CHAPTER 7 - THE NEW INVENTION

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What she first saw was her mother. That young woman with beautiful green eyes, a compassionate smile and wavy dark brown curls over her shoulder. She smiled even though she could realize that these weren't real. But it felt real and she had to take advantage of that.

"Teresa?" asked her mother with her beautiful and soft voice. Teresa could almost feel her salty tears running down on her cheek. "You have grown up a lot since I last saw you." That was right, it had been about ten years since she saw her mother for the last time.

While her mother took her hand, she was trying not to cry so hard. She knew that was a simulation and Chancellor was probably watching her. If she cried, that would mean she was weak. Crying wasn't a sign of being weak but she knew that Chancellor and Thomas didn't think that way. "I missed you so much mother," she said. Her mother was one of the saddest parts of her life in WICKED. She always thought that she would never see her again.

When her mother hugged her, the hallucination disappeared. "What is happening?!" screamed Teresa, nearly at the same time with Chancellor Paige. "Did something go wrong?" She knew that this wasn't how the simulation should have ended.

"So it is clear that I have done a real big mistake by trusting you, Thomas. You told me that the machine is ready and it is the smartest thing you've ever invented! If this is the smartest you created, well, I don't want to try the other!"

These words were so cruel for only a small mistake but Thomas didn't seem offended. Actually, he seemed like he was proud of his work. "No, Chancellor Paige. I just realized that I plugged in something wrong." This was still his mistake but he was totally fine with it. "We may try again, now I did the right thing. I am sure it will work this time."

"We don't need to waste our time with your useless machine. Make me something better Thomas!"

When Chancellor left the room with mean steps, there was a smirk on Thomas's face. "I just saved your life, you are welcome."

"What do you mean?"

Teresa was surprised, this wasn't what she expected. She thought Thomas would go straight to his 'invention room' and make some other torture machines. But, smiling to Teresa and saying he saved her life was not one of her guesses. "You have no idea about how evil this machine was going to become. So I saved your life, also your love and respect for your mother."

"W-What d-do you m-mean?"

This time, she was not surprised, she was totally shocked and thinking of the fact that she doesn't get shocked easily, this was an exception. "You know how my inventions work, they use your loved ones as a weapon against you. Your mother could turn into a monster and I just didn't want that to happen."

"Now you really are my Knight in Shining Armor." She stopped for a second, thinking of what Thomas had done. "You care more about me than you care about what Chancellor thinks about you." And this was a big compliment for Teresa.

Thomas laughed, slightly stepping out of the room to probably create a better torture machine. "Thank you Miss Agnes, finally I can be approved by you." Teresa giggled, hitting Thomas's shoulder softly. "But I seriously need to create another machine and I don't have enough time. It will be midnight soon and then the second day of our pre-trials will start."

"Ugh," Teresa groaned. "If I hate these pre-trials so much, I will probably hate the real trials even more. I can't believe we only have a day and a... half? I don't know, does five hours count as half?" Everything was becoming harder and harder. WICKED needed to understand that they were all only teenagers.

Teenagers needed to be understood but in a world that Flare exists, nobody cared about silly teenagers. Teresa knew that this thought was making both of them angry. And probably the other subjects were also thinking this way.

"Come with me," said Thomas, trying so hard to not hold Teresa's hand. "We have a machine to create, a pre-trial to go on, and some time to spend together alone."

Teresa was almost going to laugh at the thought of spending some time in Thomas's 'invention room'. But when she understood that he was serious, she stopped. "Really? You never show someone your private laboratory?"

"Well, you are special," he said, getting out of the room with her. He was walking so fast that Teresa had some trouble catching up with him. But when they reached the laboratory, he smiled and opened the door. "Enjoy."

Teresa closed the door after getting in. "You can't be serious," she said in impress, looking at Thomas's inventions. She couldn't count them but there were many for a boy of only sixteen years. "Thomas, you really are a genius!"

She stared at the inventions, then checked some of them. They were all working and there was a paper in front of each, telling how it worked and why it worked. Thomas was so organized while working despite the room he stayed.

"I am not a genius Teresa," he said, as usual. "I just love to work and create new things. Although I make inventions for WICKED most of the time, there are some machines I created to help people. Because this is what I want to do, not to learn people's fears. I want to help them overcome their fears."

These were such wise sentences from a boy who still thought that WICKED was good. Teresa could understand the difference but she didn't want to point it out because if she did, they would probably have another quarrel.

And she didn't want to have another one with her old friend.

"But that doesn't change the fact that you need to create another thing." This was making Thomas nervous, what they just tried on Teresa was one of his most amazing inventions. "They all work the same at some point, why do you try to create something more evil?" She didn't know if more evil inventions existed but she also didn't want to learn.

Thomas sat on his chair by his white long table. There were so many notes, some drawings and ideas waiting to be created. Teresa smiled at how much he was into his creations. "Because this is what Chancellor Paige wants me to do. She wants me to break through the subjects' limits." Teresa nodded slowly in approval because that was the least she could do.

"Let's create the evilest thing Chancellor Paige can ever imagine then."

"So you mean it didn't go great," said Minho, resting his head on the sofa. "Don't try to hide the sad truth with details Newt. We all understood the truth by now, we failed!" It was hard to understand if he was mocking or serious.

Newt didn't want to talk about the conversation anymore. Yes, he failed at learning the truth about WICKED's evil tests. "Stop talking about this bloody thing," he said angrily. He just wanted to sleep, because it was nearly midnight but he knew he was going to see nightmares.

Nightmares were scary and Newt didn't want to deal with them.

"I think the best thing to do is going to bed," said Alby. He seemed like a leader, even though nobody officially announced that. But he seemed strong, brave and he was also older than the others. Actually they were only a year apart but that still made him older.

They all agreed and decided that they need to sleep. The pre-trials was probably going to start early tomorrow, so they all needed a great sleep. But they all knew that they were going to deal with their inner monsters and nightmares by the time they were alone.

They all knew it yet nobody told it. Because that was the rule, it was nearly impossible to talk about the harmful problems.

"Tomorrow is going to be a hard day," he muttered, going into his own room and trying to sleep without being able to do any other thing.