October 7th, 2001

Thomas felt like he was in a different world. He was sitting at a vacant table at Newt's pub, his head in his hands. Newt was all over Alby again, more so than last time. Thomas could have sworn that one of them would soon pass out due to the lack of oxygen they were getting. He didn't think Newt's mouth left Alby's once in the past hour. Things were still weird with Newt but Thomas couldn't be bothered to try and fix it, not now.

Minho was having fun too, drinking and socializing. Teresa still wouldn't speak to him, not since their weird argument. Thomas wasn't even sure why he was at the pub. He surely didn't want to be there. Minho dragged him along, he said he'd been acting weird the past few days. Thomas knew he was right. His parents, the ones who left him as a child, were killing his kind. His parents were murderers. They tried to kill him for fucks sake.

Thomas couldn't get that out of his head, the thought of the people he loved most in the world wanting him dead. The worst part was that he couldn't tell anyone. He wanted to rant, scream, cry just anything to get the emotions out but it was "confidential" so he had to keep quiet. He realized if the other kids knew they'd probably hate him or be skeptical of him. Everything just sucked and Thomas was over it, he wanted to be in his room with his head buried under the pillows. He wanted to turn his brain off and stop existing for a little while.

"You should make up with her." A voice suddenly sounded next to Thomas, making him jump. He relaxed when he realized it was just Minho.

"What are you talking about?"

"Teresa, I know you guys had a fight."

"We didn't have a fight!" Thomas snapped. His patience was thin, he didn't have time to deal with Teresa's moody attitude, he had much bigger things on his plate.

"She told me what happened, that you asked her to lunch then ignored her the whole time."

     "That's not even close to what happened! She invited me!" Thomas felt his face get hot, she invited him to lunch, why would she lie to Minho about that?

     The buff boy sat across from Thomas, leaning his elbows on the table. "You know she likes you right?"

     "What?" Thomas asked, running a hand through his hair.

     "Teresa. She's got a thing for you. You know that right?"

     "I barely know her!" Thomas snapped.

     Minho's expression made it seem like Thomas was getting a warning. "Watch it, Teresa is a great girl."

     "I bet she is." Thomas scoffed as he dropped his head back into his hands.

     "Seriously man, what's up with you lately?" Minho's lips pulled into a hard frown. "You're kinda being an asshole."

     "I told you I didn't want to come out tonight Minho," Thomas replied, keeping his gaze locked on the table top. There was something sticky on it, Thomas assumed it was from a spilled drink.

     "That's no excuse to be a complete dick."

     "Can I just sit here by myself please?" Thomas asked, his voice coming out soft. He didn't want to fight right now, or ever, he just wanted something to make him feel better.

     Minho was quiet for a second before lightly squeezing Thomas' arm. "You're startin to worry me man. What's goin on?"

     "Nothing."

     "Is that nothing like nothing is going on or you're just not gonna tell me what's going on?"

     Thomas let out a breath. "I'm fine Minho. I'm just tired."

     "Have you been sleeping?"

     Thomas shrugged. "Kinda, Hank gave me this weird thing to put by my bed, it wakes me up when my power starts taking over, it makes it near impossible to get good sleep, but I haven't ruined my room again."

     Minho bit his lip, looking at Thomas for a few seconds before sighing. "Wanna make a deal?"

     "Depends."

     "If you go make up with Teresa, I'll convince Newt to get his hand out of his boy toy's pants and we can leave."

     Leaving sounded like a pretty good idea to Thomas. "Sure."

     Minho clasped him on the shoulder before standing up and heading over to Newt who had his elbows holding him up on the bar table and his legs wrapped tightly around Alby's waist. Thomas wouldn't be surprised if Alby climbed on top of him soon, they looked three seconds away from fucking. Thomas felt his stomach twist so he got up and headed over to Teresa who was sitting alone at the bar. Thomas slid into a seat next to her, smiling softly.

     "Hey."

     She looked at him, taking a slow sip of her drink before wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

     "Hi."

     "So uh I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm considered an asshole huh?"

     Teresa laughed at that. "Kinda."

     "In my defense I didn't know you were coming onto me."

     Teresa looked taken aback by that. "How'd you figure that out?"

     Thomas shrugged, messing up his hair. "Put two and two together." Thomas found it slightly disturbing how easy it was for him to lie to her.

     She smiled softly, twirling her hair on her finger. "So how are you gonna make it up to me?"

     And that's how Thomas found himself kissing Teresa in the backseat of the car on the way back to the mansion. He also found himself thinking that if this was what kissing was supposed to feel like, he never wanted to do it again.

October 8th, 2001

1:13am

     "Tommy?" the voice sounded so softly in the dark, Thomas almost thought he was imagining it.

     He sat upright in his bed quickly, it wasn't like he was sleeping anyways. He scanned the room, squinting his eyes to try and adjust to the dark. Nothing was there which really made Thomas think he was imagining things.

     "Uh...hello?" Thomas said to what seemed like nothing.

     Suddenly Newt appeared in the middle of the room, making Thomas yelp and jump back which of course resulted in him falling off the bed.

     "Ouch."

     Newt climbed on the bed and peered down at Thomas who was on the floor. "I'm sorry."

     Thomas rubbed his head and sat up on the floor. "Ah...'s okay."

     Newt stretched out his hand to pull the brunette boy up, an offer in which Thomas gladly took.

     Thomas ignored the weird sparks that shot up his arm at the touch. When he was settled back on the bed, he handed Newt the blanket and shoved his legs back under the comforter.

     Thomas looked at the blonde boy who was nervously toying with the fabric in his hands. "So uh, Newt, what exactly are you doing in my room at one in the morning?"

     Newt's eyes flicked up to him slightly before going back down to the fabric in his hands. "I knew you wouldn't be asleep, Minho told me about the thing Hank made you."

    Thomas picked up the little cube on his nightstand, it really didn't look like much. It was small and black with a glowing blue strip around the middle. Thomas didn't even really understand how it worked, but it stopped him from burning the curtains so that was a plus.

     "My sleep cockblocker." Thomas gave Newt a lopsided smile and handed it to him.

     Newt looked it once over before putting it on the bed next to him and looking back at Thomas. "I can't sleep and I know you know what that's like so I'm here."

     Thomas put the cube back in it's rightful spot before sitting up more and leaning his elbows on his knees. "Okay is there any reason why you can't sleep? I'm guessing your body doesn't go crazy and murder people with weird smoky black energy due to its ability to feed off fear."

     Newt's lips pulled up slightly at that. "I can safely say that is not the reason for my inability to sleep."

     Thomas felt himself smiling too. It was the first time Newt and him were talking since their weird fight in the hallway, but everything felt like it was back to normal.

     "Alright then it's gotta be another reason."

"Thanks Tommy you're so smart." Newt rolled his eyes, but shifted closer to Thomas on the bed.

     "Is something on your mind?" Thomas asked, ignoring Newt's spite. Newt was kinda rude all the time so Thomas stopped taking it personally.

     "Kinda."

     "Wanna talk about it?"

     Newt shrugged. "I don't know."

     Thomas' tone softened as he spoke again, "well if you want to, ever, you can talk to me alright?"

     Newt nodded, looking blankly for a few moments. "If I say something can you not make me elaborate? And you have to promise not to feel bad."

     Thomas nodded. "Okay yeah."

     "It's about my parents. I get nightmares sometimes yea? Like about what happened to them. They've been worse since you got here and I know it's not your fault you can't control your power but..." Newt huffed out a laugh as he tugged on his hair. "...you just give me so many reasons to hate you, but it's so hard to hate you because you're so nice."

     Thomas frowned, he did feel bad. He didn't mean to make Newt's life worse off. "I can move rooms."

     "No Tommy, you're not moving rooms."

     "Did you really expect me to not feel bad?"

     "You told me I could talk to you!"

     "I didn't know it would be about me ruining your life!"

     Newt rolled his eyes. "Please, get over yourself, you didn't ruin my life."

     Thomas pouted again. He couldn't help feeling awful, he felt like he'd done nothing but ruin things since he got to the stupid school.

     "Tommy stop, it's bloody fine."

     "I think being in here might make it worse, I'm kinda a beacon for scary shit."

     Newt looked at him almost shyly. "Yeah, but I don't want to be alone."

     Thomas finally got what he was implying, it made his eyes widen. "You want to sleep in here?"

     Thomas could still tell Newt's cheeks were red despite how dark it was. "Way to make me feel stupid Tommy."

     Thomas winced. "No I didn't mean it like that it's just, you know, I'm not the best sleeper. I know I have the cube, but I don't want to accidentally kill you."

     "Oh please Tommy, you couldn't kill me even if you tried."

     Thomas relaxed slightly, if Newt wasn't scared then why should he be?

     "I'll take the floor," Thomas said as he went to grab his pillow. Newt grabbed his arm, stopping him from fully picking it up.

     "This is your room, you're not sleeping on the floor."

     Suddenly Thomas' stomach flipped and he stared at Newt for a couple seconds. "We could both fit up here, I mean if that's not weird?"

     Newt laughed, pushing Thomas over so he could scoot next to him. "You're adorable Tommy, have you never had a sleepover before? I used to have them all the time with Minho here when we were younger. Being invisible means you never get caught."

     Thomas lifted the blanket for Newt to get under. They both lie on their backs, looking up at the ceiling. Thomas was hyper aware of the blonde boy next to him, he could hear his breathing and feel the warmth coming from his body.

     "No," Thomas said suddenly, his voice coming out in a soft whisper.

     "What?"

     "No I've never had a sleepover before. Or friends."

     Newt turned his head to look at Thomas, a slight frown pulled over his face. "Are you kiddin me Tommy?"

     Thomas shook his head. "Pathetic right? Never even kissed anyone before Teresa last night."

     Newt was quiet again, looking back up at the ceiling. He was quiet for so long Thomas began to think he'd fallen asleep.

     "So you and Teresa huh?" Newt asked suddenly.

    "I guess."

     "I hope you know what you're doin Tommy," was the last thing Newt said before rolling over so his back was facing Thomas.

     Thomas let out a breath. He didn't though. Thomas really had no idea what the fuck he was doing.

3:03 am

     Thomas woke up in a house, not his room in the school, but an actual house. The carpets were a light white color and the couches were soft brown. From out the window Thomas could see snowflakes dropping from the sky. He spun around, surveying the whole room. It was so quiet. Thomas took a hesitant step forward before freezing. He heard something, the door knob to the front door was wiggling.

     Thomas got behind the couch, just barely peering over the top of the cushions. The handle was wiggling crazier now. Thomas' heart started pounding and his palms were sweating. Suddenly a huge bang sounded, making Thomas jump and duck behind the couch. After a few moments he looked back up. His stomach dropped when he saw the door was blown out.

     Thomas hesitantly stood up, clamping his hands over his mouth when he saw what stood in the doorway.

     It was the man, the man with black eyes.

     Thomas was running before he could fully process it. He was sprinting to the back of the house, running so fast he almost crashed into a wall. He knew he could kill him, but he didn't know if he could do it without the professor's guidance.

     Suddenly, Thomas ran into something he couldn't even see and fell backwards onto the floor. He felt hands on his, grabbing him, shaking him. He could hear the man's footsteps, the were getting closer. Thomas started scrambling across the ground, trying to get up but tripped and stumbled into the wall.

     "Shit shit shit shit!" Thomas yelped as he got into the kitchen. He turned around to grab the door and let out an ear piercing scream when the eyeless man was standing there. Thomas backpedaled quickly, feeling his heart pound and his palms sweat. He stopped when his back hit the kitchen counter. The eyeless man still hadn't moved, he was just standing there.

     "Leave me alone!" Thomas screamed, feeling anger burn in his throat. The fear was slowly melting away, anger filling its void.

     The man slowly cocked his head, letting out a breath of smoke from where his nose would of been if his face didn't look like a smog cloud with black gouging eyes. His black cloak blew slightly, as if there was a breeze just affecting him.

     He lifted his hand slowly, grabbing the helm of his hood and pulling it down slowly. The smoke swirled around, getting brighter before starting to form back into something.

     Thomas squinted his eyes, his defense faltering slightly. The smoke swirled fasted, twisting into a tight ball.

     "Thomas!" a muffled voice sounded from the distance. "Thomas stop!"

     Thomas' head shot up, looking around him. The voice sounded so far away yet he recognized it immediately. It was Newt.

     "Thomas! Thomas please stop!" his voice was getting louder, filling up the house.

     The smoke stopped swirling, morphing into the shape of a mouth. "Don't you want to know who I am?" The voice came out so low it was almost robotic.

     Newt screamed, making Thomas' blood run cold.

     The robot voice laughed, it was a slow cackling laugh.

     "Tommy! Tommy wake up!" Newt screamed, he sounded like he was in pain. The nickname shot Thomas into gear, making him break into a sprint toward the stairs where Newt's voice sounded the loudest. He took the stairs two at a time, going up as fast as he could.

     "Newt? Newt are you alright?"

    "Wake up Tommy, please wake up." Newt's voice was loud and pleading. Thomas burst into what he realized was a bedroom after swinging the door open. He froze when he saw Newt sitting on the bed, his hands folded in his lap. When he looked up he had a clean red hole in his head, the blood dripping out between his eyes and down his nose. He had tears running down his cheeks as he blinked at Thomas.

     "They got me I guess."

     Thomas felt his stomach drop, he felt cold and shaky. "Thi-this isn't real. You're fine."

     Newt cocked his head slightly. "Wake up then."

     Thomas squeezed his eyes shut, feeling warm tears on his own cheeks as he thrust his hands out in front of him. He could do this, he could make it go away. The images of the eyeless man, Newt with a bullet in his head and Teresa kissing him swarmed his head, making his skin hot and his chest ache.

     Wrong, it was all wrong. He should be back at the school, in his small bed with Newt. Suddenly Thomas gasped loudly, his eyelids forcing open. The whole room was filling with the grey smoke, he couldn't even see Newt anymore. Thomas coughed before falling to the ground. His whole body felt hot, his eyes were aching and his vision blurred. White hot pain shot through his body making him scream and his back arch upwards. The room went out in a flash of white, forcing Thomas' eyes closed again.

     Everything was silent for a moment, the only sound being a terrible ringing in Thomas' ears.

     "Tommy?" a soft voice asked from above him.

     Thomas slowly opened his eyes, blinking when he saw he was back in his room. Newt was hovering above him, his skin pale white and a worried expression on his face.

     "Tommy are you okay?"

     Thomas bolted up right, grabbing Newt's face softly and running his thumb over his forehead. He let out a soft breath of relief when he realized there was no marks in his smooth skin. There was no bullet hole, no blood.

     "Tommy you're freakin me out. What happened?"

     Thomas dropped his hands from the blonde boy and sighed, running his hands through his hair which was slick with sweat. "The cube didn't wake me up. Did I hurt you?"

     Newt shook his head, wrapping his arms around himself. "You pinned me to the wall somehow, I couldn't move but I could see you. You were thrashing and your veins got all black, kinda like that time in the ally. I kept screaming at you to wake up, but you didn't. Then finally you let out this awful scream and I could move again and I ran over here. Don't worry about me, are you bloody okay Tommy?"

     Thomas nodded, kicking off the blankets, he still felt too hot.

     "Can I ask you something?"

     Newt nodded, meeting Thomas' gaze.

     "Newt, what the fuck are you afraid of?"