Newt x Reader || A13

10 | glitch

As soon as the darkness sets in, I feel myself spiralling. Desperate, I rack my mind and search for anything; I search for an anchor.

I'm falling. Something dark is tugging at me, wrenching me free from my grasp on reality.

An image comes to mind: sandy hair, brown eyes, a boyish face.

Newt is my anchor. On his face, I concentrate all of me, willing myself back to Julian and Gabe. As I breathe, my blurred eyesight becomes clearer and clearer, and I am brought back to my surroundings.

As the pain subsides, I open my eyed, my heartrate slowing. Julian is leaning over me, lips moving, but there is still no sound. My head is in his lap, my body sprawled across the stone floor. As my hearing returns, I realize that he's yelling my name. Over and over. My eyes meet his, and he goes silent.

"Can you hear me?" He asks softly, voice hoarse.

"Yeah." I manage, my voice coming a mere croak. "I don't know what happened." I say, preparing and bracing myself before trying to sit up, but there's no pain. It's like the lapse never happened.

"Are you okay?" Julian scoots back as soon as I'm off of him, but he leaves his hand on my back.

"I will be," I say, "thank you." He looks at me with a half-pained expression and simply nods.

Breaking away from his gaze, I survey our surroundings.

The walls have moved, pinning us in. They're on all fours sides; the space is no more than five feet across and long. In the corner, Gabe is pounding on a wall frantically, sounds between yelps and cries emanating from his mouth.

Dread settles in my stomach as I take in the darkness surrounding us; it's night time.

I turn to Julian. He is silent, his face impossible to read.

I don't know what to say. I simply stare at him, disbelief imminent in my face.

"Never- they've never.. I've never-" Gabe mutters to himself in the corner. I make my way over and look at him. His eyes are glossed over in fear.

"You've never what?"

"They've never moved like this before." He rocks back and forth.

"The walls." I say. He nods and begins murmuring again .

"I-" I start, then stop, unsure of what to say; is this my fault? I back up against a wall and put my head in my hands.

This is my fault. Not just this particular situation, but everything that's been happening in the past month: the griever attacks- all of it.

My fault.

I close my eyes and concentrate on my anchor once again.

- - -

It's been forty minutes. Gabe went silent after twenty, probably sleeping in the corner.

I sit against the wall taking in the silence.

Julian sits against the opposite wall, flicking his lighter every few seconds. It's completely dark, and every now and then, a griever's wail echos dangerously close to us.

Suddenly, Julian stands and makes his way over to me. He sits down against the wall next to me; our forearms touching.

"How are you?" He surprises me by asking.

"How am I supposed to answer that?" I respond, staring ahead. "I don't know at all." He's silent for a moment before he responds.

"Don't be scared of them." He whispers so quietly I can't tell if it's real.