Thomas Imagines (The Maze Runner)

To Love Again

You are happy for once, purely happy; no exhaustion, no stress, just bliss. The sun is setting over the Glade for the night, and around you, the laughter and voices of your fellow Gladers echo in time to the calling of the birds.

Tonight, however, you aren't with the rest of the boys, only one in particular. You and your boyfriend, Newt, have separated yourselves from the others, electing instead to lie side by side in the downy grass and watch the sun set overhead. You see this every night, yet somehow with him, it's infinitely more special.

Newt glances over at you, as if he can tell that his name is making the rounds through your head once again. "What are you thinking about, love? You've been quiet for a while."

You lift a shoulder, treasuring the press of the grass against your skin. "Nothing much. I'm just glad I have you, you know? Never thought I'd get this lucky in a place like this."

Newt chuckles. "What do you mean, 'in a place like this?' I thought we all adored the Glade in all its stinkin' glory."

You roll your eyes, and he laughs. "Alright, I'm kidding. I'm grateful to have you too, by the way. I've never met anyone who makes me feel the way I do." He says, voice trailing off at the end.

You prop yourself up on one arm so you can look down at him. "How do I make you feel, then? Like a blushing schoolboy, as Minho says?"

Newt laughs, throwing one arm over his eyes so he doesn't have to confront that particular memory. Minho had been teasing the two of you mercilessly when he found out you were together, something about how it made no sense that the two most selfless kids in the whole shuck Maze could have found each other so quickly but he's sure glad you did.

"More than that. I'm the entire school, darling."

You laugh as well. "That's a bold claim. I don't know how to put my own feelings into words half as good as those."

Newt grins, you can just see it under the shadow of the crook of his arm. "You don't have to say a thing, I know exactly how you feel. I've known about it since day one. You emerged from the Box and I instantly guessed that you had a crush on me."

You swat him in the chest, although the blow is light, as is your temper. "That's absurd. I didn't even know I liked you when I came out of the Box. The only thing going through my head was confusion over the fact that every boy except one had an American accent."

Newt removes the arm from over his head so he can knock your own elbow out from under you, sending you falling back into the grass. "Rude. If anything, my accent just made me more noticeable. I'd say it worked, too, because now you're skipping off from the rest of our friends to come spend time with me."

He pulls you onto his chest, and you look down on him happily. "I suppose you could say that. Maybe I just like you better than the rest. No explanation needed."

Newt's smile is brilliant, you decide. You could look at it forever, and you do your best, even after the sun fully sets from the sky and the colors turn into the deep jet of night. You lost yourself in his expressions as if you could fall fully into him and forget all other worlds, like he was your only guiding hope in the midst of the mystery surrounding every other aspect of your life.

All that time, and it still wasn't enough. When you blink, you're not in the Glade anymore, not treasuring that warm sunset but a colder, darker night. Newt is still lying before you, but he's different, his posture as still as death. If you close your eyes, you don't have to see the knife embedded in his chest, but in not looking, you give up your last glimpses of him.

You are a long way from the Glade now, but at this moment, you wish you could go back more than anything. Look where leaving got you- your boyfriend, infected, then dead before you. You've lost so many friends, and maybe you even lost yourself along the barren wastes of the Scorch.