Newt

Darkness

At first, there was only darkness. The boy’s eyes flew open as he inhaled a desperate breath, lungs screaming. He was drowning. He was trapped and he was drowning, but then he wasn’t. He was in the dark. It was cold and dark and the boy still felt like he was drowning, like the air in his lungs didn’t quite fill them enough.

After the darkness came the sound, a horrible, groaning, mechanical sound that echoed sharply in the boy’s ears. He tried to scream, but he coughed up water instead.

The world shook and suddenly he was moving, up and up into the darkness. Tears fell from the boy’s eyes, blending with the water still clinging to his face.

“Please…” he whispered, not knowing who he was talking to or what he was begging for and not caring either way. “Please.”

Flashes of light blinded him as the cage moved further up. The boy didn’t know if there even was a destination. Maybe he would be stuck in this darkness forever.

The cage shook violently, throwing him backwards into a pile of boxes. His head struck the corner of one of the boxes, sending a flash of pain through his whole body. For a second, he thought he knew something, but it was gone as the cage shook once more.

The boy scrambled to his feet and looked up. The track ended about in about ten feet. The cage would stop, or he would be crushed. Pure terror overtook the boy’s mind. All he could do was fall backwards and lean against the wall with his head in his hands.

“Please…” he whispered, finally knowing what he wanted.

“Please just let me die.”

The cage stopped. 

*****

Light was worse than darkness. When the large doors above his head opened and sunlight streamed into the little cage, the boy couldn’t even open his eyes. He didn’t move, not even when he heard a symphony of voices, real, human voices. He simply sat with his head buried in his knees, arms wrapped around himself protectively.

Something heavy fell into the cage beside him. He knew that it was another person, yet he still didn’t look up. He wasn’t scared, not anymore. The terror had left him. All he felt was dread. Dread that the cage had stopped. Dread that he wasn’t crushed. It would have been easier that way.

“Hey Greenie,” a voice said softly to his left. It wasn’t what he was expecting. Kindness wasn’t right. He expected pain, torture, even loneliness. Not kindness.

“Greenbean, look at me. You’re safe, I promise. No one is going to hurt you. My name is Alby. You don’t need to be scared. Just please look at me.” Surprising himself, the boy did.

It took a second for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he saw a boy. This boy was a bit older than him, but he had kind eyes, with warm dark skin and a small smile on his face.

“That’s it, Greenbean. That’s it. I know this is strange, but we’ve all been through this before. Can you tell me your name?” He said it like he didn’t expect the boy to know. That was weird, he thought. How could I not know my own name?

He opened his mouth to say it, but the word didn’t come to him. He didn’t know. He didn’t know his own name.

But I do, he thought as it came back to him. He touched the back of his head lightly, remembering the jolt of pain it caused him only minutes before, and the memory that came with it. A small smile danced across his lips.

“Newt. My name is Newt.”