Eyes as black as night.

Oh Winston...

I woke up from a blank dream to groaning noises originating from Winston. "You alright?" I yawned, lifting my head from his shoulder. "Yeah, fine" he said pushing himself to his feet, breathing heavily. "If you say so" I said suspiciously as I turned my back and walked over to Thomas "Do you belive in second chances?" I asked, twisting my fingers around eachother. "If there I good person, I guess so" he said shoving things back into his pack. I pulled the small promise ring off my pinky finger. "My seventh birthday party" I said as I stuck the ring out for him to take. He pinched the ring from my fingers and shone it into the light letting the pink dimontes reflect. "What about it?" He said closing his hand over the small ring. "You gave me this ring, your mother's ring, you put it on my finger and said 'everyone deserves the promise of a second chance' then I kissed you on the cheek, you held my hand and we snuck onto my mother's office, we sat and ate chocolates until we were caught a little while later." I said not finishing the horrible memory. "Really? Wait your mother? I'm a little confused" he questioned but I wouldn't explain. "Rember that please" I said before walking off, fully aware he still held my ring tightly. I walked up the next dune to see our surroundings as I spotted the mountain in the near distance, we were definitely not in the same place as last night.

Newt came up next to me and slipped his fingers into mine. "Where are we going?" I asked him as he looked down at our intertwined fingers. "This place called the Right Arm" he said raining. His eyes to the mountains I was looking over. "The mountains, that's our plan, wandering aimlessly into the mountains to find a bunch of well disguised people, so well disguised that WCKD themselves can't find them" I pressed my hand into my head and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know, but there the only chance we have" he said squeezing my hand tightly. "Where's your ring?" He asked raising our arms up to his face. "Oh, I think Thomas has it" I said staring back over the mountains, I did keep casting my eyes to our hands though. We stood and stared out at the view for a while, for a sun scorched earth, it was pretty beautiful.

We had to leave, I knew it, but a part of me wanted to turn back around, hide in that facility, get sedated, and get drank like a juice box. If that meant dying with all of my friends and my sister then I would always be grateful.

I stuck my other hand into my pocket and felt my letters, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Each one of them was still there, one after the other. Two of the letters remained blank. Dear Newt, then just blank space.
Dear Teresa, more blank space. It was so hard to portray the perfect image of myself to the two people I loved most in the world and to know that the image I planted would be the last one in my own words. I just couldn't find the words to say but, I had a whole lot of miles to think about it.

"Let's go!" I shouted back at the camp causing everyone to jump back wards in surprise. I held onto Newt tightly and dragged him down the dune, south-east, towards the mountains.

After a couple hours of walking we decided it would be best to take a break. We all sat down under a bridge and took drinks and talked as we didn't do that much out in the dessert. Thomas cane up to me and a crouching Newt with the look on his face. I gestured for Newt to check on Winston for me and as he left Thomas plonked himself in the sand next to me. He seemed to know question asking would be pointless, so he just took my hand and slipped the ring back onto my pinky finger. "Everyone deserves the promise of a second chance" he said as he put my hand back in my lap and walked off.

I raised my hand up to the light and let the pink stones glisten and sparkle. It was so beautiful and ment so much. Not only did it symbolise Thomas's live for me, it was also really special to him, it was the only thing he had from his mither and he gave it to me. Not Teresa, not Mia, not just anyone, but me. Then I thought about everyone else, I think they see me as some kind of guide, they turn to me for decisions, they trust me for answers, they look up to me so I can tell them what to do. I do look after them, I feel like I have to, I know they can look after themselves but this is me trying to be a better person than I was in the past. I looked around the group studying the faces I would one day leave. I knew for sure who I would miss most. Not any boy, the boys treated me like we were related and I know each one of them would do anything for me but I wouldn't even pick the person I am actually related to, I wouldn't pick the boys I love so dearly, I would pick my sister, not by blood, by soul. Mia. I searched around the group for her and my eyes found her crouching next to Newt handing him something while Winston gave his best smile. I could tell they were up to no good.

Newt came back over seconds later and sat next to me in the sand, his hand was still firmly clasped around the item. He slipped it into his pocket and lay his hand flat against the hot sand. "Do you think we can make it out of here?" I asked him casting my eyes across the fallen city we had been walking through.   "Not, if we stay where we are" he said standing up and offering a gentlemanly hand to me like he always did. Like always I took it, stood up and instructed the group to head off.

I let Thomas lead the group for a while as I held back to see Aris and Wren. "Hey guys, do you belive in second chances?" I asked them, I needed to know if I would ever get thier trust back when they found out. If they found out...
"Yeah totally" aris said looking over at me with a big smile. Wren kept silent and waited for Aris to walk further forward. When he did Wren grabbed my arm to get my attention. "Rember what you did?" He asked as he tightened his grasp. "Wrenie, I did a lot of things apparently, the one I'm reversing currently is selling out Thomas to my mother" he loosened his grip and let go all together as the words left my mouth. "Sorry" he said as he edged further away from me.

Foulness. The first sign I should've seen.

We progressed on through the dessert until we reached another part of the city. I had been walking with Winston for a few hours now, mainly to make sure he was okay but also becuase he had a very sweet soul. He laughed at my jokes, he attempted some of his own, he danced and sang with me and for a moment, if it weren't for his appearance, you wouldn't have known he was dying. Death seemed to be the only thing I thought about.

We reached the top of the new dune, Winston struggling behind the rest, still passing himself off as fine. Well, that bull shit ended when he collapsed backwards off the dune. "Winston!" I shouted, running after him.

After a few minutes of work we managed to pull together a make shift stretcher to carry him on. Fry and Wren carried him through the city and halfway across the flat until a sand storm blew in and we had to run for cover. We ducked under a collapsed wall that lent against a large, corrugated, metal container. We waited out the storm there and decided after to take a well deserved break.

Teresa and Thomas headed to the top of the nearest sand dune and looked over top to see how far away we were. Not far my ass. It felt like the mountains were walking away from us, so what should we do, but chase them. Everyone waited around as I walked up the hill to Thomas and Teresa, they were in deep conversation about memories and stuff like that when I walked up so I just stared off over the coming land. I was going to speak bit my words strangled in my throat as we heard an ear defining bang. The bang of a gun shot.

We ran back down through the sand to the others who all crowded around Winston. Thomas and Newt began having a small discussion and the rest of the group joined in as I crouched down infront of a very sick Winston. "Hey buddy" I said trying to calm him down a little so I could slip the gun from his hand. He coughed up thick black tar onto the ground and rolled onto his back. He gave me the perfect window of opportunity to slip the pistol from his pale hands. He didn't resist, he just tipped his head back in relief as he lifted his shirt.

Thick black viens seeped up his side originating from his scratched side. He knew it was growing, he cpuld even say it out loud, he was stronger than mist people. I passed the gun backwards to fry and he took it out of my hand harshly as I stood up. I stared at the dying boy that lay infront of me and tears filled my eyes, even if I didn't know Winston that well, I knew he was a nice person and I knew how bad of an example I was being to the rest of the group, it's just, I could die like that but more unexpectedly, without a scratch or bite. Gotta thank the Elderflare for that one.

I stepped away from Winston, I couldn't bear to see him this way, begging to be killed. I don't remember what happened after that very well. I rember Newt handing Winston the gun. I rember hiving Winston a kiss on the forehead in good bye, I remember walking away from that shelter and hearing one final bang. That's it. He was gone.