The Death Cure Trials (TMR Love Triangle)

Twenty Three - Ending Two

"every now and then it hits me, you're the one that got away."

Penelope

Memories of you and I come back in blips. Little moments pass me by and when I don't focus hard, they fade away and I'm left with all that I am and all that you're not.

This isn't you, but who are you? In this moment there's nothing you want more than to get me out of the way, to take Tommy out, to become past the gone. But in this moment there's nothing I want more than to survive.

I won't lie and tell anyone my life is perfect, but it's my life, and it ends when I say so, when I'm ready for it to, it won't end like this, not when our future is so close. I couldn't radio Brenda, I couldn't speak to Tommy without coughing up blood, it felt almost hopeless.

My hand moves towards the wound on my lower stomach, right where Newt had stabbed the dagger into my stomach and pulled it out right after. My free hand was shaky, but I was using anything I could find in my medjack belt to patch it up. The work was sloppy, it wasn't doing much but I had other priorities.

It's not me that I care about, I could care less about whether I make it out of tonight alive, but Newt? Tommy? They deserve to make it through tonight after everything they've done for us.

My eyes fluttered shut and for a couple of seconds, the yelling in the background was drowned out to a faint hum, like yelling from happiness, like the bonfires at the Glade, and I'm back. You're here with me, both of us back on those summer nights in the Glade, dancing and getting drunk off whatever the hell Gally gave us while Tommy claimed he was trying to poison us, but it was you. You'd get overprotective and then apologise, you'd take care of me but you'd let me be with Tommy.

Newt loved me enough that he sat back and watched while I kissed Tommy, he let him love me. I want to prove to Newt that it's his turn to be loved like that, unconditionally.

Standing up was nearly impossible, my ankle was positioned in a way that I couldn't look at without feeling faint, as though I could fall back down at any second. Making my way over to Newt, slowly, was all that I cared about.

I watched as he shoved Thomas to the ground and yelled out, turning back towards me once more. "Newt.." I tried to speak, wiping the blood from my lips with the back of my mouth. "You can make it out of here, alive, we can help you."

"Don't you get it, love?" Newt was inching closer to me, dropping his blade to the floor, the one covered in mine and Thomas' blood. "There's no cure, there's no getting better, not for people like me."

"I can.." I wheezed for breath, feeling my head get light once more, and Newt was at my side instantly, holding my arm. Things felt okay, for a moment or two. "I can make it. I know I can do it, it's Tommy's blood, Newt.." My head was spinning but it all made sense. Brenda. She was safe when I collected Thomas' blood sample for Mary.