A Way Back - The Maze Runner (♡Newt)

Chapter 21

Cally's pov

I couldn't remember what happened when I woke up in a hospital bed. Opening my eyes was hard, but I forced myself to pull my eyelids apart. My vision was blurry, all I could make out were bright lights, machines, things moving around and a constant, rhythmic bleeping. 
     I felt weird. It was a somewhat familiar weird feeling though and it took some time for me to realize I wasn't awake at all. It was a dream. A dream of a memory. I don't know how I knew what I was seeing was a memory, I just did. Only it didn't help that I don't recall having experienced this before.
     My vision was getting clearer. I noticed I was half laying half sitting in a hospital bed. Not a big surprise there. The moving shapes I had noticed turned out to be people. Doctors and nurses. All wearing the same kind of clothing, white suits with blue letters on them. I wanted to follow one of the doctors and focus on the letters in the hope I could read it, but my head didn't do what I wanted. It moved on its own, looking to the side to see rows of beds with other children on them. All unconscious. Making me realize that I didn't have control over my body, all I could do was watch through my eyes and listen. I was trapped in this memory with no way of escaping.
     The doctors and nurses I could see were all busy, some with checking my body functions, others with injecting me with so many things I didn't know how many times they had punctured me. Some other people were checking the monitors around me and around the other sleeping children. While they were running around, I picked up some of their words.
     "Subject X6 did it again."
     "She's awake."
     "You! Get the serum!"
     "X6 is a problem, we can't afford a problem, we need to fix it."
     "No, look at the results. We need her."
     The voices became weaker, softer, they were fading away. My vision became blurry again, the people started to merge together with each other and the environment. The lights dimmed until I was left in an empty darkness.

It took way too long before the darkness disappeared again. At least I thought so. I had no idea what was going on, or how much time had passed by. It al seemed so long... but at the same time it didn't... as if my conception of time had been spread out and pushed together all at once.
     When it faded again I was in another memory. This time it seemed familiar, I actually knew this one. Only this time I wasn't in my body, I was looking at everything from a side line. An observer to what was happening.
     I was young, around the age of ten. My brown curly hair braided over my shoulder, mismatching butterfly clips scattered around it. I was standing beside my mother's bed. Mom was holding Darren. He was so small, just a baby. Darren was sleeping and mom was leaning against the wall behind her bed, a bright smile on her face while she looked at her newborn son. My heart started to melt at the sight of her. She looked so happy.
     "Is that my little brother?" I asked while crawling into mom's bed.
     "Yes, Cally. This is Darren."
     "Hello, Darren." I said while waving at the small human on my mother's arm, of course he didn't react. We just sat there, my head leaning against my mom's shoulder while we both looked at little Darren. Taking in his features, his chubby, red cheeks, his still slightly pink skin and the few dark hairs on the top of his head.
     The peace got disturbed when Ezra ran into the room with Lily running after him. "Mom! Mommy! Lilly is trying to kill me!" Ezra jumped on the bed and tried to hide behind me and mom.
     "That's not true! Ezra stole my phone! I want it back!" Lily defended herself. Her dark hair had been straightened, no trace of her curls left. Green eyes spitting fire at our younger brother.
     "She's lying!" Ezra tried, peaking out his head from behind me. 
     Lily placed her hands on her hips. "No, I'm not!"
     "Stop shouting! You're going to wake Darren." Mom's voice was filled with annoyance and I could clearly hear she was tired. At least present me could. Small me hadn't recognized that part.
     "But Ez-" Lily started, only to be cut off by our mother.
     "Ezra, give your sister her mobile back."
     "But moooom!"
     "No, give it back."
     Ezra filled his cheeks with air, looked angry at Lily and handed her the phone. Lily took it and did the most logical thing someone could do in such a situation. She stuck out her tongue at Ezra.
     "Mom! She's sticking out her tongue to me!"
     "No, I didn't."
     The discussion stopped immediately when our father walked into the room. "Come on, kids, leave your mother alone. She needs to rest."
     My breath got stuck inside my throat, staring at my father with wide eyes. Dad.... I thought. I haven't heard his voice in such a long time... not since the incident... I had almost forgotten how his voice sounded.
     After a short protest from my siblings and 10-year-old me, dad took us out of the room. My younger version took a last look at Darren before dad closed the door.
     As soon as the door closed I wanted to turn to mom again, but with the closing of the door everything went dark. The sounds of my siblings and dad fighting disappeared abruptly, leaving me in a deafening silence.
     I wanted to go back, see more of the memory, hear the voices of my mom and dad and Ezra and Darren and Lily, but I couldn't. I was alone, in a dark space, not sure if I was lying down, standing or floating.