A Way Back - The Maze Runner (♡Newt)

Chapter 61

Cally's pov

There was a silence between us as we just stood on the other side of the door to Alby's chamber. Newt had crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall beside the door. He looked hurt, but also worried.
     "He probably didn't mean it," I said softly, "his head's just a mess right now."
     Newt sighed sadly, head hanging low. "I know." There it was again, the awkward silence.
     My head was spinning with thoughts. Alby was acting really weird, not trying to kill someone weird, but still weird enough to worry about him. I knew Newt worried about him more than I was, he had been on edge for so long now that the Shank got me worried about him as well.
     "What's that?" Newt's question got me out of my thoughts.
     "What's what?" I answered his question with another question, not understanding what he meant.
     "On your arm," Newt nodded at my left arm. I pushed my hair out of the way so I could see my upper arm. There was a bruise on it, I hadn't even noticed I had it before now. I moved the sleeve of the black T-shirt I was wearing up to see it reached up to my shoulder.
     "Must've happened when Gal- I mean, I fell from the stairs."
     Newt was frowning at me, "You fell down the stairs?" I nodded in response. "And what has Gally to do with it?"
    Of course Newt noticed I wanted to say Gally... I thought before answering. "Nothing. He wanted to talk with me, we walked down the stairs aaand I tripped."
    Newt didn't seem to be convinced by my words. "What aren't ya tellin' me?"
     I took a breath to answer, but Thomas voice interrupted the conversation. "Newt!" We heard him scream. "Newt get in here!" Before Thomas had finished his sentence, the both of us were standing inside the room. I froze for a second as I saw what was happening. Alby was lying in his bed, hands pressed against his own throat. He was trying to strangle himself!
     Alby's body was shaking, his legs were kicking in every direction as his head turned purple, and his eyes rolled up, only showing the pale white and red blood vessels.
     Newt ran towards his sick friend, grabbing him by the shoulders and using his entire body to keep Alby pinned to the bed. "Grab his legs!" Newt yelled at Thomas. Thomas immediately reacted but got kicked in the jaw by Alby. He stumbled backward and rubbed his jaw.
     "Just bloody do it!" Newt yelled at him. Thomas now jumped on top of Alby's body, grabbing both legs to push them down on the bed. I saw this as my chance, I ran to the bed, grabbing a hold on Alby's arms and pulling on them with everything I had.
     "Just let go, you idiot!" I yelled through clenched teeth. I felt my nails starting to break through Alby's skin, which made me want to let go, but I had to keep going. Then, finally, I was able to get Alby's hands away from his throat. I tried my best to pin his arms against his struggling body. But he started to jerk away from the bed, making it hard for me to keep his arms in place, but I did it. Finally, Alby started to calm down, until his breathing had become steady. But even though Alby seemed calm, all three of us didn't move an inch for a solid minute. Newt was the first one to let go of his friend, me, and Thomas following his example. 
     Alby looked up at us, eyes almost closed as if he were falling asleep. "I'm sorry, Newt." He whispered, " I don't know what happened. It was like.... something was controlling my body. I'm sorry...." I heard Thomas take a deep breath as I rubbed my eyes, knowing what he meant.
     "Sorries, nothin'," I heard Newt say. "You were trying to bloody kill yourself."
     "Wasn't me, I swear," Alby murmured.
     I nodded, laying a hand gently on his shoulder. "I know, Alby. I know that wasn't you. It was the voice, right?"
     Alby looked at me in confusion, "h-how do you know... the voice..."
     I smiled reassuringly at him, "Happened to me too, remember?"
     Now there seemed to click something inside Alby's brain. "I remember," he mumbled as Newt picked up the blankets that had fallen off the bed during the struggle and pulled them back over Alby.
     "Get your butt to sleep, and we'll talk about it later." Newt petted him on the head, "you're messed up, Shank." Alby didn't seem to hear his friends words since he had already fallen asleep.
     Newt gestured Thomas to the door as a sign to go, which Thomas gladly seemed to take. Newt lay a hand on my shoulder as he walked past me, nodding for me to follow as well. But I shook my head, "I'm staying. Just to be sure, he's okay," I whispered at Newt, who nodded that he understood before following Thomas to the doorway. Only the moment they were about to leave, Alby started to mumble, making both boys stop in their tracks.
     "What?" Newt asked. Alby took a deep breath, "Be careful with the girl."
     I frowned, "which one?"
     "Not... you." He mumbled. The three of us exchanged questioning looks before Newt whispered to Thomas to go. Only to get stopped by Alby again. "And Newt?"
     The blonde boy turned around, "Yeah?"
     "Protect the maps," was all Alby had to say before he rolled to his side, back turned to the door. For what felt like the tenth time; Newt, Thomas, and I exchanged confused looks. Alby was not making any sense right now. Shortly after, the two boys left the room, softly closing the door behind them, leaving me alone with our sick leader.
     "Alby?" I whispered, hoping I would get a response, but of course I didn't. "You're really are messed up..." I continued talking, even though I knew no one was there to hear it. Even Bark wasn't with me right now, she stayed in the Med-room with Clint since having a dog around Alby right now wasn't such a good idea.
     "I think it's safe to assume that you won't be leading us any time soon... I know I promised you not to tell anyone else what I told you, about the girl and all. But you're gonna be out for some time.... I should probably tell Newt, right?" I waited, as if Alby was going to answer me, but of course he wasn't.
     "You're useless like this, you know that, right? Admiral Alby?"
     Silence.
     "That's what I thought."

Hours had gone by while I was sitting in Alby's room. Alby himself was still fast asleep, and I was bored out of my mind. I had been sitting in the corner of Alby's bed and the wall for some time now. Trying to get into a little more comfortable position. I had rested my eyes for a moment when the door opened, I looked up to see Jeff standing there.
     "Dinner time, Cally. You can go, I'll stay here for the rest of the night."
     I nodded as I stood up, mumbling a thanks as I walked past him and into the kitchen.
     I had already taken my food when my legs got attacked by a brown lab. "Hey, Barky," I said, wanting to sound more happy, but feeling completely exhausted didn't really help with that. Without even saying anything, I sat down on the table where Ezra was sitting with a few Builders.
     "Rough day?" Ezra's voice sounded through my ears.
     "Something like that," I responded while taking the first bite of my food.
     "Wanne talk about it?" He asked me, I glared up at my brother, then at the two guys in front of us and back at my plate of food.
     "Not now, just ignore me, I'm not here." Ezra nodded, knowing really well that I needed to just clear my head right now.

~.~.~

I was in my room. Sitting on my bed, staring at my mp3 player. The batteries were dead. Of course they were. I put them back inside my bag beside my phone, which had died months ago. Not just that, the thing had been damaged the day I got stung. It wasn't just dead. It was broken. The only reason I still had both of those things was because I didn't want to let go of them. I couldn't do that. That would be like letting go of my past, my home. Gosh I wanted to get back home.
     There were knocks on my door, making me groan. "What?" I called to the person behind it, not caring if they could hear my annoyance.
     The door opened to reveal Minho, I hadn't seen him ever since this morning, "You okay?" I had expected him to get mad at me or make a sarcastic comment at the way I reacted. But in his question was only concern. I looked away from him, down at Bark, who was lying at my feet.
     "I'm fine," I mumbled, not bothering to look up. Before I knew it, I got pulled into a hug, "Minho, I'm fine." I said with my head pressed against his chest.
     "Don't pull that klunk on me. You're not fine. Newt knows it, Ezra knows it, I know it. Hell, even Chuck knows it. They told me what happened when we were in the Maze. The other shanks told me to leave you alone, but a lot has happened the last few shuck days, and you aren't handling it very well, sis."
     Minho's words sank into my brain, it was like all the stress and the anxiety of the last few days came over me. I started shaking as his voice rumbled in his chest, and before I knew it, I was crying. Normally, I wanted to be alone to cry. Not wanting anyone to see it. But right now, I didn't care. I couldn't keep it in anymore and just had to let it out. Minho didn't seem to mind as he just pressed me closer and rubbed my back as I cried into his shirt.
     "It's okay, Cally." I heard his voice. I didn't say anything back. I just wrapped my arms around his waist and tried to get myself to calm down.
     "I- I'm so done with- A- All of this," I said between rapid breaths. "I wa-ant to go h- home."
     Minho slowly pulled his hand through my hair, "I know. We all want to leave this shuck place. And who knows, maybe one shuck day we'll find ourselves on the outside of those shuck walls. Until then, we'll just have to keep going."
     I turned my head to the side, so now I wasn't talking into his chest anymore. "Everything is a mess," I mumbled.
     "Tell me about it. But it's gonna go back to normal, and then you'll be complaining your butt off that you're bored." I chuckled slightly through my tears. I don't know for how long I had been crying, but as I felt my body calm down, it didn't take long before I fell into a deep sleep.

~.~.~

A/n: I don't know what happened... I had an entire different plot in my head for this chapter, but then I started writing and this just came out... I'm not questioning it, I kinda like it. I hope you did as well.

Have a nice day!

~Purple Dragon (07/03/19)

~.~.~

Edited: 03/09/2020