Bruises | The Scorch Trials

chapter 3: back to before

Once upon a time, she was seated in a white room. She kept on looking around the room- never keeping her eyes in one place for too long. She felt scared. This, she knew. The rest had started to fade.

She could not remember her mother anymore. Not that she was too shocked about that. Her mother had not been there for most of her life anyway. Or maybe she had. Jess couldn't remember.

Everything was slowly drowning into a growing pile of oblivion. But she knew the person in front of her. She would not forget him.

Both had tears in their eyes. She couldn't remember why. In fact, she couldn't remember much at all.

Who was the boy in front of her?

When she woke up from the strange dream she had, she felt pain. Her body constricted harshly against the tight coils of rope binding her to the table.

She didn't open her eyes.

The sound of voices surrounded her bedside in a cacophony of different pitches. The dizzying disarray of sound drilled tornados into her brain and sent her back to sleep.

Back to the dreams.

This time, no confusion was present. She was younger than the last dream- but still had the same recognisable features.

"Theo, you have to run." She whispered. Softly. Gently.

The boy she was speaking to- Theo- had a small rivulet of tears dripping down his face and onto his hand that was conjoined with the girls. With Jess'. With hers.

"No." He protested- his voice breaking.

Jess smiled softly at Theo. "You have to."

"I don't want to. I don't want to lose you too."

"You need to. Go. Make good of what you can in this world."

Theo's face crumpled slightly; his resolve cracked.

"I don't know that there is any good in this world." He whispered back. His voice had started to show the tears that were evident on his face.

For a long minute, there was just the quiet patter of rain and smacking of the wind.

Then Jess replied- "If you are alive and I am alive, then there must be good in this world. We will suffer through the bad, brother. We will. But you need to remember that those experiences are just bruises. They fade."

Theo looked up at his sisters words. He opened his mouth to reply, but it was too late. Jess had pushed him away. WCKD guards were knocking at the window. Darkness had started to threaten the edges of her dream.

Of her memory.

She woke up.