Bad Dreams | Newt x Reader

Chapter 58-World Domination

Warnings: blood, pain, the Wraith being a terror, arguing, insanity, mentions of murder and lots of death. Suicide attempt and mentions of more.

6 days after his death

After we all had finished eating, the Right Arm set out again. Once again, I trailed behind the group, wanting to avoid Vince and Alex.
Hours later, after midday, I was suddenly overcome with blinding pain as the Wraith battled for control. The effort to hold her off made me collapse to my knees. Felix, Harriet and Skylar, who were also walking towards the back of the group, noticed first.
“Hey Vince!” Harriet called out, making him turn around. “Just wait for a moment!”
The trio made their way over to me. Skylar knelt down in front of me. I was breathing heavily as I fought for control. Skylar tried speaking to me but I couldn't distinguish her voice from the ones howling in my head. All the Wraith, controlling and manipulating my senses. Harriet offered me some water from my water bottle but I couldn’t lift my arm to take it. The Wraith forced me to look up as Vince made his way over with Alex. Alex paled impossibly further.
I pushed back against the Wraith until she gave up and retreated back into the shadows of my mind. I gasped in relief and then started coughing. Sharp pain burned my throat and I noticed blood on my sleeve where I had been coughing. I wiped my mouth too and took my drink bottle to wash down the metallic taste of the blood.
“I’m fine, sorry. I just needed to catch my breath,” I lied.
“Useless girl,” Vince muttered as he made his way back to the front.
I sighed and forced myself to get up. The battle with the Wraith had taken its toll. I was far more exhausted. I nearly collapsed again. Some of my friends gave me a concerned look. Brenda and Jorge moved over to walk with me.
I zoned out for a moment. Brenda nudged me back to reality. I looked at her. She looked expectant.
“Sorry, did you say something?” I asked. I felt like I couldn’t breathe in enough air.
“I asked what that was?” Brenda asked.
“I’m just really tired,” it wasn’t a lie.
“It looked like you were in pain,” Brenda pushed.
“My ribs are still giving me trouble from the other day but it's not that bad. It’s why I coughed up blood.”
Brenda still looked suspicious but gave up pressing me for answers. Jorge reached over and took my bag off my shoulders. I looked at him, surprised.
“Thanks,” it was easier to walk now.
“You should ask Alex to heal you,” Jorge suggested.
“I can’t. He’s angry at me. He blames me for what happened,” I explained.
“That's so unfair. You didn’t mean for it to happen. You were just protecting us.”
“They don’t see it that way.”

One week later
13 days after his death.

We sat around in groups. I sat on the edge of my group of friends, eating my food slowly even though I wasn’t hungry at all. Alex occasionally looked at me from across the embers of the fire. He still looked awful, I suspected he was getting even less sleep than me, if that was even possible. My dreams were shredded by the Wraith and stitched into nightmares designed to torture me until I finally broke.
‘I’ve changed my mind,’ the Wraith whispered and I frowned.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked back.
‘About overthrowing Wicked.’
‘You’re not going to overthrow them?’ I frowned again and this time Thomas caught it.
“What? Why are you frowning?” he asked and drew the attention from the rest of the group. I shifted awkwardly.
“I’m thinking, shut up,” I replied.
‘I’m going to do more than that. Élliot gave me an idea the other week. I want to rule this planet.’
I lost it, I burst out laughing hard enough until my ribs hurt and everyone was looking at me.
‘How on earth are you gonna do that?’ I asked her, managing to stop laughing for a moment.
‘After I steal the Phoenix’s power and kill her and the Wolf as well as destroy Wicked, I’ll use her power to create an army of possessed. With them, I'll eradicate Cranks starting on this continent. People will flock to me like a goddess. I’ll build a city and start massive farms to support it. I’ll force what’s left of people on this continent to live in the city. They won’t even question me because I’ll be so powerful. Once it’s all stable here I’ll move to the next continent and so on.’
‘You know that Cranks outnumber normal people, right? There's no way you’ll be able to kill them all.’
‘You’ll see, after all, you’ll have a front row seat. So will your friends, though I will kill them slowly after they realise you’re never gonna come back,’ the Wraith whispered and slid back into the darkness.
I started laughing again, I slid on the ground and lay there unable to stop laughing. I sounded insane. I abruptly stopped and stood up.
“We’re all gonna die,” I laughed again. “What’s the point anymore? We’re all gonna die anyway, and it’s gonna be slow and painful.”
“Way to ruin the food,” Ember glared at me and I rolled my eyes and walked away. I heard someone get up and follow me. I got out of the camp and half collapsed against an old dead tree.
“What was that about?” Alex demanded as he caught up to me. “You just scared the kids for no reason!”
“We’re all gonna die unless I die first and she won’t let me do that,” I pulled out a knife and brought it up quickly to slice open my throat.
Alex yelled out and lunged for me but he would’ve been too slow anyway. Not that it mattered, I couldn’t move the knife another centimetre to cut my neck. Alex stared at me.
“How did you discover that?” he asked slowly and softly. I looked away, not wanting to see his face.
“Because you’ve tried to…” he answered.
“Multiple times, all different ways, she stopped me each time,” I told him. “Every time I do something with the intent to kill myself, she stops me. Which is why I want you to promise to kill me before I turn.”
Alex stared at me in horror, “No.”
“You have to, or I’ll go insane and kill everyone,” I stood up. “Please, Alex. Just do this one thing for me.”
“Fine, I promise,” Alex said and froze, staring past me.
Brenda stared at us.
“Why would you kill everyone?” Brenda looked between us confused, neither of us answered. She slowly realised that she wasn’t supposed to hear that. “Go insane?”
I saw the sudden flood of fear across her face as she stumbled back. “You’re Corrupt.”
She turned and ran.
“Brenda!” I yelled and ran after her.
She was almost back to the others when I caught up to her. I grabbed her and knocked her to the ground. She stared at me terrified and tried to stab me but I used hypnosis on her.
“Forget what you heard and learned!” I managed to say before I was dragged off her and roughly thrown to the ground.
I sat up and looked at the people who had dragged me off her. Jorge and Vince, Jorge quickly dropped down next to her and helped her sit up. She gave me a betrayed look.
“What did you do?” Vince demanded.
“She heard something she wasn’t supposed to. I erased it to keep her safe,” I explained.
Newt looked disappointed in me. Maybe he thought I was going back to how I was before, when I didn’t have my memories.
“What did she hear? What are you hiding?” Vince demanded.
“Can’t tell you,” I said as I got up and dusted the dirt off me.
Vince grabbed my wrist and cold metal clamped around my wrist. I felt the effect immediately, I felt severed from part of myself. I staggered and looked down at the ability stopping device. I looked back up at Vince.
“You can keep that on until you decide to tell us,” Vince snapped.
I stared at him for a moment until I collapsed, gripping my head. Sharp pain stabbed through my head and the voice of the Wraith whispered nonsense in my ears. It grew louder until I couldn’t hear anything but the whispering.
‘Kill them.’
I felt someone shaking my shoulders but I couldn’t focus my vision enough to tell who it was. Sharp fiery pain burned up my arm and I let myself sink into the darkness.

Newt POV
Y/n relaxed into my arms, the lightning no longer burning her hand.
“What the hell?” Vince knelt down to look at the device, it was still intact.
“Take it off her, it’s hurting her,” I demanded but Vince ignored me.
“That’s impossible, she shouldn’t be able to use her abilities at all,” Vince muttered, then got shoved aside by Alex. He quickly set to work on healing her hand. He put his hand on her head as if to check for a fever.
“Vince, take it off,” Alex took my side.
“Do you know what she’s hiding?” Vince asked. Alex didn’t answer. “You do,” Vince sounded betrayed. “How long have you known?”
“This isn't important, you saw what it did to her, take it off!”
“How long?” Vince said louder.
“Months! Okay? Months, just take it off her,” Alex begged.
Vince didn’t budge. “Tell me what you know and I will.”
“I can’t do that. It’s not my secret and I…” Alex trailed off, swallowing hard.
“And I what?”
“I promised Nikolai I wouldn’t tell,” Alex finished, glaring at his father.
“Nikolai is dead! Tell me what she’s hiding!” Vince yelled.
“No,” Alex said firmly.
“Fine! It stays on,” Vince walked off.
Alex turned back to look at Y/n. “Let’s move her away.”

1700 words.