The Forest Trials | Newt

009

After bandaging Newt up the best she could Brenda worked on Jennifer's head. It had stopped bleeding but chances were it had gotten infected considering they were in a rainforest.

Brenda did her best trying to tune out Newts and Jennifer's complaints from the pain. Newt had a headache that was pounding constantly the whole time and Jennifer had to have small rocks picked out of her head.

"What even happened to you two?" Minho asked as he sat down. Watching the two hold the right side of their head in pain.

"Attacked by... a crank," Jennifer pushed out through steady breaths. This seemed to have caught to rest of the group's attention, drawing their gazes to Jennifer.

"There's Cranks in here?"

"Not many, only ones that stumble in and get lost,"

"So how many?"

"Oh I don't know, I'll ask them next time," Jennifer said sarcastically with a smile.

"Was it just the one... that did all this?"

"Well, it started to attack Merlin. Got gross from there," she lied, Newt watched her carefully. She was good at lying, dangerously good. It almost made him think that absolutely everything she's said so far could've been a lie.

"Ouch!" Newt and Jennifer said at the same time as a shoot went through Newt's head and Brenda moved a bandage over Jennifer's head. They looked at each other with furrowed brows.

"I'm saying ouch but why are you saying ouch?" She questions, thinking he was messing with her or something.

"Nothing I just, my head aches. Really bad,"

"I wish an ache was all that was wrong with my head," she scoffed turning her head back against the tree. It went quiet again, Newt's head was growing unbearable. It can't have just been a headache because of the constant and irregular shoots of pain that spread through his body.

Everything hurt, for both of them. Both their arms, ankles, and heads. Everything. It was ridiculous. I mean the fall they took was rough but to have gained wounds they couldn't even see?

After a while, the group ate the bird and fish. Sharing the potions equally with a side of berries Jennifer had instructed Frypan on gathering. It wasn't the best, but it was edible and would keep them going for the rest of the day if they couldn't find anything else.

Due to their hold-up with falling cliffs as such, they left around an hour later than Jennifer intended. They walked for miles, all too focused on trying to make their legs move than talking to one another.

Jennifer's ankle never faded and she even checked it out. Not a bruise, not a mark. Nothing. But the ache was constant. Not too bad though, bearable really but it wasn't ideal. Especially when spending the whole day walking.

Newt's head had gotten slightly better, still hurt and was hardly forgettable but he tried not to think about it. The group's energy was draining at every step, Jennifer leading the way.

"Hey, what's that?" Minho said as he pointed forwards, past Jennifer's shoulder. Towards a clearing, halfway point. WICKED had made it to keep track of the dome.

Instead of the dense forest, it was clear for about one meter and the floor was just plain cut grass. It stretched out either side of them as they reached it.

"I can hardly believe we're half way," Newt breathed as glanced around

"Because we're not," Jennifer said turning to the group. Their once awe faces now dropped. "This is 10% of the way," she shrugged and went to continue walking.

"Only 10?" Newt breathed as he looked over at Jennifer.

"Yes Blondie, now come on. Your all making yourselves look ridiculous," she went to walk again

"Can't we call it a day?" Minho asked taking the unfortunate marker. This shocked the group, the ex-keeper of the runners was saying he was tired, this meant they had to rest.

Jennifer had to be honest, she was tired too. But she didn't like the idea of hanging around in the forest and was trying to get out as quickly as possible, for no reason she wished to admit...

"It already is, what do you call it?" She joked, silence "Get it 'cause, call it a day. Call it. Get it?" Silence "Yeah okay we can rest," she sighed realising none found her as funny as she thought.

They settled down, and within seconds they were asleep. Jennifer re-opened her eyes to a place she hadn't been in for a long time.

The seaside. The fresh smell of salty water filled her lungs, and her eyes set on the sand that covered the land before drifting off behind the aqua-blue water.

"Jennifer!" Someone shouted, she turned to meet the sound. "Jennifer!" They repeated, she now spotted where the sound was coming from. It was her brother hunched over something.

She furrowed her brows walking over slowly trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Only then did she realise, this wasn't a dream. This was a replay, a repeat.

A repetition of a day that shouldn't have happened,  not to someone so young. She wanted to stop, to run back, go home. Where ever that was. But her feet said otherwise, continued walking.

She started shaking her head, doing anything to turn back before her brother's clear, pale cold face came into view. She felt her eyes become to disobey her commands to look away, to shut. Yet they drew down to what her brother was crouched over.

She took everything in. Every detail. The twitches, the black abyss instead of eyes, the white skin, the skinny figure. Every single thing. She wanted to make it stop. She needed it to stop.