Lust

Chapter Six

What is this place? I think as I run out of the homestead, sobbing.

Once I'm outside I remember I have nowhere to go, I don't have a hammock yet and I don't know my way around. I decide to run into the woods.

I find a tree a few hundred feet into the forest and climb up it, still crying. I stop at a branch about halfway up the tree and cry softly.

Suddenly I hear rustling below me and I realize I'm not alone.

"Are you okay, love?" I would recognize that beautiful accent anywhere, it's Newt.

"Sorry. I- I- I didn't know you were here," I manage to get out in between sobs.

"Thomas told you everything?"

"I assume so. I can't really know for sure though," I respond.

Newt climbs up and sits next to me on my branch. "He just wants you to trust him. Our only family here is each other, and he just wants you to know he cares. He thought it would be better this way. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you were the one who didn't want to tell me."

"I really was going to tell you, it's just hard to take it all in at once. When I got here the greenie system wasn't exactly perfect yet and I got all the information we had at once. It wasn't good, I reacted the same as you, this is the same tree actually."

"How long have you been here?"

"Over three years, I was the second one out of that bloody box."

"The only thing Thomas didn't tell me was why we're here," I say, hoping Newt knows the answer.

"We don't know. I know you don't remember anything, happens to all of us. Except you're different, you came up with Thomas and you remember him. And the rest of us came out of the box alone. We don't know who sent us here or why, but we do know that, for the time being, we're stuck here. And I'm going to be honest, it sucks, but you have Thomas and me and fifty other gladers here for you. Okay?" Newt asks, looking very concerned.

"Okay."

"Good," Newt says, pulling me in for a hug. "Everything is going to be alright, love."