Complicated

Chapter 14: Chop the Wood

"WICKED IS GOOD! "

It's a lie, Charlie! A lie! Wicked is lying! Don't trust them!

"WICKED ... IS GOOD.."

They're lying Charlie! Hang on, I'm coming! I'm coming as soon as I can!

"WICKED...IS...GOOD"

Hang on Charlie! They are lying!

I woke up gasping, and covered in sweat, and my head pounding. It took me a few seconds to figure out where I was, and that I wasn't actually being downed in tubes of water or being strapped down to a gurney. The disembodied voices where back. But louder this time. They were overlapping each other. I knew it was the same voices as before one male and one female, but who they were and why they kept repeating an oxymoron, I had no answers.

It may just be my brain trying to process all the klunk this places throws at me. But the other voice. It was the same smooth tenner as the night before. Like the other voices it seemed louder, almost like someone turned up the volume inside my head and was yelling, inside my head, making my skull ache. The odd tingly feeling like someone was inside my head was fading. And what was even weirder, was I felt lonely. I couldn't explain the phenomenon. I sat tangled in the blanket, covered in sweat, holding my aching pounding head, and wishing, longing almost for that presence to come back.

I was more jacked then I thought. It's been only a few days and I'm already loosing it. I rubbed my sore head a little longer. Untangling myself I slipped out of bed and tiptoed to Newt's bed and looked at the time on his wrist watch. It was early. 430 am. No point trying to sleep. The keepers and Runners would be up at 6 and Gladers at 7.

I quickly changed and crept my way to the kitchen. Frypan had slid me a key for the backdoor, and had closed up the collapsible metal blinds, locking them. He told me Dug was supposed to close up the day before and when he found me inside the kitchen he knew he would never ask Dug to close up for him again. Hoping the counter yesterday was a one time thing. So he slid me a key, "just in case." And winked.

I unlocked the back door and flicked the light on. I felt quite comfortable in the kitchen here. It was quiet, and no one made comments or watched me with calculating eyes. I set to work making breakfast for the few early early risers.

______________________

Alby, Minho, and Fry were perched on the counter, holding a plate of waffles and sauce, trying to talk and laugh and eat at the same time. There was another knock on the back door. Fry hoped off the counter and flung the door wide. Newt and Gally stood in the doorway.

"Welcome to the Early Bird Breakfast program!" He cried and swept an arm wide, ushering them inside.

"Glad you could make it! Hurry and grab a plate before these Hoover's eat it all!" I smiled at the boys. "Waffles are in the oven staying warm, cream sauce is on the stove, and coffee in the pot." I pointed to each place as I talked.

"Oh my Glade! Charlie, Love! These are amazing!" Newt gushed. He had downed half a waffle before talking.

I gave him a small smile.

"What's in them? It tastes like..." Gally trailed off, shoving another bite into his mouth

"Cinnamon. And vanilla."

He choked on his bite of waffle. Alby wacked him on the back. Once Gally stopped coughing his eyes went wide and then narrowed. He was giving me a suspicious look again.

"Is that bad?" I asked, confused why the two ingredients would cause this kind of reaction.

"Nothing." He shrugged, shaking his head.