Her (Newt fan fiction/The Kill Order sequel)

Chapter 17 - Darker Days

The next few days dragged by in a haze for Newt. Teresa still lay in a coma, but even so, when, or if, she woke up, Newt didn't think she'd open up easily about what she'd experienced. He himself could think of nothing more harrowing, more gut wrenchingly painful than Teresa's experience.

No, the Maze, the Scorch... Nothing came close. Waking up alive with 20 corpses had to be the most horrific experience possible.

And about one thing Newt was certain: Nothing would stop him making whoever had done it pay.

Then, later that week, she woke up - not how they'd expected, gradually - she just sat bolt upright and screamed, so loud the whole village heard and the island shivered. He was there when she woke; Thomas and him winding bandages to pass the time. When she just opened her eyes, which held a crazed look, and sat up, her skin deathly pale.

Something was seriously wrong with her and they had to think quick. Jeff kept watch almost 24 seven but he had to sleep, and anyway, before that was all she had been doing anyway.

Newt, working his way through a bowl of stew, thought about the situation reluctantly. In a way he felt angry; they'd escaped! They'd won - twice! Now this? When, when, would the suffering end?!

As the thoughts spiraled around his brain one seemed so familiar. And his brain played with it, twisted it, so that it became an idea, a wrong one.

He wanted the suffering to end.

He heard the voice of his younger self in his head and finally remembered...

"I want the suffering to end,"

He'd said, and then jumped.

Four long year's ago, Newt had promised Alby never to harm himself again. But Alby... He was gone now. Newt's heart ached.

He didn't want to go back there - he truly didn't.

He just had to learn to control it.

Newt got up, and slowly washed up his bowl, procrastinating because it was his turn to watch Teresa. And if anything was going to make him feel better, he knew it wasn't that.