Saving Newt

Chapter 32

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Thanks for reading.
Sorry but this chapter is a little short, I'll try to make them longer soon.
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Annabelle_the_reader
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That evening, Brianna had arranged to meet Newt in the forest. Her arms gripped the tree tightly, the wet stench rippling into her skin and the dewy moss sticking to her arms in a sickening manner. Her foot stood on the branch, dangling across the side and gently swinging as her arms wrapped around the tree securely.

Brianna reached up, her hands frozen and numb, but this made no difference in the harsh breeze that swept her off her feet. Brianna had watched the berries in the Glade ripen until they were sanguine, like a glossy red symbol of hope and excitement.

Brianna had to try to pick the ripest and juiciest apple she could find. She stopped to stretch her arm to its longest length before plucking a ripe, sweet apple from the tree's branches, like arms reaching out to the sky and the heavens beyond.

The glucose smell of amber leaked out from the tree bark, an aroma that fuses with the Earthy smell of nuts, but its touch is as cold as melting snow.

Following another snapped twig on the floor, Brianna's eyes darted downwards and gasped.

Brianna had been waiting all evening for Newt to come, as she had ran further up the path to a clearing to wait for Newt. And now she had been stuck in the tree above the clearing for what seemed like forever.

Suddenly Brianna heard the noise of sticks snapping below her. Her grin widened as she listened closely, craning her neck to look below her and see what it was that they were saying.

Following another snapped twig on the floor, her eyes darted downwards and her grin widened as she saw Newt enter the clearing, then he hissed, 'Brianna, are you there?'

Climbing downwards seemed like the best way to reach them, so Brianna gripped a branch and swung her leg over in a rather undignified scramble to stay in one piece and reach a lower part of the tree.

'No, I'm here,' Came her voice behind him cheekily, dropping down onto the forest floor from her place in the trees which perfectly overlooked the clearing Newt was standing it.

Brianna's feet nestled into the soft, cool and rather damp grass, feeling the moist earth squeeze between her toes and relax her senses on the Glade's soil. She didn't much care for shoes at that moment, preferring to go around barefooted as the ground was dry anyway.

'Your not afraid of the dark?' Newt's question, dragged Brianna from her daydreams as he glided onto the branch beside her. She shifted her weight slightly, allowing more distance between them. Her eyes glanced over at him and his annoyingly gorgeous body.

'Absolutely not, because the stars can only shine when there is the dark.' Brianna reminded him and he chuckled. It wasn't a happy or amused chuckle, but a saddened and grieving chuckle, like he knew exactly what she meant.

~

Newt, laying on his front with his feet nestling into the grass, sighed into the grass. 'It seems cowardly, getting old. Don't you think?'

Brianna rolled onto her back, almost floating on top of the grass, craning her neck slightly to look at him, pillowing her ear with her right arm, and letting her fingers dangle in the cold, damp grass beyond her head. 'How is it cowardly?'

Newt kept his eyes on the grass beneath him, speaking slowly and methodically, as if in a dream, 'I have never been old, but I remember what it was like to be old. I used to see people who were an awful lot older than that. Do you remember how old people were?'

'I remember.' Brianna agreed, thinking hard about what he was saying. Elderly people didn't seem cowardly to her, perhaps she would know for sure when she reached that advanced age.

'There are many old people and they just sit by the fire, Brianna, and they try to be comfortable. When they get old, they just get smaller inside, and they just seem to care about their blankets and their food and their bed and their comfort, nothing else seems to bother them.' Newt explained forlornly, like he couldn't imagine anything worse.

'Being comfortable is not a bad thing.' Brianna pointed out, swirling her fingers through the soggy grass, enjoying the way the grass blades parted for her, like thick air. She liked the power to control the way the grass moved, having been running in a fixed maze.

Newt shrugged and turned his head to look at her as if it was a matter-of-fact. 'Of course it is. Old people lock out all the scary, wild things. It's like they don't exist.'

Brianna wanted to say that she would have liked for those things not to exist, either, but she held her tongue, because she didn't want to sound like a coward.