Disconnection • Newt • Maze Runner

6 - Agony

Agony.

Pure, unbridled, fucking agony.

Aspen couldn't hide it any longer. Amidst the group of boys ducking out of sight as the new girl tossed everything she could find at them, Aspen crumbled to the ground. A hopeless heap of a boy on the ground, shaking as his screams burst out, unable to be contained any longer.

There being a girl was tossed out the window as the group flocked to Aspen like birds on a wire.

His darkened veins were just barely visible on his neck, the average person might not have noticed, but Gally did.

"Shit!" He said as he called over others to hold Aspen down, all limbs secured to the ground as if he was dangerous. He wasn't, he was merely in excruciating pain.

After being tied down next to Alby, he began writhing in his agony. It was astonishing he hadn't tried to kill those around him after they'd been manhandling him for over ten minutes.

"Gally, please. Please! Make it stop! Make it stop!" He yelled, voice course and gritty. His heart was pounding furiously, mind slowly being overcome with treacherous and torturous thoughts, about others and himself.

Gally merely stood there, tapping his foot, before leaving the building entirely.

Newt stared down at the boy, glancing towards Alby as well. His heart sunk, he hated seeing Aspen like this, in such pain. Such a brutal state to be in, it hurt his soul.

"Newt."

He glanced up at Aspen, eyes glassy and tired, "Yeah?"

The infected boy let out a cry, of pain or of sorrow, Newt wasn't sure. "Please just make it stop. I don't care if I die, please."

Newt couldn't kill someone.

He couldn't.

And Aspen? Not a fucking chance.

"I'm sorry."

His mind was a terrifying place to be in right now. Physical pain is one thing, mental pain is something else entirely.

When Aspens thoughts weren't being overshadowed by the excruciating pain of the Changing, he was left to think merely of his own demise.

The sort of emotional peril the boy was in, was unmatched by anything he'd ever remembered feeling before. It was all consuming. He couldn't escape his own mind, no one can. It was dreadful, to be left alone the jungle of your own treacherous thoughts, unable to stop them from eating you alive. They drowned him in their sorrow, his warm tears contrasting with his ice cold body.

Newt could only watch, as the inevitable occurred, and as Aspen's mind was spiraling into depths only he would understand. Newt wished he could do more for the boy, help him escape the agony, but he couldn't.

Aspen was unaware of the feeling the boy felt for him, he only knew that Newt stayed by his side as much as he possibly could, even when the Flare took over and Aspen writhed against the restraints to hurt anyone and anything around him. His darkened eyes stared at Newts own, as he desperately tried to escape them, to kill Newt, or himself, he didn't know.

Death was the only though present amongst the hurling catastrophe in his mind. He needed it, craved it, for himself and others. It was a strange feeling, an occurrence only battled by his own hope. Which was being squashed as the second ticked by.

Thrashing in agony, tied down mercilessly. the only thing to be heard from him being course screams and defeaning growls of pain. the sight and sound made Newts insides quiver, he'd grown to care for the boy, and seeing him in such torturous agony was undeniably painful for him. More so for Aspen, but still.

Newt couldn't stand the sight as he slipped out of the room, his heart racing as he could still hear Aspens cries.

If only there were a way to cure him.

"We don't even know what this stuff is. We don't know who sent it, or why it came up here with you. I mean, for all we know these things could kill them." Newt said with a worried expression glazing his face.

He wanted to believe it would cure them, Alby and Aspen. But it was in his nature to be cautious, so that he would always be sure of things. This was a risk he was terrified to take.

"They're already dying. Look at them." Thomas argued.

Both of who Thomas was referencing, were in agony. Aspen thrashing against the restraints holding his aching and restless body down, Alby grunting in pain as his body practically shook.

"How could this possibly make it any worse? Come on, it's worth a try."

Newt knew he was right, but he wasn't going to be the one who killed them if it didn't work. Thomas grasping one of the vials over Alby, while Teresa held the other over Aspen.

"You should be here. You shouldn't be here!" Alby gripped Thomas by the shirt trying to pull him down before Teresa, aggravated, stabbed the syringe into Alby.

Newt was astonished that it had actually worked, so he grabbed the other syringe, slowly walking towards a still writhing Aspen.

Aspen stared the boy straight in the eye, a fleck of hope in his eyes. Newt stabbed the syringe into the boy, whom immediately passed out, but the darkened veins remained.

When he awoke, Alby was still knocked out. Aspen carefully tried to maneuver out of the restraints, that was until Newt walked in.

He merely stared at Aspen, who's black veins had faded out, and seemed completely normal, if not a bit tired. "Well? Are you gonna let me out of these? Or just stare at me?"

Newt scrambled before removing the restraints, Aspen standing up slowly and stretching his limbs, no longer it pain.

They were sore, and his voice was course and gritty from the screaming, the cries. He had marks from where the restraints had been, from thrashing around beneath them.

Newt reached a hand towards Aspen's wrist, applying the tiniest bit of pressure to the friction wound before pulling his hand away as Aspen hissed.

"Fuck." He eyed the other wounds on his own body, each and every one of them where the restraints had been, except one.

Low on his stomach, he lifted his shirt up and eyes the still healing wound of where he'd been stung. It was no longer blackened, but it hurt like a mother fucker.

"I like you better when you're not trying to kill me." Newt said with a sly smirk.

"I'll get my chance." His words were laced with sarcasm, Newt letting out a small laugh at the sentence.

"And I'll get mine."