A/N: Maybe you haven't noticed, but I like extreme. That's a warning :)
~
No one talked much as we sat down somewhere for the night. Minho and Jorge looked raging, Newt and Frypan were worried, and Aris and Brenda just didn't give off any emotion.
"We lied." Newt suddenly spoke up.
My head snapped toward him. "What?"
"We lied." He repeated. "This was never a trial."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"The Scorch," Newt said. "We didn't get sent in here for a week to find the Safe Haven. We escaped WICKED."
It shocked me, but didn't make the Gladers untrustworthy to me.
"Why would you lie about that?"
"We thought you worked for WICKED at first."
True.
"Then who was in the Berg? Who helped Thomas recover from that wound, hm? I saw the letters WICKED on their uniforms." I snapped. "Why wouldn't they take you all?"
"I don't know," Minho mumbled. "But we need to worry about Thomas here, not shuckin' WICKED."
I sighed, frustrated already. My hand was broken, which would work in Teresa's favor tonight. Awesome. But that wouldn't stop me.
~
I pretended to be asleep, yet something caught my attention. Someone in our group, I didn't know who, walked away. About twenty minutes after they left, I opened my eyes.
Minho's arm was wrapped around my waist. It took me some effort to not admire him sleeping, because he looked so cute. His cheeks were a bit chubby, hair messy. He looked so sweet and much more innocent than he actually was.
I sighed and crawled out of his grip, grabbing my bow and arrow along the way. The knives were in my waistband, then I left.
I didn't know the exact way to where the hell Thomas could've been, but just started running somewhere and decided to stop if I heard any noises, which I soon did.
"Finally." A male voice that sounded a lot like Aris said.
"Took long enough." Most likely Teresa replied.
I didn't hesitate to grab my bow, absolutely not caring about my hand. Behind a tree I peeked at the duo, noticing a pretty large knife in Aris' hand.
I could've known he was a betrayer! The idiot.
With all my effort, I managed to pull the string of my bow with my broken hand, the other one held it.
The arrow flew through the air, just missing Teresa's head. Instead, it hit a tree.
"Hey!" Her voice echoed through the woods as I mentally punished myself for not hitting.
"Who's there?" Aris added. His knife shined in the moonlight, which gave off a scary effect. Before I stepped toward them, I grabbed my knife too.
They both stared at me, grinning scarily. "You."
"Me," I responded casually. "To be honest, I didn't know that Thomas liked bitches."
Teresa snickered. "He doesn't like me."
I raised my eyebrows. "So you accept?"
"Accept what?"
A small smirk formed on my lips, then the words happily spat out of my mouth. "That you're a lying traitor."
Aris grunted and jumped forward, but I held my knife toward him. "Move and I'll throw."
Teresa put her arm on Aris' torso and carefully moved him back to her while whispering something. They shared some more talks before turning to me again.
"Protective, I see?" I gave both of them a glance, hiding my fear with big talk, which I also enjoyed.
"You're the traitor here." The look on Teresa's face shot daggers. "I heard WICKED talk about you."
"How I love having a fanclub." I smiled teasingly.
"You don't know what they said about you." Teresa snapped. "You don't know them at all."
"Oh, Teresa." I shook my head. "You don't remember?"
Her face stayed blank. "What makes you think your life is worth more than mine? Or anyone's?"
"What makes you think your life is worth anything at all?"
Aris suddenly jumped into action, throwing his knife toward me. Out of reflex, and luckily, I bent down, the knife sliding just over me.
"Needs a little more practice." I looked back at the knife before throwing mine at the boy. If he wouldn't have caught it, I would've hit his chest.
"Well, that sucks." He grinned, twisting my knife in his hand. Shuck.
I reached out for my bow, but Teresa already held her spear to my head. "Nice try, honey."
I hit her on the nose with my elbow, attempting to run to Aris' knife on the ground. I reached out for it, but then face-planted into the dirt when Teresa made me trip.
I groaned and got up just to be pushed down by Teresa again. My broken hand was closest to the knife, so I took another try. This time it was Aris' turn to stop me, so he kicked on my hand. The broken one.
A scream of mine echoed through the trees. It hurt so much to hear the bones crack and feel them split again.
"Not smart to come alone." Teresa roughly jerked me off the ground. Aris grabbed his own knife off the ground and held it against my chest.
"It would've been so much easier if you let us do our thing." He lowered his voice.
My breathing hitched. Something bad was about to happen, obviously.
"But we can't let you leave now," Teresa added. "Who knows if you're going after Thomas?"
"I don't even know where he is, idiot," I said through my teeth.
Aris scoffed. "But why else did you come here?"
"I won't go look for Thomas if you let me go." I lied.
Teresa's grip on me tightened as Aris spoke, "Sadly you've already interfered."
I repeated the same action by hitting Teresa with my elbow. My foot made its way to Aris' stomach, kicking him perfectly.
They both winced and bent down to their hurt places, giving me just enough time to get my bow and arrow again.
Aris got up behind me, suspiciously silent for a few seconds. "Now what's this?" He trailed his hand over my back.
I froze right in my place, not able to form any words or shoot my arrow. Teresa smiled slyly and moved some of my hair out of my face.
"What is it?" She also whispered. Without me doing anything, she grabbed my weapon and threw it somewhere.
"A scar." Aris realized quietly. "From what?"
I swallowed before turning around and fixing my shirt. "None of your business."
"It looks like a cut." Teresa looked at Aris seductively. "A very long and deep one."
He grinned and placed a kiss on her cheek, making me disgusted. "Would you mind if we made another one?"
"Wh-."
I couldn't even finish and Aris had already pressed his knife against my side.
"I wonder what Minho will think if he finds out about this."
Anger and fear mixed in my body.
"You would be dead," I growled.
"Sad how he has to be the one to do that job for you then." Teresa cupped my cheek with one hand tightly.
"Uh uh uh.." Aris shook his head when I tried to resist again. I felt the knife push into my skin, almost cutting through.
A smile kept glued on Teresa's face. "What do we do with her, Aris?"
Aris slammed his fist right into my stomach, almost sending me to the ground if Teresa hadn't held me. She picked up her spear with one hand. She locked eyes with Aris, and he nodded.
I tried to fight, but was too late— the butt of the weapon swung through the air and smacked the side of my head.
Stars danced in front of my eyes as my legs gave up. I wished to fall unconscious, but couldn't. I tried to crawl out of Teresa's grip. She screamed and, with a lot of force, hit me again.
A scream full of pain escaped my mouth. Let Minho hear it, I wished in my mind. Please.
Aris lay his knife down and started working on my stomach with his fists. I cried out. He punched me with so much force all the air got knocked out of my lungs. It felt like my organs were crushed.. and it hurt so badly.
"Aris..." I begged. "Please.. stop."
Teresa gave me a kick in the stomach too. "I lied, Lenora. I know damn well we used to be friends. But guess what.." She bent down and lifted my chin up. "You're an even worse traitor than I am. It surprises me they didn't give you that title."
I spat in her face with all the energy I had. "At least I don't try to kill my friends."
Teresa wiped my spit of her face before they both laughed hysterically.
"But, Lenora," Aris started. "You did worse than that."
"Yes." Teresa agreed as she punched me in the face. Aris caught me before my body hit the ground. "It's your fault they're even here in the first place."
"I didn't do it voluntarily." Tears leaked from my eyelashes in pure pain. "Like you guys."
Aris hit me so hard in the stomach that I choked on my own blood. The red soon painted my lips, dripping off my chin. The smell made me sick.
"You deserve this," Teresa exclaimed. "You brought them all here, Lenora."
Aris went on with my face, giving it a hard punch. "That's for us."
Teresa smiled evilly and slammed her fist onto my cheek. "That's for Thomas."
I grunted. "Stop."
My legs were about to give up. My whole body ached, especially my stomach. It felt like I couldn't breathe. The air just wouldn't come through.
Teresa grabbed her spear and hit the back of my head with it. "For Newt."
Aris then punched so hard my face flew to the side and I fell onto the ground. The smack was loud and horrible, making my cheek numb as thick, red liquid trickle down to the side of my face.
"For Minho." He spat out. My eyes started to close, finally. I wouldn't feel the pain anymore.
"Just kill me already then!" I screamed, voice hoarse and body dripping from my own blood.
"Oh.." They tugged me back up again. "You don't deserve an easy and quick death, Lenora."
Another hit from the spear. My scream of agony and pain mirrored against the trees while tears streamed down my face.
And then my eyes finally closed, the world turning dark.