Chapter 7 – The Girl

The alarm continues to blare, and everyone quits whatever they were doing and jogs over to the Box. I begin to run to the Box to catch up with everyone else. I look around at the sea of faces and see different emotions radiating from each one. Shock, surprise, caution, fear. And I can understand why. Alby told me before during the Tour that the Box only comes up once a month.

It's come up three times in one day.

Everyone crowds around the Box, and Newt pushes his way to the front of the line. I stay at the back; I can still see thanks to my height.

Whispers surround me, and people are acting all fidgety and nervous.

As the lid of the Box begins to split in the middle, everyone crowds in the extra bit closer. The gap gets bigger and bigger and soon it's wide open for the boys at the front to see. I stand on my tip toes and try to see what's inside.

Newt leans in, and even from here I can see his evident shock. Gally, Thomas, Alby and the Asian guy all wear similar expressions to Newt.

"What. The. Hell." Thomas says.

All the boys behind them start pestering them with questions.

"What's inside?"

"Is it more supplies?"

"What's going on?"

"EVERYONE SLIM IT!" Newt shouts. My brows furrow together with thought. Newt had a similar reaction when I had showed up in the Box. When I had showed up in the Box.

No,when a girl had shown up in the Box.

I push my way to the front of the gather and pause next to Gally. Then I peer into the Box.

A girl is sitting at the bottom of the Box, arms wrapped around herself.

"It's a girl." I whisper. Everyone went so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop from a mile away.

Everyone seemed frozen in place, but Newt snapped out of it first and jumped down into the Box. The girl raised her head from her knees and stared at Newt. He was speaking to her softly, and he held out his hand. She looked from his hand to his face, and I'm pretty certain a look of awe came over her face. I cock my head to one side and try to keep my polite expression.

Newt helps in getting her out of the Box, and she tumbles to the ground in a pile at our feet. This time, no one touches her. She hurriedly gets to her feet and glances around in panic. She looks around at all the faces and does a double-take when she spots me. I don't blame her, I was the only other girl here. She just sort of stands there, trembling.

I walk over to her slowly, and gently place a hand on her shoulder. She flinches slightly, but I quickly reassure her.

"It's alright. You are going to be okay." I say. She coughs.

"I can't remember anything. I don't know where I am. I don't even know my name!" She exclaims with a strange accent. I realise that she has the same accent as Newt. Great.

"Oi, what do ya know? Newt's got a twin!" Someone calls out to break the awkwardness.

"Reckon they know each other?"

"What's with the chicks all of a sudden?"

"Yeah, why does Newt get all of 'em?"

I glance over at Newt and see that his face had gone bright red. I try to keep my composure and keep on reassuring the girl.

"You will remember. It's normal. You are going to be fine." I say again. She must have heard the sincerity in my voice, as she stops trembling and glances up at me.

As soon as she stares at me directly into the eyes, I feel a tug and I'm pulled into the colour of her eyes; cobalt blue. I let out a gasp, which fades as I get whisked away into what feels like a dream. I shut my eyes, but nothing happens. I hold them shut for longer, and when I eventually open them, a scene emerges in front of me.

The boy is sitting at one of the tables across from me. He just arrived the other day and he seems frightened as he stares at his food. I look next to me and see Emerson, my best friend. She has pale blonde hair the colour of snow, and electric blue eyes. She looked like something out of a fairy-tale; the pretty princess. I was more like the wicked witch. She was currently staring at me with amusement. I raise an eyebrow at her.

"What?" I ask. She rolls her eyes dramatically.

"Oh, nothing." She exaggerates like I am completely oblivious to something. I glare at her. She knows I hate it when she speaks to me like that.

"What?" I say more sharply this time.

"You like him, don't you?" I feel my eyebrows shoot to my hairline and my mouth drops open. I glance between Emerson and the new kid.

"I haven't even spoken to him before!" I whisper-yell to her.

"Yeah, but I know how you get with guys." She mimes a dreamy expression and collapses against the table in what appears to be wonder. I shove her shoulder and she laughs.

I look up at the boy again and see him already staring at me.

His gaze quickly drops back to the plate of food in front of him when we make eye contact, but I get a glimpse at his eyes.

A rich, deep chocolate brown.

I feel a tug on my subconscious, and a voice in my head gets whispers softly to me as I am slowly drawn away from the scene at the table.

I try to hold on to the scene, the memory, but it disappears before me as the volume of the voice begins to climb. Louder and louder. The scene vanishes from my sight and now I am just floating. I grasp my head as the voice screeches over and over. I unleash a scream of my own as my head feels like it might explode.

Just when the pain becomes unbearable, I am shaken violently. Reality snaps back to me, and I am suddenly lying down in the Glade next to the Box.

The Asian boy is above me and shaking my shoulders so viciously, my heads slings back and forth. I gasp and he stops shaking and removes his hands. I sit up blindly and whip my head back and forth in shock.

The girl that came in the Box is lying down next to me, and her entire body is shaking uncontrollably. I crawl over to her weakly and roll her to her back. I leap back in fright as her face comes into view.

I, I know her.

She is Emerson.