IT STARTED WITH A MAZE - Newt x Reader (F)

- THE FIRST ANOMALY -

The walls have closed. The gears have stopped.

And still, no one speaks.

Ben's final screams are gone - swallowed up by the Maze. But the sound of them keeps circling in my skull like a broken track that won't stop spinning. His voice, ragged with terror. That desperate, trembling "please." I don't think I'll forget it. Not tonight. Maybe not ever.

"He belongs to the Maze now," Alby says quietly. He's not talking to anyone in particular. Just letting it hang in the air, like a sentence written in stone.

The boys start to drift away. There's no music tonight, no fire to gather around. No laughter, no joking, no relief. Just the low hum of silence and the steady clicks of gears cooling off inside the stone.

Gally crosses Ben's name off the wall. I watch him do it - sharp, brutal strokes of the knife over each letter. Winston is beside him, not saying a word. Just holding the lantern as they carve the line through their friend's name. There's no ceremony, no moment of silence. Ben's gone. That's it.

I don't want to go to bed. I don't want to sit by the gardens. I don't want to be alone with my thoughts. Not after what we saw. Thomas talks quietly with Chuck across the field, their heads bent together like they're trying to make sense of something that'll never make sense.

Newt's deep in conversation with Alby near the Watchtower. They're speaking low, too low for me to catch anything, but Alby's face is tight. Worn. He keeps rubbing at the back of his neck like it hurts to carry the weight of what just happened.

And Minho... Minho sits alone.

He's got his elbows on his knees, staring at the dirt between his boots like there's something buried there. He doesn't even look up when I walk over. I drop down beside him. Neither of us says anything for a few seconds. The silence between us feels less like an awkward pause and more like a shared weight. "Let me come tomorrow," I say finally. No sugarcoating. Just the words.

Minho exhales through his nose. "You've had a tough day, Speedy."

"I know," I agree, still feeling the heat of my cheek. "But this isn't about me needing to prove something." He finally glances my way. "I don't know how this whole thing works yet," I continue. "But what we saw today- that was brutal. Unforgivable. And if there's even the slightest chance Ben could survive the night... if there's any chance we could help him, or learn something from it-"

"(Y/n)," Minho interrupts, voice low, and sharp with warning.

I stop.

He's looking at me like he wants to tell me something. Something big. I lean in slightly, about to ask again, but Alby approaches before I can. "You tell her what you saw today?" Alby says as he walks up. He doesn't wait for an invitation before sitting down across from us.

My heart ticks faster. "What?" I ask immediately, scanning Minho's face.

Minho doesn't answer. He's back to looking at the ground. "I don't think she should come," Minho mutters.

"You're down a runner, Minho," Alby says plainly. "Who's going to take on the role if not (Y/n)?"

"What did you see?" I ask again. I can feel it now - my body on edge, leaning forward like the truth is just barely out of reach. "You're both talking over me like I'm not here. What did you see?"

They look at me. This time, Minho answers. "I found a dead Griever," he says. The words settle like lead in my stomach.

My mouth opens. "What?"

"We don't know how it died," Alby says, taking over. "That's why we're going out again tomorrow - to investigate."

A dead Griever.