I Know Places [Thomas The Maze Runner]

[05: The Dream]

"That is a good idea, thank you Thomas," Ava praised. "But for our first phase we need something simple. Something solvable. Or at least escapable." She turned her eyes to Elle. "Elle, do you have any ideas?"

Of course she did. All Elle did all day was solve puzzles and come up with hypothetical answers to the hypothetical questions the scientists at WICKED gave her. "What about a maze?" Elle suggested.

Her eyes snapped open, and she awoke with a gasp. As she slept, she must have kicked the blankets off her bed, and beads of of cold sweat had collected on her forehead. The memories in her dreams were slipping through her fingers, and she couldn't remember any of them by the time she sat up. It was a frustrating and confusing feeling, constantly thinking that something was on the tip of your tongue and then torn away before she could deliberate it.

Parched, she reached for the water bottle under her bed and realised it was empty. With a frustrated groan, Elle swung her legs over the side of her bed and slipped into her shoes to get water from the tap in the bathroom.

The sun had just started rising, and all the other Gladers were still asleep in the Homestead and outside on the hammocks. She passed by the hammocks on her way to the bathroom entrance and spotted Chuck and Thomas lying beside each other. Stopping in place, Elle glanced at Thomas when she identified him as the source of quiet whimpering. She found him writhing and kicking in his hammock, breathing heavily as he dreamed.

Frowning, Elle snuck around the boys in their hammocks and tried to gently wake Thomas up. "Thomas," she whispered, trying to wake him up without rousing anybody else. "Tommy, wake up," Elle added, shaking him by the shoulders.

He slurred something incoherent before he woke up, "Jane--" The name was so jumbled from his sleep-ridden mind that Elle couldn't quite make it out. Thomas shot up, gasping and choking on air as he looked around to orient himself. His eyes scanned the Homestead and Deadheads before landing on Elle. The burning touch of her hand on his shoulder scalded him through his shirt. "Elle!" Thomas exhaled in relief. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Are you?" Elle retorted, pushing his slightly damp hair away from his forehead in a soothing manner. "I think you were having a nightmare," she explained. "I had one too."

"I don't know," Thomas muttered. Any memory of his dreams trickled away the longer he stayed awake. "I can't remember," he admitted, dark eyes clouded with exhaustion.

"That's fine. You feel okay?" Elle prompted, wanting to make sure he was alright before leaving him. Her concern was deep in her gut, and she couldn't describe why it was so intense. Something about seeing Thomas in such a vulnerable state drew out a protective anxiety she couldn't decipher. He nodded his head, a little hesitant. "That's good. Get some rest, Tom, everyone else is still asleep."

Elle moved to get up, but Thomas caught her wrist before she could move it from its place on his shoulder. "Wait," Thomas whispered. His hand was warm and sent a similar heat up her arm and to her stomach. Suppressing a shiver, Elle met his dark eyes and paused. "You said you had a nightmare too?" he remembered, his expression akin to a startled child with large, worried eyes. Elle's heart broke for him. She couldn't wrap her head around why, but seeing him like this made her want to pull him into her arms. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Elle reassured Thomas. "You look pretty shook up, are you sure you don't want to talk?"

"Are we ever getting out of here?" Thomas wondered, spilling his guts and telling Elle his greatest fear from the get-go. "Do you think we're stuck here with nowhere else to go?"

Elle blinked, taken aback by his sudden change in subject. "I don't know," she confessed somberly. "What I do know is that everything keeps indicating we're special and different from the other Gladers." She recalled what Alby and Chuck told the pair yesterday. "I think that maybe it means that we're here for a reason. Maybe we can help everyone get out."