The Dark Side of the Maze

16-Dark Skies

I laid on the soft grass letting my mind wander.

Aris laid beside me. I felt his fingers wrapping gently around my hand and I smiled.

"It's almost possible to just forget......you know?" he said out of the blue.

"Is that a joke? Its too easy to forget I think, " I laugh. He chuckles.

"You know what I mean," he laughs.

"Its like laying here, in the grass, with the sky shining over the stone walls, with you......I could just forget the maze and the Grievers," he explains.

"Yeah," I agree absent-mindedly.

I felt a slight breeze blow against my cheeks and the leaves rattled. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind,"I havent felt wind blow in the Glade before."

I trained my eyes on the sky. Too quickly to be natural, a sheet of clouds moved over the Glade. Something about the uniformity of its movement was so.......unreal. The clouds moved much more quickly than clouds should, like they were on a track or a pulley.

The clouds looked low and heavy, like a dark wool blanket covering the sun.The were also a blackish gray. The wind began to blow harder, rattling the trees and shaking the wooden structures. A loud booming noise rolled over the Glade and one word processed. Thunder.

It shook the skies and I felt the vibrations going through the hollows of my bones.

Something about this terrified me, though I wasnt sure why. Then I felt it. The rain.

Cold drops of atmospheric water dripped down onto my skin. It was refreshing, but it didnt seem like real rain. It began to slowly accelerate until the water was gushing from the sky like blood from a cut. Aris grabbed my hand and stood up. He began pulling me towards the dorm room.

"What's wrong?"

He ignored my question.

The wind pressed the rain so it fell at a slant. It pelted against the glass of the windows.

Cold, wet, shaking girls crowded into the dorm. I was pressed up against Aris and a window. I watched the storm get feircer and feircer. Thunder rumbled, drowing out the unrelenting wind and rain. The wood shelter shook and I felt sure it was going to collapse.

Girls squealed and cried out.

"What the bloody hell is everyone getting so worked up about!?" I demanded.

"Shut it Chirp," Marley said harshly.

Elizah, who was able to stand with the aide of two wooden support beams, piped up. "We have never had rain in the Glade.....Its been almost 2 years since I've heard thunder, " she explained.

Suddenly I froze. People didn't trust Aris or I as it was, so it is gonna be very incriminating if when we come and it rains for the first time. We huddled in the dark room as the storm persisted.

Suddenly a bright flash of lightning illuminated the sky. My eyes followed the silvery stems as it struck out, like nerves from a brain, and disappeared again just like that. The flashes of broken light were horrifying yet mesmerizing.

Then we hear the clanking of metal and my blood runs cold. Grievers.

"It's late, why aren't the bloody walls closed?!" Elizah yells.

Izzy looks at a shinny watch and her eyes get big. "They should've closed hours ago!"

"The Grievers are here!" a frightened voice yells.

Then we see Harriet, matted hair with dazed eyes and a sheen of sweat on her forehead, wobbling down the stairs. She looks more like a ghost than a human.

"We are all gonna die!" She moans. She actually laughs with such a sick tone it makes my stomach curl. "The Grievers are gonna pick us off one by one by one......" she laughs as if it were a funny story. "Why even bother hiding? Let's just tear down the shudders and open the door!" she says. She stumbles to the window and begins ripping the wood paneling off.

"Harriet!" Marley and Sonya scream. They rush over and hold her back. She violently tries to break free.

From the open hole of the window I see a blob-like squishy figure slithering around on the slippery wet grass. The sound of the rain on its metal appendages gives me chills.

I watch in terror as two long arms reach through the windoe and wrap around Marley's waist. She screams as they try to drag her out the open window. She puts her arms against the window sill to brace herself. Then I see her face go pale and her body go limp. The Griever pulls her out and absorbs her into his flesh.

I hear her screaming bloody murder as they drag her away. Her screams slowly diminish as she gets pulled into the Maze.

My body is frozen in place. Sonya drags a hysterical Harriet down the stairs.

My hair stands on end and chills flow up and down my spine.

"This is it," I hear Aris whisper.

"What?"

"Its the beginning of the end," he says.

The beginning of the end? I do not like the sound of that. Not at all.