The First Gladers

Chapter 24: Nightmare

 "Are you alright?" Newt asks.

He's standing on one foot, holding his broken leg up behind him. One arm is stretched out to grasp the edge of your bed for support. Behind his face of concern is a tinge of pain. You imediatly feel guilty. He hurt himself for you.

You slowly untangle yourself form the sheets, images from your nightmare flashing through your mind.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Thanks Newt." You mumble.

"Let me help you back to your room." You say, offering him your hand.

Newt shakes his head. "Wait. Are you sure you're ok? You were screaming." Newt responds.

You nod. "Of course, just had a nightmare." You shrug.

Newt cocks his head to the side, "You're not telling the truth." He says slowly.

You shrug again, "Doesn't matter. I'm fine now. Let's get you back to your room."

You start to gently push Newt toward the door. For a moment, you think he's cooperating, until he places a firm hand on the wall.

"No." He says simply. Then he turns to face you. "What happened?"

You sigh. He doesn't need to be bothered with your nightmares, he has a lot more to deal with.

"I already told you, it was a nightmare." You say. And it's true. It was a nightmare, although the ones built from the past are much more frightening.

Newt frowns. He knows he's not going to get anything else from you.

"Fine. But if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you." He says with a soft smile.

You grin inwardly. He's proving himself to be caring.

"I really appreciate that Newt. But now isn't the time to talk, let's get you back to bed."

You hand him his crutches, and the two of you make your way to his room.

You gently help him lay back into bed, letting your hand rest on his arm for an extra second. Newt smiles at you.

"Thank you, for everything you've done for me. I'm sorry I jumped." He says softly.

"No need to apologize. And helping you is not a problem at all. We all need to stick together."

A loud pig-like noise rises from the other side of the room. Minho is snoring again.

You gently squeeze his shoulder, "I'll let you get your sleep. Sorry for waking you." You say, turning to leave. You hear Newt mutter something behind you, although it's too quiet to hear. You slowly close the door, peeking in one last time to make sure he's alright.

With the click of the door shutting you sink down to the floor, back resting on the soft wood of the door. Your whole body begins to shake with a silent sob as the fear pushed down inside you bubbles up once more as the memories of the dream creeps into your mind.

The rotted face of the man. The way his broken body moved to attack you, as if you were his prey. The terror you felt was so real. It shakes your body, sending chills down your spine. You hug your knees to your chest, burying your head in your arms. You know the truth. You don't want it to be true, but deep down there's no denying it. That wasn't a normal nightmare. It was a vision of your past.

  You wake up to a sharp pain in your back, a scream, and loud cursing.

Your eyes shoot open as you roll backward with a groan. Confusion plays with your mind as you lose track of how you got where you are. You're on the hardwood floor in the hallway of the Homestead.

"What the shuck Y/n!?" What are you doing!?" Minho shouts from above you.

You look up at him and roll your eyes, "Slim it Minho." You grunt.

To your shock, Minho kicks you gently in the side. You gasp, sending a punch into his shin. Minho gasps dramatically, cradling his shin with his hands. Sadly for him, his balancing skills aren't the best. Almost immediately Minho crashes backward onto the ground with a string of curses. Behind him, still in bed, Newt shoots up after being startled awake.

"Bloody hell Minho, what's wrong with you!?" He shouts.

His gaze shifts upward to see you stifling a laugh.

"Y/n... what did you do?" Newt questions with a laugh.

Still suppressing your laugh, you add, "That was all him. The one and only Minho."

Then you can't hold it any longer, you double over in laughter, forgetting that it's still early in the morning.

A door creaks open behind you, Evan is peaking through to see what all the commotion is about. Right as you're about to explain what's going on, Minho swipes a leg underneath you, sending you crashing to the ground. In seconds, Minho is standing over you with a cocky grin.

"That's what you get for laughing at 'The Great Minho."

With that, Minho struts out of the Homestead. You roll your eyes with a laugh. Evan offers a hand and helps you up.

"What was that all about?" He asks incredulously.

"Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing," Newt says from the bed.

"Well, I guess I scared him when he opened the door this morning and found me asleep in front of the door." You wince. You shouldn't have said that.

Evan laughs, "Why on earth were you sleeping in front of their door?"

Newt doesn't laugh, "Yeah. Why were you sleeping in front of our door?"

You bite your lip. He can't know the truth, that you cried yourself to sleep against his door because of a nightmare you had. It's embarrassing. What kind of leader are you to cry over a silly nightmare?

"Oh, I don't know, probably some slint-head playing a prank on me." You shrug.

Evan laughs, turning back to go back to bed.

Newt doesn't laugh. "Why were you in front of our door?" He asks again.