Newt: A Broken Boy ↠ The Maze Runner

8

"Okay," Thomas said. "You ready to meet the people you'll be in the trials with?"

We were standing outside a set of double doors, I could hear shouting and people running around inside. Taking a deep breath, I nodded.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

There was no denying it. I was nervous. I wasn't sure why, though. I was usually rather good with people, boys at least. Maybe it was the fact that most of these boys would be immune - and I wasn't.

Opening one of the polished white doors, Thomas walked inside, me at his heels. The moment the door opened, I thought I'd gone death. Inside was chaos. Food was flying everywhere, boys screaming, their hands full of tasty delights such as chocolate cake, ice cream, and fruity pie.

I looked over at Thomas, searching for his reassurance, but he was gone. After a frantic search over the room, I saw him standing on a table, a handful of meringue in his hand. He had an evil grin on his face, and I saw that he was aiming for a boy with dark hair in the corner, who was sullenly eating a slice of cheesecake in the corner. I decided I didn't want to be here when that meringue hit, so I turned on my heel and fled.

I made it two corridors before I was stopped, which I thought was impressive. The boy who stopped me was my age, with black hair and an Asian look about him.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm Ne-" I began, but he cut me off.

"You're British," he said. I felt some pride crawl into me, as it always did when someone mentioned my home.

"I am." I felt as if he should be asking the questions, but the boy just seemed a transfixed on hearing me speak, so I continued. "I'm from London - well I was, but  then that got burnt down to the ground."

"Oh." The boy seemed at a loss for words, something that I didn't think he was used to.

"Well... I'm Newt," I repeated, not knowing what else to say. "Who are you?"

The boy smirked, as if he was back on safe ground. "Minho," he said, offering his hand for me to shake. I did.

"I'm guessing that you're that new kid that Thomas told us  about, and you fled from the food hall because of the food fight."

"Yeah. That's one way of putting it."

Minho shrugged, then seemed to lose interest in me. He ran off, in the direction of the food hall.

I decided to go back to my room, as I had nothing better to do. When I got there, the door was slightly ajar, which I found weird. I had definitely shut it before leaving.

I sighed, and stepped in. The moment I shut the door behind me, I spotted a black haired figure sitting on the bed, facing the opposite wall. The person looked back, and I saw it was my sister, Olivia.

"Olivia!" I cried. "How the bloody hell did you get in here?"

She didn't answer, instead she jumped onto me with a hug that nearly knocked me over.

"Love will thaw," she murmured, quoting one of her favourite animated films, Frozen. It was an old film, but she still loved it.

I hugged her back, not exactly processing what was happening. All I could think was that my sister was back.

"James..." she mumbled into my ear, "what did they rename you? If they did, I mean."

"Newt."

"After Isaac Newton?" She asked.

"I guess."

"I'm now Rosa," she said. "Short for Rosalind, after Rosalind Franklin."

We sat down, and she told me a bit about what had happened to her over the last two months. Apparently, WICKED had run some tests on her - and me, though I had been out cold the whole time - and then put her into a room with three other girls. According to Olivia, or Rosa as I was now meant to call her, she was going to be put into the trials as well.

It wasn't long before we got onto the subject of immunity.

"I heard you're immune to the Flare," I sighed. My sister's eyes widened.

"You mean... you're not?" Rosa (or Olivia, whatever), asked, incredulous.

I shook my head. Subconsciously, she drew away from me, but then she let her head rest on my shoulder.

"I don't care." I smiled at her, happy that my non-immunity wasn't a problem in her eyes. "You're still my brother, and I love you more than anything else in the world."

I pulled her closer to me, into a tighter hug. I must've been really tired, because I fell asleep in her arms.

~

I woke up lying next to my sister. I was about to wake her, but then I decided not to. I thought that now that she had slept on it, she might decide that me being not immune was dangerous to her, and that she should go. I made my way off the bed, trying not to  disturb her, but it was too late.

"Newt..." she mumbled, using my new name. I gulped.

"Rosa." The moment I said her name, she was alert. "I... I think you should go."

It was at that point  that I realised what was wrong. I wasn't scared that my sister thought that I would harm her, I was scared that I would harm her. I was scared of myself.

"What... what do you mean, go?" Rosa said, confused.

"I'm dangerous," I said simply. "You should go, before I... before I attack you or something!" I could feel the panic building up, the tears coming to my eyes. "I'm going to go crazy, and I don't want you here to see it! I don't want to hurt you!"

At this point, tears were freely streaming down my face as I looked at my slightly shocked sister.

"Newt - James - stop!" She cried. "You're not thinking straight, stop it!"

"Exactly! I'm going crazy!" I was shouting now, voicing all the emotions that I had been bottling up since Thomas told me that I wasn't immune.

My sister took a deep breath.

"Look. I'll leave, but I don't know why," she began. "I trust you, I know that you would never hurt me, ever. Just remember that I will always love you, no matter what."

And with that, she left.

~

A/N: Hiiiiiiiiiiii I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, it was kind of difficult to write. I also went through the rest of the book and corrected some typos and grammar errors because I'm paranoid that way. Also, sorry for the longish wait, as I said, I found this a bit challenging. Anyway, byeeeee!!