Alex woke up with the sun on her face and Bark snuggled at the end of the bed. She stretched and sat up. Her night came slamming back to her.
Did Minho really stay with me? Is he still mad at me? Are we friends again? What the shuck is going on with him? Also, more importantly, those weren't just regular dreams. Those felt too real, were those memories? Those had to be! I had an older brother and a twin sister! We watched our parents murdered...we were so little...who killed them? Why would they kill them? I was tortured and used for my ideas, my doodles. Also I knew the Gladers before the maze! Grownups.. scientists forced me to create monsters that stalked the very corridors outside the stone walls. This is my fault. Even if I didn't fully remember making them that ruthless and blood thirsty! It was MY idea. And those kids in the Deadheads, that was on ME.
Her thoughts spinning around her head faster and faster.
Alex curled up with her head in her hands. What if the guys found out? What would they do to her? They couldn't know! They will never know, she would never tell them! Bark had crawled up closer to Alex. She wrapped her arms around the dog.
"So Bark, I apparently found you in some desert city! We were besties before this! You're such a good girl!" She scratched her dogs ears. Bark licked her face.
She groaned. She needed coffee. She got up, and got ready for the day.
She was sitting alone with a cup of coffee, still trying to process her memories, absentmindedly rubbing Bark's head who had her head in her lap. Two boys plopped down beside her, squishing her in the middle. Frypan and Chuck were making an Alex sandwich, both with huge stupid grins, and wiggling their eyebrows.
"Umm, hi? Can I help you two hooligans? As you probably did NOT notice, I was enjoying a cup of coffee. ALONE." She held her mug up, and took a sip dramatically.
Both boys giggled, and looked at each other, eyebrows raised in mock shock.
"She doesn't know." Chuck giggled "She doesn't know that we know!"
"I guess not. Maybe we need to inform her...but where is the fun in that?" Frypan added.
Alex was utterly confused, "What do I not know that you know that you think I know? What the shuck are you talking about?"
She panicked a little.
Maybe they know about Minho...?! Did they see him leave my room? Also where the shuck is that shank?
They burst out laughing, at the same time as Newt sat down across from the three. He had a stern look, and a slight frown. He was staring at Alex.
"What happened last night?"
The boys beside her giggled even harder.
Yup. That's going on. Great. Rumors will spread now like wildfire.
Alex panicked again.
What happened? Does he know about what I did? How? He can't read minds! ...can he? Wouldn't bloody surprise me.
"Alex! What happened? Why was Minho in your bed?" Newt was clenching his jaw, his eyebrows touching, he was furrowing them so much, and a deep crease in his forehead.
Alex looked like she was slapped. Chuck and Frypan gasped dramatically like the gossipy old woman they were, trying hard to act surprised.
How the shuck did they find out? Did someone see him...or he said something..?
She could fell the heat of embarrassment and anger rise in her face.
"Minho, the Shank? And our Alex, the Shanket?" Gasped Fry, he looked like Christmas came early.
"Yes yes yes, I knew it!" Squealed Chuck. "I knew Minho wouldn't brag about that stuff if it wasn't true!"
"WHAT THE SHUCK? BRAGGING ABOUT WHAT EXACTLY? WHAT THE SHUCK IS HE SAYING?" Alex was shaking with anger.
Newt's eyes never left Alex's face. Her face was now burning with embarrassment and anger. She ran a hand through her hair, she bit her bottom lip for a second, trying to compositing herself. It wasn't Newt's fault Minho was being a real shuckn' slint-head. Newt sat stone still, waiting for her explanation, the boys beside her were practically vibrating with excitement. She smacked both boys in the back of the head.
"Get it together!" She scolded the boys.
She sat up straight, met Newt's accusing gaze, she ground her teeth for a moment and said as evenly as possible, even though her blood was boiling.
"Nothing happened ya bloody slint-heads!"
Newt's expression never changed.
"Newt. Nothing happened. I had a nightmare. I was screaming, Minho woke me up, I didn't want to be alone. I asked him to stay. Bark was there too. We slept. . . And I'm pissed that he would insinuate anything else happened." she added, "The shuck face...when I get my hands on him...oh he's dead! SO dead."
The tension in Newt's shoulders left. "Nothing happened? And he only stayed AFTER you asked. Ya?"
"Yes Newt. What is HE saying happened? Because now I'm going to strangle him." She crossed her arms, then muttered. She cleared her throat, she ran a hand threw her hair.
"Come on Newt! You're acting like an overprotective big brother-"
She stopped mid sentence. Pain seared through her head.
"AHHH!"
She slapped her hands to her temples and held her head. Her eyes went wide, her heartbeat sped up and she pushed herself away from the table, stumbling backwards. Bark was whining. She was standing, panting, staring at Newt. Her head seared with pain again, she clutched her head and double over for a second, with a cry of pain. She stood up, her head snapped upwards and her eyes glazed for a moment, her body shaking. Pain shot through her head, the same memories from last night shot forward, but only bits of them, and they seemed brighter, more colour, clearer:
*** She was in a living room, there was an older boy, but not by much, maybe he was 5 or 6. She was sitting right beside him, snuggled up close
*** She was being dragged away by people in black masks, a girl and boy beside her,
*** she could hear the boy yelling and screaming behind her, a big heavy door slammed shut cutting off the boy's desperate attempts. She was being strapped to a chair that looked like a dentist chair, "Hello Alexandria."
She sobbed, "That's not my name! Where is my sister? What are you going to do to my brother?"
*** She saw a curtain of shaggy golden blond hair, Newt! Beside him was a girl, Alex thought it was her, she took a step forwards and then stopped, mouth open. Beside Newt on his other side was the same girl. She looked between the 2 girls. The girls sitting either side of Newt, all three looked the same! Only way to tell the girls apart was one was more a redhead then the other.
Alex blinked and looked back at Newt
"Y..you..! It was you! It IS you..."
Her hazel eyes never left Newt's chocolate brown ones. His familiar brown ones, his golden hair...it was his voice she heard on her first day! His young voice was screaming in her head. It was his blurred face in her memories last night.
"Shuck shuck shuck!"
All the boys were now standing, all reaching for her, concerned. Newt took a step forward, "Alex?"
"WHOLLY MOTHER OF A SHUCKIN BLOODY GREAVER!" She yelled, with a burst of laughter, but fell into shock again.
"Alex? What's wrong?" Newt was panicking, he had never seen her like this. "Also LANGUAGE!"
"Newt?" She breathed, "Is that really you?" Newt was really worried now.
"Uh, ya Alex, it's me...what's going on? You ok?" Her face broke into one of pure and utter joy. She jumped and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Alex, what the shuck is wrong with you?!" he yelped.
She was laughing hysterically, "Newt you wouldn't even believe me! We need to talk. Can we talk? RIGHT NOW! Just you and me!" She was jumping up and down. Fry and Chuck looked hurt, "boys, in a bit okay?."
Newt looked worried, concerned and very confused. He was convinced she was having a mental breakdown. Alex grabbed his wrist and dragged him to a quiet place under some trees. She sat down and patted the ground. Newt plopped down, "Ok what's bloody going on?"
Alex ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath and explained what she heard in her head right before she passed out on day one, how she didn't remember just her name, but 2 names. She explained her nightmares - except the last 2, of creating the monster and of her screaming for Minho.- Newt sat there wide eyed and mouth open, still as a statue.
"So when I said 'stop being a protective big brother' and the pain in my head... some pieces of those nightmares, or memories came back, but only the pieces of you...it's you. You were in my memories!"
She took a dramatic pause, "Newt...you ARE my big brother! That's why you're familiar, that's why I feel safe with you! That's why I love you, but not in a romantic way, eww. That's why we argue and fight like we do! That's why you get so bloody protective!"
Alex was laughing again, "Also.. obviously, why, you and I have the sameish hair, and the same accent and why only you and I say bloody!"
Alex was grinning like a lunatic. Newt was staring at Alex, his eyes as big as saucers. Then a grin slowly spread across his face.
"Alex!" He pulled her into a big bear hug.
"You! You were my missing piece. When I came here I felt empty, like I was missing something."
His smile faded, he looked down. "Alex, I should probably tell you something, you should probable know this..." He signed, all the happiness left him.
"I was here for a few months, I was a runner with hope of finding a way out of here. The longer I was here, the more hopeless I felt. There was something missing and I didn't know what. One day, I was the lowest I have ever felt, I went out early into the maze...I climbed up the wall...and...and.."
Alex was frozen, she knew something terrible happened to him, she felt it, she had a pretty good idea what happened. She reached out and held his hand.
"Newt, you can tell me. No judgment." She encouraged him, "Sibling code."
He smiled sadly at her. "I climbed the wall, using the ivy. And I...just couldn't take it anymore, Alex! I was weak, I was empty and I couldn't take it. I jumped off the shucking wall!"
Alex squeezed his hand, tears leaking down her eyes. She lifted a hand to his cheek. He looked away, but continued.
"Obviously I didn't die, I got tangled in the bloody ivy, it snapped my leg in 3 places and I smashed my head. Minho and Alby found me, and dragged me back to the Glade right before the doors closed. Jeff did his best...If I managed to actually end my life that day, I wouldn't have found my missing piece a few months later!" He reached out and put his hand over their intertwined ones.
"Oh Newt. I'm sorry you had to go through all that! And I'm sorry I wasn't there!" Alex said quietly. Newt had a small sad smile. He sighed.
"I live with the consequences every day."
The siblings were quiet for a minute. Newt looked up "Wait, you said there was another one? There is another one of us? We have a sister?!"
Alex nodded her head, a big smile growing on her face again. "Ya, I have a twin! Her name is Sonya! It was her name I remembered after my own, after Gally smashed my head."
Her smile slipped "I don't know where she is though".
"Well, when we get out of this bloody maze, you and I will find her!"
"Good that, big bro!"
The two sat quietly for a bit, enjoying the realization of who they were.
"Well maybe we should go tell Admiral Alby, people might start assuming things, Newtie."
She rounded on him, hands on her hips, eyebrows scrunched, angry.
"Like how SOMEONE assumed some THINGS about last night. Also, I need to have a word with a certain shucking runner!"
Newt held his hands up, chuckling. "Hey, hey, just blame it on the big brother instincts. Just gotta make sure my baby sister is safe! And I do not envy the shank when you get ahold of him!"
"Ya well, I can take care of myself. Thanks." She crossed her arms and pouted, "I'm not a shuck baby!"
"Ya I can see that!" He flicked her pouty lip, "word of brotherly advice: go for his weak spots. Face and hair" he winked and then picked her up and threw her over the shoulder and hulled her to Homestead.
"Off to find Alby, inform him of our big revolution and then you have a job to do, slacker!"
Alby sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing his temples in confusion. "So your shucking telling me you two are siblings, and you're having memory dreams?"
Both British Glades nodded.
"Holy Shuck!"
"You can say that again," Newt said. Alex nodded.
That's when the Greenie Alarm went off.