Newt, Minho, Alby, and I all shared a room. Sometimes I slept outside, but lately I'd been sleeping inside with Newt. We slept on the far left, Alby slept in the middle, and Minho's bed was on the far right. Chuck's bed had been added to our room and now Thomas slept in the same room too.
Tomorrow, Ben would be on his last and final day of the Changing. He would be allowed to walk around during the aftermath of it and even perform little tasks. I was glad he would be out of pain soon, but that still didn't change the fact that I couldn't sleep. I didn't realize Thomas was awake until he asked me to confirm if I was Ellie.
"Yeah, that's me. I'm Ellie. How do you know Virginia?"
"I don't. I think I used to know her though. When I saw you, those two names and the word twin popped into my mind. Do you know her?" he whispered back.
"I think so. I got some of my memories back a while ago. They come and go, but I always see a little girl who looks like me. The only difference is our eyes. I have brown ones and she has gorgeous blue-green ones, so I know I'm not seeing myself in the visions. We're identical twins, so that's probably why you were confused."
He made a small sound of understanding. "Makes sense. So are you and Newt a thing?"
I giggled and informed him that yes, we are dating. I added that if he was going to try and ask me out, he'd have better chances with Minho. He snorted and stayed silent for a few moments. I already knew he was planning on asking about the maze, so when he did, I already had an answer. All I could allow him to know was that I was a Runner and that the maze was not a place you would want to go.
Thomas and I talked until the Gladers rose in the morning. Ever since Ben had gotten stung, I had that feeling that things were not right, but I had gotten pretty good at ignoring it. I carried on with my day as usual-eating breakfast, wishing Alby and Minho good luck on their run, going to the garden to work- until the sound of the alarms started up. The Gladers exchanged confused looks. The box wasn't supposed to come up for another month.
Warily, I jogged over to where the box was accelerating upwards. Newt, Thomas, and Chuck appeared by my side as the alarms stopped and the box came up. More and more Gladers crowded around the box as Newt and I opened the panels and jumped down into it. The person in the box was something I had not seen in a long time. At least not in person. It was a girl. A very familiar girl with charcoal black hair.
"Is she dead?" Frypan was the first to speak.
I shook my head and bent down to get a closer look at her. She was definitely not conscious, sleeping maybe, but I could see the rise and fall of her chest. Newt bent down and pressed two fingers to her neck.
"Who said Newt could have the first go at her?" somebody shouted.
"I call dibs!" another faceless voice yelled out.
I looked around for the faces I needed to see. Thomas looked confused, Newt looked concerned. Both were focused on the girl. I stood up and glared at the Gladers.
"All of you shut up! The next person who says something is sleeping with the Gladers tonight. I don't care that she's a pretty girl, none of you will go near her. Anyone who lays a finger on her is getting Banished the second I hear, got it?"
The Gladers grumbled "yeses" and "yeahs". I turned around and addressed the two Med-Jacks. "Take her to a room in the Homestead and write down every word she says. Come find Newt or me if anything changes. I want someone watching her at all times."
The two boys nodded and hopped down into the box. The girl suddenly gasped and sat up. Her electrifying blue eyes looked around all the Gladers and her breathing became heavier.
"Everything is going to change," she said. Her gaze settled on me and she relaxed. "Thomas. Ellie."
Newt and I exchanged concerned looks. I noticed something crumpled and white in her hand and pointed to it. Newt managed to pry it out of her iron grip and read it out loud.
"She's the last one ever. What's that supposed to bloody mean?"
"I don't know. You can take her now. Put this over her," I told the two doctors, handing them my blouse.
They each grabbed an end of her and lifted her out of the box. The Gladers cleared a path for them as they carried her towards the Homestead. I turned around and addressed Thomas.
"Seems to know the both of us. Do you recognize her?" I asked.
He shook his head and stared shamelessly at my old scars. "What are those?"
"Those are scars from the maze," Newt replied, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind and lightly kissing one. "Do you recognize her, El?"
"Yeah. I saw her and Thomas when I got some of my memories back. I'm going to sound a bit loony here, but I think we knew each other from before. I think I have an identical twin too. That would explain why Thomas and the girl knew me."
Newt looked worried, but passed it off with a shrug. I noticed Thomas staring almost wistfully at the spot where she had laid and smiled. I had only seen that look one other time and it was when I caught Newt staring at me. Newt must've seen it too and passed me a knowing smile. Despite how much the situation surrounding the girl unnerved me, I couldn't help but smile whenever I caught Thomas staring at the Homestead with longing.
"Has anyone ever tried climbing to the top?" Thomas asked while we worked. Questions seemed to be his way of distracting himself.
"Tried it. Ivy doesn't go the whole way to the top," Newt grumbled. I gave him an apologetic look, but he passed it off with a grim smile.
"What about the box? If it goes back down, couldn't we-" "Tried it."
Newt was getting more and more frustrated. I could tell the stress from the mysterious coma girl and the box not going back down was getting to him. He seemed to work harder and get less and less sleep. Thomas, apparently, did not know when to shut his shuck mouth.
"Okay, well, what if we-"
"We tried it alright? Twice. Anything you can think of, we've already tried it," Newt snapped. Thomas hung his head and worked in silence. Newt was generally a nice person and he was only acting out of frustration and stress. Still, Thomas didn't deserve to be snapped at for trying to help.
"If you want to be helpful, come with me to dig up some fertilizer," I said, tossing a wicker basket to him. He trudged after me to the Deadheads, where the soil was fertile and perfect for the plants.
"Don't mind Newt, things have been rough. He's stressed out because of the girl and the box not going down. I'll talk to him about it later, but for now, you best slim it," I told him.
He nodded and bent down to help me fill the basket with rich fertilizer. As I finished up, Thomas saw something and went to check it out. I glanced over and saw that he was looking at George's headstone.
"That's George. One hell of a dude, his death was a shame. Frypan was close with him. He was so distraught over his death that he burned whatever he was cooking until Alby took over for him. Hard to believe, huh? Frypan burning something."
Thomas chuckled and watched a beetle blade skuttle up a tree. A twig snapped behind me. I jumped up and crept towards Thomas. Another twig snapped to the left of us. Ben emerged from the shadows with a murderous expression. He had dark bags under his eyes, his breathing was ragged and heavy, and his fists were curled tightly at his side. I pitied him until he sprung forward with surprising speed and gasped his hands around my throat.
I gasped and fell to the forest floor. I clawed at his face and hands, desperately trying to free myself, but his iron grip did not relent. I was starting to white spots when Thomas hit Ben hard in the temple with a rock. Ben let go of my throat and I scrambled up. Ben chased us through the woods, screaming curses and calling us bad people.
The trees thinned and the ground evened out. Even without any more tree roots to slow us down, Thomas managed to trip. His hand shot out and he grabbed the back of my shirt. I dropped like a rock and stumbled across the field. Ben took his chance and leaped on top of me. I felt a rock dig into my back as he pinned me down. At some point, a shard of glass had appeared in Ben's hand.
"Don't do it Ben," I warned, eyeing the sharp edge of glass.
The Changing had changed him though. I knew the awful process was the reason for his irrationality and I knew that whatever happened, I would not hold him responsible. Ben traced the edge of the shard along the side of my face. I hissed in pain and felt the hot trickle of blood running down my face. The handle of a shovel collided with Ben's head. He rolled off me and struggled against the Gladers holding him down.
"What happened?" Frypan demanded.
"He came out of nowhere and attacked me. Jumped on me and tried to strangle me. Thomas saved me," I told the crowd of Gladers, my hand massaging my sore throat.
I glanced over at Ben. He had tears filling his eyes and they were locked on my face. "Ellie, I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, the memories," the poor boy whimpered.
I bent down and brushed his blonde hair off his forehead. "I know. It's okay Ben. It wasn't me that you saw. I forgive you."
Ben thrashed around, yelling the words "help" and "so sorry" over and over. I tried to block out his yells as Newt, Gally, and a handful of other Gladers carried him away. I walked over and enveloped Thomas in a hug, murmuring my thanks in his ear.
"Anytime Ellie. You should go get that checked out," Thomas suggested, pointing to the gash on my face. I shook my head and pressed my blouse to the side of my face to stop the bleeding.
As much as I had been through, I couldn't bring myself to participate or watch Ben's banishing. His screams echoed in my head, even after the walls had shut.