Emotionless »« Newt

EIGHTEEN

They had come into her room early in the morning without warning, and told her what she knew they would. She had another test. She wouldn't be back for some time. It's out in the City.

"The Last City?" she'd asked.

Yes, they confirmed.

Leandra had heard stories about Wonderland, one of the Old Earth safe havens, but of course she never went. But the Last City? She couldn't help but get a rush up her spine every time she knew that's where she was going. It was her Wonderland, her special place, and every trip there felt like a treat, even if what happened there was anything but.

But she never got to tell Newt, and before she knew what was happening she was getting dressed and grabbing Alex from her bed and following the guards past the cafeteria. Everyone she knew would be eating there. All her friends, her family. They'd be waiting for her to join them for breakfast, but she wouldn't come. Newt would worry most, of course. Then it'd be Minho, and Gally, and Chuck. Especially Chuck, whom the girl saw as a little brother.

She passed the cafeteria, craning her neck around to look through the large window, and she caught sight of the table her and her friends always sat at. They were together, laughing, but Newt sat worried beside Sonya. Leandra's usual spot on the bench was empty, waiting for her.

She knew she wasn't supposed to. It's impolite to shout, Ava had told the kids, but she couldn't keep walking while feeling Newt's worry and anxiety. She never wanted him to feel that way again.

"NEWT!"

The boy jumped furiously, whirling around for the voice, and his eyes finally fell on Leandra on the other side of the glass. They widened in shock, but he couldn't get up from his seat or he'd be told off. If she was out there, it only meant one thing: another test.

Leandra couldn't halt, and she couldn't continue walking slowly. She didn't want to get Ava Paige and Janson mad. She had to keep walking.

Newt was scared. He knew Leandra was always terrified when she went for testing, and there was always the chance of her not coming back, but she kept telling him to have hope. The young boy remembered that Leandra could feel his emotions, and if he's feeling this way, then she must be feeling it even more. And he can't hurt her like that. So he grits his teeth, making a decision, hoping Leah would look once more through the window.

"Let's go," one of the guards said, gentle in putting a hand on her shoulder and continuing with her down the corridor, but when she'd turned back around nervously, Newt was pulling silly faces at her through the window. She couldn't help but smile wide.

And when she returned a few days later, rushing as fast as she could to where her friends were sitting and flinging her arms around Newt, he held a bunch of the begonias from the garden out to her, tied with a few blades of grass.

"What's this?" she'd laughed.

He smiled. "A promise. I'll always be waiting for when you come back."

"I thought that was what our pinkie promises were for," she spied, albeit grinning.

"That too."

✫・゜・。.

"Ring-a-ring-a-rosies, a pocket full of posies; a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down."

The trio trek through the old sewers, struggling to avoid the thin stream at the base of their feet, and they don't even want to think about what it might be. "This is gross," Newt sticks his tongue out in disgust, the only other sounds being Leandra's quiet singing under her breath.