"Why am I assigned to look after someone?" Cathy questioned.
Not with anger. Not rudely.
Just,
out of curiosity.
She didn't spend the last three years studying advance calculus, human anatomy, computer science and practicing boxing. Not to mention the number of mornings where she was made to spend hours in the gym doing a bunch of exercises and a lot of running on the thread mil without any explanation as to why they made her do all of that.
But if one thing was clear. It certainly wasn't to have the girl babysit a new comer.
It was odd. Over the years there were many new subjects who were brought in at W.I.C.K.E.D. but none of them needed to have a 'personal assistant' to help them cope with settling in.
"This one's different" Ava spoke, trying to reason with the girl "he's been through a lot"
"So have the others" Cathy simply stated "why does he get the star treatment"
Ava sighed.
She rose up from her chair and walked over to a shelf full of folders behind her. After shuffling through some, she pulled a grey one labelled 'subject 05' and placed it in front of the young girl.
"open it" Ava calmly said, not lifting her gaze from the folder.
Cathy meekly reached out and slid the plastic file toward her before fully lifting it from the table and flipping open the cover and began to read it.
Birth name: Denver Jade
Age: 15
Height: 5'10
Denver Jade, turned over to W.I.C.K.E.D. by Felicia Lewis. Son of Liam Jade and Amy Jade. Brother to Lizzie Jade.
!Needs Therapy!
●Been under the influence of alcohol since a year.
●Undergone physical abuse by Liam Jade.
●Suspected to have anxiety dreams.
Cathy flipped through the remaining three pages, which contained stuff about his appearance like eye colour, hair colour, and how fast he could run, results from his eye test and other medical reports.
Ava waited patiently for Cathy to respond. The girl closed the folder and placed it back on the table before her.
"He's been abused?" She softly asked, feeling sad for the poor boy.
Ava simply turned to her right and picked up a tab. After a couple of minutes she tured the device toward Cathy. The girl looked at the screen, footage from a camera started to play.
She watched as an elderly man yelled at a thin frail boy before he marched up to him and slapped him, making him fall to the floor before yanking him back to his feet and throwing him against the wall.
The girl bit her lip as she squeezed her fists tightly.
The next clip played. It was the same boy, only slightly taller. He was crouched in a corner on his knees,his arms in front of him, held up to defend himself while a man threw what seemed like a beer bottle at him before kicking him and walking away.
"Turn it off" Cathy mumbled as she looked at her feet and away from the tablet.
Ava nodded as she turned off the device. They both sat there in silence before Cathy finally spoke.
"How did you find these?"
"We'd asked the family to turn the kids to us" the older woman explained "but they refused. So during one of our visits we placed a few cameras to keep an eye on them, to find an opportunity to bring the kids with us when the parents weren't home. But we had to wait. Not everyone agreed with our terms and taking away children without consent would make us look bad. So once the parents died and they had no one else to look after them, we brought him and his sister here"
"Is he alright?" Cathy asked, concerned. What she saw was brutal and she was deeply disturbed "where is he now?"
"He's fine, for now" Ava assured "he's been here for a week but he's still not fully settled in, like how you and the others are. So we think it'd help him if he had some company of someone around his age"
"Why me?" The girl asked "why not Thomas? They're the same age"
She wasn't complaining. She wanted to help but why choose her when there were boys who were the same age the new kid. Or perhaps the strong minded Teresa who could also help, since she was a favourite too.
"We both know Thomas is too shy and is terrible at making conversations when he meets someone" Ava chuckled "Minho will tell him to straight up 'grow some', whatever that means. And Teresa, even though she's mature, she's not the type who'll step in to comfort someone with heartfelt words. They all lack something you have"
Cathy waited for her to finish.
"Compassion. Even though you're headstrong and stubborn you have this thing of reaching out to help people, to be a friend to someone when they don't have any. Like when you first met Minho. Thanks to you, we can now have conversations with him without him thrashing around and swearing over and over agin. And Winston? Ever since you spoke to him a year ago, he's stopped crying, he's started to talk and actually cooperate"
Ava paused.
"You will help him, won't you?"
"Of course" Cathy smiled slightly, standing up as an escort appeared by the door "do I meet him now?"
"Yes" Ava smiled "oh and Cathy?"
"Yes?"
"Don't call him Denver. That isn't his name anymore"
YOU ARE READING
Sempiternal//Newt (maze runner)✔
Fanfiction"Life had been taken away even before we were put in the maze. We were like lab rats, experiments or pawns in a game that deep down, we all knew we had no chance of winning. But then, I met you and it gave me a slight chance of hope. And no matter...
