Bad Dreams | Newt x Reader (Being Edited)

Chapter 53- The Necessity of Violence when Dealing With Certain Relatives

Warnings: mentions of nightmares, torture.

Y/n POV

Vivid images from the nightmares swarmed behind my eyelids, forcing me to open them. The wide expanse of cloudless blue sky greeted me, reminding me of my conversation with Nik days earlier about Élliot.

Newt sighed nearby, the sound having become even more frequent in the past few days as we moved further and further north away from Wicked. I was conscious of the direction we were moving, slightly north-west. Even though the city was almost half the continent away, it made me uneasy.

Newt flinched when I moved next to him to lean into his warm body. He relaxed by a fraction, letting me sink into him even as his smile was forced.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. He'd been tense and upset for days. I was keen on ignoring the reason so long as he was.

"Nothing, just bad dreams." He leaned his head against mine.

"That makes the two of us," I murmured, closing my eyes. "I keep dreaming of Cranks. Not...not Lillian, just Cranks."

Newt hummed to signal he'd heard and we sat quietly together for a long few moments until he jolted.

I opened my eyes to see Brandon making a run for it.

One second he was running, the next there was a crack and his leg twisted, sending him tumbling to the ground. Archie lowered his hand, looking sick as Aaliyah clung onto his other hand.

The Wraith's need for power thrummed through me, filling me with a sickly want, no, need for more. I needed his ability.

"Y/n?" Newt asked, snapping me back to myself.

I was on my feet, though I didn't remember getting up. I blinked at him.

"Y/n," Nik said, appearing at my shoulder. "Y/n, we need to do something about him."

"What exactly do we want from him?" Newt asked quietly as we made our way over to where Vince was tying Brandon to a chair.

"Information," I replied, trying to keep my voice light. I stopped in front of him and folded my arm. "Where's Minho?"

Brandon's eyelids fluttered. "Who?"

"Subject A7."

"I don't..."

I leaned forward, staring into his eyes—my mother's eyes. "From now on you will speak nothing but the truth. Where is the Immune Subject A7?"

Brandon shuddered as the answer was drawn from him. "I don't have the clearance to know where the Immunes are being kept."

"Think, where do you think they're being kept?"

"Denver."

My eyelid twitched. I could feel all eyes crawling over me, watching my reaction. "Anywhere else?"

"North," he said vaguely. "Far north."

The illusion of a rat crawled onto his leg and he gagged, head turning away so he couldn't see. "It's not real. It's not real. I know you're doing this."

"Do you? Can't you feel them crawling all over you with their little filthy feet?"

Brandon whimpered, thrashing his body and crying out when his broken leg brushed against the ropes. "I don't know! I'm telling you I don't know where the Immunes are! Wicked knew you'd come for me, why would they tell me anything I didn't need to know?"

"Tell me something useful."

"There's a man in Denver who specialises in research into Enhanced people, with his research I may have found a way to upgrade an ability restrictor." Brandon sobbed, turning his face away again as a rat crawled onto his shoulder.

"What's Wicked planning to do with us?"

"They want you dead. It doesn't matter how powerful everyone here is, the Phoenix and Wolf will kill you all. You're all going to die!" he babbled uselessly. "No one can stop Wicked, not even the Wraith."

Vince snorted. "You believe in that fairytale?"

"They're real. Wicked knows it. All the attacks are linked. They might be dead. They might not."

I grabbed his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes so I could get into his head and use the little amount of Nik's power that I had. I forced him to see the Phoenix murder my parents. My mother. His sister.

"Stop," Brandon begged me. "I don't want to see this."

"What do you want to see? Your brother?" I switched to Marcus.

"Stop, please!"

The Wraith seeped in, numbing the little guilt I felt until all there was left was pain and rage. I made him hallucinate their deaths over and over and over.

'Wicked cannot stop me,' the Wraith whispered to him, making him see who I was and all I had done.

Brandon screamed, thrashing in his attempt to get away from me but I would not let him go. I drew on his energy, leeching life from him.

He slumped in his bounds dead.

I slowly straightened, suddenly aware of the tears slipping down my face.

"Get rid of him," I ordered someone.

Nik grabbed my arm and was already pulling me away even as Newt's pale face, sick with horror, made me hesitate.

"How much of that was you?" Nik asked, slipping a blanket over my shoulders.

"I don't know, not all of it."

"I might be biased but I don't think you went too far."

I put my head in my hands, gently massaging my temples. "I'm scared of her. There's nothing I can do to stop her. Keep me away from Archie."

Nik drew me into a hug, pressing my head against his shoulder. "I will. It's going to be okay, Y/n. I'm with you all the way no matter what stupid decisions you make."

"Y/n?" Newt asked, making me lift my head to look back.

"Yeah?" I croaked, trying to force back the tears.

"Can we talk?"

I looked at Nik and he nodded. I went with Newt, all too painfully aware of what he wanted to talk about.