Serendipity || Newt TMR || Book 1

Thanatophobia

Thanatophobia

(n.) fear of death

The rest of the boys had gathered around the West door, every second person was holding a fire torch, lighting up the area around us. We all stared into the maze, waiting for the signal that meant the door were about to close, however it never came. Instead came an almost ear-splitting sound of the East door - behind us - unlocking and scraping against the concrete sounded throughout the Glade, causing us all to cover our ears and look over to it. Just to see that it was in fact opening.

What is happening...? This isn't meant to be happening.

Our attention then was directed to the North door, that begun to open with a loud bang, and then the same thing happened but with the South door. We all stood, terrified of what had just occurred, we are not safe, our mouths all fell ajar as we stared at the doors. Some of the boys were beginning to run towards the forest - where the South door was - to see what was happening. In all four directions of the doors, I could see the ivy that swung across the roof of the maze walls, almost creating a canopy. An eerie feeling set over the Glade, along with the sense of panic however, no one was moving, not yet at least, that was until Thomas began talking. "Okay, Chuck..." He started while looking towards the boy, "I want you to go to the council hall, and start barricading the door-"

"Yeah, Winston, Avery, you go with him." Newt instructed, Winston and Chuck murmured a quick 'got it' before moving towards the hall, however I stayed in my place.

"Newt, I'm staying with you." I say while grabbing his arm and looking up at him.

He gave me a sympathetic look, "Aves, I want you to be saf-"

"I'm staying." I say firmly, a look crossed his, showing me, he had given up, he gives me a slight nod as I return one. I take my hand away from his arm as I listen to the rest of the instructions being given. I had heard Gally say something about some of the boys going to hide in the woods, but I was more preoccupied with listening to Thomas who was talking to Minho and Newt.

"Minho, I want you to grab every weapon you can find, we'll meet you at council hall." Thomas finished, Minho looked towards the group of me, Newt and a couple other boys and nodded for us to follow him. Newt grabbed my hand at first to pull me along with him, but later let go. I looked at him as we run - his limp was barely noticeable. I shook that thought out of my head as we ran towards the Homestead, we kept the weapons beneath it, only a select few had the key to the room.

My breathing became more and more uneven as the sound of the grievers cry sounded throughout the Glade. My eyes widened as I become more panicked, I could barely breathe, "We're- I'm, I'm going to die...." I stuttered, "I've cheated death once... It's finally come back to get me..." I say a little too loudly as we enter the Homestead, causing the blonde boy in front of me to whip around to look at me.

"Hey." Newt says out of breath, "Don't say that..." He says while grabbing my shoulders, his arms were moving with the patterns of my breathing which was getting even shallower. "Avery." At the sound of my name my eyes snap onto the boy, I swallow as I became aware of how I was acting but I couldn't stop it, tears were beginning to fill my eyes. "Ready, Aves... 1... 2..." he begins counting as he takes deep breaths; trying to get me to copy but I still couldn't.

"I-" I try but my breathing was getting quicker are quicker, "I..." I could see that he was becoming more panicked as I was, he looked back at the group before looking back at me and quickly closing the gap between our lips. Causing me to hold my breath. I was so taken aback at what was happening, that I forgot what was going on, instead focused on the fact that his lips were on mine.