Questions // Mazerunner

25-In which the light flickers

When Maddy woke the next morning, she found the vanilla extract bottle nestled in her hair, and the letter from Lucie tucked between her knees. She groaned.

Having extracted the bottle and placed both it, and the note, under her pillow for safekeeping, she wandered over to the kitchens to make breakfast.

"Ya late Mads. Runners all left," Frypan smiled down at her and she could tell he was only joking. "What're we making?" She laughed with him.

"Bacon? Or Eggs? Gotta give this new greenie the special treatment eh?" Maddy smiled back at Fry.

"How about bacon then?"

And they set to work sizzling the bacon until the thirty or so boys were contented. Except the greenie, who claimed he was something called a vegetarian.

Nobody else really knew what that was, and when asked neither did the new kid. He just handed Maddy a note from his pocket, which he had apparently found when he got here.

On opening, Maddy found that this note was also from Lucie. It read:
Greenie,
You're a vegetarian. That means you don't eat meat. So don't eat meat.
Lucie.

"Yeah, you're gonna have to eat meat green bean, so get used to it," and with that, Frypan served him a huge plate of bacon. He and Maddy watched as he struggled, trying to resist, but eventually he had to give in. The smell was too good.

A couple of hours later, the boys and Maddy were sitting down for lunch when a scream echoed through the walls. Ben, who was sitting next to Maddy, looked down and grimaced. The greenies eyes were wide and his head kept flicking from side to side. "What was that?"

"Just a scream. They'll be fine," Maddy replied. She knew that she couldn't promise that whoever it was was actually fine, but she needed to convince herself. Although she hadn't been talking to Newt, she did still care.

Maybe that was part of the reason she wasn't talking to him. She cared too much. Maybe it was purely because of the possible consequences of her actions, which drew ever closer by the day. She didn't know. It was almost as if it was beyond her power to stop ignoring him. Like there was someone, something, inside her head.

And hell, it scared her.

She stood up and began to walk out of the room and towards the maze walls. "Maddy," Fry warned but she kept going, "If you shuckin' go out there-"

Maddy cut him off, "I'm not gonna shuckin' go out there am I?"

But she knew that if all the runners returned without Newt, she would go back in there. Because in that moment, she realised that Newt was all she really had, and if he died then half of her would be dead as well.

They were one, they were the same, and together they were infinite.

But they were not together. They were not one, because the voices, the demons, in Maddys head kept saying 'No. This boy is bad. He will do bad things. No Maddy No.'

And the stupid thing was, she listened.

She had kept walking, all the way up to the maze entrance as she let the ocean of thoughts and fears lapse over her. She peered round the corner. Nobody. She wouldn't be able to see round the other corner without going in, and she said she wasn't going to, so she wouldn't.

Unless the unthinkable happened.

Maddy sat on the grass, dry and bleached from the sun. It brushed against her legs, coarse and hard, keeping her from slipping back into revelry and unconsciousness.

Not 15 minutes later, a boy came hurtling round the corner. Not Newt. Minho. And he had tears in his eyes.

Immediately, Maddy's hands flew to her mouth to stop herself from screaming. She began to move forward towards the boy, slowly, then gaining speed.

And then she stopped.

Because Minho was smiling. The shank was smiling, and he had tears running down his face, and he was laughing so hard that he was rocking back and forth on the grass. "We-"

He was cut off by footsteps behind him. Newt. Maddy ran up to him and engulfed him in a huge hug. "Oh god, I thought you were dead, the grievers and oh my god Newt never do that again." She repeated it over and over like a mantra, until her words faded into one long word.

"Hey," Newt looked down at her smiling, "Hey mad girl." Maddy looked up at him. "We might have found a way out."

Hope flickered in her eyes. Maybe they would get out. Maybe she wouldn't have to do it. She wouldn't have to tell Newt. Maybe they could even be... together. Girlish excitement filled her and she pulled him into another long hug.

Two more runners came up behind them. In one boys arms, he held a corpse, bloody and pale. The other boy merely shook his head.

And once again, Maddy and Newt embraced each other. For really, they needed each other more than they could ever know. More than all the little voices in their heads could tell them. More than all the newly broken impossibilities.

Maddy knew that sooner or later, she was going to have to tell Newt.

A/N Thanks so much for all the positive feedback. :) ALSO CHAPTER 1 HAS 123 READS WHATT? Please keep commenting, voting etc bc y'all are the nicest readers I could ever ask for and if I ever met any of you, I'll give you brownies :D
-Katie