𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 ᐅ 𝙣𝙚𝙬𝙩

𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

We leave for what? Six hours?
And this happens?

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

The vines and stone confinements of the Maze fade away with each heavy step we take as Minho and I run into the Glade, both out of breath. I double over, placing my hands on my knees and catching my breath as Minho dramatically slumps to the floor.

Minho and I spent the day trying to study the new pattern again, which proved to be somewhat successful. The pattern seems to be back to normal, but we won't know for sure for about another week. The entire way back, we've been creating theories for what on earth could have possibly caused the sudden change, yet nothing we hypothesised made any sense.

I look up after gaining back what air I could to see the Glade in total disarray. Most of the boys are stood milling underneath the Homestead, chatting excitedly with one another, their faces lighting up as they gossip. Most people have neglected their jobs, drifting around Homestead. Those who are by their work stations are sat watching Homestead with a fixed expression, their gaze unwavering. I raise my eyebrows as Alby charges out of Homestead with a murderous glare.

"What're you slintheads doing just standin' around for? Get your sorry shuck behinds outta here and slim it! Get back to work!" he thunders, pointing a shaking finger in their faces before storming back into Homestead, slamming the door shut behind him. What's gotten his undies in a twist?

Minho and I share a suspicious glance before jogging over to Homestead, still panting and trying to breathe as much air into our lungs as our bodies will allow. I spot Frankie and Jack, and hit Minho lightly on the arm before nodding in their direction. The two boys are talking, exuberance written in their wild gestures as we approach them.

"What is with everyone today?" I exclaim to them, and they immediately snap their gaze to mine before giving a little wave.

Minho studies the dispersing group of boys with a squint. "Somethings off."

Frankie ruffles his light brown hair with a confused expression, furrowing his thin eyebrows. I met Frankie around the second week in, and the slicer and I quickly became friends, considering he was around Winston so often. Jack's a track hoe, and on the days when I finish early, I usually help in the Gardens, so Jack and I are somewhat friends. Frankie smiles at me before looking back at Homestead, and I see the rest of the retreating boys cast a suspicious look over their shoulders at the rooked wooden building.

"What did we miss?"

"There's another chick," Frankie says matter-of-fact.

I raise my eyebrows. A chick? "Eh?"

"Come again?" Minho asks with an exasperated sigh.

Jack points up to Homestead and then the box, as though that gesture would immediately make us understand. His face breaks out into an excited grin and points up to the askew wooden building again. What is he getting at?

"That was about as clear as a smoke signal," I say wryly.

"Another girl," Jack chimes. "She came up in the box today. She's in Homestead right now — dumb shank arrived unconscious."

"We thought she was a goner, but she woke up — scared the eggs outta me. Dead creepy. Said that everything's gonna change and knocked out."

"Well, thank love she wasn't being mysterious," I grumble. The notion unsettles me. First it was the Maze changing patterns, then the box coming up late yesterday and now the box has come up again, carrying a girl with nothing short of a dramatic flair. Another girl in the Glade. I don't know whether to be apprehensive or relived. Despite Alby's dismissal of the Gladers, I can't help but want to see her. But then again, so do all of the boys.

"There was a letter, too," Jack continues.

I roll my eyes. "Oh, bloody hell. At this rate, we'll be dancing with the Grievers at wake-up tomorrow."

Could this get any worse?

"Should'da just left her in the box if she was gonna cause this much trouble," mutters Minho under his breath. "Well? What did the letter say?"

"It said that she's the last one ever," Frankie says gravely, the past excitement wiped clean off his face, as if he just understood what it meant.

The last one ever.

"See what I mean by off?" Minho says, scrunching his face in confusion as he looks past Frankie and Jack to Homestead.

I follow his gaze to see Alby in the window — more like hole in the wall — looking out across the Glade with his brows furrowed. "I'm starting to see clearly," I say distractedly as I try to see further into the room, but to no avail. Another girl in the Glade? Coming up just one day after the last Greenie? It doesn't make any sense.

"We leave for what? Six hours? And this happens?"

"Maybe we're the lucky charms of the Glade," I drawl.

Before Minho can respond to me, the door flies open to reveal Alby, Jeff trailing behind him with a hunched figure and tired eyes. I drag my hand wearily down my face, studying them carefully. Alby just points a finger at me, and then jerks a thumb backwards into Homestead.

"Thea, can ya come and look at Sheenie?" Jeff says when I don't respond to Alby's silent order. "See if you can help us figure out what to do."

"Sure," I say, stepping around Frankie and Jack and patting them goodbye on the back. "I am a beacon of knowledge, after all."

Frankie and Jack let out a small chuckle as I walk into Homestead, the immediate heat built up inside its walls slapping me in the face, and I'm drowned in nausea. I shake it off, jogging up the unstable staircase, the wood creaking underneath my light footsteps. Alby and Jeff trudge up after me and their footsteps echo in the shallow hallway before Alby pushes past me unapologetically and struts into a room on the right.

"He's right cheery today," I whisper to Jeff.

Jeff giggles as we enter the room, and my eyes skim over the people waiting in there for us. Clint is sat on a wooden stool, concern warping his facial features. Newt is leaning with his back against the wall, staring at the wall opposite, his brows turned down into a frown. In the centre of the room is Gally arguing with Alby, his forehead creasing as he looks at the bed, obscured by the door. Walking further into the room, I tilt my head as I look at a girl, sprawled across the bed.

Her skin is a pearl pale, with dark brown hair and eyebrows, her features soft. As I approach her, I take a closer look at her, eyes darting underneath her eyelids. She's very much alive. A coma? Or has she just fainted?

I stare at her, her face familiar to me... somehow.

I feel a sharp pull at my stomach, almost as if I'm being sucked away from the world, my vision blurring as bright light flashes in front of me.

❀

I awake with a start, squinting as my eyes adjust to the sudden burst of white surrounding me. My head is heavy, almost as if it were weighing me down, making me unable to lift it off the cool surface it's resting on. My heart thrums in my eardrums as I my breathing becomes ragged; I can't move. At all. Any part of me.

I'm trapped.

A flash of pale skin and deep blue eyes hover over me, and my eyes widen as I stare at her in fear. They didn't get the memory serum to work. "W.C.K.D is good," the girl whispers with a soft voice, almost as if she were trying to convince herself more than she was me.

"No... it's not," I force out, my voice hoarse — broken, before I slip into darkness.

"W.C.K.D is good," she repeats. My mind is still awake, spinning rapidly as I strain to hear the voices around me.

"Her body is rejecting the serum," someone says, sighing.

"What do we do?" a boy says, his voice familiar to my ears. "Create a new serum?"

An older woman's voice says in a monotone, "Failed test subject. We dispose of her."

"You — we," the boy corrects himself, "could use her. She isn't a failed test subject, she's just different. And we need the best range of research we can get if there's any hope of finding—"

A needle.

Then nothing.

❀

"Thea?" Newt says, his voice taut as he pushes himself off the wall, arms still folded. He raises his brow as he looks at me, while the others are still deep in a debate about what to do about the girl. Everything's blurred, and I can't bring myself to focus on anyone but the girl lying in the bed. She was there. It was her.

"She was there," I whisper, my voice sounding distant and disembodied in my own ears. I'm certain of it. I don't know how or why she was there, only that I saw her bright blue eyes staring down at me.

Newt walks towards me, sidestepping Alby and Gally and dipping his gaze to meet mine. "What?"

"She was there," I announce more confidently, so loudly that the rest of the room turn to look at me with a puzzled expression. Gally's eyes dart between the girl and me, seemingly trying to connect the dots of a puzzle that was scrawled in a childlike fashion on a piece of crumpled paper. "It was another vision..." I falter.

I'm so stunned by the sudden flashback that my energy whittles away, leaving me completely drained of energy. I sink onto the end of the bed and stare at the blank wooden wall in front of me, hoping to be able to remember any other details if I block out everyone around me. What was she doing there? Why was she there? She can't really think W.C.K.D was good, could she? And what were they trying to find?

"She just had a vision. Someone get her some bloody water, would ya?" Newt snaps to the group. Jeff nods briskly before disappearing into the hallway, and I shoot him as much of a grateful smile as I can, which I'm certain came out more as a grimace. Alby sits down next to me on the bed, staring at me intently.

"You're not making sense, Thea," Alby reasons. "What happened in the vision?"

"I don't think they're visions anymore," I say, looking from each person to the next, hoping they'll understand what I mean. "They're memories."

"What happened?" Newt repeats, giving me space. One of the things I've always admired about Newt is that he doesn't smother me in the way that Frypan or Jeff might, even though it's intended well. He understands that sometimes what I need is to sit alone with my thoughts, yet he always makes sure I know he's there if I need him. He stands to the side of me, only just in my peripheral vision.

"Her — that girl," I say, looking at the girl again. Who is she? Why did she say W.C.K.D was good? Is she on their side? "I saw her. Only for a second, but she was there."

"Where?" Gally asks thoughtfully, tilting his head as he studies me carefully. I take a second to properly comprehend what I've just seen, scanning my memories for something — anything, to tell me where I was that day. The only thing that comes to mind is bright lights on the ceiling. The ceiling. The ceiling was low, and panelled in white.

"I don't know. It was all white, I — I only saw flashes," I smile at Jeff as he walks back in and hands me a small plastic glass of water. "Thank you."

"Why is she getting these?" Newt asks Clint. I take a sip of the cool water, letting it run down my throat and ease my senses.

"I dunno, man."

"I think the visions were my brain trying to fight whatever W.C.K.D gave me to make me forget. And now I'm getting flashes of memories. I could hear voices, too."

"Ah, great," Gally huffs. "Now she's hearing voices, what next?"

I snap at him, "In the memory, slinthead."

"That doesn't sound any better."

"Slim it, you two. There's gonna be a Gathering now and we'll figure out what to do then. Come on, you shanks aren't gonna make us late," Alby grumbles before he and Newt walk out, speaking in hushed tones. Another Gathering? When I first arrived, Chuck told me that the only reason they ever held Gatherings is if something really strange was happening — which only makes me more unsettled. So, it's not just me that's sensing something is unusual. It's everyone.

"You're more of a klunk-head than usual."

Gally trudges behind me down the stairs, the steps creaking as we descend. "D'ya want a medal for that observation or something?"

"Funny. What's with you?"

Gally hesitates for a moment before eyeing me warily and holding the door for me. He sniffs disapprovingly and points at Thomas, who's currently sitting talking with Chuck outside the Hammocks. "Do ya trust the Greenie?" he asks slowly.

I raise my eyebrow. "What? Thomas?" I say. Why on earth wouldn't I?  I study him from afar, watching him wring his hands together nervously while looking out at the Maze walls. He's not the one talking — Chuck, as always, is the one carrying the conversation. My chest sinks as I my eyes skim over his lowered head, Chuck still waffling mindlessly next to him.

"Who else?"

"Yeah, I mean, the poor dude only got here yesterday. Shank doesn't know anything," I say, a little too defensively. He only got here yesterday, and I only spoke to the shank once, yet I feel like I'm responsible for him in some way. "Why?"

"I don't trust him," he says blankly.

"Why not?" I try my best to keep my voice steady, but it hitches up in annoyance as I fold my arms.

"He's hiding something."

"Relax a little, Gal," I say, rolling my eyes. "Ya don't have to be so uptight all the damn time."

"You say that like its easy."

"It can be," I say, shrugging and looking back at Thomas and Chuck. Chuck has stopped talking now, probably much to Thomas's relief. I love the kid, but sometimes he just doesn't know when to slim it and let other people hear their own thoughts. I turn my attention back to Gally, nudging him lightly, making him scowl down at me. "Innocent until proven guilty, 'kay? Don't make his life here harder than it needs to be. He's just a scared Greenie."

"You didn't see the way he reacted to the girl. He knows the Sheenie. And I wanna find out why."

"Gally, just leave it. The sorry shanks having a bad enough day as it is. You getting on his nerves won't help nothing."

Silence falls between the two of us as we cross the Glade, stealing awkward glances at the other. What is Gally playing at? As we approach the Gathering Room, he huffs and holds the door open for me before following after me. "Whatever, Thea," he grumbles.

My eyes scan the entire room of Keepers, stood firmly in a semi-circle, confusion and angst written on all of their faces. I take my space as Keeper of Map-makers next to Minho, and I stare at Alby, anticipating his next words. I dread this.

"Right," Alby says, his tone devoid of emotion. "Now all you slintheads are here, we can start.

—

I know in the books, the Gathering is held in a room in Homestead, but I sorta wanted to make the Gathering Room like it is in the films, mostly so her and Gally could have a proper conversation but also because I love that room in the films. Anyway, disclaimer over.

There weren't any Tommy moments this chapter, so I'm sorry for that but do be expecting some soon! Also, I'm sorry this chapters really long :)

Also to make it clear, I love Gally!

Also, updates will be a lot slower now that I'm starting school again tomorrow, and I promise I'll try to get them out as fast as possible, but I can't promise anything else for now.

How're you doing today?

~ sophie xx
(2754 words)