FEAR OF HER.
[ chapter seven ]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

EVELYN ROUGHLY SHAKES GALLY OFF HER, and moodily places herself down on the bench next to Thomas, in front of all the Gladers in the meeting room.

"Things are changing." Gally states, crossing his arms and severing the crowd, "There's no denying that. First Ben gets stung in broad daylight... and then Alby." He turns, glaring at the brunette pair behind him, "And now our Greenie here has taken it upon himself... to go into the Maze. Which is a clear violation of our rules here."

Eve rolls her eyes at the boy once he faces away from them again to speak to the large audience.

"Yeah, but he saved Alby's life." Fry speaks up, leaning against a beam.

"Did he?"

"Gally, you're overreacting. At least we're all here, and only one of us got stung - it could've resulted in more." Evelyn snaps but gets ignored by the angered boy, pissing her off even more.

"For three years, we have coexisted with these things... and now you've killed one of them." Gally whips round, pointing aggressively at the girl, "Who knows what that could mean for us?"

"What you rather me do? Die?" She scoffs, chuckling gently and repositioning on the wooden box, "I'm not exactly thrilled with this life, but I'd prefer to survive a lil' longer."

Newt smirks at my response before moving his glaze over to Gally, "Well, what do you suggest we do?"

"They have to be punished."

All the Gladers start to argue against the statement and Evelyn pats Thomas' knee, "You'll be fine. The most you'll get is a few days, probably less in the pit."

Thomas glances at her, smiling weakly, "Thanks, that's really reassuring." He replies sarcastically, chuckling uncomfortably.

"Minho. You were with them. What do you think?" Newt asks the other runner, who had been suspiciously quiet.

He sighs, crossing his arms over his chest, "I think... in all the time we've been here... no one's ever killed a Griever before. When I turned tail and ran, these dumb shanks stood behind to help Alby." Minhos shrugs, "Look, I don't know if he's brave or stupid. We all knew Evelyn is both of those."

The girl shoots her hand up, flicking him off and earning a quiet laugh from the crowd. Minho copies the hand signal before returning to what he was previously saying, "But whatever he is, we need more of it. I say we make him a runner."

For the first time in a while, Evelyn actually enjoyed the words that left her best friends mouth. While, everyone else squabbled over the idea, Thomas' eyebrows furrow and he stares at Eve, wanting her to say something to him to reassure him, but she never does, just watches the scene in front of her unfold.

"If you wanna throw the newbie a parade, that's fine. Go ahead." Gally starts to shout, "But if there is one thing that I know about the maze, it is that you do not—"

The sirens of the box start to blare out, causing each person crammed together in the small room to stop still, all of their heads slowly turning to the open entrance, there eyes wide.

"What the fuck?" Evelyn whispers to herself, rising up from her seat while the boys sprint out, desperate to see what's happening.

Thomas walks by her side, extremely confused of what is going on right now. He gently grabs her wrist, turning her to him, "What's happening?"

"It's the box. It's coming back up." She starts to run towards the whole in the ground, Thomas following, "It shouldn't be."

Gally, Newt and Eve are the first ones to reach it, staring down as the doors slide open, revealing the usual supplies and a girl. Newt jumps down, his eyes widening when he realises the gender of the Greenie.

"It's- it's a girl." He stumbles, looking up and around at all the boys, each of their faces crumpled in.

"Thank fuck." Evelyn grumbles, running her hands through her hair, "Was started to go crazy."

Thomas pushes through the group, stopping beside Eve and peering at the knocked out girl, one of her hands in a fist, clearly hiding something.

"Check her hand." Evelyn says, pointing directly at the closed fist and Newt does as instructed, slipping out a piece of paper.

"She's... the.. last one... ever." Newt reads slowly, the last word being emphasised in bold, as if it's the most important news in the world, "What the hell does that me—"

The girl shoots up, gasping for air and immediately her eyes lock onto the dark haired boy beside Evelyn, who's hands were shaking by his sides nervously, "Thomas..."

Once again, she's out like a light, her eyelids slowly fluttery shut and everyone turns to Thomas, their eyebrows raised in confusion, wanting him to explain why she knew his name.

"Mind enlightening us?" Eve questions, nudging him gently to snap him out of the dazed trance he was in, but he still remains silent, acting just as shocked as everyone else.

"Still think I'm overreacting?" Gally tilts his head at the girl, but she still keeps the same thought, he was overreacting - it's a fact.

༒

Evelyn follows Minho, Newt and Thomas into the medjack hut, Alby's yells of pain filling the rooms, causing Thomas' worried eyes to turn to the boy tied to the table.

"Ignore it." Eve taps his back gently, ushering him forward more until they reach the greenie's bed.

"Jeff, what's going on?" Newt questions immediately, not giving the Glade med enough time to process their arrival, "What's the matter with her? Why won't she wake up?"

Jeff shrugs, raising both his hands in a surrender, "Hey, man, I got my job the same way you did."

Thomas' eyes just stare at the limp dark haired girl in front of them, the cogs in his brain trying to figure how where he knows her from. Evelyn quickly notices his expression and furrows her eyebrows, "Do you recognise her... or do you just like staring?"

The boy's eyes go up to her and he shakes his head, "No."

A lie. Eve thinks, licking her lips.

Newt clicks his tongue, crossing his arms over his chest, "Really? Because she seemed to recognise you."

Thomas ignores him and glances back over to Evelyn, who's just giving him a strange look, as to say 'I know that you're hiding something.'

He clears his throat, slightly uncomfortable with her looking at him in such a manner, "What about the note?"

"Yeah, we'll worry about the note letter." Newt mutters in response.

"I think we should worry about it now." Thomas snaps, almost stomping his foot in protest.

"If the box isn't coming back up, how long do you think we can last?" Jeff questions, his eyebrows etched together in worry.

The blonde boy shakes his head, smiling to reassure the boy opposite him, "No one said that. Let's not jump to any conclusions. We'll just... we'll just wait until she wakes up and she what she knows. Somebody's gotta have some answers around here."

Evelyn nods in agreement before turning quickly on her heal, heading straight for the door, "She better do or I'm gonna be really annoyed."

Thomas follows quickly behind her, only to be stopped by Newt's confused shout, "Wait, where are you going?"

"Back into the maze." The dark haired boy states before shoving roughly through the door.

Eve's eyes widen at his words and she trudges out after him, running in front of him and placing a hand to his chest, stopping him from going any further, "You've got a problem."

Thomas rolls his jaw, nodding, "You've made it clear that you hate me. Thanks." He goes to leave again but she gets in the ways again, "Move." He tries the same tone that she had when they first met, but fails, causing her to chuckle.

"Is that supposed to be intimidating?" She rolls her eyes, "Look, your problem is that you've got a death wish. If the Grievers don't kill you - then Gally will. We just got out of that shit hole, and now you wanna go back in?"

The boy in front of her, scratches the back of his neck, thinking carefully about what to say next, "Newt said that no one's ever seen a Griever and  lived to talk about it, right?"

She licks her lips, "I have."

"I know," He sighs sympathetically, "But, you hate to speak about it, and I can completely understand why. Look, Eve, n—"

She holds up a finger, silencing him, "Evelyn."

He tilts his head, looking her as if she was acting stupid, "Really? I saved your life. Don't I get to call you Eve?"

She takes a deep breath, slowly exhaling before snapping her eyes to his, causing his heart to skip a beat, "Fine. But, I still hate you."

He smiles to himself, happy that he finally earned the privilege to call her the nickname, "Can I continue, Eve?"

She laughs, a genuine one, before shaking her head and wagging a finger at him, "Don't overuse it, big guy. And, yes, continue."

Thomas was too mesmerised by her real laugh to resume to their conversation. The happy outburst kept replaying in his head and it made a bright smile form into his face once he realised that he was the one who caused it.

She roughly clicks her finger in front of his face, snapping him out of it, "Continue."

"Right, yeah." He swallows, "You killed a Griever, right? So now we have one. You're telling me you're not even a little bit curious?"

"No." She deadpans, not even taking a second to think about what he was offering.

Thomas rolls his jaw, before pushing past her, causing her to step back and place her hand on his firm chest again, sending shivers up both their spines, "What's the plan?"

"You gonna go out and dissect that thing all by yourself?" Minho speaks up from behind the pair, his hands shoved into his pockets and his head tilted.

"I will if I have to." Thomas says, removing himself from Evelyn's touch and turning to the asian, "Have the other Runners left yet?"

"The other Runners quit this morning." Minho grumbles, nodding his head towards the four boys, all of them sat uselessly on the ground, "After Alby got stung, they're not in any hurry to get back out there. Why are you?" He looks Thomas up and down, obviously judging him, causing Eve to chuckle at his boldness.

Thomas bites his lip, hesitating for a second before looking over to the maze doors, "I think it's time we find out what we're really up against."

Evelyn nods, moving to stand beside her best friend to get a better view of the dark haired boy, "Alright. But you're not going back out there alone."

"Both of you, meet me in the woods in half an hour." Minho orders before trudging away to speak to the rest of the Gladers.

Evelyn walks past Thomas, lifting up her tank top slightly to reveal her knives, slipping both of them out and carrying them in her palms while she travels into the woods - following her usual path.

"What are you doing?"

The girl whirls round, shoving the person back into a tree and holding the sharp blade to their neck, causing them to let out a shaky breath while she servers them.

"You're lucky I didn't kill you." She spits, lowering the weapon slightly but not moving an inch away from him.

Thomas' breath hitches again once he notices how close they are and when she starts to lower her eyes to his lips, he leans in, closing his eyes.

Eve lifts up a single finger, pressing it gently to the boys puckered lips and his eyes shoot open once he realises, "Not that easy to get in my pants, big guy." She tuts, patting his shoulder before pushing away, continuing her stroll.

He throws his head back in annoyance, the back of it connecting with the tree while he runs his hands down his face, "Teach me." He blurts, causing her to glance back at him in confusion.

"What?" She chuckles, "How to get in my pants? Well, you see, I do—"

He makes his way over to her, stopping a few feet in front before motioning towards the blade in her hand, "How to throw knives. Teach me."

The wind gently blows her hair out of her face while she takes a second, thinking about what to say to the boy who just attempted to kiss her.

No. Never. She thinks but something else comes out, "Sure. We only have half an hour so pay attention, please." She turns on her heel and cusses at herself for giving in so easily while she approaches the target board.

"You know, you're so pretty but you scare the shit out of me." Thomas says gently, a certain tone to his voice as if he likes that she doesn't fall to his feet in an instant. He watches as she elegantly twirls one of the weapons between fingers before spinning round swiftly, throwing it at the board and planting it right into the middle of the wood.

Eve smirks, glancing him up and down, "I must admit, you are annoyingly good looking." She carefully holds the blade of the knife and holds the handle out to Thomas to grab, "You ready?"

"Not really." He mutters as she pulls him in front of her, lifting his arm up at a vertical angle before moving his fingers so they're wrapped properly around the weapon.

She takes a step back, assessing his posture before moving over to the target board, pulling out the other knife to use it as an example. She stands beside him, getting into the position, "Watch carefully."

Slowly, she brings her arm back so the knife is just above her shoulder, then she flicks her wrist forward, sending the blade soaring through the air and it lands on the board, in the exact same place as always,
"I'm shit at instructions, but do you think you can do it? Try it slowly. Slowly."

He gives her the side eye, one brow raised, "You don't need to repeat the slowly. I heard you the first time."

She tilts her head, her lips pursed because they both know she's right, "You're known for rushing into things. So, slowly."

He rolls his eyes, because for the first time since he's arrived in the Glade, he feels completely comfortable. The banter that they're sharing isn't hostile in anyway and he doesn't fear her in the slightest now that her guard has dropped.

He takes a deep long breath, his brain replaying the way Evelyn did it. He brings his arm back, gripping the knife handle harder so it doesn't slip out before flicking his wrist, the weapon flying through the air for a second before falling straight to the floor, in the midst of a large pile of leaves.

"You need to through it harder. More strength." She picks the fallen knife up for him and takes it from her, their hands skimming past each other's, "Try again, you'll get it eventually."

Again, and again, and again he repeats it, each time it gets closer and closer to the board, until it finally jams into it - sadly no where near the middle.

"Well done." Evelyn claps, almost sarcastically.

He smirks at her, "Do I get a kiss for that?"

"Woah, there." She chuckles, patting his shoulder in a friendly manner, basically friend zoning him without even speaking, "Like I said, you'll have to try harder. I've had every boy here try to get with me. It's difficult." She winks before trudging away towards the map room.

Hard to get. He clenches his jaw in anger before following after her, his eyes stuck to her as she leans against the hut wall, digging her hands into her pockets.

Minho turns the corner, followed by Fry, Winston and Zart, all of them looking miserable and slightly unsure of what they're doing, "Will this be enough?" The runner asks.

Thomas glances back at Evelyn, who just simply nods, backing him in whatever his decision is, "Okay. Let's do this."