𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝘄 🆁🅴🅳 - ᴀ ᴍᴀᴢᴇ ʀᴜɴɴᴇʀ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄ

Chapter Eight

She could feel his eyes on her back as she waltzed away from him, but Thea refused to turn around. That would be showing her fear and the last thing she needed was to expose weakness. She wasn't going to be weak again. Never again.

The ivy-ridden stone melded into one endless blur of gray and green as she walked without casting a second glance behind her.

Until the fear crept in beneath her skin- the warnings of the Gladers and their terrified faces. Why were they so afraid? Why were the fearless ones amongst those numbered as fearful? What were the Grievers Minho had spoken of?

Thea didn't want to be afraid. She didn't want to live like that again. She wanted to know why it was again and how she could make it stop. The emotion was natural, but Thea refused to let anyone tell her she could be afraid. No one got to define her, but herself.

Just as she'd reempowered her confidence, a clicking sound came from behind her. Whirring came after along with something that sound almost slimy? Thea turned around at last, back down the corridor, and spoke, "Minho?"

No reply.

More boldly, she tried again. "Minho, you're not fooling anyone! I'm not afraid of your stupid noises, so just leave me alone like I asked!"

When Thea was greeted once again by silence, she continued forward on her stroll through the terrifying maze. What's next, night lights to keep them safe from the monster under the bed? She scoffed at the thought. Idiots.

The whir-click sound was closer the next time. Thea gritted her teeth to stop the shiver that ran up her spine and whirled around to face the empty corridor as darkness fell over it. "I'm going to kill you, you know that? I will do it, you hear me Minho?"

Once again, he didn't reply, much to Thea's annoyance. She opened her mouth to try out a few of the new curses she'd learned, but didn't have time to speak.

Vaulting around the corner, a slimy porcupine the size of a horse charged at Thea. This must be a Griever. I guess that explains why I wasn't supposed to be out here. Metal spikes portruded from the goopy flesh and glowed in a tinted blue light. The thing rolled like a bowling ball at her, but Thea refused to be knocked down like pins.

Adrenaline took the reins and she dived out of the way just before the creature got to her. It let out a moan like a burdened ghost and paired it with a click as the Griever adjusted its trajectory. Three seconds, Thea counted, was all it took for the thing to change direction and then it was back to charging her like an angered bull.

The girl scrambled to make a plan, sweeping her eyes across the corridor for anything to use as a weapon. The walls. She could climb the walls and stay out of reach. Thea ran at the Griever, bracing herself in case this went wrong, and plastered herself against the wall just as the creature went by. One of the spikes scraped the flesh of her upper arm, but she had no time to think about the pain.

Thea clawed at the ivy, pulling herself up while mentally counting to three. Once her countdown was over, the Griever would be back in commission, meaning she had to get out of reach fast. She had no idea where her upper body strength had come from, but was pleasantly surprised by it. Thea yanked her legs out of the way when she reached one and wrapped her wrists and ankles around the ivy, to keep her secure. The last thing she needed was to escape the monster just to fall off the wall into its grasp.

To her horror, the creature was unfazed by her perceived escape.

The Griever changed trajectory to face her and uncurled to resemble a spiky caterpillar more than a rolled up porcupine. The creature planted its goopy flesh on the wall and contracted, sucking the back end up near its head and then shooting its head further up the wall.

It could climb walls.

Shuck.

Thea was beginning to see where the Gladers' terror came from.

With a renowned urgency, Thea grabbed another tendril of ivy and swung her body away from the creature. It inched up the wall to her with breath-taking speed for such a monster.

Shuck, shuck, shuck, shuck.

The ivy in her left hand broke unceremoniously and tossed Thea off balance. She swung back towards the Griever, scrambling for another vine while the broken one dropped into a pile below her.

A nasty squelching joined the whir-click's chorus and grew louder in Thea's ears. Her breath quickened and her heart thudded in her ears as she pulled herself across the wall.

Keep going, keep going, keep going!

Thea's muscles burned. She wasn't going to last much longer doing this. Daring a glance behind her, she saw the creature a mere three feet back. This was not going to work.

The girl clung to a single strand of ivy and slid down it like a fire pole, ignoring the sticky green juice that stained her hands. A few feet from the ground and her hand caught on a knot in the vine and she lost balance once again. Thea crashed to the floor prematurely and grimaced at the bruises forming on her thighs.

No time to waste on the pain.

Thea stumbled up and ran, though lilting as she planted her weight more lightly on the left side, to the pile of discarded vines. No other plans in mind, she reasoned that it would be her best bet to try and trip the creature so she could get a head start on her escape. A permanent solution would come later.

With a squish-click, the Griever dropped to the ground. Three seconds later and it had adjusted to charge at Thea once again. She screamed and rose from her crouched position beside the wall where she'd tied one end of the ivy to a strand that was still attached from the top. There was no time to tie the other side, so she ran with the vine in hand and let the Griever follow, then turned on her heel and pulled the ivy taut just as the creature crossed it.

The monster slammed into the foliage and ripped right through her makeshift tripwire. Three, two, one and it was once again headed to kill Thea. Plan B would be a good thing to have, right about now.