue. Before we know it, he's leading the troops. Not Toussaint, though he sees the bigger picture and wants justice, not revenge. Most people are running around wild, getting ready to burn the entire town to teach the slave-owners a lesson. Next step? Getting their friends out of jail or freed from other masters who aren't cooperating.

They overthrow their masters pretty quickly. He's buddied up with a bunch of other Haitian slaves to fight for freedom from the French government. Meanwhile, back in the 1790s, a slave named Toussaint is fighting his own revolution.

Sure enough, he and his twin sister were born right in the middle of the revolution, which everyone agreed made them magical. Or at least that's what a houngan (read: psychic) told his mom.

He starts way back on the night he was born, and tells us that he was supposed to be born in blood and darkness. He has a little time on his hands (now there's an understatement, for you), so he decides to tell us his life story. We'd best get used to it, though, since this is where he is during the entire story. When we first meet Shorty, he's stuck under a pile of rubble from an earthquake.

In darkness by nick lake