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

- NOT THE END -

"Gally?" I manage to breathe, my voice dry and scraped raw with disbelief. I move instinctively, closer to Newt and tug Chuck along with me. My shoulder brushes his, and he tenses like I just passed a live wire to him.

Newt leans in close to me, lips barely moving as he whispers, "He's been stung." His voice sends a ripple of ice down my spine.

Gally stands before us, trembling, a gun clutched in his right hand. The same hand that used to throw tools, build shelters, surprisingly point out stars when he joined Newt and I at night. Now it holds a weapon with a white-knuckled grip.

In his other hand: a device. A key. The one that was out way out. He drops it. It hits the floor with a hollow, final clang. The sound makes my chest tighten. That key is useless now - and we all know it. "We can't leave," Gally says, and his voice is cracked glass. He's crying, but it's not gentle or sad. It's wild. Uncontrolled. Every sob like a jagged edge on his words.

Fry steps forward, his voice calm, hopeful. "Gally... we did it, man. We're out. You don't have to do this." But Gally doesn't hear him.

Or maybe he does, and he just doesn't care.

"We can be free, Gally," I try, desperate, my voice slicing through the heavy air.

His eyes find mine. That look - God, that look. "Free?" He repeats, a bitter, twisted laugh slipping from his throat. "You think we're free out there? No, there's no escape from this place," he says. "Out there is just another Maze. Another lie. Another test."

His arm raises.

The gun is pointed at me.

Everything around me freezes. My body turns to stone. My breath locks in my chest. For one horrifying moment, all I can see is the barrel of that pistol, and Gally's eyes - glass-sharp and gone.

Thomas shifts. "Hey, hey, Gally," he says, stepping between us, hands raised, palms out like he's taming a rabid animal. "You're not thinking straight. You've been stung. It's not real. This isn't you."

Gally's arm trembles. His whole body quakes like a live wire about to snap. His jaw clenches. A muscle spasms in his cheek.

Near me, I can feel Newt on edge. In the corner of my eye I see Minho shifting. Planning. Waiting for a moment. A window. Anything. I spare a glance sideways and Newt locks eyes with me - there's fear there, naked and raw. Not for himself. For me.

"Put down the gun, Gally," Newt says, his voice lower now, a warning and a plea tangled together.

Gally doesn't move. "I belong to the Maze," he says, so quietly it takes me a second to register. And I know then - he's not coming back from this. The Maze has him. It carved into his mind, poisoned his blood, infected his soul. Whatever part of Gally still existed - it's lost.

"Put down the gun," Newt says again, louder, stepping forward. His arms are out now, fingers spread, trembling. Thomas hasn't moved. He's still in front of me, but I can feel the tension rolling off him like heat. Then there's Chuck. Trying to see. He slips around Thomas's side, just a little. Just enough.

"We all do." Gally's words come like a curse. And I see it.

He's going to shoot.

I reach out with trembling hands, desperate, desperate to pull Chuck behind myself - or Thomas, any shield, any barrier between him and the chaos coming. My fingers catch the fabric of his shirt, clutching it like a lifeline.

The gunshot cracks through the air.

It's deafening, sharp, like the entire world has exploded inside my chest.