"Jane?" Chuck whispered once we lay in our bed, heads facing each other. A faint candle lit up the room, making it possible for me to see Chuck's face.
"Yes, Chuckie?" I asked, kind of suspiciously since Chuck had a small grin on his face.
"Did you lie when you talked about having a crush?" He wondered.
My cheeks turned red and a feeling formed in my stomach. Nervousness? Or what was it?
"Are we gonna discuss this right now?"
"Do you love Newt?" Chuck asked.
Well, that was fast.
"I don't love anyone."
"Do you like Newt?" Chuck corrected himself, still whispering, which I appreciated him for. You never know what kind of creeps are listening to you.
"Not just Newt, Chuck." I sighed and literally revealed one of the secrets I had been keeping from everyone.
"Minho too?" The kid innocently asked, but I could see right through him. He knew exactly what he was talking about.
"How do you know?" I chuckled at Chuck's attention.
"I see the way you talk with them, smile when they're around, how you look at them, get excited.." Chuck explained. "So you like both of them?"
"I guess I do. But not love." I mumbled.
"Why not love them?"
I thought about my memories. Loving Newt would be hard for me, especially since the things they wanted me to do to him. I couldn't love Minho that easily either. It would be mean to just leave Newt behind, and Minho and I really had to grow a bit closer to him to love him. I liked him, but still never forgot the things we said to each other or the way we acted in the beginning. Love was strong and oblivious, not something I could just easily do.
"I'm in love with them, but don't love them yet. Just like them."
"That is confusing." Chuck sighed. "Who would you choose?"
"Now that's the problem," I muttered. "I can't."
Chuck's attentive listening and talking surprised me. And to be honest, it was nice.
"So you love neither of them, but you're in love with them, and like them, but can't choose?" Chuck repeated.
I laughed at the crazy thought. "Basically."
"You don't love anyone?"
"I love you." I blurted out. If I had to be honest, I did really love Chuck. He was like a little brother to me. And only seeing the smile that grew on Chuck's face, made me melt.
"Because we're best friends," Chuck assured, eyes twinkling, making me smile brightly too.
"Because we're best friends," I said in satisfaction.
"I love you too. Only you, not Garlic, Frying Pan, Mean Hoe, Lizard, or Zart The Fart. Only you, because you're my best friend!" Chuck cheerfully said.
I gave Chuck another warm smile before we both turned quiet again.
"Do you think we'll get out of here?" Chuck whispered after a bit, his tone sadder than before.
"I bet you will." I nodded.
"Me? What about you?" Chuck pouted. "I don't want to get out of here without you."
I sighed lightly. "Whatever happens, we'll stay together, okay?"
Chuck nodded and took a breath. "Jane, promise we will stay together."
"We will stay together, Chuck. I promise. And I'll make sure to get you out first."
Promise number two was made.
"Good night, Janey."
"Good night, Chuckie."
~
"Wakey, wakey new professional dancer in here!" Someone yelled and roughly knocked on our door. "Go dance out of your shuckin' hut, Shebean! Maybe Newt will join too, though I will have to remind you there is no bonfire or music this time! Sorry if that is less romantic for you two, but you'll have to live with it!"
I groaned at Minho's way out waking someone up and the mood he was in. Not cheerful, for sure.
"I'm up!" I rolled out of our bed and watched Chuck sleep for a second. He fell asleep with his body close to me, so by the time we woke up, his head was on my pillow too. The kid's mouth was open, curls messier than ever, but he seemed peaceful.
"Good that, 'cause you gotta run!" It sounded like Minho stomped away again. His mood made me feel strange, but I got dressed anyways.
If I didn't have to run, then I would've worn Newt's clothes, but since that was not the case, I put on my black leggings and a green, cropped sweater.
Just when I walked out of the hut, someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me with them in a rough way. In shock, I stared at the back of the person their head, who walked toward the woods. His dark blonde, buzzed hair made me realize it was Gally.
"What do you want?" I asked when Gally came to a stop when we got into the woods, not very deep, luckily.
"You know something." Gally's shoulders and chest moved in quick motions as I heard heavy breaths coming from him. "You're not like the others."
"Yeah, I'm a different gender, remember?" I tried to cheer to mood up, but I made it worse.
Gally grunted and spun around, pushing me against a tree. I gasped in response, getting a flashback of what Dave did to me. A small wince escaped my mouth when I felt the hard tree hit my back, hard.
I turned frightened in just a second. What if Gally knew about my memories? But how could he? What was he going to do?
With wide eyes, I stared at Gally, whose face was just inches away from mine now. I wanted to back up, but the tree was in the way.
"You're one of them." Gally spat through his words as he squeezed my wrist in anger. It felt like my bones cracked, so I winced in pain and hoped Gally would let go soon. I wasn't comfortable at all.
"I'm not." It was barely a whisper that came out of my mouth. Quickly I tried to sneak out of Gally's grip, but he slammed his hand against the tree and put his knee between my legs, blocking me from moving.
"Let go of me," I ordered, the shake and fear in my voice clearly hearable.
"I saw you. You're with them." Gally repeated through his clenched teeth. "It's you."
Tears formed in my eyes at the position Gally trapped me. It scared me, like with Dave.
"Gally, please.." I trailed off, my confidence ebbing away.
"I know it's you. You were there!" Gally got even closer if that was possible. His eyes were emotionless, blank, but his face was red with anger, which I didn't get. His pupils widened, making a big part of his eye black. I tried searching in there for something, anger, happiness, but all I saw was black.
Steal the medical stuff.
Now that was the most amazing timing. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, the voice started talking again. I broke down into tears, but never got out of Gally's grip.
Gally's black eyes cleared up, finding their normal color, and he seemed less angry. He watched me in confusion, tears streaming down my face. I felt so lame and weak, but I couldn't hold myself together.
Slowly Gally got away from me, removing his hand from my wrist, and his knee and hand from the tree. Anxiety rose up in my chest as Gally walked away with a small mumble. My back slid down the tree until I touched the ground, sitting on it.
I felt so bad for everything out of a sudden. I loved the previous night, but then everything came back to me in no time. I cried into my own knees quietly, not even realizing I had to run, until someone walked up to me.
"Hey, love."
I looked up, my watery eyes staring right into Newt's who bent down on his knees in front of me.
"What happened?" He gently asked when I sobbed quietly.
I decided to just tell the truth. Newt wouldn't suspect me of anything, hopefully, but Gally was right. I indeed did some things, but I wasn't with the creators. I hated them.
"Gally." I wiped the tears off my cheeks, ashamed of Newt seeing me cry, though he didn't seem to bother that at all. He just watched me with his soft eyes and gave me a half smile, which immediately made me feel better. Safer.
Newt grabbed my hand, sending shocks of electricity through my body. Even my cheeks started blushing.
Newt looked at the ground. "Did he hurt you?"
"No, it's just.." I trailed off. There was definitely a little pain in my wrist, but that wasn't such a big deal.
The second after I said just, Newt's head snapped back up, eyes filled with anger, but still a small spark of softness in it too.
"Just? What did he do?"
I hesitantly held my wrist in front of Newt's face. It was turning red, even a little blue, just like the other time Gally jumped me.
"I'll bring you to the Med-Jacks. Come on, love." Newt never let go of my hand, so took me with him, fingers intertwined.
"I'm fine. No need to check." I said, worrying about someone finding out what Gally said.
"No, you're gonna get that treated," Newt ordered. We walked toward the Med Hut. In the meanwhile, I managed to stop crying and tried not to be upset, but I still had a strange feeling.
In silence, I sat down on a chair. Newt stood in the corner of the hut, leaning against the wall and watching us closely.
"What happened?" Clint sat down in front of me and looked at my wrist. "Can I?" He motioned at it. Clint also made me feel safer. He asked for permission, was kind, and nice.
I gave him a quick nod, so he took my wrist and inspected it.
"Yeah, what did happen?" Newt frowned at Clint's question to me.
I sighed, but decided to just tell them. Lying would make me feel worse. "I wanted to go run, but then Gally grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the woods.. pushed me against a tree, and blocked me from escaping." I paused and took a breath. "He said he saw me, that I was one of them.. said I was there."
Newt's frown deepened as Clint glanced at him, making me suspicious.
"What is it?" I asked.
Clint took a cold cloth and wiped it on my wrist, making me wince slightly. "Sorry if it hurts. Gotta cool it down." Clint paused. "When Gally was the Greenie, he thought it would be a good idea to go into the maze."
Newt gave Clint an offended look, probably because he told something he wasn't supposed to tell, but Clint kept talking. "Gally? Into the maze?" I asked.
"Yep." Clint popped the 'p'. "Boy got stung, went through the Changing, we gave him the Grief Serum."
"Grief Serum? Gally got stung?" I wondered out loud, confused.
Zart chuckled lightly. "Still the Greenie. Dozens of questions."
"Well, no one ever explains anything to me." I shrugged. "But if Gally got stung, like Dave, how come you didn't banish him? Why didn't you give Dave that Serum?"
"Dave was past the Gone more than Gally, and Dave tried to hurt you. Gally didn't try to hurt anyone." Clint explained.
Newt sniffed. "If Gally went through the Changing, then it does mean he remembers a lot. So what he told you this morning, could be true."
My breathing hitched at Newt's statement. Did he know?
"But obviously you can't remember anything, so it's not true, right?" Newt added.
Almost I let out a relieved sigh. "Yeah, of course."
In the meantime, Clint wrapped a white bandage around my wrist. "All done. Just keep it relaxed and try not to move it too much. It's not broken, of course. Just a few bruises."
"Okay. Thanks, Clint." I got off the chair and wanted to walk out of the hut, but Newt stopped me.
"Where are you going?"
"Uhm, to the maze?" I replied, making it sound obvious where I was going. My job.
"I don't think that's a good idea after what happened." Newt rubbed his chin.
"I suppose I don't run with my wrist, so I'm sure it'll be fine." I laughed nervously.
Newt seemed hesitant for a moment, but then he nodded. "Fine. I ain't gonna stop you, won't work anyways."
I chuckled and walked out of the hut. Newt followed me the whole way to the Doors.
"Be careful, all right?" Newt said once I turned around.
"I will." I smiled lightly at Newt's concern and started running. "See ya!"
~
After about two hours of running, I realized the creators gave me a task I never finished. Panic formed in my body, the anxiety about what the consequence could be. I was so lost in my thoughts guessing what would happen, that I didn't hear the clicking sound behind me.
I kept running, until suddenly something hit me in the back, making me fall onto the ground. My arms slid onto the concrete, barking the skin on it. Blood came out and it hurt, but I ignored the burning pain, groaned, confused by the sudden attack, and quickly got up again.
Something wet dropped onto my shoulder. Green, stinking, slime. I gasped quietly and turned around. A big Griever stood behind me, slime falling out of its mouth, that was wide open, growling at me, dozens of small teeth revealed. Well, at least the slime didn't come out of another part of the Griever's body..
After staring at the frightening creature in front of me, mostly watching the sharp spikes on its back, I started running. I pushed my feet as hard as I could, not feeling like dying because of a weird, metallic, creature.
In the meanwhile, I managed to grab one of my knives. Once I turned around a corner, my breaths already heavy, I turned around and threw the knife, not really targeting well enough.
The knife landed in the skin of the Griever, close to a spike. I meant to hit the eye, but by the sound the Griever made, I hurt it anyways. A loud, high-pitched scream echoed through the walls. I bet even the Gladers heard it. It took me something to not cover my ears from the horrible sound.
That knife throwing definitely needs some more practice, I decided.
As fast as possible, I started running again, twisting and turning around every corner to get safe in the Glade, but first, I had to shake the Griever off, otherwise, it would come into the Glade. My breaths were raspier than before, most likely from running at such a pace. The Griever was surprisingly fast for such a big monster.
Is this the consequence? I wondered. No response, of course. The Griever was close behind me. The sound of metal hitting metal was loud, scaring me even more, but I kept running.
I got a weird feeling in my stomach. A bad one. Not the butterflies I got when I was around Newt or Minho. The bad feeling that something was about to happen.
I stepped around another corner when suddenly the stone below me moved down a bit. Like a button. Confused I stared at it, but kept up my firm pace until my eye caught something else.
A dead end was in front of me, with a red dot on the wall, making me tense up. The Griever was just a few feet behind me, chasing at full speed.
I gasped when the ground started to shake and the smell of smoke filled my nose. Without hesitating for a second, I turned around to run away. Something was about to happen. I didn't know what, but it was wrong. The consequence.
I tried to keep my balance as I grabbed another one of my knives, getting ready to do something dumb, but hopefully helpful. The Griever got ready to attack me and instead of fighting, I slid under it, the skin on my knees slicing onto the ground. I screamed in pain, but it was my only option.
As I literally slipped under the Griever, I held up my arm and stabbed the creature in the belly. It screamed loudly. It wasn't very comfortable to be under a Griever and for a second I was scared it would drop on top of me. Green, fleshy skin was on its lower belly, looking disgusting.
Of course, I couldn't slide on the ground forever, so when I came to a stop I quickly crawled away from the Griever. The monster was still screaming, tossing around to hit literally anything in pain.
The abrasions on my knees and arms burned like hell, like my skin was on fire, but I had to get away, though I definitely would have to visit the Med Hut the second time that day. Only imagining what it would feel like when Clint would put rubbing alcohol on the wounds to disinfect them made me wince, but I wasn't too busy thinking about that. I was more focused on the monstrous thing behind me.
Not even a second later after I started running, a loud noise made my ears hurt. An explosion. Smoke made my eyes watery as I felt the heat of fire on my back. A few last screams from the Griever were the last thing I heard before I turned around.
My eyes opened wide. Fire was everywhere, orange flames crawling up, sparks of it flying around. The Griever was gone, probably burned to death. The whole dead-end stood in the fire, climbing up the ivy. It stank a lot, probably from the exploded Griever. The only thing that was left of it was a melted metal piece and some slime that stuck to the ground. The metal piece was too melted to pick up, use, or inspect.
That sure was a consequence.
Slowly the fire ebbed away after a while, smoke never leaving the air. Then I headed back again, hoping I wasn't too late before the Doors would close.