chaos ⇢ the maze runner / thomas [2]

sneak peek (we're back!)

🎶Bitch, I'm back, and my ass got bigger. 💃🏽🎶 Er, I guess it would be Ruby's back and her ass got bigger? Anyway, uh... yeah...

Hey, guys! I know you have been waiting for me to update, but I ended up going back to college after a semester off, and I was crazy busy. (Not to mention, I have other fanfictions. And I have been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, so I have weekly therapy appointments now!) It's just been a lot, but I am pleased to announce that I'm currently back working on this story! I got a lot of comments from iluvteenwolf28 and honestly? When I was reading those comments, it made me miss the story a lot.

From now on, we will have at least one chapter a week! (Unless my mental health is poor that week.)

However, please note that when you guys leave me comments about how long an update takes or just simply demanding that I update, it doesn't inspire me or make me want to write. It actually makes me wanna write less, because it just makes me feel, well, bad. I respond better to positive comments. You can politely ask me if there will be an update this week, but please don't just demand an update. Unless I say the book is discontinued, I'm still here guys, I promise.

ALSO, I also got a lot of comments complaining about how little Ruby and Thomas scenes there were last book. (I got a lot of nasty comments in general. Honestly I think sometimes you guys forget that I'm a person.) That was because I wanted to focus on Ruby. We have two entire books remaining to jam full of them being cute. I did not have an entire two books to develop Ruby as a person, focus on her backstory, develop relationships with the other Gladers, handle Teresa, and write a ton of ship content. While I know how to stretch these things over several books now, I did not know how to do that back when I was writing book 1. I was a teenager who certainly didn't have the creative writing classes under her belt that she does now. So, I'm sorry that was disappointing to some of you. I did what I had to in order to not make the book seem too busy, and I still don't think I succeeded. There will be more ship content in this book!

Anyway, here's a small sneak peek at what's to come for Ruby!

Ps, sorry to all the fans who wanted Ruby to get with Gally instead. There were just more of you who wanted them to be siblings instead.

***

The moment Teresa was close enough, Ruby ran up and punched the girl square in the jaw. It didn't matter that her mother was watching. It didn't matter about the guards. It didn't matter that she was supposed to stay on her knees. All that mattered was her white hot rage. She trusted her, and she betrayed her.

Teresa stared up at her in shock. Tears welled in her big blue eyes, though not from the pain. It came solely from the fact that Ruby had hit her. Hit her so hard that she was lying here in the dirt like a tossed out animal. Tears because she could that Ruby wanted to do it again.

"What is wrong with you?", she asked, quietly at first. Her hand throbbed from the force of the punch, but she didn't care right then. It was like her very soul had been punched out of her chest. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!", Ruby shouted, attempting to attack Teresa again. Thomas and Newt immediately moved to grab her by the elbows, preventing Ruby from striking again. Still, she kicked and screamed, heartbroken and angry, until her throat felt like it was ripped to shreds. "How could you do this?! What is wrong with you?!"

"I did this for us, for all of us!", Teresa argued. "This is for the greater good? Why can't you see that?"

"You did this for you!", Ruby shouted back. "None of us wanted this! This is for you! And I hope you suffer for it!"

"That's enough, Ruby!", Ava shouted in frustration. "You're embarrassing yourself. Teresa did the right thing." She turned towards the soldiers next to her, nodding her head to towards the rest of the group. "Take the little one."

"No!", Ruby shouted immediately, her sons coming to a halt. "Don't you touch him. Don't you touch him! If you touch him, I will kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

"You'll do no such thing", Ava scoffed. She didn't even flinch as they grabbed Dimitri, completely ignoring his screams and cries for help. When Ruby rushed forward, only to be slammed to the ground by the butt of the stun guns, Ava didn't even bat an eye. Ruby coughed lightly as she tried to push herself back up, her chest throbbing in pain from the forceful hit. "That's quite enough, Ruby Jean. Get over here and act like a lady."

This was not her mother anymore. Ava Paige had once opposed the use of Immunes for the trials. She had once been on their side. But the Ava Paige before her only cared for WICKED now.

Ruby scoffed, attempting to not let her mother see her pain. "You put me in a prison with a bunch of boys, and you expect me to come out acting like a lady?" She let out a bitter laugh, smiling dryly at her mother. "You think you're so smart, but you're even dumber than I thought." Now Ava looked annoyed. Ruby stood up. "I will never trust you. I will never love you. And I won't be satisfied until I have burnt everything you have to the ground. Everything you own, everything you have built, everything that is near as dear to you, I will burn - even if that includes myself. And when I'm done, I won't even kill you. I'll let the guilt eat you alive instead. You can spend your entire life wondering if I'm going to kill you for all I care. But know that the only way I will ever give you that relief is if you hurt Dimitri. If there is even the slightest scar on his tiny little pinky when I see him again, I will personally have your head on a stick. And for Leo's sake... Ava Paige, I hope you burn."

For the briefest of moments, Ava's bottom lip trembled. Her eyes got glossy. It looked like she was going to mourn the inevitable loss of her daughter. But as quickly as it came, the glimpse of her humanity was gone. "Grab her", she commanded, the guards immediately surging forward to grab Ruby.

MAY 1, 2023
happy mermay, by the way!