Ensnared

| four |

"Teresa, this is incredible."

Doctor Ava Paige was reading the scribbled information Teresa had scrawled into a file on the trip back from the scorch, explaining the research she'd conducted with Brenda. Ava Paige's smooth features were radiating with an emotion Teresa had rarely ever seen on the doctor's facial features before. Happiness?

After Brenda and Teresa had returned from their trip nearly unscathed, they'd had interesting results to share. While in the scorch, Brenda would display an object and in almost every case, a flicker of vulnerability would pass across the crank's features before shifting into an ugly anger. Teresa would always hit the crank with a launcher's bullet before the crank had the chance to transform it's anger into action. 

Although their parting had been bittersweet – a soft, "that was fun!" from Teresa and a husky promise from Brenda that they'd do something cool again, Teresa was feeling pretty great.

They'd finally reached a breakthrough.

Within the twenty minutes since Teresa had returned, the news had spread like wildfire and it was as if the scientists had retrieved their forgotten hope and were working full throttle to find the cure. Ava Paige, the head doctor, specifically seemed to find the evidence interesting.

"I was enthralled to see what would come from your trip to the scorch but I never could have expected such large results."

"Are you sure they're that huge?" Teresa murmured, examining Doctor Paige's expression carefully. "Wouldn't it be logical for the cranks to experience some sort of trigger from past emotional objects?"

"I don't think you understand, Teresa. This is completely new information to us. Ever since cranks have infested the planet, we've had no hope in actually restoring their memories to them. But this, Teresa. This is important." Touching Teresa's shoulder, Ava Paige's features looked so genuinely sincere and heartfelt, it was impossible for Teresa not to marginally believe her.

Sometimes Teresa was like that. When it was so clear someone was speaking directly from their truest and realest emotions, a part of her automatically trusted them. Believed them. She found herself occasionally wondering if it was a negative thing – if it could lead to something so much more complicated than she wanted to be involved in. Brainwashing? Was she that gullible? Vulnerable? Perhaps it wasn't the weak adjectives that resulted in brainwashing, more so the strong – the empathetic ability to understand people more than others and the trust that came with it.

That was enough thinking – sometimes Teresa longed for the ability to just make her brain. . . shut up.

+ + + +

Teresa.

One of the only parts of her brain she rarely wanted to shut up was her link with Thomas.

Hey, Tom.

Where the hell have you been? I thought you were in class butwhen I was walking past your room –

Ava got me to go conduct research in the scorch. Teresa was lying flat on her bed, gaze trained at the ceiling. Her evening classes had been canceled due to her trip to the scorch and she was all too thankful for it.

The scorch?

Yeah. It used to be a city once – New York, I think – but now it's a wasteland. It's actually really cool, Tom. I wish you'd been there.

Yeah, it sounds cool. Why the heck couldn't I go? Even without being in the same room, she could sense the frustration erupting from his words.

I don't know. The murmured words vocally escaped her lips despite the fact he was too far to hear it in any other way than their connection.

A pause plunged into their conversation as the two teenagers remained occupied with their own thoughts. Teresa lifted herself into a sitting position, looking to her reflection in the mirror. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun, a couple strands escaping at the nape of her neck. A pale, long sleeved turtleneck clung to her form. Clear blue eyes stared back at her, trying to evaluate herself from somebody else's eyes. From Brenda's eyes. What did she think of her? What thoughts ran through her head when looking at her? Was she a science lab rat compared to Brenda's freedom and vivaciousness? A pet? A kid?

What are you thinking about?

Thomas's voice startled her as a sigh escaped her lips and she fell back into her original, lying down position. People's perception of me.

Like who?

Ah, Tom. He knew just how to get to the details. Undoubtedly, one thing about Thomas was that he constantly asked a lot of questions. And yet, he always knew the exact right ones to ask.  

I don't really know. Everybody's, I guess. This girl I met today, Brenda. Teresa rolled onto her side, tracing her fingertip along the white sheets. She's so. . . I don't know, I can't figure out what goes on inside her head.

A tough cookie? An unsolvable puzzle? Woah, has Teresa finally found the one for her?

Shut up, Tom. She could detect the teasing tone in his voice and a small smile absentmindedly curled the edges of her lips.

Oh my gosh, I'm not wrong this time.

Slim it, bud or you got a one way ticket to the crank infested scorch.

Sounds cool to me.

Teresa rolled her eyes, smiling to herself before nudging the conversation in a different direction. On the topic of love interests, how's Newt doing?

I don't like -

Oh, sure, sweetie. Tone layered with sarcasm, Teresa shook her head. Thomas was so clearly crushing on Newt, she was surprised the gang hadn't found out about it yet. Nobody else mastered the starstruck heart-eyes expression quite like Thomas when the blond walked into the room.

I declare this romance topic over and done with.

Good that.

A comfortable silence fell thickly between their words, layering their thoughts with a masked solitude. Despite their conversation about romance having ended, Teresa couldn't get Brenda's darn face out of her head. It wasn't her looks that managed to keep resurfacing in Teresa's mind time and time again. It was more so the fact she was so wildly different than anybody Teresa had ever met before. Within a brief encounter, Teresa could gather enough information about someone to understand them. But Brenda was different. Even after their several hours together in the city, Teresa couldn't quite understand her or get into her head. Brenda was pieced together with question after question and the answers were too far out of reach.

 Ah, shuck, Tom was right. Teresa really did fall for the unsolvable puzzle.