The Beginning of the End // The Maze Runner // Newt

// Chapter 1 //

As soon as she could, she stood up and took a few steps back, giving the boy space to take in the Glade in all its restricting glory. She reached up to touch her face and winced when she felt the bruising cut on her lip and saw the blood coming off on her fingertips. It wasn't a bad injury, but it sure hurt. Not that she was going to show it. It could easily be fixed with some cold wet towel or something. Simples. For now, the main problem was the Greenie.

The rest of the boys had caught up and two of them grabbed him on Alby's orders, pulling him to the Pits.

"Are you alright?" Newt asked when he finally caught up to her.

"It's just a scratch." She said, turning to face him. An expression of worry crossed his face but Athena simply dismissed it as her imagination as it quickly disappeared. "I'm going to get a tissue or something from Jeff before it drips onto my shirt." She chuckled, wiping her chin with the back of her hand where she could feel the blood dribbling slowly from the deep cut, turning quickly on heel and hurrying towards the Med-Hut.

After she got a wet rag and cold compress from Jeff, she went up to her room. When she first came up, the boys understood she needed her space and agreed to give her one of the Keepers rooms in the Homestead. There weren't any free rooms but Newt volunteered to give up his room which meant that he had to move in to share with Alby because his room was the largest.

The room didn't have too much in it. There was a bed and a small, solitary cupboard which had a few shelves and one small space to hang stuff, but it was more than enough considering that they didn't have many things anyway. There was a window which had gaps so the wind blew through, making the room really cold during the night. She had originally requested a heater but since that didn't come, she settled for an extra blanket even though she secretly still wanted that heater.

She sat by her window, looking out and watching Alby as he led the Greenie out of the Pits and to the Lookout Post to explain how their little community worked. It was the best way to show them everything as the whole span of the Glade could be seen from there.

Two strong thuds on the door drew her attention away from the specks in the distance and she went and opened the door, finding Gally holding a fairly large crate.

"Delivery!" He invited himself into the room, placing the crate on the bed.

"Thanks, Gally."

After he had left with a curt nod, Athena picked up one of the floorboards that had broken a long time ago and used it to prise open the crate.

There were a couple of new t-shirts and a soft black hoodie which she slipped over her head. Often when they received new clothes, they were clean but had some stains or holes or sometimes you could see names written on tag of the item but that was less common. This one seemed to be fairly new and smelt like laundry detergent.

Under all the clothes there was one small box and a large swaddled item. Opening the box first, Athena found a thin, silver bracelet with two gems and an infinity loop in the middle and she smiled at the beautiful piece of jewellery. When she looked at it closer, she could see scratches over the silver where it had been worn over and over and was scratched on the surfaces it came into contact with and Athena smiled, knowing that whoever had it must have liked it a lot to have worn it so much that it had become so scratched.

It always interested her to think about where the items had come from. The stuff was definitely all second hand, but they always got what they needed within reason. Did the Creators have some kind of warehouse where they stashed loads of things so when they were requested, they just had to go and grab it? Or did they just go around collecting stuff they found and sent it up? Or did they design the clothes and items to be that way?

The last one was unlikely, but it still was fascinating to think about. What if they designed everything to be the way it was, for the bracelet to be scratched and the clothes to be ripped to see how they would make use of the items? Athena wouldn't even be too surprised seeing as the Creators were a bit demented considering they had sent them up there in the first place.

The larger item was the last thing she opened. She let out a small sigh of excitement as she pulled it awkwardly out of the small crate and plopped it onto her bed. When she opened it, she was instantly mesmerised.

A fairly sized sword was carefully wrapped inside. Though it may have appeared to be new at first glance, it was clearly used as the handle was dented and missing a chunk at the bottom. It appeared to have been forged from several different materials but was expertly forged nonetheless.

She ran her finger along the winding hilt and traced its figure down to the rain guard which seamlessly flowed a little way down the blade, winding around it in an almost elegant way.

The blade itself had seen better days but appeared as though it was surely as strong as the day it had left the forge. The blade looked dull as she couldn't see any reflections in it, but as she continued to brush over it gently with her finger (quite a stupid idea), she sliced into her skin slightly, making herself flinch away from the weapon, the deadliness of it finally starting to sink in.

At first she had been marvelling at it as an elegant decoration, but now that the blood had begun to drip down her finger and dropped onto the wooden floor, she could finally see that that was not its purpose in the slightest.

She began to notice the small indications that the sword had been used for things that she didn't necessarily want to imagine. There was dried blood stuck in some of the deep crevices of the hilt where even thorough scrubbing brushes wouldn't have been able to reach and even some remnants where it had been drawn on the blade itself.

Just then, someone knocked on the door so she quickly shoved the weapon and its case to the side of the room best hidden from the door as she rushed to open it. Even though she knew that the visitor wouldn't have been able to see the weapon from the doorway, Athena still did her best to keep the door fairly closed and stand in the remaining gap to protect it from the risk of being discovered.

"Hey, just letting you know we've already started setting up for the bonfire." Jeff said as soon as the door opened.

"Thanks, I'll be right down." She replied, starting to close the door, not wanting him to see what was lying in plain sight.

"Wait, how are you?" He asked.

"Good? Is something wrong? Am I bleeding again?" She reached her hand up to her face to find no traces of blood coming off on her fingers.

"No, no, nothing's wrong."

Athena leaned against the doorway, narrowing her eyes amusedly. "Something's up. You're analysing me. Jeff, I've been in the Med Hut more times I can count whether it's because I sprained my ankle in the Maze or if one of my friends got hurt. I see the way you analyse the injuries. You're doing that now. Why?"

"Just checking up on you is all." Jeff said, his eyes refusing to meet her own.

"You're lying. Jeff, I can tell you're lying! You're a terrible liar!" Athena whined, not enjoying not knowing things. "I won't tell, I promise!"

"Newt asked me to check up on you and he made me promise I wouldn't tell you." He blurted. Jeff was a good guy and always kept his promises, or at least he tried to when he could.

For as long as she could remember, which wasn't that long, being checked up on made Athena view herself as weak. It was as though she couldn't allow the possibility of people seeing her like that and she didn't know why. She couldn't put a finger on it, but all she knew was that it bothered her. Until that moment.

There was something about it coming from Newt that warmed her heart and she felt a small smile involuntarily spread across her face and a small blush start to crawl up her neck.

"Don't tell him I told you, though." He said, looking slightly guilty but holding a smile on his face nevertheless as he left, leaving Athena with her thoughts. And a sword.