Aversion (The Maze Runner, Newt / Sequel to Violation)

8 - Changes

Chapter 8 - Changes

[Recap: After the arrival of Bella and the massive fight between the blonde and the gladers, it is revealed that Isabella had a plan to hurt and kill Wendy because her fellow crank friend had told her that when he worked with WICKED, he watched Newt tell Wendy that he wanted her dead before he was exiled into the Scorch. Now knowing that, though Isabella also wanted to kill her for sport, they must figure out how to deal with her while Newt struggles between what he is now feeling]

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Newt couldn't sleep.

It was like gravity was keeping him awake, except it wasn't the pull that held his feet to the ground, it was the pull between his heart and his head.

It was roughly dawn now, but even with the crisp wind blowing sand in his hair and the dark sky hovering above him, Newt could already feel soft heat prickling his skin like needles. It was annoying at first, but he had gotten used to the pain in a matter of minutes, just like he always did.

His eyes were glued open as his mind and heart pounded, each one pulling his thoughts into a chaotic mess.

In front of him laid Wendy, only centimeters away from his own body. He could see every detail on her face, the outlines of her skin pores, the thickness of her eyelashes, the cut on her forehead from her encounter at the glade, the sand that was plastered onto her red cheeks. Newt could say it a thousand times: she was utterly fascinating and he was completely in love with her. His heart pulled towards her.

But when Newt lifted his head, just two inches, he could make out blonde hair. Stained, messy, and long blonde hair. Her face was hidden behind it, lost in sleep though she was binded by rope and kept prisoned like a rabid animal. Isabella sat a couple of feet away from him, and his mind yearned for the image of her. Not the girl, but the memories and who they used to be.

For hours he laid awake, trying to push Isabella out of his head and focus on Wendy, but she continued to cloud his mind.

When he first saw her, holding Wendy, he felt pure shock. Like a wave of electricity was running through all his veins. He remained like that for seconds until he realized that: she wasn't the same anymore.

That was the bitter truth.

She was more ruthless, much more cruel than the innocent girl he had grown to love and know in the glade. She didn't even look the same anymore, like she had been stripped of her identity in the matter of months she had been away from them all. He knew this for a fact, that she wasn't the same anymore, when his eyes had averted to Wendy and saw that she was in pain because of her. Newt loved Isabella because she symbolized hope in the confusion and chaos they were surrounded in while at the Glade. That part of her was gone; his heart no longer yearned for her, but his mind craved the old memories. The old her.

So when Newt put the tip of his weapon to Isabella's chest, it felt as if he were breaking too because he kept thinking: this is Isabella, this is the girl you know and loved. Yes, Wendy had been the first person he ever had feelings for, and she was the person who pieced him back to his normal self after Isabella had "died". He felt beyond love for the girl, but the memories with Isabella just didn't fade.

He remembered when they had a very irresponsible mud fight that landed him in trouble, he found himself thinking of the time Isabella fell down the stairs and Newt was in charge of taking her where she needed to go, or when they first kissed and he finally thought that everything was going to be okay.