(a/n: I'm tryna wrap this up because I am SO excited to do the third book... sorry if it feels a little rushed..)
Minho entered the hut, not letting me think about what Gally had just said, did he really mean that?
"Hey Meimei, come, I've got something to show you guys." Thomas was behind him smiling at me.
As we walked to the map room, an awkward silence filled the air. There was nothing to talk about, no more fun to have, everything was really changing.
Minho opened the door and pulled off the sheet of cloth, covering the neatly arranged sticks, forming a maze.
"What..."
"It's the maze," Minho explained, no longer having that soft joking tone in his voice. "All of it."
I was confused, "What do you mean.. "all of it"? I thought you were still mapping it." was there really no way out?
"There's nothing left to map. I've run every inch of it myself. Every cycle. Every pattern."
As I looked into his eyes, I felt myself slipping, everything around me a blur,
Minho's revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. All this time, I'd been living in hope that there was a way out, that we were just a step away from freedom. But his words shattered that illusion.
"What do you mean there's nothing left to map?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Are you saying there's no way out?"
Minho's expression was grave. "I've explored every possible path, every corner. There's no exit. We're trapped."
My heart sank. The enormity of our situation crashed down on me. We were stuck in this maze, with no way out. The silence in the room was deafening, the weight of our reality pressing down on us.
Thomas stepped forward, his voice filled with determination. "We can't give up hope. There has to be a way out, we just haven't found it yet."
I wanted to believe him, to hold on to that glimmer of hope. But Minho's words echoed in my mind, casting a shadow over any optimism.
"But maybe now... we have a real chance," he sounded optimistic, I knew we couldn't just give up yet. We had to try, especially when we had just found something they hadn't in 3 whole years.
The door opened. It was Jeff and Clint.
"Hey! What are you guys doing? You're not allowed in here." Minho quickly covered the maze with a sheet of cloth.
"Sorry, it's just the... It's the girl."
"Is she awake?" Thomas asked, concerned.
"We better get going then." I rushed out the door to where Jeff said she was.
"Chuck, what's going on?" I tapped the boy, who was laughing, amused at something.
"Girls are awesome." he giggled.
"Leave me alone!" she shouted from above.
I felt someone grab me by the waist and pull me under a board,
"You can't just leave me in the morning. You don't know how sad it is to wake up to an empty bed."
he smirked, it was newt.
"I'm sorry, I didn't wanna wake you." I blushed, feeling flustered by Newt's sudden appearance and his playful teasing. "I didn't mean to..." I stuttered, unsure of what to say.
He chuckled, a warm smile on his face. "It's all right. I'm just messing with you." He gently brushed a strand of hair away from my face, his touch sending shivers down my spine.
"Hey, throw one more of those things..." Gally couldn't even finish his sentence as a rock hit his head.
"We just wanna talk!" I shouted. She gave me a bad feeling, but I couldn't help but imagine how scared she must be right now.
"Hey, it's Thomas! It's Thomas!" she stopped throwing things down, "I'm gonna come up, okay?"
He turned to Gally, who was following him closely,
"Just me." he headed up, speaking to the girl, we couldn't make out a sentence, though.
"What's going on up there!" I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. What was so special to her about Tommy? What connection did they have?
"Listen, you guys just give us a second, okay?" he shouted from above.
I clenched my fists, trying to control the surge of jealousy that swept through me. What was so special about Thomas? Why did she stop throwing rocks when she heard his name? Were they close? Did they share some kind of bond that I didn't know about?
As I stood there, my mind raced with questions and doubts. Thomas was kind and brave, and I admired him for that. But seeing him interact with this girl, stirred something inside me that I couldn't quite explain.
I glanced at Minho, who was watching the scene unfold with a furrowed brow. Did he feel the same way? Or was it just me, caught in a whirlwind of emotions I didn't understand?
Minutes passed, and Thomas and the girl finally came back down, looking somber. I looked at her a sent a smile, I wont avoid her like the plague, but I wouldn't talk to her on purpose either.
Tommy handed some... vial of blue liquid,
"We don't even know what this stuff is. We don't know who sent it. Or why it came up here with you."
"For all we know, this thing could k*ll him." newt said, worried.
"He's already dying. Look at him. How could this possibly make it any worse?" Thomas retaliated.
I nodded, placing a hand on newts shoulder, trying to push away my irrational feelings of jealousy.
"Come on, it's worth a try."
"Alright." "Do it."
Thomas was a friend, and I should be happy that he was helping someone in need. But the nagging voice in the back of my mind whispered doubts, fueling my jealousy even more.
But as I glanced at Thomas, a pang of jealousy shot through me once again. I couldn't help it. He was the key to her calming down, the one she trusted. And I couldn't shake the feeling of being left out of not being as important to him as she was.
Tommy approached Alby, who was twitching and shaking, holding up a needle to his chest.
Alby's head rose, and he grabbed Tommy by the shirt, everyone panicked trying to pry his grip off Tommy as he shouted,
"You shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be here!"
I grabbed the syringe off the ground as Tommy had accidentally let go of it, and stabbed it in his arm.
I looked around the room, startled at what had just happened, "Well that worked.."
"Okay, from now on... someone stays here and watches him around the clock." newt said concerned.
"Hey." Gally interrupted as he entered the medjack hut. "sundown, time to go." he said directly to both me and Tommy.
"Why do you hate us so much?" Tommy asked as we followed him to the pits,
"Everything started going wrong the minute you showed up. First Ben, then Alby... and now the girl."
"Everybody saw she recognized you. And I'm betting you know who she is." I could understand where Gally was coming from,
I grabbed Tommy's arm, shaking my head, If I had lived here in peace for a long time, and suddenly some people arrived here, messing things up, changing everything, I would have reacted the same.
Gally opened the gate and signaled for both of us to go in, Tommy jumped down first, and I did too. He caught me as I regained my balance.
As he was locking the pit, Tommy approached the gate, "Gally, you know we can't stay here forever, right?" But he didn't reply.
As Tommy and I sat in the pit, the silence between us was heavy with unspoken words. I couldn't shake off the feeling of jealousy that had been gnawing at me since the girl arrived.
"Tommy," I finally spoke, my voice barely above a whisper.
Do you like her?
He turned to me, his expression softening. "Mei, she's just someone who needs our help too. You're the one who's always been there for me, through everything. She needs someone like that, too."
I wanted to believe him, to trust his words. But the image of him comforting the girl, of her looking at him with recognition, lingered in my mind.
"I know, Tommy," I said, trying to sound reassuring. "But seeing you with her... it just makes me feel..."
jealous.
Tommy reached out and took my hand, his touch comforting. "What do you mean, Mei?"
I looked into his eyes, frustrated
You kissed me, Tommy. You should know how I'm feeling right now, especially when u start giving all your attention to another girl.
he pulled me into a hug, startling me,
"I'm sorry mei, I didn't know you would think of it like that.." he brushed my hair with his hand, in an attempt to comfort me, I gave in and hugged him back, "It's okay Tommy, I shouldn't feel this way, you were only trying to help her."
He mumbled something I couldn't make out into my shoulder, and we sat there in each other's arms, slowly drifting to sleep.