The man was a Crank, and apparently he was the leader of them. Out of all the Cranks Mara knew she would meet, she hadn't expected the first one to be the leader.
She wasn't sure what to do. Was he dangerous? He was intimidating, but he didn't seem to be too insane. Still, there was an eerie feeling being emitted by him, giving Mara a bad gut feeling. So she did what the rest of the Gladers did; absolutely nothing.
"You people forget to talk?" Jorge asked, an intense smile stitched across his dried up lips. "Or you just scared of Cranks? Scared we'll put you to the ground and eat your eyeballs out? Mmm, tasty. I love a good eyeball when the grub's runnin' short. Tastes like undercooked eggs."
Mara kept her eyes on the strange man, not wanting to show any weakness to the Crank. He freaked her out, and she didn't want to see what level of insanity he could reach.
Minho's voice rippled passed her in answer to the man. "You admit you're a Crank? That you're freaking crazy?"
"He said he likes the taste of eyeballs." Frypan pointed out. "I think that qualifies as crazy."
A sickening laugh burst from Jorge's lips, sending a shiver down Mara's spine. "Come, come, my new friends. I'd only eat your eyes if you were already dead. Course, I might help you get that way if I needed to. Understand what I'm saying?" The look of creepy friendliness had been completely replaced with a stern look, warning them.
For a moment everyone fell silent, and in that one moment Mara knew he had all the control, despite being the most insane one there.
"How many of you are there?" Newt asked, breaking the quiet atmosphere.
Jorge's attention threw itself onto Newt, another sinister grin spreading itself along his face a second after. "How many? How many Cranks? We're all Cranks around here, hermano."
"That's not what I meant and you know it," Newt replied flatly. The sound of movement echoing behind Mara, and before she knew it the boy was standing at her side.
Jorge took a moment to watch him stand before walking around himself, stepping over Gladers as he paced the room. "Lot of things you people need to understand about how things work in this city. About the Cranks and WICKED, about the government, about why they left us here to rot in our disease, kill each other, go completely and utterly insane. About how there's different levels of the Flare. About how it's too late for you- the ill is gonna catch ya if you don't already have it."
That last sentence stuck with Mara; the ill is gonna catch ya if you don't already have it. Newt was the first person to pop into her mind, reminding her of his and her incurable fate. Mara already had it, but Newt didn't... yet.
She watched as the man walked around the room, closing the distance between herself and him. He came to a stop right in front of Mara and Newt, Minho at his feet. His eyes locked onto hers with a freakish gleam beyond normality, almost as if he could see right through her.
"But that's not the way it's gonna work, comprende? Those who are at a disadvantage are those who speak first. I want to know everything about you. Where you came from, why you're here, what in God's name your purpose could be. Now."
Mara opened her mouth to speak, the man opposite her waiting for the words to spill out, but another voice broke through to him first.
"We're the ones at a disadvantage?" Minho let out a low, dangerous chuckle, mocking Jorge with a simple swivel of his head. He rose to his feet, taking his time so he didn't give away his injury . "Unless that lightning storm fried my retinas, I'd say there are twelve of us and one of you. Maybe you should start talking."
A long, disapproving sigh rang through the room, reflecting Mara's opinion. Minho was taunting him, pulling the wrong strings, and it could get them killed. It was obvious that Jorge wasn't alone, not if he was the leader, like he said.
She turned to the boy beside her, widening her eyes and raising her brows. Minho shrugged her off, turning back to Jorge, determined not to be defeated.
Jorge looked blankly back at him for a while, then finally decided to speak. "You didn't just say that to me, did you? Please tell me you didn't just speak to me like a dog. You have ten seconds to apologise."
Minho smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"One," The man said, almost as a whisper. "Two. Three. Four."
Mara looked over to Minho, hoping he would come to his senses before Jorge got to ten. Thomas stood up next to Minho, nodding towards him.
"Five."
"Minho, come on." Mara spoke up for the first time, but the boy didn't listen.
"Six."
"Do it." Thomas told him, his voice stern.
"Seven. Eight."
Every number caused Jorge's voice to rise louder and stricter. Above them the faint sound of footsteps pattered across the ceiling. Mara looked up, but there was no one there.
"Nine."
"I'm sorry," Minho forced the words out of his mouth, all arrogance drained from his face and voice.
"I don't think you meant that," The man tutted, kicking Minho in the leg.
He let out a loud cry of pain, reaching down to cradle his leg, but the moment he did he pulled away with another burst of agony. It must have been one of the burnt spots on his body. Mara couldn't imagine the pain that he felt, but if Jorge did anything again to him she was ready to fight.
"Say it with meaning, hermano."
Mara stood with a stronger stance, clenching her fists. She knew he was waiting, and unless Minho obliged he was looking for an injury worse than a kick. Still, if Jorge touched him Mara and most likely Thomas and a few others would jump him.
The man acted upon his impatience, kicking Minho in the same spot much harder than he had before. "Say it with meaning!"
For a moment Mara wanted to hit him, pounce and kick him the way he was to Minho. He had no right to do anything to Minho, being the leader of the Cranks wasn't nothing to Mara, it didn't mean that he could just abuse others below him. Still, she stood still, knowing that if she got involved she would just make it worse for all of them.
Another cry broke from his lips as he clawed at his leg despite the pain of touching it. "I'm... sorry," He said, taking his time to talk through his heavy breaths. Pain leached out of his throat, but that didn't stop him from acting back.
Jorge was happy for a split second, satisfied with what he'd done, but then Minho swung his arm back and smashed it into Jorge's shin, sending him crashing to the floor in a heap of pain and shock.
Immediately, Minho threw himself on top of the Crank, kicking and shouting at the top of his lungs. He trapped Jorge's body between his thighs to stop him from getting away, and once the man was firmly held down, he began to punch him with a brutal force Mara hadn't seen from the boy before.
Thomas leapt to his feet, screaming at him to stop. He didn't try to stop the fight and neither did any of the other Gladers, so Mara decided to take action herself.
"Minho, come on!" She yelled at him, trying to peel their bodies apart from one another. "You're better than this."
"Mara look up!"
She hadn't seen who had called out to her, but she followed their command. There were dozens of people lingering above them, peering down through the holes through the ascending building. Ropes were being lowered, readying to drop more people into their fight.
Again, Mara pushed into Minho and Thomas joined her. The two of their combined strength knocked their friend off the Crank's body, flinging him onto the ground to the side of him.
Thomas' arms wrapped around Mara in a sudden haze, pulling her to her feet. It took a second for her to realise what was going on, but she clambered up anyway.
"There's more of them up there!" He yelled into Mara's ear but mainly into Minho's. "You have to stop! They'll kill you! They'll kill us all!"
"He's right!" Mara shouted back, leaning over to Minho. "You've gotta stop."
She span around to check on Jorge, to make sure he wasn't about to attack. Luckily, she'd turned around at the right time.
He had staggered to his feet, baffled but full of vengeance. Jorge took the time to wipe away a streak of blood that lined the corners of his mouth, a look of pure hatred glowing with a strong red on top.
Not even a freakish grin touched his face; his anger was contempt and raging. The man was crazy, and Mara didn't know what he would do.
"Stop it!" Mara's voice cracked, screeching with a high pitch.
Still, the man wasn't going to rest; he was moving closer and closer, closing the gap between them. The light hit him from underneath, shining up a sinister glow onto his violent body.
Fear ran through her veins; they had a low chance of making it out of that building without more than a few battle scars.
He was going to kill them.
And they couldn't fight back.
A/N
Hey guys! Sorry about the strange update schedule lately, everything's been insane but my past exam is tomorrow and most of my plans end after this week, so hopefully everything'll go back to normal after then.
Also, I wanted to say thank you so much for over 200k reads on the first instalment of this series; Her. Never did I imagine that many people reading anything of mine, it's a seriously insane thing for me. thank you so much, it means a heck of a lot to me.
-Lows