Trust : 10
"You want to kill her?" I stared at Thomas in disbelief. "She tore him apart!"
"Not now, I mean later. When I get into the games." Thomas looked over at me, but his wide smile fell when he saw my face. "What's wrong?"
"I need to leave." I stood and pushed past the people who had sat down next to us. Ignoring their grumbles and complaints, I made my way towards the escalator going back down to ground level. The pain was beginning to come back, but no water came to my rescue this time. I rubbed my temple and closed my eyes tightly.
'Evil people in evil places using evil creatures for evil games.'
This is what dad was talking about?
The boy's pale face wouldn't leave my mind. His empty eyes staring, all the blood, his broken white feathers…
"Newt?"
I opened my eyes. I was at the bottom of the escalator, my hands holding my head. Thomas stood in front of me. He had one hand on my shoulder as he tried to catch my eye. I shoved him off.
"How could you possibly want to join something like that?" I glared at him. Heat flushed my cheeks. "They killed him!"
"Newt, please, calm down-"
"Don't talk to me! Don't come near me!" I ran towards the arched entrance. The guards ignored me as I dashed out into the street.
Tears streamed down my face as I ran blindly. I didn't even know where I was going.
Wraiths were terrible creatures used to kill people. People like me. And people watched it for fun, for entertainment. Everyone called it the games, as if it was as tame as soccer or football…
And Thomas was just like everyone else. He wanted to become that. He wanted to kill that beautiful creature. Did she even have a choice? Did she want to escape?
I finally had to stop running. My heart pounded in my chest and rang in my ears. I staggered into an alley and collapsed against the wall, sliding down to the ground. I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my head in them, my arms wrapped around tightly. Shaky sobs racked my frame and made my cracked ribs flare with pain.
I never meant to kill Colin. I just wanted to talk to someone, to play with someone. I didn't want to be alone anymore. But they were afraid of me, jealous of my wings, and everything dad had said came true. Instinct had taken over and Colin was dead.
I wanted mom. She would know what to do.
…
Amy lay in her hospital bed with tubes and wires everywhere. A machine beeped slowly next to her and several nurses stood around.
"How much time does she have?" David asked quietly and a nurse looked up at him with tired eyes.
"Minutes."
David slowly walked to the side of the bed and placed a shaky hand on his wife's forehead, feeling her cold skin. She didn't move at his touch.
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart." He whispered into her ear. "I tried to help you…"
"We'll leave you alone." The nurse said softly and began directing people from the room. She disconnected all the wires leading to the machine, silencing the rhythmic but loud beeps.
David sat in the small chair next to Amy's head. He stroked her blonde hair gently and listened to her breathe calmly. But as the minutes began to tick by, her breaths slowly began to fade. More time passed in between each one, and they grew shallow. David lowered his head into the crook of her neck, listening as she finally let go.
I lifted my head and leaned it against the concrete wall behind me. Mom was dead. Dads mind was too distraught for me to stay any longer. I couldn't cry anymore, even though the emptiness inside me was unbearable.
'When they have a hybrid child…they develop cancer.'
It was my fault. Whatever wraiths did to people, it had made me, and I killed mom. I killed Colin.
…
Someone was calling my name. It was distant and fuzzy, and the hands shaking my shoulders felt foreign. I groggily opened my eyes and blinked up at the blurry outline of the alley. The ground was hard under me and it was cold.
"Newt?"
It was Thomas. I blinked again and finally made out his worried face. He was crouched over me.
"I said don't talk to me." I slurred, my throat sore from crying. I pushed him away and tried to sit up but my ribs protested painfully, forcing me to stop and take a second. Thomas sat back on his heels, his arms resting on his knees.
"You weren't at the house…" He said but I glared at him and he trailed off.
"Are you stupid? I said leave me alone!" I tried again to stand but nothing seemed to be working right. I was cold, stiff, exhausted…
"You were talking about her, in your sleep." Thomas said quietly. I froze. "Your mom? She had cancer too, right?"
"Yes." I hissed and gave up on standing, instead settling for sitting against the wall. "Now she's dead."
"My mom died last year."
I couldn't say anything to that. I stared at the ground and tried to quell the rising heat and anger in my chest.
"They left me with Mrs. Wren when I was just a baby." Thomas continued softly. "Dad divorced her shortly after. He started to work in Xylem at WICKED when she died."
"Sounds like dads are terrible people."
"They're just people, Newt. Scared people. The person you were supposed to share the rest of your life with is taken from you in such a painful way…" Thomas met my eyes. "You have to move on, or the grief will never let you go."
"He wants the games to rip me apart." I glared. "Scared or not, I hate him."
"People say things they shouldn't when they're scared."
'No, honey. Sometimes people say things they shouldn't. Sometimes people do things they shouldn't.'
We sat quietly for a long time. Thomas didn't say anything else, just patiently sat by my side as I thought. He seemed so much older than 9. He understood people and how they thought. He understood me. I didn't know what to do with that. Could people really care about you? People who weren't family?
"I'm sorry." I sighed heavily.
"It's okay." Thomas gave me a small smile. He then reached out his hand.
I looked at it for a few moments. It was a leap of faith, an open gesture of trust. I took his hand and squeezed.
"Friends?"
"Friends."