Chapter Text
“Newt, could you please come down here?”
Newt lets out an annoyed groan from his place on the bed where he just quite literally threw himself. He just really wants some quiet time for himself after studying basically the whole day for hours on end for the math exam on Wednesday. He had to call Minho every ten minutes because Newt just didn’t know how to solve the bloody equations and it was driving him insane. And even though Minho really did try to help, Newt would have preferred if Thomas had picked up his phone.
It isn’t that Minho is bad at math or anything, really, he’s quite good at it actually, that’s why Newt asked for his help after all, but Minho has the habit of changing the topic or laughing his ass off for five minutes every time Newt just as much as slightly cursed. And Thomas was just… different. He actually stays on track and helps Newt, he doesn’t laugh when Newt starts to get frustrated and curses out the tasks at hand, but he offers to come over instead to maybe be able to help Newt some more in person.
So yeah, Newt was exhausted after spending most of the time cursing out the numbers and listening to Minho laughing about his misery. Where the hell is Thomas when you need him?
After letting out a long sigh, Newt finally gets up again and makes his way to the living room.
As he enters the room, he finds his dad sitting on the couch, clutching the remote in his hand so hard that his knuckles turn white, while his mother stands behind the couch with her arms crossed and posture too tense to be natural.
Newt eyes his parents warily, “Is everything alright?”
His parents look at him, worry filling their eyes.
“Come sit down, there is something on the news that you should see”
A strange tension fills Newt’s body. His parents are usually very cheerful and it’s rare to see them without a smile on their faces, but now, seeing them staring at him like an apocalypse is about to break out, it leaves Newt with an uneasy feeling. He decides to not question his parents further on what is going on since that would only delay getting the answer anyway, and sits down on the armchair next to the couch.
His mother lays a hand on his shoulder, which is probably meant to be comforting but only makes it worse, then she gestures to her husband to turn up the volume of the TV.
The reporter is standing in front of a one-story-house which looks vaguely familiar to Newt. The house is surrounded by a lot of police cars and officers are walking around in the background.
Newt listens in horror when the reporter starts to talk:
“A family was found brutally murdered in their own home earlier this afternoon. The victims seem to be Sarah Murphy, Alexander Murphy and one of their sons, Charles. According to the police, they suspect Thomas Murphy, the other son of Sarah and Alexander, to have murdered his own family for reasons yet unknown to the public.”
The image on the TV changes to a picture of Thomas. He is smiling into the camera, the person who is standing next to Thomas on the picture was cut out, only a few strands of hair can be seen, but Newt knew exactly who it was. Chuck.
This picture has been Thomas’s lock screen ever since Newt first met Thomas two years ago in the park, Newt actually took the picture for them, that’s how they met.
“Thomas’s current whereabouts are unknown, the police advises everyone to be cautious since he is considered a threat. If anyone sees him or has clues about his whereabouts, please call the number now shown on the screen. We advice everyone to be careful.”
Newt’s dad turns off the TV and both his parents turn to Newt, waiting for some kind of reaction.
Meanwhile Newt’s thoughts are racing.
This is not true. He doesn’t believe it - can’t believe it - for even a second. Yes, Thomas has been acting differently the last three month or so, ever since he got promoted at his part-time internship at WCKD (some kind of biological research company, Newt didn’t know for sure, Thomas never explained it properly but Newt also never asked) where he worked for over a year already. He started claiming that something was going on at WCKD, that they aren’t what they say they are, he started skipping school and has been a bit distant lately. Even though Thomas has been acting differently, he would never do something like that, Thomas is incapable of hurting anyone, especially Chuck. He loves his little brother to death.
So what is going on? Where is Thomas? Why does the police think that Thomas has an actual reason to kill his family? Did Thomas got murdered as well and is now lying in a ditch somewhere?
Newt felt like throwing up.
He looks up from his hands that he has been subconsciously staring at ever since the reporter finished his part, and sees his parents expectantly looking at him. He tries to organize his thoughts – which doesn’t really work – before he starts talking.
“You don’t honestly believe any of that, do you?” he asks in a slightly defensive tone.
His mother sighs, she probably expected such a reaction.
“Newt, you said yourself that Thomas has been acting strange lately, I think it is very reasonable to suspect that it was him”
“It is not reasonable to suspect him just because he skipped class once or twice. Also, Thomas would never hurt Chuck, he loves him!” Newt says, subconsciously raising his voice.
Maybe he plays it down a bit, because Thomas definitely has been acting strange. In fact, Newt has been pretty worried for his friend, Thomas’s obsession with WCKD has increased a lot, probably to a very unhealthy level.
But Newt won’t tell his parents about that, they would only use it against him anyway. His parents didn’t like Thomas right from the start, they found it weird that Newt was friends with someone two years his senior who didn’t even go to the same high school. They also found it strange that Thomas was always reluctant to let Newt come to his house and their dislike against Thomas only grew when Newt accidentally let slip that Thomas has been acting strange some weeks ago during dinner.
“Maybe he loved Chuck too much,” his father says in a matter-of-factly but still soft tone.
Newt furrows his eyebrows and looks at his father, “What are you implying?”
“Thomas is a really smart kid and maybe he got caught up in his own head. Accusing a company like WCKD of shady business, skipping school and acting strange - all this could be indicators for a serious mental illness. Maybe he started hallucinating and in a rush he killed his family because he thought they’re in danger-,” his dad tries to explain but Newt isn’t having it.
Thomas hallucinating? That doesn’t make sense. Also, Thomas would have told him if he even had the slightest suspicion that some of the things he was seeing weren’t actually true, Newt was his best friend after all.
“Are you even listening to yourself?” Newt lashes out, “this is Thomas we’re talking about! He wasn’t hallucinating and he could never seriously hurt someone. Thomas didn’t do this-”
Newt gets interrupted, the default ringtone of his iPhone echoes through the room.
He scrambles to get his phone out of the pocket of his jeans as fast as possible, hoping that it was Thomas calling him and he could demand some explanation of what is going on, but instead it is Minho’s name dancing over the screen.
He contemplates to just let him go to voicemail but decides against it since Minho might have some information about Thomas.
Minho and Thomas met each other on accident. Thomas was over at Newt’s place and they were watching a movie together, when suddenly Minho busts into the room demanding a Mario Kart match. After he realizes that Newt wasn’t alone, he apologized and was about to leave again, but Thomas insisted that he stays and all three of them play together.
So it came that sometimes, when Minho knew that Thomas was there, that he would come over as well to demand “another Mario Kart match since you two keep cheating” (“We’re not cheating, you just suck at the game”). Thomas and Minho weren’t exactly friends but they got along well besides from some banter here and there.
Newt shoots his parents an apologizing glance before accepting the call.
“Newt! Have you seen the news?” Minho’s voice blares through the phone in a way too high volume without any greeting – typical for Minho.
“Yeah, I take it you did too?”
“I never thought that Thomas would be capable of doing something like this. Kinda crazy, huh?”
This makes Newt pause in his tracks. Minho believes what the news said? Of course, he didn’t know Thomas as well as Newt did but still, they hang out together pretty often, he knows that Thomas would never hurt anyone.
“Wait, you believe this bullshit?”, Newt asks, disbelief strong in his voice.
“Well, yeah-”, hearing his childhood best friend doubting Thomas’s innocence made Newt lose his cool for the second time in only a matter of minutes. Newt was sure that his hair will have turned gray by the time he goes to bed with all the stress he’s enduring this day.
“Thomas didn’t do this! How could you even begin to think that he would? You know how much he loved Chuck!”
“Yeah but Newt, Thomas changed. We both noticed it,” Minho says softly, “something was going on with him. So maybe the Thomas we knew wasn’t capable of murdering people, but the Thomas from the last few months is different.”
“No. Thomas didn’t do this. I refuse to believe that,” his desperation for someone to join him in his believe of Thomas’s innocence was clear in his voice. And he hated to admit it, but Minho did kind of have a point; what if Thomas changed so much that he was capable of murder? Newt still didn’t believe it but just the thought of what if is making the headache that’s gradually rising up even worse.
“I know it’s hard to take in and I understand if you need time to process all the information, but don’t lose yourself in defending him if you can’t be sure that he is innocent,” Minho says. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Newt can be sure that Thomas is innocent, he knows Thomas, he knows that Thomas would rather die than hurt Chuck. He knows… or he knew, because maybe Minho actually has a point. Maybe Thomas changed too much in the last few months, don’t people in true crime documentaries always say that they didn’t expect the murderer to do something like that? – but no, Newt refuses to believe that. He is sure that Thomas is innocent and he will not let anyone change his mind.
“Look, Newt, I get that you don’t want to believe a word the news are saying, I really do, and maybe Thomas will turn up again soon and there will be a logical explanation for everything. But for now you should sit down and try to process everything, all the facts you have plus all the information from the police. Take a couple of days just to realize what is going on, alright?” And there is it, the site of Minho that rarely anyone but his closest friends get to see, him caring about his friends and trying to support them to the best of his abilities.
Newt still disagrees with Minho, he just knows that Thomas is still out there and that he has a logical explanation for sure. Newt doesn’t say it out loud though, he is so tired of arguing, he is so tired of existing right now. Why did this had to happen? Why can’t he just travel back in time and make sure that none of this happens, that Chuck, Sarah, Alexander and Thomas can just sit together and eat dinner or watch a movie right now, like any normal family should. But instead, three of them will never see the sun rise again, while the last remaining Murphy is hopefully hiding somewhere right now, trying to sort this mess out.
“Okay,” he responds tiredly to Minho who might actually understands the struggle Newt is going through right now.
“I’m here if you need anything, yeah?”
“Thank you, Minho, really,” even though Minho can be quite infuriating at times, Newt would be so lost without him and he is beyond thankful that Minho is, besides Thomas, his best friend.
“No need to thank me for that man, now get some rest.”
“You too”
After saying their goodbye’s, Newt hangs up the phone and hides it back in his pocket before turning back to his parents. They are looking at him with pity and worry in their eyes and Newt hates it. He doesn’t want pity or people telling him that they never thought that Thomas would be capable of something like that – he just wants answers, he wants to know what the hell is going on.
He feels anger towards their pity building up inside him but he refuses to let it out, it is not his parents' fault that Thomas got accused of murder and is probably hiding somewhere right now, they’re just the ones who informed him about the situation. So instead of letting his anger out and starting another argument, he decides that it is time for today to be over.
“I think I’m going to bed now,” he says but before he even leaves the living room, his mum speaks up: “Uh actually, there is something else we wanted to talk to you about first,” hesitation is clear in her voice and it brings back the same uneasiness he felt when he stepped into the living room only about thirty minutes ago.
“I think that can wait until tomorrow,” Newt’s dad intervenes before his mum can say another word.
His parents seem like they’re having a conversation with their eyes which causes Newt to throw suspicious glances at both of them.
“What is it?” he inquires.
After one more look towards Newt’s mum, his father speaks up again, “It is nothing that we have to talk about today. You had a long day and you deserve some rest”
“Has it something to do with me?” Newt refuses to back down. They can’t just say something like that and then expect him to not be curious.
“No, it really isn’t anything you need to worry about. Go and get some rest sweetie,” Newt’s mother said, apparently agreeing with his dad that Newt had enough to deal with for the day.
Newt decides to make himself a steaming cup of tea before going upstairs to his room. While waiting for the water to start boiling, he starts reflecting on the day.
He should have known that something was up when Thomas didn’t respond to any of his texts throughout the whole day. He normally responds pretty quickly but the texts didn’t even get delivered, how could Newt have been so stupid to not realize that?
And where could Thomas possibly be? It is in the middle of winter, it has been snowing non-stop yesterday and the whole morning today, there is no way that Thomas could be hiding somewhere outdoors. If he even is hiding, after all, he might also be dead. It probably wouldn't be too hard to hide his body underneath the masses of snow outside.
But why did the police say that they have a reason to suspect that Thomas is the murderer? Is it simply because he is the only one of the Murphy-family whose body wasn’t found in the house or do they have some other reason?
What should Newt do in case it turns out that Thomas is indeed the one who killed his family? He definitely has to apologize to his parents and Minho, that is for sure. Though it would also mean that Newt can not trust his instincts anymore which would be terrible since that is what Newt does basically all the time. If he can’t trust his instincts, what, and especially who can he trust?
When the water finally finishes boiling and the tea is ready, Newt takes his cup, throws a “good night” into the living room where his parents where still sitting and talking, before he finally enters his room. He has to be careful to not spill the hot liquid all over himself while opening the door since the door handle is quite hard to push down.
Finally inside his room, he pushes the door shut with his hips while turning on the light, ready to lay down, sip his tea and forget about today, when suddenly a hand comes from behind him and covers his mouth.
Newt’s eye widen in shock when a body presses against him from behind, he tenses, unsure of what to do when a voice whispers huskily in his ear:
“Stay quiet, please. I’m not going to hurt you.”