Before Her

Newt 21

Newt
After a quick shower, I walked up to my room. Alby's words rang in my head, "A lot had happened, it's been a nightmare trying to keep up with all of it."

The room was dark, and it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark. She was already sleeping. I walked over to the side of the sleeping bag where she lay directly in front of the empty bed.

The walls were closing in, the ivy lashing out, trying to grab me and pull me back. The walls shrink as I run, rounding corner after corner, following the trail of scarlet blood. Her blood. I finally round another corner, the final corner, where the walls squeeze into a tiny tunnel behind me. Her body lay there still and lifeless. I fell to my knees as I realise I was too late. I couldn't save her. Her eyes were wide open, those beautiful, warm brown eyes staring up aimlessly at the sky. She was dead.

'Newt!'
I woke with a jolt, gasping for breath. The sheets were soaked, tears mixed with sweat.
'I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay,' I say between huge gulps of air, as I felt warm hands reach out and cup my face, forcing me to look up.
'Newt, look at me.' I didn't realise my eyes were squeezed shut. Hesitantly, I forced myself to look in the direction where the voice had come. Suddenly, as if all my senses had just woke up, everything came to me, the senses kicked in. The salted tears streamed endlessly down my face, hands pressing against my skin delicately, a sweet, soft, musical voice, and a beautiful, frightened, wide-eyed face. Nightmares, bloody nightmares. The grievers, the maze, her.

'Newt, it's okay, it's okay, I'm here. I'm right here. It was a dream. It was just a dream.'
I relax slightly as I realise it was just a dream. She was still alive, that she was right here, sitting beside me, trying to calm me.
'Nightmare?' I nod. 'Do you want to talk about it?' I shake my head.
After a while, I pull away and sit with my back against the wall. She hands me a water bottle and I gladly take a few sips, I hadn't realised how thirsty I was. She sat beside me. My arm somehow ended up thrown around her shoulders, I wasn't completely sure if it was my doing or her's. I gently stroked her hair, making sure that she was actually here and that she was still breathing.
'What did Alby want?'
'He, uh, he wanted to ask how the runners-in-training were doing, and he wanted, to tell me, that he wanted me to stay in the glade, you know for the, next greenie,' I say between heavy breaths, and huge gulps of water.
'Do you think the new greenie's gonna be a girl?'
'I honestly haven't thought about it, but I guess it is possible.'
'I hope it's a girl. It would be nice to have someone else who understands things from my point of view, and to have a little the attention taken off of me. You know, just for a moment.'
'Yeah, I guess. But it would also be one bloody nightmare, one girl is enough.'
'Hey!'
'I'm just joking,' I say and gently nudge her shoulder with mine.
'I hope it's a girl.'