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

- SECTION 7 -

Minho stops first, throwing up his hands. "It's just another dead end," he mutters, scowling. "Figures." I slow, but don't stop. The device in my hand vibrates faintly. I look down.

The red "7" flickers once. Then twice.

Then it turns green.

I freeze. "Wait," I whisper. The boys whirl around as I hold the device out, showing them. And then, with a deep, bone-vibrating grind, the wall begins to rise. It's slow. Loud. Like stone screaming against stone.

Behind it - another wall. Separated by maybe five meters.

And that one starts to rise too.

Then another.

Three stone walls, one after the other, pulling upward in perfectly delayed sync. Dust clouds around us as the stone groans. The wind from the movement stirs my hair. "It's a key," Minho mumbles. My hands tremble, the beeping device now silent in my grasp.

Then comes the final door - not a shifting wall this time.

It's circular, made of etched stone, as if it spiraled out of the stone itself. Its grooves rotate inward like a puzzle, clicking and grinding as it spirals open like an ancient vault.

We all just stand there. Frozen.

"Guys," I say, barely a whisper. My voice feels small against the weight of the shadowed corridor in front of us. "I don't like this."

"Are we sure about this?" Minho asks, his voice unusually tight. He's staring into the dark like it might stare back.

"No," Thomas says, already taking the first step forward. "But we're doing it anyway." I swallow hard and follow. Minho hesitates for a second longer before falling in behind us.

We walk through the lifted stone doors and I quicken my pace as we pass beneath each of the raised pieces. I can't help it - I keep imagining them slamming shut without warning. Crushing us. Trapping us. Ending this before it begins.

The cylindrical passageway beyond is nothing like the Maze. No vines, no cracks, no Beetle Blades skittering across the walls. Just smooth, cold metal.

Minho reaches out and runs his fingers along the inside curve of the circular tunnel. He immediately yanks his hand back. "Grievers," he mutters, wiping the slime onto his shirt.

Thomas turns his head slightly, eyes narrowed. "It's how they enter the Maze." I stare ahead, into the void of the tunnel, its curve dipping slowly out of view. "Then it's how we get out." It hits us all at once. We're standing in the same tunnel where the creatures of our nightmares thrive. And we're betting everything on it being a way out. Then, without warning, a faint red dot appears at the far end of the corridor. Just floating in the dark. The only light in a suffocating black. "Whats that?" I breathe, stepping slightly back.

The red dot shifts, then explodes into beams - lasers shooting down the path in thin, sharp lines. They sweep over us from head to toe, one after another, buzzing faintly as they scan.

I flinch and throw my arms around myself as the light runs across my chest, stomach, legs. It's not hot. But I feel exposed, like something behind those lights is analysing every cell in my body.

"What the hell," Minho mutters. He looks up. Above us, something grinds. Metal. Heavy. The sound of gears and machinery groaning to life echoes through the tunnel. I see panels shifting in the ceiling - like it's preparing for something. "(Y/n)! The key!" Minho shouts, panic suddenly cutting into his voice.

I fumble for the small device and toss it to him. It spins once in the air, and he snatches it one-handed, immediately shoving it deep into his bag. We don't wait. We run.

The lasers vanish behind us as we sprint back the way we came, shoes slamming against the smooth stone, breath ragged. I risk a glance behind - the circular door is closing, rotating shut with terrifying speed.

By the time we're halfway across the bridge, the stone segments start to fall behind us, one by one, each sealing the tunnel deeper behind us like the Maze is locking the secret away again.

We don't stop. We race across the flat stone bridge, the chasm yawning wide below, the Blades somewhere up ahead. No one speaks. Because whatever that place is... whatever system we just triggered... It's awake now. And it knows we've found it.

We're running back into the Blades.

Only now, they're moving.

The once-flat slabs of metal are shifting - sliding in perfect, calculated rows like giant knives rearranging themselves for the kill. The space between them narrows. They're closing in. "Go, go, go!" Minho shouts ahead of me, voice sharp with panic.

"We're going to get cut off!" I cry, trying to keep up, my heart slamming against my ribs.

"Run!" Minho barks again, feet pounding on the concrete. He's not looking back. Thomas is right behind him.

I try to follow - but one of the rows slams shut between us. A thunderous CRACK echoes as metal crashes into metal. "NO-!" I veer sideways, sprinting parallel with the blades, searching for another path. The shards on either side lurch and groan as if they're alive and hunting. I'm barely keeping ahead of the closing gap. Just a few more meters-

A sliver of space. I hurl myself sideways through it.

The edge of the blade scrapes the back of my heel, and I tumble onto the concrete with a gasp. "Let's go!!" Thomas yells, already pulling at me, eyes wild.

I don't have the breath to shout back that I'm trying, but I scramble to my feet and keep running.

We push into the wider stretch of concrete, the emptier space past the blades, and I think. just for a second - that we've made it. Then the ground beneath our feet shudders. A deep, grinding rumble fills the air like the world itself is groaning. "What the hell-" Minho starts, just as I slam into them, nearly knocking Thomas over.

Right in front of us, the ground cracks open with a terrible screech. A huge slab splits down the middle and starts to rise, like something is unfolding from the earth. A stone section of the wall ahead groans and falls forward to seal the gap.

"MOVE!!" I scream, shoving both boys out of the way. The wall crashes down behind us with a concussion that rattles our teeth. A cloud of dust erupts into the air. My legs are burning, lungs on fire, but we keep running. We dodge debris. More parts of the system tremble, collapsing in dominoes behind us.

It's hard not to look back.

"Don't look back!" Minho yells, glancing at me over his shoulder. His face is slick with sweat. "Just run!"

Then I spot it - a narrow cut-through, a shadowed turn slicing between two leaning slabs. "To the left!!" I scream, pointing. It's a shortcut back into the maze. But the ground there is shifting, too, closing like a mouth preparing to swallow. "HURRY!!" I don't think. Instinct kicks in and I dive forward, shoulder-first through the gap just as the floor raises behind me. Minho's right in tune, launching himself through mid-air with a grunt. I reach back- "THOMAS!"

His hand slaps into mine. I grab his wrist with both hands and pull, dragging him through just as the stone shuts with a shuddering thud behind us. We collapse in a pile on the floor, panting, bruised, scraped.

The silence is deafening now. The wall we just came through looms behind us - cold, unmoving. Final. We stare at it, stunned. It's over. That part, at least.

For now.

~