𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍
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07.
┏━━━━━━༻〄༺━━━━━━┓
ʜᴏᴡ ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ
┗━━━━━━༻〄༺━━━━━━┛
°•. ✧ .•°
"IF SOMEONE DIES, but no one is around, are they still in pain?", Hudson asked.
"Like the tree?", Josephine questioned back, her fingers twirling a single grass blade.
"What tree?", Hudson asked back.
"You know, the phrase?", Josephine responded, "If a tree falls when no one is around, does it still make a sound?"
"How do you know that?", Hudson furrowed his eyebrows in curiosity.
"I-I don't know, I just do", she answered.
"It's not fair that they let you keep your smart brain", Hudson scoffed, always amused at what the girl had to say.
"Nothing is fair. Welcome to our life", she replied, throwing the grass blade, watching it as it fell and disappeared into the plethora of green.
The following day was torture for everyone, their eyes, red and dry, fluttered in exhaustion as they worked.
Hours after Ben's Banishment, Jo had gone back to the Homestead where Ben used to have been tied up. The cloths that acted as bounds on the boy's skin were thrown onto the floor.
The images ran through Jo's mind, reminding her of the far too familiar sight. She couldn't stop seeing the image of Ben running across the Glade, a smile placed on his bright pink lips, not knowing the end of his fate.
Her chest could barely rise, simply scared of exploding under too much pressure and her throat was filled with fire, burning every time she swallowed.
It scared her as to how normal she felt. Yes, it deeply pained her knowing that Ben was in the Maze, alone and terrified. If he was somehow still alive.
Yet, she still woke up, she was still alive.
She blamed herself for not being able to save him. She hated how she soothed him, knowing the betrayal that would come hours later. She hated how she wasn't enough for him, for everyone who had to have suffered the same fate as his.
The only way that she could go on was by reminding herself that it was how things had to go.
She sat herself up on her hammock, leaving the view of the wooden log ceiling behind. She shakily took in a deep breath, releasing it as her shoulders relaxed. She grabbed her jacket, trying to warm the cold that had crawled onto her dry skin and stood up, stumbling slightly. Her eyes wondered across the Glade and landed on Newt, tool in hand. Always working.
"Where's Alby?", Jo asked Newt as she approached him, her body softly stinging with each step she took.
He was talking with Thomas as he worked, red lightly taking over his dark eyes. "He went with Minho to retrace Ben's footsteps", Newt told her, his voice faintly cracking at the mention of Ben. Jo mentally flinched at Ben's name, sorrow taking over her emotions once again.
She softly nodded at Newt, and nibbled at the dead skin on her lips as she started to zone off, trying to find peace during the pouring of a storm of sadness.
"So he's going back to where Ben was just stung-" Thomas began speaking to the two figures in front of him, but was soon cut off by an irritated Jo. "Alby knows what he's doing... all right? He knows better than any of us." Jo told him sourly, scoffing at Thomas's choice of tone. "God can't this kid read the fucking room", she told herself.
"What does that mean?", Thomas asked, oblivious to the fact that no one was in the mood to speak about the topic. "Well, it's like you have heard, yeah? Every month, the Box sends up a new arrival. But someone had to be first, right? Someone had to have a whole month in the Glade, alone. That was Alby", Newt said as he took over for Jo, fearing that she would tackle Thomas if she had to speak again.
Thomas sighed and looked at Jo, only to be met by her glare. He held her stare, silently challenging her as if it were a game, mentally scoffing at the girl's behavior. But Jo wasn't in the mood for petty games.
"I'm heading over to talk to Gally, he's taking the Ben thing pretty hard", Jo told Newt, swallowing hard at Ben's name, never breaking eye-contact with Thomas. Thomas on the other hand mentally hit himself over the head, forgetting how hard Ben's banishment must have been for the girl, for everyone.
He watched as Jo turned on her heel, taking small steps away from the pair. Her hair slightly swayed side to side as she walked away, Thomas's eyes going left and right as he watched the movement. However, he stopped as Newt started to walk forward, Thomas seeing the small crowd that had formed in front of the entrance of the Maze.
Jo was only halfway across the Glade when she spotted a crowd of boys starting to form at the entrance of the Maze.
Crowds were never a good thing.
She headed over to the sea of boys, curiosity and anxiety intertwining in her head. As she pushed her way to the front of the crowd, the vision of Minho and Alby slowly heading towards the Glade came to view.
However, Alby was hanging off of Minho's shoulder, slowly limping and coughing as he struggled to carry his own weight. A series of encouragement and doubtful words could be heard drifting through the cold air, entrapping the Glade with loud noise. Jo looked over to Newt, who's face held slight fear, his eyes, drifting from boy to boy.
She caught Alby's stare, it was as if Alby was slowly draining from himself, leaving only a human body behind. She looked around, eyes landing on Thomas, who had gotten slightly closer to the entrance. She watched as how his body was positioned forward, one foot in front of the other.
A ready stance.
"Thomas. No", she whispered to him. He looked back at her, eyes to eye, and parted his lips, giving the girl a small tilt of the head, somehow trying to communicate. And she understood.
Then before Jo had the time to pull him back, Thomas had ran inside the closing walls. His body disappearing as the rumbling noise disappeared, echoing through the silent place.
Ringing took over Jo's hearing, as the blurred voices yelled in the background. "Dead", she whispered to herself.
Everything went silent for a moment, and then an explosion of voices was heard. Jo looked over at Newt, who held the same expression as her own. Dumbfounded and scared.
Her focus snapped back at the boys who had seemed to be looking towards Newt, waiting to hear what he had to say. And for the first time, Newt was speechless, stuttering over any words that he could manage to spill out.
"Everyone back to work", Jo said, taking over for Newt, as she looked back to the crowd of boys. "What? Jo come on", Gally scoffed at her. "Back to work", she bitterly repeated her command.
Several scoffs were heard, and the boys did not move. "You can't just go around yelling commands. You're not the second in command", one of the boys said, causing many to nod their heads, agreeing with his faceless comment.
"I just did, back to work, I won't repeat myself again. And if anyone has any other discussions they would like to talk about, keep them to yourself. We'll see what the morning holds", Jo spoke confidently as she stared each of the boys down, challenging them to disagree. "Bu-", another boy began.
"I said, we will see what the morning holds", Jo repeated, stopping at each word, emphasizing her once again bitter tone.
Several of the boys went pale, knowing that Jo wasn't one to mess around. She had proven how in control she could really be, and everyone knew that no one could stop her once she had made up her mind. She could be the calming rain in the storm, but every once in a while, the lightning would take over.
The crowd of disgruntled boys disappeared into the Glade, leaving Jo and Newt still standing in front on the cold closed walls.
Newt's eyes only wondered along the long line that had closed itself, trapping three Gladers inside, nothing else known.
Jo placed her hand onto Newt's, snapping him back to reality. He looked at her, full fear now in his eyes. "It's going to be fine. They're going to be fine", Jo whispered at the blond boy, trying to reassure him and herself, though the doubt in hr voice could be detected miles away. "Come on", she whispered again, her hand leading him away from the walls.
She led him to his hammock, and gently helped him lie down. He didn't speak, scared that nothing would come out. Jo took a seat next to his hammock, and gently played with his hair. She didn't want to leave him alone, she couldn't.
And as more boys began to lie down on their own hammocks, their own thoughts consuming their brains, the only thing that could be heard was a soft melody escaping Jo's lips.
.•° ✧ °•.
━━━━━━ AUTHOR SPEAKS !
And so the actions have begun.
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