Days passed and I began to feel weak. The boy, whose name I had learned was Jeff, had been trying to feed me liquefied food, but it wasn't enough. I felt as if my body had run out of energy. Newt spent every night here. He would leave for the majority of the day, but would always return. I would hear his footsteps as he left and came back. I'd hear a chair scrape against the floor and he'd always heaved a sigh as he plopped down onto it. Jeff would come in every hour to check on me; taking my temperature, checking my blood pressure. He would always give me some words of encouragement as if he knew I could hear him. Newt would always ask how I was doing when he would return for the day. And Jeff would answer the same way, "she hasn't improved." Those were always depressing words to hear.
One night, Newt and I had been alone in the room. He brought the chair over to the bed and sat down, taking my hand. "Please just wake up. I know you probably can't hear me, but please wake up. I feel drawn to you. Like I've known you from my past that I don't remember. You bring back feelings, feelings I've never felt before. I want to know your name. I want to talk to you. Figure out why I feel so drawn to you. So please, just wake up." Newt finished speaking and I tried to move, tried to speak; let him know that I heard him, that I'd like to talk to him, to see him.
That name, Newt, it seemed all too familiar but then again, there was a large chance that I was becoming insane. Stuck with only my thoughts and the sweet sounds of Newt's light breath near me as he slept the nights away.
I never really slept; my body never felt tired, but whenever I did get a few winks of sleep, it felt like pure bliss. At night, I felt more relax and comfortable. There was no light streaming through my eyelids and there wasn't much movement outside where I could hear other people working away and chatting. It was silent and dark. Newt was always there so that I never did get lonely. He would speak to me occasionally, only a few words and they were usually for me to wake up or that he hoped I would recover.
A few days past and I had lost all hope of ever returning to normal. I had lost count of the number of days that I have been there. It had to have been at least a few weeks though. No more than a month, but nowhere near as little as one week. Until one morning after I had finally met the sweet serenity that is sleep, I woke up and yawned, rubbing my eyes. That's when I froze. Movement felt foreign to me. And the sound of my voice, even if it had just been a yawn was something that I never thought I would be happy to hear. I almost screamed in excitement.
So that's when I began testing the rest of my body. Starting with my eyes, I slowly began to open them. They had crusted over, so I had to run my eyes a little hard to remove any build up I had received. Then I sat up, a little too quickly. I groaned as the pain in my back. Who knew laying in bed for so long would hurt so bad? I quickly flopped back down on the bed. So that was not a success, but that would come in due time. At least I had my vision and voice back.
It was time to take in my surroundings. I was in a square room that was only just big enough to fit a small cot, a couple of chairs and a side table. There was just enough room around the furniture so that someone could easily manoeuvre themselves around the bed. The walls were made of wood boards. Some were full of knots, others were splitting down the middle. Other boards were cut unevenly which allowed for slits of light to stream through.
There was a small window on the wall to the left; it was still dark outside, but the sun was just starting to rise and a light pink hue was lighting up the sky. There didn't appear to be any glass on the window, but it was warm enough out that I wasn't cold. It made me wonder about winter months with no windows. How did these people manage to stay warm?
Next to my bed was a jerry-rigged looking nightstand with only one thing on it. The condensation on the metal glass of water made my mouth water. I reached out, wincing at the pain in my arm, and grabbed the glass. I put the glass to my lips and quickly downed the liquid. It soothed my dry throat. Wishing there was more, I say the glass back down and continued my observations.
A stained white sheet was draped over me. There were small rips and tears in the sheet, and it didn't smell the greatest. Then again, I probably smelled malodorous as well.
That's when I spotted him, Newt. He was asleep in a chair in the far corner of the room; a wooden door to his right. He had short dirty blonde hair that was slightly windswept to the side. He looked young, maybe around sixteen or seventeen. He was skinny and had a very defined jawline. He looked peaceful as he slept.
The door opened and I quickly closed my eyes. "Good morning," Jeff greeted the boy that must have woken up.
"Good morning," I mumbled, my voice raspy. I had spoken before I could stop myself. My eyes flew open in shock. The two boys were staring at me with wide eyes. Newt's mouth was slightly ajar. My hands shot up to my face, covering my eyes.
Jeff was the first one to recover, "welcome back! You must be starving, I'll go grab you some food!" I peeked out from my hands to see Jeff turning tail and rushing from the room.
Newt's face now had a huge lopsided grin on it. "Hi," he whispered, cautiously taking a few steps toward me.
"Hi," I whispered back.
"Name's Newt, what's yours?" He asked. He stood a few steps away. Did I smell that bad? Would smelling my armpit be too weird? I wanted to say that I already knew his name, but I didn't want to scare him away. I propped myself up on my elbows but immediately had to lay back down as dizziness overtook me.
Newt rushed to my side, placing a hand on my forehead, "don't worry, Jeff will be back soon with food." As if on cue, Jeff came barrelling into the room, juggling a mass amount of food and water in his hands. He placed a plate full of food in front of me along with two glasses of water, then handed Newt a plate and glass of water as well.
"I figured you'd want to have breakfast too," Jeff shrugged, "I'm going to go eat with the others."
Jeff grabbed a pillow that had been tucked under the bed and helped slowly prop me up. He placed one hand in between my shoulder blades and pushed me upwards while his other slid the pillow behind me. I winced in pain, but it all went away when I was able to lay all my weight back down on the bed.
"You're a little sore from the last two weeks, aren't you?" Jeff questioned, looking me over.
"I would say so," I replied. He nodded and spun around, leaving the room. Mumbling something about talking to 'Clint'.
By now, it had gotten light outside. I could see trees outside the window and a bright blue sky.
Newt had returned back to the rickety chair and placed his plate on his lap and the glass of water on the floor.
I started with both my waters, downing them posthaste. We ate in silence. The only sound was from our cutlery hitting the clay plates. I had no idea how hungry I was until the first piece of food entered my mouth. The pancakes, bacon and eggs filled my stomach which made a happy gurgle. Unfortunately, that plate of food wasn't good enough, I was still hungry when I finished.
I watched Newt eat his food, longingly wanting it. He must have noticed because he looked up at grinned at me, "would you like me to go get you more food?"
I almost gave myself whiplash from nodding so quickly, "yes please!" Newt let out a laugh and placed his plate down and stood up from his chair.
"I'll be right back, don't eat my food," he joked.
"No promises," I smirked, placing my head back down on the lumpy pillow.
A few minutes later, Newt emerged with another plate full of delicious food. I only got through half of the plate before I got full and set it aside. Now that I had both food and water in me, I was energized. I jumped out of bed, immediately regretting it as my legs forgot how to work and I went tumbling to the ground in a big heap. Newt was at my side instantly, helping me up. I blushed at my stupidity.
"Maybe you should take it slow," he suggested. He held onto me until I was sure with my footing. But the pain was just too much and I had to sit back down.
After a few days, the pain had subsided and I was finally able to stand, with Newt's help of course. I smiled triumphantly at him before heading to the window. I was shocked by what I saw, a wall that was hundreds of feet tall. I stuck my head out the window further and craned it to both sides which had similar views. Large stone walls surrounded us.
"What is this place?" I gasped, I pulled my head back inside, suddenly uneasy by my discovery.
"Come on, I think it's best to show you," Newt gestured towards the wooden door.
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