Ticking Time Bomb [THE SCORCH TRIALS]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN
❞Oh, how I long for the days when the sun shines on my face and all my worries are cast away.❞

"THOMAS, are you awake?"

Ingrid spoke as she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to grasp any warmth left on her jacket. The temperature had seemingly dropped many degrees below normal, and now the Clearwater girl had been deprived of her sleep. She would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid to fall asleep and see the demons that haunted her, the past she could never escape. Ingrid wasn't necessarily excited to see her dead mother in any more dreams of hers, because it was becoming harder and harder to tell if she was dreaming, or if she was awake. Thomas turned his head groggily to face the girl, rubbing his eyes as he focused on her face, which was certainly not as tired as he looked. She sighed, turning to face him as well, their faces now inches apart as their hearts pondered for other verbs to use and other topics to mention that all didn't seem as dark as they felt. For a paradigm of moments, Ingrid looked into his eyes. She saw a mixture of things; fear, hope, and a small sliver of adoration. She reached out, her hand shakily coming in contact with his cheek as she caressed it. He didn't flinch at the action nor resent it, but instead let the girl relax for a moment and finally, breathe.

             "Are you okay?"

             There it was. The three words, that when formed into a proper sentence, made Ingrid feel all kinds of emotions. That seemed to be the question on everyone's mind, to the point where Thomas even had to ask the young teenage girl if she was okay. But, all thoughts aside, Ingrid didn't have a proper answer to it. She was just okay. She was at a midpoint in her life, where things weren't all bad, but they definitely weren't good. They weren't at the place where she'd imagined. She had imagined that she would be at school, a place her mother told her about several times. She conjured up a place where she would have all of her friends there, and she could live peacefully without anything harming her. But, Ingrid didn't have any of that, and that's why the girl had come to the conclusion that she was doing fine. She was coping, struggling to make her way through the days, but she was still alive, and that was an accomplishment all on its own.

              "I'm fine."

              Thomas didn't believe her. He didn't believe a word that had just come out of her mouth. He needed more than those two words to signify that she was alright. He had many people lie to him in his lifetime, and what he didn't want, was another person lying to him and sparing them details on how they felt. "You don't have to lie to me."

"I'm not lying."

Another lie. Thomas was dejected.

Ingrid sighed deeply before removing her hand away from his cheek, placing it back on top of her freezing hand. She ignored his eyes, now focusing on the night sky and the layout of the land behind him. It was a somewhat beautiful night, the stars shining perfectly as they lit up the sky. It was almost a beautiful tragedy; themselves being destructive, but the world shining brightly. Although Ingrid was seemingly more focused on the world behind him, Thomas was more focused on the world in front of him. Ingrid Clearwater. Who was this girl? He had no idea. The girl he saw the first day he returned from the Maze was a girl who had sarcasm, a spoken mind, and a whole lot of fight left in her body. This girl, the one in front of him, was evolving. She hardly cracked jokes, or even smiled for that matter. She existed, but just without reason, without hope.