𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋//𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘𝐗𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑

ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴀ ɢɪɴɢᴇʀ ᴋɪꜱꜱᴇꜱ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴀ ɴᴇᴡ ꜰʀᴇᴄᴋʟᴇ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀꜱ

Brenda was a good listener. While I recounted my relationship with Gally. I got it all out. Afterward, I felt clean, like a huge weight had tumbled off of my shoulders. She absorbed the information I'd told her in, speaking about herself only when I'd finished.

"I lost someone too." She confessed, reaching into her back pocket. Brenda pulled out a tiny metal box, she handed it to me, waiting for it to be opened. Inside was a boy's photograph, forever staring back at me. "He was my brother."

Surprise struck me across the face, causing me to fumble with the precious ornament. I had seen that boy's face a hundred times in the maze. I'd visited nearly every day, right in the graveyard.

My stomach leaped up into my throat, leaving a sick feeling to plummet where it fell. Brenda's brother was George. The corpse decomposing in the glass-covered grave was her blood.

I'd always wondered who George was. What he would be like. What he would say to me if he could talk back. I loved the time I spent with him in the deadheads. Dead boys couldn't harass me or even touch me. That's what made them such gentlemen.

"He looks so young," I whispered, having to give the box back to have any hope of shrouding my emotions. The last thing I'd want is for her to find out his fate. About how he'd had an example made out of him. They should've just let his body rest, or at least what was left of his body. "Tell me about him."

"He always saw the best in people." Brenda messed around with his photo, thumbing its yellowing edges. "I don't know what happened to him. When we were kids...we were taken in by one of Wicked's camps." She placed the object back in her pocket, settling her head back on her elbow. "They gave us a bunch of tests. They didn't want me." Her faraway look clouded over, wistfully she continued. "They wanted him though. They didn't even let me say goodbye."

Quiet.

I found my way to her cot, seating myself in the middle of it. Putting out my arms, I held her in my grasp. I only hoped she could feel my warmth and love, seeping from my skin to hers.

"I'm sorry." Mumbling by her ear, I pressed our heads together, loving her.

We understood each other. She could listen and so could I, that was something I could appreciate. Not many people were like Brenda, and I liked that. She was one of a kind.

After our embrace, she glowed, smiling at me. One free from borders and sarcasm. She was being genuine.

"I better go see Jorge, make sure he knows I'm not dead." With that, she was off, strolling off to go find her family. Her chosen family. It was funny how one person could encapsulate an entire family. Jorge was one of those rare beings that could do such a thing. He was multitalented.

Not too long after Brenda left, someone else slipped into the tent. A red-haired someone with freckles from ear to ear.

"Miss me?" I perked up, wearing a coy smirk. He stepped further into the hut, taking place in the room by standing in front of me.

"Terribly," Victor spoke with an over-the-top manner, swishing his hands around. "I couldn't eat, sleep, or live without you."

"Good to know." Tiredly grinning, I allowed him to take my hand. He helped me to my feet, holding me close to him.

Victor was taller than me, only by a few inches. He wasn't taller than Gally, no one was. But he still had some height over me.