A WICKED story (A Maze Runner Fan-fic)

~5~

I wake up from someone whispering in my ear. "So, what's this then?" I spring up in surprise and my forehead clashes against the person right in front of me. Damn that hurt. While clutching my forehead I look at the person who woke me up, who is also holding their forehead. It's Minho. Behind me I hear Newt laughing and I turn around to see him still on the ground.

On the ground?

Just then I realize that I didn't go to the Homestead last night, I fell asleep against Newt. I feel the heat reaching my cheeks and quickly turn away embarrassed. Why didn't he wake me up?!

"The hell was that for?!" Minho yells.

"You shouldn't have startled me!" I yell back while rubbing my forehead. Great start of my second day here. Minho looks from me to Newt and back again and seems to remember what he came here for. He smirks.

"Well I was on my way to start running but then I saw you two lovebirds sitting by the fire and thought I'd give you the pleasure of being woken up by my angelic face." I'm positive my whole face now resembles a ripe tomato and don't even dare to look at either Newt or Minho. When I do accidentally catch a glimpse of Newts face I can see he's just as red as me.

"Well I'm off now, be-bye shanks." He laughs one more time at us and then runs away.

"So, ya ready to start your life as a Glader?" Newt asks behind me. I turn to face him. Neither of us mentioning what happened the night before. I'm glad, I don't want to be teased any further. I've got to show these boys that I am just as strong as they are. I don't need protection; I can do that myself.

"I sure am." We both smile and Newt turns around to walk back to the Homestead. Since he has mentioned it and he's walking in front of me, I can see him limping with his right leg. I wonder what that 'accident' was but decide not to ask, it seems like a touchy subject and I don't want to be rude.

"So what's on the schedule for today?" I run a little to catch up with him.

"First I'll show ya your room, then we'll get ya to the Med-Jacks to sort out your back, again, and then we'll start working in the gardens." I nod and we continue walking towards the Homestead. Even though I feel embarrassed about falling asleep on his shoulder, the silence isn't uncomfortable. Around us more and more boys start to wake up and begin with their jobs for the day. Now that they're out in the open I see about thirty boys already up, half of them probably still sleeping. So many people but what are we here for? And what's waiting when or if we get out? There must be so many families worrying where their children are. Would they find us before we get out? Probably not since the boys have already been here for a year. We can't be that hard to find, right?

OUCH

I got so lost in my thoughts that I walked straight into Gally. He grabs my wrist before I can fall to the ground.

"You should really be more careful where you walk Greenie." He laughs at me but doesn't tease me any further, probably because he now knows I can kick his ass.

"Thanks." I mumble before catching up with Newt again, he has an amused smile on his face but I warn him before he can even say anything.

"Don't you even bloody start." He laughs but obeys my orders, he walks me into the Homestead and onto the second level. It basically looks the same as the first except there are only small rooms here. Newt walks to the end of the hallway and shows me a small room with one bed, which has a pillow and a neatly folded blanket on top of it, and a small closet with a mirror above it. A mirror. I realize that I don't even know what I look like. I cautiously walk up to the mirror, as if I'm scared of what I might see, which is absolutely ridiculous but I can't help it.

The mirror hangs at perfect height for me. When I look into it, two blue grey eyes stare back at me, although I got plenty of sleep I have soft bags underneath them. Cuts and scrapes surround my face. One on my cheek which is barely healed. One on my forehead protruding into my golden blonde hair, the cut is just barely visible. One scrape on my chin as if I took a nosedive into the floor. I touch them to make sure they're there. What the hell happened before I came up in that Box?

"Guess we should've warned ya about that huh?" I just stare at him blankly, a million questions swirling in my mind, most prominent 'what the hell?'

"Hey, it's okay." Newt says with a soft tone, suddenly standing next to me. I hadn't even noticed I started to cry. He puts an arm around me and pulls me close, I don't resist. "It's always a shock seeing yourself for the first time. I could've sworn my hair was black." I let a little laugh escape.

"I just wanna know what the bloody hell happened to me, why I'm here, why I'm the only girl. I've got so many questions and no answers." Newt just holds me close while my tears keep making their way onto his shirt. After a while I pull away from him, embarrassed. I use the sleeves on my grey shirt to wipe the tears away.

"I'm sorry." I say, my voice not much more then a whisper. Newt takes my face in his hands and forces me to look into his eyes. When I look into his deep brown eyes the whirlwind in my mind quiets down a little bit and my tears finally stop falling. I could look into his eyes for an eternity. "There's nothing to feel sorry for love, we'll find the answers when we get out of here." He then suddenly let's me go.

"I'm uhh, I'm gonna check if I can find the crate that has your stuff in it." And with that he promptly walks away and leaves me alone in the small room. Did he just call me love? I shouldn't dwell on that.

A little while later Newt walks in with a crate full of clothes. He gives it to me without looking at me and then walks outside again to stand by the door. On top there's a soft white shirt, which kind of makes me think of the shirt Newt is wearing, except with long sleeves. I put the crate in a corner and tell myself I will put it into the closet later. Then I remove the dirty grey long sleeve, which sticks a bit to my back when I take it off. When it's off I can see the bloodstains on the back of the shirt. I look into the mirror and I can see the bandages on part of my back and the exposed flesh is filled with either bruises or scars. I try to remind myself that it's okay, even though I haven't been here for long, I cannot imagine these boys hurting me. I steady my breathing and look at my arms which are of course also covered in scars. There's no use in wondering where they came from, no one here would know.

I put the shirt on and take one last look in the mirror. My eyes are puffy from crying which makes the blue stand out even more, my blonde hair is tied into a braid and I wonder if I did that myself or someone else did. I try to smile at myself and fail but I'm determined to turn this day around.