The Glade | Newt x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Six

-Newt's POV-

I'm worried about Y/N. When she finally came out of the bathroom stalls yesterday, she seemed off. She wouldn't even look me in the eyes straight. She also didn't answer any of my questions, and if she did, the answers were very elusive. Although Y/N is fairly good at hiding things, like when she planned on running into the maze and almost succeeded, I can usually see through her lies. But I can't quite figure out what's bothering her this time. I wish she'd just tell me what was wrong. It would sure make things a lot easier. 

But it's too late to try and find out now, since she's already headed into the maze and it's after lunchtime. I did notice how different she acted before leaving this morning though. Usually after she fully wakes up, she's excited and ready to go in the maze and do what she loves, running. But today Y/N seemed downcast, and reluctant to even go near Dominic and the maze.

 I can't help feeling we would be closer if we shared the same job. We don't get to see each other for more than half of the day, and so we don't experience the same things or can relate to each other as well. Maybe if I were a runner I would know what was up with her.

"Newt?" Thomas's voice asks in the background of my thoughts. Minho and Thomas decided to take the day off today. 

"Heyy shank. Anyone in that head?" Minho's voice. "I bet he's thinking about his girlfriend."

"What?" I snap back to reality. "She's not my girlfriend."

"But you want her to be," Minho laughs. "And you knew exactly who I was talking about when I said it."

When I don't reply Thomas adds in, "You should stop worrying. That's all you do nowadays. C'mon, let's do something fun."

"Yeah, let's throw knives or something we haven't done that in awhile," Minho agrees. "But Newt doesn't do fun, remember Thomas?"

"Oh, shut it," I say. "I'll play." 

Maybe it would be nice to get my mind off of Y/N and trying to find out how I can help her for a bit. Thomas and Minho cheer when I finally agree and we walk over to the deadheads. Slabs of plywood with berry-red painted targets are leaning up against some trees. Thomas reaches behind one and pulls out the sack of throwing knives. I take out my favourite which has a black handle and thin blade. The tip is sharp and sticks into the wood well. 

Thomas throws the first knife and it bounces off the wood and sticks in the dirt. Minho snickers but his knife does the same which makes me laugh. 

"Hey I'm a bit rusty," Minho grumbles. "Let's see how good you are oh 'high and mighty' Newt."

I line up in front of the target and let the knife slip through my fingers as I cast it towards the wood. The knife lodges into the lower bottom of the target with a soft thump. 

Minho shrugs, "Yeah yeah. You must've been practicing behind our backs."

"I'll let you believe that, oh 'high and mighty' Minho," I snort and pull the knife out of the wood.

We continue like this for hours. Trying different tricks and competing. We even tried seeing how far we could throw from the target and still stick it. Sometimes we gave each other tips, but more often we laughed when someone threw one into a tree behind the target.

 I've missed these kind of days. Just hanging out with two of my closest friends and not giving a care for anything else. When you're in the moment you can forget where you are, that you're still in a maze. But eventually you get reminded of this fact. I remembered when suddenly the doors began closing. I glance up to see the sky has begun to darken. I must have lost track of time. If the doors were really closing then Y/N should have gotten back at least 20 minutes ago. Why didn't she try to find me when she first got back?

"Gotta go guys," I said, dropping my knife into the sack. "Didn't realize it had gotten so late."

Thomas and Minho exchange a look but let me go without anymore complaints. I jog to the closing doors and scan the glade for her. I usually meet her at the door when she first gets back, but because of my loss of time I have no idea where she could be. I spot Dominic hanging around with a couple of builders by the wall and go over.

"Where's Y/N?" I ask him.

Dominic shrugs and points to the homestead. I feel a little more relieved knowing where she is and that she got back safe. I would have thought she would have come found me when I wasn't at the door. Something's definitely going on. 

I walk quickly to the homestead and push the door open. I hear the soft splashing of water coming from one of the backrooms of the base floor. I follow the sound and peer through the opening slit of a door the sound is coming from. Inside, Y/N is leaning over the basin tub of water, washing her face and hands. Her back is to me and I open the door gently. She spins around at the sound of the door creaking.

"Oh, it's just you," her voice falters a bit and I see her eyes are distraught.

"Are you okay?" I ask, even though I know the answer and I feel like I ask this a lot. She's obviously not okay.

"Yup," Y/N smiles tightly and dries her hands on a scratchy towel hanging on the wall. She tries to push past me and into the wide room of the homestead, but I catch and hold her by the waist from where I'm standing in the doorframe.

"Don't lie. What's wrong?" I ask again.

"I said I'm fine," she doesn't meet my eyes and looks to the ground. But when she tilts her head to look, her hair slides from it's place covering her jaw. My eyebrows furrow and I open my mouth in slight shock. There's a clear bruise marking her jaw. I lift a hand to her face and she flinches, along with a terrible job of trying to hide it. I thought at first maybe she had fallen, but after she flinched like that falling is definitely not the case.

"Who hit you?" I'm trying to stay calm but I need to know what's going on.

Y/N brings her arm up to cover her jaw and I see another bruise forming on her arm, this one a lot fresher. She pulls out of my grip and turns to walk away but I hold her by the wrist.

"Who bloody did it? Why won't you tell me? We'll banish him on the spot-" my voice progressively gets angrier and my insides are on fire.

"Stop! I'm fine. Just don't make a big deal about it."

"They're breaking our number one rule, they can't stay in the glade then. You know that," I insist. "Tell me who it is."

When Y/N stays silent in my grasp,  I think of when it could have happened. The one bruise seems to be a day older than the other. But I was with her all of yesterday, except for the maze of course. The maze.

"It was Dominic," I say to her. She turns to me, not responding. She looks angry and sad at the same time if that's even possible. But she doesn't deny my accusation. 

"I'm going to kill that bastard."

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A/N: Whoops sorry for the swearing guys. If anyones uncomfortable then replace it with 'shank' ahah. Anywho theres another two chapters. Now its really late since I snuck my laptop to finish these, so I'm off to hit the hay. Also we're almost at 1k views which is so insaneee. Thank you to any people who have actually read this story and enjoyed it. I love you all and stay safe!