STATIC → newt , tmr [EDITING ; VERY SLOW UPDATES]

chapter xi

She shushed him, holding him tighter.

"It's okay, T," she whispered into his ear. "You're okay."

― ➶ ―

Nobody slept that night. Every time Tiago closed his eyes, he could see the boy he'd killed. He couldn't bring himself to drink the water Brenda brought him. He sat away from the destroyed Right Arm camp, up on the ridge where he'd found Newt the previous afternoon. He'd found a small stone that he could use to sharpen his arrows, so he'd settled himself on a rock and started working. It was the only thing that could keep him occupied enough to not think about that boy for more than a minute.

Footsteps crunched their way towards him, startling Tiago from his task. He dropped the arrow he was sharpening. As he bent down to pick it up, he turned his head to see who had approached him.

Belle settled herself down on a rock near her son, though not so close that he could lash out as her if he wanted to. She didn't plan to start a fight. Tiago was visibly distressed, and it was apparent to everyone. It seemed Belle was the only one who was worried more than sympathetic.

"What do you want?" Tiago bit out, raising from retrieving his arrow. "You know you're the last person on this planet I wanna talk to."

"We don't have to talk," Belle said quickly, leaning back slightly. "I'm just making sure you're not gonna kill someone."

Tiago flinched at her words. The boy's face ran through his mind, the lifelessness in his eyes ironing itself into his retina. He clenched his jaw and turned away from his mother.

"I promise you that's the last thing I'm gonna do," he said quietly. He returned to his rock, facing away from her. He continued his sharpening, switching arrows. His mother didn't say anything more, leaving the two smothered in silence aside from the scraping of metal on stone. Then Tiago sighed. "Have you ever killed someone?" He turned to glance at his mother and saw her frown. "Not just a bad guy, like ... Have you ever killed someone you didn't mean to kill?" He turned away again, focusing his eyes on the arrow.

"I haven't," Belle replied, "but I know Vince has." She paused. Tiago halted his sharpening as he thought about it. Vince? Should I talk to Vince? "Who did you kill?"

Tiago felt something akin to rage boil inside him and he turned to glare at his mother. "Why do you wanna know? What does it matter?"

Belle raised her hands in a mock surrender. "Just asking."

"Well don't."

Tiago knew his anger was misplaced; he wasn't angry at his mother, not for the topic they were on, anyway. He was angry at himself. For not predicting something that could have been prevented. Archery was what he was good at, but if he couldn't predict possible errors, how good was he really?

Tiago stood up, gathering his arrows into one hand and depositing them into his quiver.

"Do me a favor," he said as he slung the quiver over his shoulder, "and leave me alone." He stormed back past Belle.

When he reached the bottom of the ridge, Tiago sighed. He knew he'd have to tell someone about the boy he'd killed. He'd already half told Brenda; he said he killed someone, but he never specified. He didn't know how to deal with it. It wasn't something he'd ever come across before, so he had no idea what to do. How does one deal with the murder of another human being? Tiago had killed before, but this was vastly different. Everyone he'd killed before was on purpose. They were bad people. This boy ... He was young, scared, defenseless. He was the same boy Tiago had been before Jorge had found him. That was all Tiago could think about: I killed myself.

The only thing left for him to do now was ... get over it.

― ➶ ―

ok, this ending is TERRIBLE but the chapter is so long and i had no idea how to conclude it. however, this is the end to part one!!! i really hope you enjoyed the chapter. it was a bitch to write, lemme tell you. we're currently at 3,700 words, which is over 1,000 more words than a usual chapter would be. please don't get used to a long chapter though, bc it's likely this is the only time it'll happen lol.

anyway, i hope you enjoyed!! we're moving on to part two in the next update, which means we'll be into the death cure! see you next time! :)