Fire ➳ TDC, Thomas [3] ✓

Prologue

Two weeks later, somewhere in Scorch

Most night were sleepless for her. Most days just a blur passing by. Speeding past her as in depth of her own thoughts she found nothing, not a trace of forgiveness or understanding. She wanted WICKED to pay for what they had done to her, she wanted to see them burn from the ground...yet she was still weak to stand against them alone. Too weak to ever step out in the light of the day and face them.

Aria knew sooner or later she would have to move on, past the walls holding her in at that moment and past the blame she put partly on herself. She didn't know how.

In the distance moon rippled on the blurry surface of water beneath, shining in the dark like a torch as its glow faded more and more through the dusty glass of her window it seemed to grow dimmer. She sensed the heat, that even in the nightshade, arose within her skin and forced up the dust resting somewhere on the floor as she sat on the heap of her crumpled blanket near the window and stared. Aria found a special kind of peace within moon's glow, only that had offered her with a consolation since that moment. Since the death of her best friend.

Her hand gently ran over the glass as if wanting to reach the distant sphere in the middle of the sky, with nothing more but a distant look in her eyes as it seemed to grow out of her reach. Then the door of the room creaked open and her hand snapped back. Footsteps raked through the dust, sounded rather loud against the floorboards that were close to falling apart.

"You're going to have to stop doing that." She heard the hesitation in Thomas's voice, a certain amount of worry too as the boy sat next to her.

"Doing what?" She faced him sternly, something she had never wanted to be around him as she then kept looking into his eyes.

"Not sleeping. It's been weeks, Aria. We're getting worried." Thomas shuffled closer to her, reaching up as his thumbs slowly traced underneath her eyes which like two pearls shining on the moon, couldn't look away.

"I can't forget him." She cried softly, which in the silence sounded rather loud.

Thomas drew back his hands, gently circling around her waist as he pulled her toward him, indulging her into his arms as if afraid she was still too fragile or that she'd fade if he let her carry that sadness alone. "I'm not asking you to forget him." His chin rested atop her head, soft breathing on the skin of his neck the only indication she was still there and listening to him. "I just...want you to move on." Aria drew in a sharp breath, and Thomas already began fearing the softness which her previous, short breathing held abruptly changed into something cold and icy. He began thinking she would snap, if not at him then in pieces.

"Can I ask you something?" Aria let go of his hug, forcing a hand to wipe underneath her eye that brimmed as tears collected in it. Thomas nodded, silent. "H-how did you get over them...those deaths?"

Thomas swallowed harshly. "I didn't at first. But then, I began realising...sooner or later I had to let go, no matter how hard it was." He watched the girl draw shapes over the dusty window, her smaller fingertips leaving a trail of sorts in every direction she sent it going as he lifted up his hand and placed it over hers. Over hers and the glistening orb of a moon far away.

"How long did it take?" Aria asked him, her hand linking with his as she turned to him with something of a distant hope.

"A long time," Lifting his other hand, Thomas softly ran it through her locks which then carefully threaded through the knots formed there before had it slipped around her waist. "Until my heart hadn't realised I couldn't turn back." Drawing her closer again, Thomas parted their hands to fully indulge her into his arms again, sensing relief had settled on her being which as an indication pointed out her calmer breathing and still red, puffy eyes, yet from which her tears didn't spill anymore.

"I sometime wish it was all different. No Maze, no Scorch..." She began speaking softly, but Thomas cut her off.

"I doubt we would've met otherwise," He lightened the hold over her, adjusting his head so he was speaking into her ear. "And I'm thankful it happened this way...because now, we have each other."

There was silence. It stretched on for quite some time, both teens seemed to think of something to say. "I hope we can find him." Finally Aria muttered.

"I know we will."