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𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥.
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TW: blood, broken bones, fractured bones, attempted su!cide, and mentions of panic.
"It's Greenie Day Sunshine. Are you sure you want to go on a run?" Arthur crossed his arms as he looked at Minho who was looking right back at him as if waiting for him to let him leave.
"Yes, I'm sure Archie, go throw a party or something." Minho rolled his eyes at the boy his face giving away nothing but his eyes showing the amusement he felt from these conversations. Arthur laughed and pulled him into a hug before pushing him into the maze, not giving him a chance to hug back.
"Go run Sunshine, don't trip. Or do." Minho shouted something that sounded an awful lot like a swear as he entered the maze.
Arthur laughed as he watched him go. A week had passed since that conversation in the woods and he had opened up more, let himself feel and he surprised himself with how much better he felt. Yes, he still struggled, the empty feeling in his chest never ceased and while it was welding back together it was a slow painful process.
"Newbie huh?" Arthur glanced at Alby who stood beside him and grinned as he turned around to walk towards the unfinished Medhut.
"Greenie indeed, third one for me. God, I've been here three months." He looked towards the tally wall, the marks on the stone having grown exponentially in the last few months. The steady pace of each day made him comfortable. He never had to worry about anything except getting back on time. When he got back he would help out in the Glade and Minho would run around. He was discovered to be a mess anywhere that wasn't in the Maze.
"Getting old Arthur." Alby ruffled his hair with a fond smile to which he ducked his head and quicker his pace trying to escape the grasping hands of the elder.
"Stop! At least I'm not ancient." Arthur let out a chuckle as he skipped backwards, looking at the older male who threw his hands into the air with a suppressed chuckle.
"I'm the same age as you idiot!" Alby watched as Arthur ran off with the kind of smile that crinkled his eyelids and reminded Alby of how much of a child he really was.
The structure stood firm, the rough, thick pieces of wood, side by side being held together with the rope that had come up with Minho, a great alternative to the vines he had sawed off from the walls. The roof was a shabby mess but held well as Arthur stood on his tiptoes tying the final piece of rope off. The building held one bed that was lined with fabric at the bottom and a bundle of fabric at the head of the bed.
He trailed his hand over the uneven wood, the deep indents and grooves where he had rounded it off slightly square.
The silence was sliced into with the ear-piecing sound of the alarm which signified the new arrival. Arthur turned to head towards the box and started approaching, listening out for the whirring sound of approaching metal which let him know how close it was. Quickening the last few steps he peered over the grates and opened them at the sight of a blonde boy looking up through the gasp and raising his hand to cover his eyes from the harsh mid-day sun.
He crouched down and waved Alby over.
"Hey Greenie, feeling alright?" He smiled calmly at the boy who stared back at him, his face pulled into a frown as if trying to work out who he was.
Noticing the boy's frown Arthur tried not to let his smile slip and instead scanned his eyes over the boy's face, taking in his tousled blonde hair that seemed the slightest bit damp and the small line between his eyebrows that was so prominent that Arthur was curious to how often he frowned.
Watching Alby approach the back of the cage Arthur held his hand out for the Greenie to take. The hesitance in the blonde's face was clear but slowly he reached up and grabbed his hand firmly enough for Arthur to pull him upwards.
Alby nodded at the Greenie when he looked around and after a moment of silence, the blonde boy nodded back.
"Where am I?" His thick accent caused both eyes of Arthur and Alby to be drawn to him. The blonde boy looked surprised at his voice before glancing at Arthur for an explanation. "Who are you?"
Arthur cleared his throat and smiled at the boy who stood firm just outside the box.
"You're in the Glade, and I'm-" He glanced at Alby over the boy's shoulder before fixing his gaze back on the boy, "Arthur and that is Alby."
The Greenie held Arthur's gaze, both standing in silence before Arthur coughed awkwardly, his face flushed with embarrassment before he turned around, trying to hide the pink hue that had spread up his neck.
"So," He shook before continuing. "I'm going to show you around the Glade. Just so you know where you're staying okay?" He started walking forward and looking back to check if he was following.
"Yeah, what the hell is this place?" The Greenie walks behind him, not taking long to catch up with the nervous boy. It seemed the more questions he asked the more obvious his accent became. However, that could have just been Arthur calming himself down from that moment of embarrassment.
Neither of the two saw Alby watching them with a look of pure amusement on his face and the idea of bringing this up with the Minho when they sat around the campfire that night.
Arthur had walked him around the entire glade, the two bearly conversing but not quite having a comfortable silence either.
"And here is the Maze. It is where Minho and I run, we do it every day. Wake up at the crack of dawn and wait for it to open and then stay out all day, running and mapping out every inch we see to try to find a way out. Oh yeah, Minho was the Greenie before you by the way!" He folds his arms as he looks at the sky, and checks where the sun is before looking back to the entrance.
"Why aren't you in there then?" Arthur shrugs his shoulders and tilts his head to the side before answering.
"Greenie day, I always stay here for Greenie day. Don't want anyone feeling alone when they come up." Maybe Arthur should have looked properly. If he did he would have seen how the blonde wrapped his arms around himself and frowned. The frown that seemed ever-permanent on his face, seemed deeper. More unsettled and uncomfortable.
He realised it earlier than most, Arthur, Minho and Alby had chosen to ignore it, focus on getting out and living life day by day instead of focusing on it. Letting the empty feeling that buried itself into their chest like a parasite consume them was never an option. For him, however?
The two settled, standing in the cold winter air. The Greenie was sheltered by a thin white hoodie and Arthur had had his running top on. Despite the freezing temperatures, Arthur stood not bothered for the most part but instead seemed as if he was waiting for something.
"Sorry, I'm waiting for him to come back, did you want to go and talk to Alby? He might be more help than me." The Greenie watched him carefully as the boy turned his head to look at him with a soft smile on his face.
The boy nodded and Arthur pointed over to the gardens which is where Alby spent quite a fair bit of his time. "He's over there, go socialize." He patted the boy's back and watched as he walked off before he turned back towards the maze.
As soon as the blonde boy began his trek towards Alby he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. Curious he looked over his shoulder only to see another boy emerging from around the corner of the Maze he and Arthur were previously staring at.
'That must be who he was waiting for.' He looked at the two boys who high-fived for a brief second before continuing to walk.
The four young boys sit around the large mountain of logs, twigs and sticks that had previously been set ablaze, gazing into the flames and talking quietly amongst themselves. The sky is a bright, star-filled expanse, the boys more interested in talking to each other than looking at it. Alby sits with his eyes trained on the bright flames that reflect a flicking light in his eyes and pokes at the fire occasionally, stirring it and prodding it. Minho is leaning back, legs drawn up, his hands folded behind his head and his eyes closed relaxing after running the entire day. Arthur is just drawing something in the ground with a piece of wood, and beside him is the Greenie who is just listening intently to what the others have to say, his head tilted slightly as he picks up on the sarcastic remarks from Minho, the level-headed responses from Alby and the absent-minded additions from Arthur as he scratched lines into the grass watching as dirt was revealed underneath.
Even with the quiet chattering filling up the air the loud screaming of the creatures that lay just beyond the ivy-ridden maze walls broke all sense of peace every time they screeched, the noise seeming more aggressive tonight than it had in a while.
"Sunshine, I think you need to go drown yourself in the pond, you smell like actual shit." Arthur looked up from his place on the floor with a neutral face, which to anyone who wasn't them would have seemed as if he was simply saying it but by the gleam in his eyes that told them he was poking at Minho.
"Me? I smell like Klunk?!" The use of the slang caused Arthur to choke on his saliva and Greenie to furrow his eyebrows again. "You look like you just walked out of the Klunk hole." Minho moved from his lax position as he poked his pointer finger into Arthur's chest in an act of faux intimidation.
"Klunk?" The blonde boy spoke aloud causing Minho to snicker and Arthur to whack his bicep.
"It means shit blondie, and yeah I do Minho but at least I don't smell it!" Minho looked at him before turning his head away in a rather dramatic fashion which Alby laughed at and shook his head at the two.
"Arthur, what the hell did you do to yourself actually?" The boy surveyed Arthur before raising his brow, laughter still in his voice as he pointed out how dirt-splattered Arthur was.
Arthur rolled his eyes and flipped off both of the boys who laughed at him before deducing they wouldn't tell him and turned to each other, whispering before Minho started laughing loudly.
The Greenie shuffled in his seat, the empty feeling in his chest growing.
"I fell over, multiple times, Don't tell them though." The blonde boy jumped the slightest bit before looking down at the boy who was looking up at him from his place on the floor, his head lying in the space next to him on the log.
Arthur lazily blinked, still whispering to the Greenie obviously exhausted after the day he had, Greenie Day always taking the most out of him. His face pulled up into a closed-mouth smile at the boy who was looking down at him. He missed the brief smile he got back as he closed his eyes, wanting to get a bit of sleep before Minho's thunderous snores.
The boy looked down at the boy with an incredulous look, confused at the position he fell asleep in. The Greenie looked towards the two boys and coughed trying to gain their attention.
"Does he normally fall asleep like this?" He gestured to the sleeping Arthur with his hand and he could see Minho practically light up as he launched himself over his log only to be pulled back by Alby shaking his head.
"Not this time Minho, next time," Minho grumbled as he sat back down but made no further movement to whatever he was going to do.
The Greenie raised his eyebrows at them, befuddled on what Minho had intended to do but made no comment, instead waiting for one to answer his question.
Alby looked towards the Greenie and nodded his head towards Arthur. "He just sleeps like that sometimes."
He made a noise of acknowledgement as Alby stood up. "Off to bed with everyone, Obviously it's been a very exciting day." He looked pointedly at the fast-asleep boy who didn't even stir. "Minho, go take him to the hammocks, Greenie stay here for a minute?"
Minho sighed heavily before standing up and grabbing Arthur's arm. In a great feat of strength, he hauled the boy up. Once he was standing he swept him into both arms and looked at Alby and the Greenie once more before walking off towards the hammocks with a sleeping Arthur in his arms, his head leaning backwards at an uncomfortable angle and his mouth open.
Alby and the Greenie watched him walk away, following him with their eyes before Alby looked back towards the Greenie who was already looking at him at this point. "Why are we here?" It was short and blunt.
"We don't know." Alby's tone matched the harsh tone of the question as he stared down the boy. "I wanted to ask if you were feeling alright?" He backed off slightly, easing up the pressure that had surrounded the two.
"Yeah, feel fine." Alby let a faint smile grace his face as he heard the accent before the boy spoke up again.
"What's up with the Maze?" His voice held a tone of something Alby couldn't quite decipher but still found himself slightly worried about.
"Why?" He looked at the boy out the of corner of his eye, worried about him slightly.
"Just wanted to know more about this place, I mean I'm here now." He was just curious, wondering what on earth was so important that the two boys would even step foot into that labyrinth with creatures lurking around every corner.
"An escape hopefully." Alby, unlike Arthur never looked at the Maze in the night. He believed that keeping things running in the glade was what needed to be focused on rather than dwelling over the Maze any further than the mapping. He wasn't a runner.
"Hopefully? You're not sure?" Greenie raised his eyebrow, his face contorting into one of disbelief.
"It's hard to say really-" The conversation was cut off by a loud scream which seemed to halt Alby's heart as he looked in the direction it came from.
Only when a loud swear and bout of laughter came from that direction was his worry soothed ever so slightly.
Next to him, the blonde boy's eyes glanced in that direction ever so slightly, feeling ever so slightly worried for the boy who had shown him around and treated him like he had been there forever.
"I think that's our signal to go to bed Greenie." He stood up and looked in the direction he could faintly see Arthur sprawled on the floor already drifting off again and Minho standing over him trying to pry him off the floor, laughter spewing from his lips as their youthful attitude surfaced as they ran on fumes.
Alby didn't give him a chance to respond as he began walking in the direction of the hammocks, the bitter air nipping at their cheeks as the Greenie pulled the white shirt closer to him. It wasn't cold enough to be unable to sleep but enough to feel it.
As they neared what Alby called the sleeping quarters, they could now clearly see that Minho had somehow gotten Arthur back into his hammock seeing as he was completely useless when half asleep.
Minho was now swinging slightly in his hammock and he laid down properly and stared at the sky. He gave a brief nod to Alby and the Greenie as they lay down, but no words were spoken as they got comfortable. The excitement from early was gone and without all that distraction the mind goes to darker places.
Weeks pass by idly, each hour passing with nothing to do but run, but Arthur wouldn't have it any other way. Getting his friends out was his only goal.
On the first week the Greenie had remembered his name.
Newt.
Since then every morning when he and Minho got up to go into the Maze, Newt was always awake. Watching them go.
At Alby and Minho's proposition he let them know he disagreed, but with Minho's okay he was assigned as a Runner despite what Arthur thought.
Weeks later Arthur still tried to convince Alby otherwise, because in his eyes Minho was bad enough however with another person in the Maze there was more of a chance of someone leing left in the maze and getting lost.
"You're serious? Alby you need someone to help you!" Arthur looked over to where Minho was talking to Newt.
"Look, the Maze is our way out, the more people working on it the better." Alby sounded like a parent scolding a whining child
"I don't want anyone hurt, Is that so bad?"
Alby fixed a stare on Arthur and placed a hand on his shoulder, having to reach up in order to grasp it due to the boy's rapid growth.
"No it isn't bad Arthur but please understand it's not just us anymore okay? You put me in charge and these are the choices I have to make." Arthur kept his gaze on Alby before lowering his head and nodding.
"Good, now I want to ask you something. Minho wants to get him to start running solo as soon as possible. I want you to go over his path at noon okay? Bump into him. I'm not sure but he's been acting different." Alby glanced over to where Newt stood, his face neutral as he stared at the Maze before letting his gaze move over to Alby and Arthur.
Arthur glanced over and smiled briefly, his ears going pink as followed Alby's gaze and met eye's with the boy who nodded at him before going back to what he was doing before.
"Oh, I see." Alby looked between the two.
"See what?" Arthur shot his eyes up to the older boy, his eyes wide and his ears slowly cooling down from the sudden flush.
"Arthur-" The teasing was evident in his tone, he was confident Arthur would remember. Before he could continue however he was interrupted by the loud grinding sound of the walls and Arthur skipped back almost tripping over himself in order to get away from the question he knew Alby was going to ask.
Shouting a bye Arthur disappeared into the Maze leaving Minho and Newt in the dust as they looked between the two.
"Alby what's up with him?" Minho approached Alby with Newt close behind him.
"Remember what I told you around the campfire a few days ago?"
The Maze was as cold and silent as usual, despite that sweat still clung to Arthur like a second skin, the feeling of the harsh ground beneath his shoes causing the intense rebound that shook his entire body stung the first hour or so but he grew used to it after that.
Each breath he took was impossibly loud and formed a large headache as the sound of his own breathing rattled in his brain. He took a moment to fix his thought process and to appreciate the moment alone before he moved again.
Hesitently he pushed himself up from the wall. Looking up, he frowning at the dark clouds that had drifted to cover the previously light sky. Dreading the thought of it raining he groaned slightly and brushed his hair back, the slow but steady fall of rain sticking it more onto his scalp. He picked up running again at a faster paste then before, picking at his brain to remember the way Newt was supposed to go.
Right, left, straight, right, left, skip a turn, right, left, right, straight.
warning mentions of blood, broken bones, fractured bones, attempted suicide, and mentions of panic. Its very graphic from here on out.
Arthur slowly came to a stop when he saw Minho climbing the Ivy trying to detangle someone that had the same blonde hair as Newt.
His leg seemed wrong, bent in places it shouldn't be and the way he hung limply seemed horrifying for Arthur. The rain only made the scrapes the boy had from hitting the wall worse as the deep red colour only trickled down the body Arthur desperately hoped wasn't Newt. Maybe the think that snapped him into action was the blood reaching his face and running into his hair, maybe it was Minho who was desperately trying to figure out how to get him down.
"Minho, I'll catch him." Despite the gut wrenching fear of someone dying. Newt dying. The thought of anyone in the glade dying set him straight, the constant tremors in his hand never left but they reminded him what he had to do.
Minho only nodded and began untying the vine that was tangled around his leg. He looked down to check Arthur was positioned right and gave him one last nod before untying it fully leaving him to fall once again.
The swift pace Newt fell left Minho gripping the vine and rapidly climbing down.
Arthur on the other hand readied his hands, bent his knees and caught him. Falling to his knees in the process as the forced proved too much.
The pain was immense, the seering feeling as his arm gave from under the boy who was luckily caught by Minho.
Arthur let out a strained noise and closed his eyes tightly as he waited for the adrenaline to kick in.
"We got to go Minho, we have to get to the Glade." Arthur didn't look at his arm but he knew it was bad by the look Minho gave him.
Shakily he stood up, teetering dangerously but standing none the less. Adrenaline had completely over took everything and he started moving towards the glade which he gathered was close from Minho's muttering.
"Get him to the Medhut Minho." Arthur's sentences were breathy and bearly bearable above the rain but Minho heard him and sprinted forward, knowing Newt was in more danger.
Worry for Newt clouded his mind as he fumbled his way into the glade, watching and Minho rushed the blonde boy to the Medhut.
Leaning against the maze wall he could only watch Alby quickly follow Minho as they finally got under the cover. Relief filled his system as he knew they could pay attention
As the adrenaline rush ran off all the burning feeling clouded his mind as he sank down the wall, hoping for the cold rain to give him some form of relief from the harsh firey pain. Arthur could only hope it wasn't too bad but as he looked at his arm and the odd way it was bent that reminded him all too much of Newts leg he could only tell he wasn't getting out of this scot free. The bruising that coloured his arm proved to be the thing that made Arthur tear his gaze away and lean against the wall, fixing his gaze on the Medhut as he heard the doors close beside him.
The rumbling of the maze only jolted him as he winced as let out a broken sob, the pain proving to be too intense for the young teen to handle as his body shook from both the cold rain that proved as too cold for the rest of his body and the sheer horrifying truth of his arm as it felt as though it had been placed in a blender.
His heartbeat was loud in his ears as he watched Alby run towards him through blurred eyes, his vision being eaten away at as dark dots slowly consumed Alby's figure before everything nulled out to nothing.
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authors note
long chapter!
Arthur has obviously been through a lot this chapter and so has everyone else. We reached the cause of Newts limp and we can only hope to see healing in the future. For the rest of this book there shouldn't be anymore graphic mentions of su!cide.
I hope everyone is alright after this chapter and that you enjoyed reading it.
love you guys lots <3
4101 words
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