Newt x Reader || A13

09 | A12

- - -

As I run, the rest of the world fades away until all I am aware of, all I see and feel and hear is the hard ground beneath my pounding feet, the awareness of Julian and Gabe running alongside me, and the groaning of the maze, the rumble of the walls.

The walls which stretch so high above, the sky barely shines through narrow peaks, framed by stone and thick vine, constricting.

"Stop here." Julian says after a moment, stilling Gabe and I, the former of whom smiles over at me; he can't be many years older than myself. "Look." Julian gestures in front of him. "This is the end of the inner circle. That's the middle of the maze there, and past that, the outer circle."

In front of me, there's a large gap, and beyond, the maze is completely different. In front of me, the walls are spaced out while back behind me in the inner circle, they are dense.

"And you have all this memorized?" I ask Julian. He nods, black hair blowing across his face with the wind in the maze.

"That and more; it changes. Every day, but the most at night." He says.

"We used to send runners out at night- when there were less Grievers." Gabe says, bringing a canister of water to his lips. He catches me looking and offers me a swig, but I shake my head.

"What happened?"

"We don't know." Julian runs a hand through his hair, "It started a week before they sent you up, and we're trying to figure out what it means." He looks away, and Gabe puts his water canister back into his bag.

"Let's get moving." Gabe says, starting off into the middle ring of the maze.

With a small smile, I find that though I'm trapped in this maze along with everyone else, this is the most free I've felt since finding myself here.

- - -

The day passes quickly, and before I know it, night falls. The sun begins to dip behind the top of the maze walls as we pass from the outer circle into the middle.

"Sun's setting." Julian says, "Around fifteen minutes until the doors close; we'll make it in good time if we keep moving." I nod and follow in his steps.

As we run, I can't help but feel a slight disappointment in my day and in myself; Julian and the others have mapped the maze for almost three years, and I came in thinking I could make a difference in a single day.

Something tugs at my chest each time we pass a new intersection, a different corner, because I know it's something new I'll have to memorize, a process that can take me years.

My thoughts are interrupted.

Suddenly, Julian and Gabe still at the same time, and they turn and look at each other slowly, faces impossible to read. Julian opens and closes his mouth repeatedly.

Gabe jerks his head up, scanning all around us.

"What?" I ask. Gabe is silent, his eyes quickly clouding over with something that seems like- dread?

"There's-" Julian starts, "there's not supposed to be a wall there." He finishes, pointing in front of us. A giant stone wall looms where an obvious path would have been; footprints lead up to the impenetrable base.

"We could retrace to the second route." Gabe says quickly, and Julian nods, a little too enthusiastically. He turns on his heel and begins sprinting back towards where we came from.

I turn to follow, trying my best to keep up with their impossibly quick pace.

That's when the pain begins.

It starts with a throbbing in the back of my head so faint that I dismiss it as the steading pulse of my heart, but when it builds quickly, it becomes too much.

"Julian-" I start, but my words are stolen from my throat; I can't speak.

I can't think; I can't see.

Everything is white. Not the black precursor to my visions, but a blinding, shattering white.

And there's noise.

A fierce ringing radiates throughout my mind, blocking my ears from the sound of anything else with an internal rumble.

When I look up, through hazy vision which blackens on the edges, I see Julian hurtling towards me, arms outstretched as he lunges.

I collapse, shutting my eyes and bracing for impact on the stone ground, but instead, I feel arms around me and lips at my ear, moving, yet there is no sound but for the ringing.

The pain radiating throughout my body builds until it's too much.

When I open my eyes again, I wish I hadn't. Around us, the walls of the maze are rumbling, closing on all sides until there's no way of escape, no exit.

I feel the rumbling beneath me.

I see Gabe, running towards us.

I feel him trying to pull me up, but it's no use.

The last thing I see before the world fades away is the darkened sky.

I capitulate yet again.