Doubles

Chapter Twenty Two

Newt

Newt sat up, gasping for air. The first thing that realized was that Minho sat up at the same time. The second thing he realized was that he was covered in sand.

"What the shuck?" Minho asked, his voice shaking slightly, no doubt from the dream he just had. Newt would know because he had a dream as well. A terrible, terrible dream.

Laughter surrounded them and Newt saw Stiles and Malia laughing like they'd never laughed before. Scott and Lydia chuckled as well,but not nearly as hard. Apparently they had been the ones to bury them.

As annoying as it was, the sand and laughter was a welcome distraction to the nightmare. Newt still couldn't get the images out of his head. The way the Flare was destroying his mind, Tommy, the gun . . .

"You guys are hilarious," Minho said flatly, snapping him back into reality. He stood up and brushed the sand off. "Real funny."

"It was actually pretty good," Newt admitted, standing as well.

That's when he noticed Tommy was still asleep, underneath all the sand. His eyelids fluttered and a small snore escaped through his mouth. Somehow, he actually looked comfortable underneath all the sand.

"I have a brilliant idea," Minho stated and Newt got a bad feeling. His friend turned to Stiles. "Can you get water to-"

"Use it to wake him up," Stiles answered with a grin, holding up a bucket. "Already on it."

"Great," Minho replied, turning to Newt and Malia. "You two-"

"Bury him in more sand," Malia finished. "Way ahead of you."

They shared a smile for the first time since they met. Newt almost couldn't believe they actually hate each other.

"I thought we were going to talk about the dream," Lydia reminded, standing off to the side with Scott.

"No, wait," Scott said, watching the rest of them with a smile. "I want to see this."

Newt snickered, getting to work on burying Tommy under more sand. He didn't even want to think about the dream right then. He didn't want to think about the dream ever. It was so realistic, and to think that Tommy had those dreams his whole life . . .

He shook off the thoughts. Right now, he was going to enjoy the prank.

~~~

After dumping the water on Tommy, watching him struggle under the sand, and laughing the klunk out of him, Newt and the others finally gathered around on the towels to discuss the dreams.

"So," Lydia started as soon as they were settled."Let's-"

"Wait," Tommy said, rubbing the sand out of his hair. "I can't hear you. I have sand in my ears." He shot a glare at Minho but Newt couldn't help but snicker.

He turned to glare at him as well. "I don't even want to hear it from you," he warned.

"Don't worry," Newt assured him. "You looked like an adorable turtle struggling under all that sand."

"Newt-"

"Guys," Scott interrupted. "Back on topic, please?"

"Sorry," Tommy said, shooting one last glare at Newt. He just gave his friend a bright smile in response.

"We did have a dream," Minho started. "At least I did." He sighed. "But it's not going to help us find the doubles. My dream was the same as Thomas', only from Dream Minho's perspective instead."

"Yeah," Newt agreed. "And mine was from Dream Newt's. All of it . . ." Even himself turning into a crank. Even him trying to kill Tommy. Even the darkness that signified his death.He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get the image out of his mind. It almost came true as well.

"Hey," Thomas said quietly, nudging him with his knee."It wasn't real. You're okay."

"I know," Newt replied softly. "It just felt real."

Tommy put a hand on his shoulder and kept it there. Newt was thankful for that. More than anyone, he knew exactly what Newt had gone through. It was comforting to know he wasn't alone.

"But you guys haven't had dreams before?" Stiles asked, pointing back and forth between him and Minho. "I mean, not like supernatural dreams, right?"

"No," Minho answered. "But we've lived this before. Why are we just now having the dreams?"

"The doubles," Lydia explained. "They're going to have your dreams at the same time you have theirs. But they can't have your dreams if you didn't have any in the first place."

"So you're saying it's preparing us to meet their incarnations," Minho summarized.

"That sounds like the most likely option," Scott said.

"And it's not going to come true," Stiles added. He looked at Newt. "If that's what you're thinking. You guys already lived the dreams. It won't happen again." Thank goodness for that.

"So in order to find the doubles," Malia started slowly."We just need Minho and Newt to fall asleep again?"

"No," Tommy stated. Everybody looked at him in confusion. "I mean, we aren't going to force this. At least, not right now. We know how terrible these dreams can be." He shared a knowing look with Stiles. "We aren't going to have them fall asleep again."

"I'm fine," Minho bragged though Newt could tell the dreams still upset him just by the look in his eyes. "But I couldn't sleep even if I tried. We'll have to wait till tonight."

No words sounded better to Newt. Though he'd rather not sleep at all, he could deal with waiting until that night.

"Works for me," Stiles said and everybody nodded along.

Lydia turned to Minho and Newt. "I'm sorry for putting you guys up to that," she apologized sincerely. "I didn't realize how hard it might have been."

"It's alright," Newt said with a shrug. "Was bound to happen one way or another. You just sped up the process. It was pretty smart, really."

"Yeah," Minho agreed. "You should really be apologizing for burying us in the sand."

That immediately set everyone off cackling and the mood shifted to a happier one. Even McCall and Tate started wagging their tails.

That is until McCall tensed randomly and Scott whispered something in his ears. Newt stared until he caught Scott's eye.

He scrunched his eyebrows in a silent question but Scott just shook his head. Newt didn't understand what he was implying until he mouthed 'later'.

Newt had a bad feeling that whatever this 'later' was, wasn't going to be good.