𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐚𝐦 | 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐑𝐢𝐦/𝐈𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐏

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 count how long he has been in this hell. He's seen guards change nine times, but PPDC work hours aren't just cut and dry nine-to-fives, so he has no idea.

Not that time really mattered in the first place, when he was thirty-three years old in another dimension for two days. When he spent ten years not knowing anything. But it would still be nice if they added a ticking clock so he could at least look at something other than the chipping wall or the darkness of his eyelids.

The door opens some time later. It could be hours, it could be days. Newt wouldn't be surprised if he'd dissociated for another year.

He opens his eyes, and Hermann stands at the opposite side of the room. Ten feet away, but crystal clear in his vision. He tries desperately not to look in the man's eyes. Wishes the guards just took his glasses away like before.

"Newton."

"Herms," he feels his face tense, eyes glaze over, and he isn't in control yet again, "Get the fuck out."

"I wanted to speak with you, Newton."

"Yeah, well he isn't here."

"I gathered as much, thank you for letting me know," he scowls. Newt's laughter breaks through to the surface at the look on the man's face, and Hermann's eyes light up, before Newt is lost yet again.

And then silence, uncomfortable silence. The type one might have with a friend of a friend, when the rest of the group disappears and you're left with the person you have no idea how to make small talk with. The type the two had when they first joined the PPDC and found out they would have to spend every waking minute working with the other. The type they had when Newt moved away ten years ago, and Hermann stopped bothering to write to him.

Newt doesn't think he'll ever be able to bring back comfortability. Not now. Not when he feels so close to death, when the world is so close to total destruction.

Hermann leaves. And he's left with his thoughts yet again. He welcomes himself back to the darkness of his eyelids, and thinks, maybe this is it.

Maybe they're finally killing him, and maybe that's the point, and maybe he isn't scared anymore.