Clairvoyance: the ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception
I woke up alone on a small bed. I sat up quickly and looked around. The room was small and made completely of wood. There was an uncomfortable-looking chair next to my bed. The lone door in the room was shut. There were no other people in sight. I almost panicked but, struggling to get my bearings, I took a deep shaky breath and slowly let it out. I don't like being alone, yet I somehow keep managing to find myself in situations like this; scared and alone in some unknown place, with no memory of how I got there. At least I wasn't in a cage this time.
I looked over my right shoulder, then my left, even though I knew there was no one else in the room and all that was behind me was a plain wooden wall and the head of the bed frame. I stood up and winced as pain shot through my head. I immediately sat back down. I took a deep breath then stood again, slowly this time, and walked as gently as I could to the wooden door, trying my best to keep the ache at bay, though I was still slightly dizzy. Just as I was about to grab the brass doorknob, it turned. I tensed and took a step backward, feeling my heartbeat quicken a bit as I sway slightly on my feet and wait for the door to open to see who it was.
The door swung open, revealing a short boy—though still taller than me—with black hair with some small streaks of grey, which I assumed were caused by stress. We stood there staring at each other wide-eyed in surprise for a moment, neither of us originally expecting the other. He then composed himself and opened his mouth to talk just as another boy entered, tall and skinny but muscular with buzzed black hair and dark eyes. The door creaked as he pulled it shut behind him.
"You're up!" The tall, dark-skinned boy said, with a slightly high-pitched voice for a boy, "about shucking time!"
Before I could say a word in response, the door opened yet again, this time for Gally, Newt, and Alby. This is getting ridiculous, I may not like being alone, but this is too many people to have this close to me in so small of a room. Starting to feel a bit claustrophobic, I went back over to the bed and sat down, fidgeting with the sleeve of the black flannel shirt I had been wearing since I came up in the box.
I had so many questions, I didn't know what to ask first. I started with the first ones that came to my mind. "Where am I? Why am I here? How long have I been here? How did I even get here?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. One question at a time, shank." Said the short boy with the greying hair.
"Marie," I corrected, rolling my eyes. But I was too curious to linger on it; I wanted answers. "What happened? The last thing I remember, I was talking to you," I looked at Newt, "and then..." I trailed off, not knowing where to start.
"Well?" Gally said, encouraging me to go on.
"Well, answer my question! What happened?" I retorted.
"Not sure, really. You were with me, like you said, we were talking, but then you—well, I don't bloody know really, you just kinda passed out." Newt answered.
"I just passed out? Like that?"
"Seemed like it, yeah."
"Hmm," was all I said in response.
"Hmm?" repeated Gally. I nodded slowly but said nothing else on the matter.
After a long pause, I finally broke the silence. "I need to get out of here," I said, standing.
"No," said Gally, gently pushing me back down on the bed, "you ain't going nowhere till we find out what's wrong with you."
"For God's sake, there's nothing wrong with me!" I almost yelled, irritated and wanting to get out of this room. Gally looked slightly hurt but he was obviously trying not to show it. Newt had been standing next to him but took a step back, wide-eyed in shock by my sudden outburst. I took a deep breath and started again, trying to be more calm, "I just passed out; probably from heat exhaustion or something—I don't know—but I'm obviously doing fine now."
"She's right, there really doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her." The short boy spoke again.
This just seemed to piss Gally off even more. "Yeah, Clint, because you have a medical degree and would know." He retorted sarcastically.
"Maybe not, but Jeff and I are the closest things you do have to doctors. I'm just tryna do my job. And, as far as I can tell, she seems fine." The short boy, Clint, responded.
"Fine," said Gally looking to me again, "but you're staying in here for another night."
"Another night!?" I said, "I was out for the whole night?"
"That's right," Said the tall African American boy who I assumed was Jeff. "Honestly, though, I'd prefer to sleep in here anyway, if I were you. Comfier and you don't have ta be around a bunch of boys."
I rolled my eyes but said nothing. I looked around the small room again, not knowing what else to do or say. I yawned. How I could possibly be tired, I don't know, though it was probably out of boredom or grogginess or something more than anything. I wondered what time it was, but it didn't seem like the boys had any way to tell time.
Then, the door in the corner opened yet again. I groaned out loud this time, annoyed that more and more people kept piling into this tiny room. "Just invite everyone in, why don't you," I said, rolling my eyes again. Minho walked in.
"Keep rolling your eyes like that and they'll end up stuck in the back of your head," he said. A comment that just made me roll my eyes yet again, resulting in a chuckle from both him and Newt.
Seeing a watch on Minho's wrist, I asked for the time. To which he answered that it was about Noon. I looked at Gally accusingly. He had been leaning quietly against a wall on the other side of the small room, unmoving and not saying a word since I yelled at him a few minutes ago.
"It's Noon and you were going to make me stay in here alone all day?" He rolled his eyes and left the room without answering. Alby followed him.
"You don't have to be alone," said the Jeff guy.
"Yeah, I can stay with you," added Newt.
"And I'll bring you something to eat," said Clint. I looked to Minho and he just smirked, telling me in his own way that there was no way he was doing something for me like that.
I looked back down to the watch on his wrist. "Why do you have a watch but no one else seems to?" I asked.
"Only Runners get them," he answered. "We have to know the time to make sure we get back before the doors close."
"What doors?"
"The ones to the walls," he said, "y'know, the giant openings in 'em."
"You're telling me that those walls just close?"
"That's right," answered Newt, joining in on our conversation. "Every night."
"How?" I asked.
"How the Hell are we supposed to know!" Minho chimed in. "The Creators must be smart, to make all of this, they obviously found a way."
"The Creators?"
"That's what we call whoever put us in here."
"Oh, okay," I said, yawning again.
"We'll let you have some more rest and I'll tell Jeff 'n them to wait on the food till you're ready," said Newt, directing Minho towards the door.
"Actually, Newt, would you mind maybe staying?" I said before they left.
"Oh, uh. Yeah, sure," he said, stopping and taking his hand off of Minho, then walking to the door and holding it open for him.
"And could you, uh, shut the door, please?"
"Okay..." He said, shutting the door behind Minho. He came over and sat on the wooden chair next to the bed, and crossed his legs. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"Oh, nothing," I said, "I'm fine. I just—I—I just wanted someone to talk to" I noticed myself fidgeting with one of the buttons on my shirt and crossed my arms.
"Oh," he said. "Okay, then, what is it you want to talk about?"
"Well," I said. "Wait, so that's really all that happened earlier; we were talking and I just... fainted?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well... I guess I had a—kind of like a dream? Or something. I don't know... But, like, it just seemed so—so real."
"Okay..." he said, encouraging me to go on. "And what happened?"
"Well, I don't know. It's—it's hard to explain; I was with you but then..." I tried my hardest to remember exactly what had happened. Newt reached out and grabbed my hand, showing that it was okay and that he understood.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to push past the barrier in my mind and remember. I felt a slight breeze and opened my eyes. We were no longer in the small wooden room, but instead, we were outside, surrounded by stone walls covered in vines. Newt looked at me, confused. I shrugged and looked around. Something caught my eye above us and I looked up, seeing someone clinging to the vines on the wall. It was just like my dream, except that it wasn't me up there this time. I nudged Newt and pointed up to the person. I walked slightly closer to the wall to get a better look.
Just then, they jumped. I gasped and stepped back, not knowing how to react. Newt was by my side, and I grabbed his arm, scared of what would happen to the person who just jumped. The person fell to the ground with a thump and cried out in pain. I let go of Newt and walked towards the person, only hesitating slightly.
"Hey," I said, "Are you okay?" No response, as if they didn't hear me. "What happened? Why were you up there?" Still no answer. I continued to walk to the person. "Are you okay?" I asked again, louder this time. I stopped dead in my tracks when I got close enough to get a good look at the boy. He was laying on the ground in a very uncomfortable-looking position, whimpering, his long blonde hair covering his face. He looked an awful lot like—like... Newt? But... No—no, it couldn't be... Newt was just with me. I looked back to where I left him. He was still there, staring at the boy on the ground, eyes wide. But the boy on the ground looked exactly like him, even with his face being mostly hidden in his hair.
Suddenly, Alby ran around the corner, running right past me, as if he didn't even see me. "Alby," I said. He didn't respond, didn't even look at me. He walked right up to the boy that had fallen. I followed his lead, standing behind him and looking over his shoulder at the boy. He didn't even seem to notice me standing so close. He leaned down and brushed the hair out of the boy's face. It was Newt! I looked behind me and Newt was still standing there, unmoving. I looked back over Alby's shoulder, confused. Newt was there, too. I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening, and tried to clear my mind.