𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 | 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

•Before The Maze• [4]

I really want to get this chapter out on 7/15 but that's four days away (technically five if you count today) so I only have like 4 1/2 days to write 5000+ words so I'm literally so screwed

Uh yeah so that didn't happen (8/4/23)

Started 7/11/23

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August 2nd 2046, 8 years old

WHEN Y/N TURNED six, her first birthday in the compound, she thought that maybe something would happen. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be allowed to have a day off or see Thomas and Teresa again. She blamed herself for thinking something fun would happen for once, she'd gotten her hopes up just to be let down by none other than WICKED itself. Her birthday wasn't even acknowledged.

And when another year passed without any word of the two and added another year onto her life a part of her still hoped something would happen. That small sliver of hope wished for the day-by-day cycle to be broken even if it meant her being acknowledged or given another book that didn't have bent pages and a spine hanging on for dear life. Reading meant so much to her, it was the color that painted her life in the dull and lifeless facility. Y/N was grateful for the books she had but she'd been reading the same books since her first day in WICKED. It got to the point where she couldn't even read a few because she knew exactly what was going to happen next, sentence by sentence they were all imprinted on her brain.

The day Y/N turned eight without even knowing it was the day she knew the small fraction of hope had since burned out. The little desires and wishes she kept within her didn't exist anymore. She knew there was never going to be any change, that wasn't WICKED's thing. Her memory of Thomas and Teresa slowly became bland and she couldn't picture their faces anymore. She lived day to day comfortably on the outside, but on the inside, she was screaming for something different to happen.

It was three years of waking up, eating, going to the first lessons, having lunch, sitting through the second lessons, being brought to the dinner hall to grab food, then eating alone in her room. Three years of the exact routine. No interaction with anyone besides her teachers and the guards now and then she'd get a visit from Dr. Paige, but that was it. Everything was black and white and she hated it. Her world was so sharp and vibrant, ever since WICKED took her in, it's been dull and dreary. WICKED really was wicked.

Y/N always lost track of time, knowing that it wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon for that matter. She used to live hour by hour, now she lives off-day by off-day. Those two, sometimes three, days she got off a month were how she measured her time even though a clock and calendar were always accessible to her everywhere she went. The only thing she was grateful for besides her books was the lack of Randall in her life. Y/N couldn't remember why she hated him so much but it was the grudge she held that kept her going. That hate she stored for that man is what fueled her life, it was the only other emotion she felt besides boredom. The only other color.

It got to the point where she'd almost completely forgotten about Thomas and Teresa. The hue they cast over her life faded quickly after her hope. When her dreams reached the parts of her mind she'd escape to during lessons, she gladly let them play out for her like the Flare documentaries Mrs. Adrien made her watch. Sometimes Y/N swore she could see Thomas in them even though they never showed a face. She knew it was him. It had to be.

But the visions disappeared quicker than her optimism for a brighter life. One day Y/N decided she would ask Dr. Paige for new books. It was a simple request, right? Y/N was imagining the worst in response. Maybe they'd take away her off-days or her food, maybe they'd even make Randall pay a visit. It was WICKED and Y/N was sure they could find something awful for her, it was in their name after all. So imagine her surprise when someone came knocking on her room's door and she opened it expecting to see a guard with one of those big guns pointed right at her face, but instead, she sees Mr. Janson with a few new books in hand.