Complicated

Chapter 57: Griever Goop

The group of brave Gladers stood motionless as Thomas Minho and I crept forwards. Minho and I were still cautious.

"You guys coming?" Thomas asked, over his shoulder.

"Well considering the last time we checked out a dead Griever...it wasn't exactly dead." Minho snarked.

"And I don't fancy playing another round of tag..." I rolled my eyes, and subconsciously placed my hand over my stitches. 

"Oh..yeah..." Thomas gave us a sheepish smile. 

Minho glanced at me and raised his eyebrows. I shrugged and together we stepped up beside Thomas, the three of us stood shoulder to shoulder. 

"Well...I guess it's time we find out what we're up against..." I said trying to sound more confident then I felt. My stomach was twisting into knots, and I felt warmer. But I took a deep breath and inched closer to the thing. 

Thomas ever the eager one followed without hesitation. The other guys backed in behind. It was defiantly not going anywhere, even if it wasn't dead. It was squished pretty solidly between the heavy stone walls. 

"That's disgusting." Frypan shuddered, wrinkling his nose.

"Whoa...what's that? Some Griever guts there?" Winston asked.

We all turned, Winston said pointing to a dark spot on the stone. On the dark grey stone was a spot of dark brown, close to the wall, on the other side of the hall. My face paled. It was dried blood. My blood. 

"No, that's where Tiger just about bleed to death after taking out the Griever." Minho said flatly. 

"The actual shuck?" Vinny asked, his eyes wide, he turned back to me. "That's all yours?" 

I could feel my face going slightly pink. And I shrugged. 

"Jeez Charlie. You're a beast!" Vinny whispered in amazement.

"Wait..you should be resting! How are you still functioning if you lost that much? Shuck Charlie!"  Frypan fretted,  throwing his hands into the air, coming over to me. His hands on my shoulders, his big carrying eyes searching my face. 

"I'm fine Fry. I promise. I mean I could use a nap, but..." I gave him a small smile. 

Lier

I turned away from Fry and turned to the smooshed Griever in the way, pretending to be interested in it, I stepped away from the other guys. 

I'm fine Tommy...enough to be here.

Lier lier. You do know we're connected, and I know when your lying to me.

I could feel his eye roll. I mentally sighed. I knew he was right.

Fine. No, Tommy. 

I gave up, sagging mentally. I could feel Thomas waiting, his presence made me feel safe. I could feel the care and worry. I glanced at him, he was also inspecting the Griever, but his eyes flicked to mine, and I could see the worry and concern, the care and love. I just about flopped to the floor and cried.

No, your right, I'm fare from fine. So far from it. 

I turned my head back to the griever. But continued our conversation. This was weird, being able to talk to him like this, but I was glad no one else could hear our conversation. I hadn't opened up to anyone this much, not even Newt. Gally knew... but I couldn't complain or worry about Gally to Gally. So I opened and exploded everything onto Thomas. 

I'm not okay. I feel like klunk physically. Not just from our adventure the other night, but that's a huge part of it. I never really got full proper time to recover from being smacked around in the maze when Ben was stung...physically and emotionally hurting from loosing Bean. Emotionally I feel empty. I'm doing my best to hold it together. Trying to process the deaths of so many in such a short time. And the other night was...I have no words, I've never been that exhausted and scared for so long!  And also trying to help Gally through his mental low right now- yesterday was an.. awful day!