"Bloody..."
Clara knew that voice instantly. She fluttered her eyes open to see Newt sitting up on the bed, confusion darkening his features.
"Newt!" Clara cried. She shot up out of her chair and threw her arms around his neck. Newt seemed shocked at first and hesitated, but eventually his arms tightly wrapped around her. Tears welled up in Clara's eyes at the feeling. After a few long seconds, she broke their embrace and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again." she choked, tears finally falling down her cheeks. He looked at her, and for some reason he had a look of shock and realization on his face. But a realization of what? Clara shook it off.
"Are you okay? What happened? Was it Grievers?"
Newt bit his lip and looked away, tears threatening to spill over his eyes.
"...Newt? What's going on?" Clara grasped his hands, but he flinched and pulled them away, burying his face in them instead.
"I'm sorry..." he whimpered, barely audible. "I'm sorry..."
"Newt, what's going on? Talk to me."
He looked up at her, his big brown eyes glossy with tears.
"I was so sick. Sick of people dying. Sick of being vulnerable. Sick of life..."
Newt didn't have to say anything more before Clara realized what he'd done.
"You..." She couldn't bring her self to say the sickening words struggling to roll their way off her tongue. She shook her head in disbelief; at her reaction, Newt's lip quivered like a small child's. His eyebrows furrowed to stop himself from crying, but to no avail. As soon as Clara wrapped her arms around him he shattered, sobbing into her shirt's thin material.
"Jesus, Newt..." was all Clara could mutter. With her memory gone, she didn't quite know what she did when someone cried. But, she guessed it was just offering a hug and sitting with them, due to her speechlessness. For a few minutes, she sat with Newt as he wept, not knowing what to do except to keep hugging him. Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door and both of their heads shot up.
"Clara, you in there? We have to get going." Clara sighed hearing Zart's voice behind the door.
"Go." Newt whispered, his voice weak. Clara looked at her friend and back at the door, hesitant to leave him in his current state. Newt only nodded, removing his hands from her back to wipe his eyes.
"Clara?"
"Yes, I'm coming!" Clara exclaimed, rising from the bed. "I'll be back to check up on you." She told Newt in a softer tone. He nodded again and made a shooing motion with his hands, and with that, Clara left.
She joined Zart by the creaky staircase near Newt's room and they made their way towards the Gardens.
"So, how is he?" Zart asked. Clara swallowed hard, she didn't quite know what details to tell him.
"He's... fine, I guess, obviously not walking around anytime soon."
"That's it? And by the way, what took you so long? Were you-" he made a kissy face and batted his eyes teasingly, receiving an elbow in the gut.
"Haha very funny. You're really joking about that now?" Clara asked semi-seriously, biting back a smirk.
They separated as they arrived at the Gardens; Clara picked up a bucket and began to collect fertilizer. In reality, however, she was only pretending to pick up fertilizer and instead was gazing into the Maze. She had wondered what it was like past those looming walls ever since she had left the Box. She wanted to know, for some unknown reason. But she could only do that if she was a Runner, or else she'd be breaking the rules.
Well why don'tI just becomea Runner then?, she thought, Stupid, why didn't I just think about that before. She wondered if Alby would let her, but that wasn't the least of her worries; what if Newt didn't want her to?He couldn't stop her, but she knew it would hurt him, considering how he felt about the Maze.
The remainder of the day went by in a flash, and Newt and becoming a Runner were the only two things on her mind. She had developed a game plan on how to convince both Newt and Alby to let her try Running. She wanted to tell Newt very badly when she visited again, but she knew it wouldn't have been best, especially because of how fragile he was at the moment.
She settled into her hammock for the night, staring at Newt's empty hammock a foot away from hers. She was tired out from having to deal with the events from the past couple days, so she fell asleep, millions of questions resting in the back of her mind.
