Break My Fall {Newt}

Chapter 1

Darkness.

I can't see anything. The piercing sound of metal on metal assaults my ears and I don't know where I'm heading but I know it's up.

Up and up and up I go, for what feels like days. The contraption I'm in rattles unhealthily and sends me tumbling to the ground. And even though I'm now on the metal floor looking down, I'm still going up.

Up and up and up I go, for what feels like years and I'm just waiting for whatever's happening to end.

Only now do I question where I am. I know I'm surrounded by darkness and I'm trapped in a cage that is endlessly going up and up and up but going up to where?

And where did I come up from?

Because that's the thing, I don't remember. I don't remember anything.

I start to panic. It feels like the darkness is trying to suffocate me and the cage is trying to consume me and the grinding of metal on metal is trying to deafen me and I'm still going up and up and up.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Why can't I remember who I am or where I'm from or where I'm going and how I got put in this bloody cage in the first place?

And why am I still going up and up and up?

Hot, angry tears are now cascading down my face and I'm screaming, shouting, wailing into the darkness even though I know nobody can hear me and I know nobody will save me but I'm so confused and so overwhelmed and so tired of going up and up and up that all I can do is cry, scream, shout and wail.

And wait.

Wait for whatever is waiting for me on the other side of the darkness.

But for now, up and up and up I go.

Maybe a second passes or an hour or a day but I don't care anymore. I'm too tired and hungry and confused and sad to care about anything. Who cares about who I am or where I'm from or where I'm going and how I got put in this bloody cage in the first place?

And who cares about the up and up and up?

But it's only when the darkness has been replaced with a blinding light and the grinding of metal on metal is silent and the cage is no longer going up and up and up do I realise that I've stopped.

I've stopped.

I raise my head and shield the blinding light from my eyes. I haven't adjusted yet to the brightness but over the ringing in my ears from the metal grinding on metal I can hear laughter.

Bloody laughter!

I must be going mad.

Everything is becoming a lot clearer now, though. I can hear the distant chatter of boys and young men. I can hear them whispering about me. And the bright light isn't so bright anymore so I can just about make out the hand that is hovering above my head, waiting for me to grasp it and free myself from the cage I'm trapped in.

But I'm scared.

After what felt like a lifetime of waiting to escape the darkness, the cage, the noise of metal on metal, and the up and up and up, now I've arrived at my unknown destination-

I'm scared.

I still don't know who I am or where I'm from or where I'm going and how I got put in this bloody cage in the first place. And maybe if I take the hand that will free me from my confinement I'll be overwhelmed with more confusion and sadness and, who knows, maybe I'll be presented with more darkness?

But I take the hand and up and up and up I go into the brightness and away from the darkness.

And into the Maze that is to be my new life.

***

I wake up panting and sweating. For a moment I forget everything. I forget that I've forgotten who I am or where I'm from and I forget that I'm in a place with high walls and no hope of an escape.

And I forget about the darkness that brought me here.

For a moment I wasn't lost.

I wasn't anywhere.

But then it comes crashing back to me like a wave in a storm and I cry out, tumbling out of the hammock they assigned me.

They.

Where are they? The boys that greeted me from the darkness?

"Day one, Greenie. Rise and shine," a deep voice calls from above me.

I look up to see a hand over my head— the same hand that pulled me out of the cage yesterday— and I take it, pulling myself off the floor from which I toppled to when I fell from the hammock.

I don't say anything. I just dust myself off and sit back onto my 'bed'.

I still don't know what's going on. All I know is that I woke up in a cage that the boys here call the Box and I'm surrounded by four tall walls that lead into an impossible maze. I don't know much else. I passed out before I could even try to understand anything more. I still don't know who I am or where I'm from or where I am and how I got put in that bloody Box in the first place. And I still don't know who these other boys are or why they're here.

And what exactly is here?

"I know you're confused," the low-voiced boy who helped me off the floor said. I forgot he was stood in front of me, staring with questioning eyes. "We all were confused when we first arrived in the Box. But be a good Greenie and let me show you around. I'll explain everything you need to know."

For the first time I look at the boy who's talking. He has dark skin and has a well-built physique. It's clear from all the scrapes and bruises on his arms that he does hard labour for a living and the wild look in his eyes gives me the impression that everyday is a fight for survival. But besides his prominent features and traits, the guy doesn't seem too bad.

"Greenie?" I ask, but it comes out as more of a croak due to the fact that I haven't spoken since— well, since I can remember. "What does 'Greenie' mean?"

The boy just chuckles and shakes his head, almost as if he's having an inside joke with himself. All he says is, "In good time, Greenbean. Until you remember what your name is, you're the Greenie."

He walks away, as if expecting me to follow. I comply, not saying anything.

"My name's Alby, by the way. And this-" Alby says, weaving us through the rows of hammocks and sleeping boys and through the door into the bright light of day. Into the land of the unknown. "-is the Glade!"