Lost in a Maze

Chapter 35: Judgement Day.

"Newt?" I gently knocked on his door twice and awaited an answer. That morning I'd woken up, sure that I had to make up with him. It just felt right.

He grunted a reply, although I couldn't decipher exactly what he'd said, I pushed open the door anyway. "Can we talk?"
He ignored me, pulling on his boots and tying up the laces.

"Newt." I repeated, waiting for a response as I pulled my hoodie up against my neck, hiding the dark bruises. Still, he didn't reply. He just laced up his boot, ignoring me completely.

"Is this what we are back to? Ignoring me all over again?" I asked, tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. I couldn't take this again.
When yet again, he didn't answer, I pressed on.
"Please. You can't ignore me forever."

I walked closer to him, maybe he was just fucking deaf. Still, nothing. Breaking down I said, "How long are you going to punish me for? How long until you acknowledge me again, as a normal fucking human being?!" My voice broke a little at the end, but still I held my head up, determined not to break down completely.

Exhaling a loud breath, he looked up at me.

"Ah, there he is." I said in spite of him, looking down as he stared up at me.
"What do you want Erin?" He sighed, standing up to face me.
"I just want to know what's going on between us."

He walked to the other side of the room and began scrubbing one of his other boots, his back to me. "You sure you wouldn't rather talk to Minho?"

"No Newt." I shook my head, "That's not fair, you don't have the right to bring Minho up. Not after the other night, not after everything." I wiped away my silent tears furiously, angry with myself for being so weak.

He took a moment, gripping the edge of the table he was standing in front of. He hung his head and said, "I don't know what to do."

I watched him quietly for a moment. "Neither do I."

We stood in silence for a moment as we both thought about it, until he said, "I think we've both suffered enough."
Straightening up, he turned to look at me. "Neither of us deserve any more pain from eachother. So we stop this. Stop hurting eachother, and just leave it."

"Yeah," I agreed weakly, wishing he'd say anything other than that. We looked away from eachother, the silence pressing in. I barely disturbed it when I mumbled, "I'm sorry."
He nodded. "Me too."

"So is this the end?" I asked, trying to disguise the slight shake in my voice as I squashed the breakdown. "Forever?"
"I don't know."

"Friends?"
"Friends."

***

This was the way it should have been directly after Newt broke up with me, no arguments, no Minho dancing, just peace. Of course it still hurt, walking out of his hut with the heaviness bearing down on my chest was worst of all, but at least now I wasn't constantly thinking about how I'd make it up to him.

As I walked back to my hut I realised something was off. Something wasn't right, instinctively something told me to look up at the sky. It was a deep shade of purple, rather than the usual sky blue we would have expected at this time. I shrugged it off, but it still weighed heavily on my mind, surely it would change as the day went on?

Wrong. As the day went on the sky never changed. No clouds, no sun. Nothing. Just purple.

"The hell is going on with the sky?!" I asked Newt as he stood looking up at it.