After another evening full of hearty laughs that made my stomach hurt, Frypan's stew and bad jokes by the fire, I head off to my room and get straight into bed. Someone has been in during the day to change the sheets, because fresh cotton is all I can smell.
I sit for a while, twiddling a strand of hair between my forefinger and thumb, letting a million thoughts rush through my head as moonlight shines through the window. It gets to midnight before I remember that I'm mapping tomorrow, and that I need all the energy I can get.
Laying down at last, it takes me what seems like years to fall asleep and - when I do - it feels as if I am phasing in and out of conciousness. When I fully awaken, it isn't sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains that wakes me. It is a shout of terror that sends shivers up my spine.
Groggily, I stumble out of my creaky bed and, nearly tripping on the uneven floorboards, make my way towards the door. I don't know who is shouting, but who ever it is sounds like they're in dire need of some help. Fighting my usual instinct to run away, I grasp the rusty door-handle and fling it open. I quickly rub my eyes, and step forwards.
Plunging straight into an abyss.
Flailing my arms, I look wildly around for something to hold onto, anything to stop my descent into darkness. My fingers reach out, finding nothing but thin air. Thunder rages above me, and soon I feel rain land on my face, rolling down my cheeks like tears.
The chasm is so deep, I can't hear the downpour hit the bottom. If there even is a bottom. Spinning, my plunge isn't getting any slower or scarier. My clothes become completely drenched, and seconds later the thunder stops as quickly as it started. All I can hear is my panicked breathing.
Just as I begin to scramble my thoughts together and work out what I'm supposed to do next, I hear a sudden woosh of air. It is all the warning I get before I land, spread-eagled, upon cold metal floor.
Wincing, I sit slowly forwards until I am upright and my hands are drawn to my throbbing spine. It feels like someone has thrown a bucket of warm water at me from behind, and drenched my back. I look down at them, and they are covered in black blood. I yell in shock, and the room starts to spin.
My head tips backwards and I am facing the ceiling. But there is no ceiling.
Instead, the brilliant blue of the sky shines down upon on me. My back has stopped throbbing and seemingly stopped bleeding too. I stand, the metal below me turning into a bed of flowers. I gaze around me at a gorgeous meadow that has materialised before my eyes.
The breeze ripples through the grass, sending waves of pollen billowing through the air. A family of blue-jays fly above me, a mother and father, followed by three smaller birds desperate to keep up with their parents. They loop in circles around my head before fluttering towards a huge oak tree where a nest is tucked between the branches. A faint sound of laughter comes from the distance, a soulful laugh that brings a smile to my lips.
Newt's laugh.
My minute of peace is stolen suddenly, as through the trunks of the trees I see a pair of grey eyes staring at me. It takes me a moment to recognise them, but soon I realise they are Sonya's.
"Hey!" I wave at her, but she stays still. "Hey, Sonya! It's me, Emmeline. You do remember me, right?" I jog towards her, but stop when I see her white-blonde hair spin and disappear into the shade.
Why is she running? I head towards where she went and, delving deeper into the forest. I come across a clearing. Peering through the trees, I see a group of girls huddled around, whisper-shouting to each other in some obscure language I don't quite understand.
I'm about to back away from the strange situation I've ended up in, when in such synchronisation I wouldn't be surprised if they had agreed on it beforehand, they all turn to face me and I stagger backwards.
Because these aren't my friends.
Their eyes are black and unblinking, and from their mouths crimson blood drips off of black teeth. The flow of red makes a river on the ground and it rushes towards me, rising higher and higher, getting darker and darker, until it is a tsunami of shadows hurtling towards me.
Yelling every step of the way, I run.
Shuck, shuck, shuck. Stumbling through the undergrowth, I leap over logs and slide under branches in a desperate effort to get away from the murk that laps at my ankles with every step that I take. I grit my teeth and push harder, so hard it feels like my lungs are going to burst.
My legs burn, feeling like they have been lit on fire, but I reach the meadow without being absorbed by the gloom that roars behind me and dive, relatively unscathed, into the grass. But instead of hitting soft dirt, my head rebounds against something hard, sending stars flying before my eyes.
It isn't grass. It's the Maze.
Shuck, I mutter. As I brush myself off, I clamber up and begin to wander through the labyrinth. I've never had a chance to really look at the Maze, and the sheer immensity of it is astounding. The walls must be hundreds of feet high yet they stand as still as giant statues.
I wonder who could have built things this huge, and why would they trap us inside of them. The moss that coats these behemoths is thick and a deep, forest green. If it wasn't in such a horrible place, it could even have been called pretty.
"Emmeline?" I hear. Shocked, I turn to see who has called me. There's no-one there.
"Emmeline?!" It's a British accent, and the only person I know other than me who speaks with a British accent is Newt.
"Newt? Where are you? I can't see you" I continue to look around for him, but I'm either being very unobservant or he isn't here.
"Emmeline, run."
"Run from what? Newt. Run from what?"
"Just run. Run, Emmeline! Go! Run Em, run!" he's shouting now, an alarmed sort of shouting that never means anything good.
I'm still looking frantically around to see him and just ahead of me, there he is waving and jumping about like a mad-man. I step forwards to go to him, but a shadow appears above me in the sky. I roll out of the way just in time, because crashing down in front of me is a Creature.
It's gargantuan mouth opens in a roar, flashing teeth that are as big as daggers. I scream and run, not daring to look behind me. I know it is following me, because my ears are filled with the scraping of it's metal legs against the maze floor, and the constant shrieks it is emitting.
Darting around corners, I start to lose my breath and it's taking everything not to collapse.
All of a sudden, the chafing noise stops. I run a little longer just to make sure my pursuer has really slowed, before falling to the ground and shutting my eyes. I sit for a moment, basking in the beautiful silence.
I hear a distant yell and jump. A thousand footsteps rattle in my brain. I'm being shaken, someone has my shoulders and they're shaking me. Pushing the invisible hands away, I feel a sharp prick in my neck.
A rush of warm liquid spreading through every vein from my neck down.
More shaking, and yelling. So loud it feels like my head is going to implode.
I'm seeing flashes of light and can hear the faintest words of yelling.
I start to feel more pricks all over my body, and look down to see hundreds of beetle blades crawling across my skin. Startled, I squirm and try to flick them off but there's far too many and soon they completely envelop me.
The last thing I see before the blackness is hundreds of red, red eyes all facing me, just like the girl-things in the meadow.
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A/N: 200 reads?!! I love you guys that read this so bloody much, I'm so grateful for the support <3
Slightly shorter chapter today but hope you enjoyed!! I'm loving writing this Fanfic, so make sure to comment what you liked about it so we can all.... I don't know, love it together?!! Sorry about not uploading until today, I've been really busy with family, but I'll be back into weekly uploads now so all's good.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE/COMMENT/FOLLOW/LOVE NEWT <3