In my Blood

CHAPTER 4 - The Vials

I freeze once more. The boys have all gone silent as they anticipate my next move. I can't see any of their faces, but I'd imagine they would look just as confused and afraid as I look. My hands are shaking wild and I can't seem to catch my breath, no matter how many deep breaths I take in.

"Look, I'm gonna come up, okay?" Thomas shouts up to me. I'm about to open my mouth to refuse before realising that I actually want to meet Thomas. I need answers. Cautiously, I force myself to look sheepishly into the crowd, where I lay my eyes on the brunette. He doesn't look confused or afraid; he seems confident – not like Gally's obnoxious over-confidence – but a confidence which no other boy in the crowd possesses. Beside him is Newt, looking up to me with a disbelieving and almost humorous expression. I quickly retreat as Thomas takes one step towards the ladder of the treehouse.

Awaiting Thomas' arrival, I grab a large dagger to my right, and point it towards the trapdoor. After my encounter with Gally, even if Thomas is 'just here to talk,' I'm not taking any risks. A mere second later, his head pops up, and his face is painted with a shocked expression.

"Woah, woah!" he gasps. "Okay, just, take it easy, alright? I just wanna talk and find out why you're here."

I glare back at him. "What is this place? Why can't I remember anything?"

"This... this is all normal, okay, we've all been through this," Thomas replies, still eyeing the dagger in my hand worriedly. "Your name, that'll come back to you in a few days. That's the one thing that's-"

"(y/n)."

Thomas gapes at me for a moment. "What did you just say?"

"My name. It's (y/n)," I reply. My dagger does not waver from his face.

"Okay... (y/n), I'm Thomas," he says, whilst shaking his head in doubt. He slowly lifts his hand up for me to shake, but retracts it as soon as I continue to glare coldly at him. His facial expression shifts from confusion to curiosity. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Thomas' face appears in my mind again, just like in the dream. The nightmare. I remember someone saying his name. Not me, not him... a woman's voice, repeating 'Thomas' over and over. And... she was saying something else, 'WICKED is good.' Her voice sends a chill down my spine, as if her vague memory haunts my mind.

"Who are you?" I say through gritted teeth. "I don't mean your name... who are you? Why can I only remember your name and no one else's?" Thomas pauses for a moment, his eyes clouding over with a sense of bitter sadness.

"I don't know," Thomas replies, his eyes glancing to the floor before returning to my face. "I-I can't remember. None of us... none of us here can remember... anything." He licks his lips anxiously before continuing. "We all woke up here, just like you did. No memories, no clue how we got here."

I know he's not lying, I can tell from the miserable tone of his voice and the way he speaks, as if he's... longing for something he cannot have. A past, a knowledge of who he really is. I know that feeling all too well. It's the only thing I've known since I arrived here.

His eyes move towards the dagger once more. He cautiously moves his hand forward, so it is gently grasped around the end of the dagger before his eyes meet mine again. "I'm just gonna take this," he says carefully as he takes the dagger away from me. I feel embarrassment wash over me and feel my cheeks going hot.

"What's going on up there?" someone shouts up to us. Thomas stands up to talk to them.

"Is she coming down?" I hear Newt ask. Thomas pauses, unsure.