Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 15 - Less Talk, More Work

~Sara~

"So, are you gonna yell at me again, or are you actually gonna bloody listen to me?" Newt asked, as if he were challenging Sara.

"Depends," she replied nonchalantly, pulling up a chair beside his bed and taking a seat. "Are you gonna tell me about your nightmare, or are you gonna insist that your life's worth nothing?"

Newt scoffed, squinting his eyes at her. "I don't know you. Stop acting like you're my bloody guardian angel or something." She was growing so tired of his comments, but she herself couldn't even understand why she cared so much to help him. "What's your problem with me? You say you're 'worried' but then you get so grouchy," Newt added.

Sara felt compelled to raise her voice even though she'd told herself to be patient. "Yeah, I am angry at you because I'm just trying to help you. And it's not like you're in the best mood lately. Besides, you look familiar, Newt. I feel like I knew you before all this. I felt it as soon as I saw you back in the Maze."

She mentally facepalmed at her own lack of good excuses.

Newt looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if he had something to say about the events from the Maze, but then stopped himself.

Sara took a deep breath, deciding it'd be better if she made an effort to be nicer. "Look, I simply wanna help. Just let me, I know what I'm talking about. And if you don't want to, I'm sorry, but I'm not giving you that choice anymore." Sara realized maybe being too nice would not be good either. "So... I'm listening. Let me in on this."

She crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest attentively. Even though he wasn't in the best mood, she was expecting him to talk to her. At least for decency.

Newt rolled his eyes and remained quiet for a few more minutes. The silence was unbearable, but Sara managed to stay put in case he finally decided to speak.

He began telling her his nightmare and right away, Sara could understand what it meant. She didn't know why she experienced a nightmare somewhat similarly, since she wasn't even a part of the experiment. She wasn't a 'subject,' and was only pretending to be one for her own safety.

All she could assume, however, was that Newt probably experienced a memory flashback. The events happening in the dreams, and the people involved in them, triggered some sort of recognition and familiarity in a remote portion of his brain. It was as if he were there, in the nightmare, somehow.

Something clicked in Sara's mind. She could see how the puzzle of people and events artfully built itself up in her brain. Newt had just had a flashback of moments before he was taken by WICKED. It had to be that.

That was why Newt seemed so traumatized back at the lab when Sara first saw him. She knew that Sonya was younger than him, and Newt and Sara were the same age. Sara could assume that he was old enough back then, to understand what was happening, and Sonya probably didn't understand as much.

No wonder Sonya was always more cheerful, and she never fully understood why her brother simply avoided her. He was cast with the responsibility of taking care of Sonya, just in case anything happened to their mother. The trauma must've been so appalling that he simply couldn't bear with it. He couldn't keep his promise, and that also clawed at him constantly. It all made some sense.

The realization made Sara think of her father. She wondered why parents made their children promise difficult things as soon as they knew they were about to die. They expected their children to stay true to the promise, but how could parents be sure their children could keep it?

Sara had only partially kept hers. She was alive, but her life was constantly at risk. And now she learned about Newt's experience with promises. He'd deliberately broken his. He felt guilty, but now he didn't remember he felt so. He couldn't remember anything from his previous life.