FOURTEEN AND A HALF. 

────── 〔✿〕──────

The Gathering Room was absolute chaos, and even that was an understatement. It was much worse than when Link revealed he had a spy. I hadn't thought it possible, but there I was, trying to help Nick calm everyone down by forcing Alby and Gally apart during one of their screaming matches. The two boys were almost in each other's faces as they argued at the top of their lungs. I was wedged between them, using my arm strength to pry them away from one another.

Minho was pointing out his stitches to everyone who cared enough to listen and ranted about how much they hurt. Clark, always the temperamental one, tried to keep himself from exploding by pacing back and forth every six feet while covering his ears to block out the noise. Zart - the poor boy - sat on his chair with an alarmed expression. Winston was arguing with Matt (Keeper of the Sloppers) while Frypan was trying to calm down David, another Keeper, after the boy burst into tears from seeing Winston in place of Link.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Nick roared above every single sound in the room. Instantly, everyone froze in place and the volume dropped so silent there was a ringing in my ears. The leader stood with his sunburnt face more red than usual and his fists clenched at his sides. His biceps were tense as he gave everyone in the room a silent scolding with his eyes. "In your seats. Now."

After a second's pause, there was no sound except the scuffle of shoes against the wooden floor and chairs scraping across it as we all sat in our respected spots. David was wiping tears from his face. Zart gave the kid a comforting pat on the knee.

Nick continued to stand in front of us as he spoke instead of taking his usual spot in the middle of our crescent. "We will likely be here all day, so get comfortable. This Gathering is part two of our Alex Dilemma. In case you forgot, part one was where we interrogated Luke of the Raisers, who worked as a spy for our dear friend Link."

Clark twitched and darted his eyes to me. I sent him a discreet thumbs up.

"Minho has said that he has more information pertaining to Alex, but he has refused to tell me until he could say it to everyone," Nick continued, his gaze landing on the Runner beside me. "We'll get to that in a second. First, I'd like to establish a rule: absolutely no talking until he's finished. Got it?"

A quiet chorus of, "Got it," came from us.

"Good that." He nodded. "All right, Minho. Take it away."

Minho cleared his throat and waited for Nick to sit in his seat before he began- not that it took long, considering Nick's legs were about ten miles long and he reached the chair within three long strides. After he was sure everyone was paying attention, he took a deep breath and launched into his story.

"Everything was normal - or as normal as you can get with an annoying shuck-face like Alex - until we turned a corner and I nodded at him to cut the ivy. He ran ahead of me and took out his knife. That little twerp cut the ivy better than he ever did- that was my first clue. Then he somehow tripped over his own two feet, knife outstretched toward me, and I turned and backed up so it drew down my arm. He would have killed me if I hadn't moved. Would've gone right into my chest."

The entire room was completely silent. My breath was caught in my chest in an almost painful way that made it feel like I was silently choking after having all of the air knocked out of me. To think that Alex tried to kill Minho was enough to make me feel dizzy. To reassure both myself and Minho, I reached over and laced my fingers through his.

"It was too perfect to have been an accident," he continued in a slightly quieter tone. "He spun around at the exact moment I came around, and he somehow just pitched forward--" Minho cut himself off with a shudder. His arms were taut. "My guess is he did the same to the poor shank, Theo. Sabotage. Made sure he could never run again."

"Take out the competition," Gally muttered under his breath. Even if he was irritable most of the time, he didn't want another one of our leaders dying. "Make sure he'd be the only one to qualify for the position."

Minho nodded. "Exactly. This enough evidence for you, Nick?"

All heads turned to our leader, who was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his hands completely still. There was a faraway look in his glassy eyes that suggested he was deep in thought. His voice was distant when he replied, "Yes." He stood again, moving his blond hair out of his face. "Yes, there is. With Harvey telling us he went into the Maze the exact day Theo got hurt, his weird behavior, and the attempted murder of a Glade leader, there is no need to keep him around. It's far too dangerous."

Every Keeper nodded somberly. Alex had somewhat ruined different aspects of our lives. He had set fire to the Kitchen, almost impaled a boy with a knife, nearly killed another in a stampede, destroyed half the crops, and so much more that it was actually starting to scare me.

"One thing is for sure." Everyone looked to Nick again, who had a hand on his chin in thought. "None of us are safe. We have to assume that if he tried to kill Minho, what's going to stop him from killing the rest of us?"

"What are we gonna do about it?" Clark asked, but without the usual twinge of annoyance. This time, his voice contained an edge of fear. "Schedule around-the-clock lookouts? I don't want to have to look over my shoulder every two minutes to see if he's coming to murder me."

"You might have to, Clark," Nick replied gently. "We won't sleep alone- too risky. From now on, all Keepers will sleep together in my room--"

He was interrupted by a series of complaints, mostly from Gally, Alby, Clark, and Winston. They shouted at him angrily that they wanted 'some shuck privacy' and 'alone time,' but Nick wasn't in the mood for persuasion.

"The decision is final!" he yelled over the noise. "Would you rather die or have an entire group protecting you?" That shut everyone up. Nick's voice broke a little when he continued, "We already lost Link. I don't want to lose another one of you."

-:-

"I hate this so much."

Clark shuffled around on the floor for the fifth time since we'd laid down ten minutes ago. He had warned us he was a fitful sleeper, to which Gally responded to by shifting away from him. Or, shifting the two inches he could so he wouldn't be on top of Frypan.

"Guys, I might snore, so if I do, just punch me and I'll probably stop," Winston whispered.

"Great," Minho muttered dryly.

Nick's room was nearly pitch black. It was small, so he had cleaned up the floor space and crammed us all inside. The ten of us all had just barely enough space to fit our bodies. David, Matt, and Alby were lying with the bottom half of their bodies beneath Nick's bed.

"Why didn't we do this in Nadia's room?" Frypan questioned with the sound of his sheets moving around as he spoke. "It's bigger."

"Too dusty," I replied, "and I don't want you all sneezing on me."

"Good point."

"Everyone be quiet and stop moving," Nick ordered before clicking on a flashlight. Clark yelped and buried his face in his pillow when the light shined directly in his eyes for a split second before Nick turned it to the ceiling. "Sorry, Clark."

Clark grumbled some muffled curse words.

Nick gave him a pointed look before continuing. "My room, my rules. Be quiet if you have to leave to use the restroom. Better yet, bring a buddy with you."

"What if your buddy gets killed while you're in the bathroom?" Winston asked.

Nick sighed. "Rule number two, no questions until the end. Three, be respectful of other people's personal space. No hitting, kicking, or yelling- you're not five. Lastly, if anyone opens that door and it looks like Alex, throw something at him first. If he makes a sound and it's for sure him, tackle him."

Gally cracked his knuckles as if he was hoping Alex would come in so he could beat the living crap out of him.

"Should we tell ghost stories?" David wondered innocently.

"David, no." I could practically hear Alby rolling his eyes as he spoke. "I don't want no ghost stories if I'm worryin' about dying."

"I second that," Frypan agreed. "Let's all just get a good night's sleep so we can be well-rested for Wake Up."

Nick clicked the flashlight off - not that it was helping much, anyway - and we were all plunged into absolute darkness. The one pillow I brought wasn't very comfortable against the ground, and my sheets were much too thin to protect me from the cold wood. I shivered.

A warm hand touched my arm and I squeaked in surprise. The flashlight clicked back on immediately, causing me to shield my eyes from the blinding light.

"Minho, now is not the time to be making a move," Nick said blankly before turning the light off. A few snickers caused my cheeks to turn red.

Colors danced behind my eyelids when I closed them again, shades of yellow, purple, and green from the flashlight. Minho's hand stayed where it was until he pulled me backward and up against his chest.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, hopefully quietly enough that nobody else would hear.

"You're cold," he replied softly. "I'm warming you up."

"Shut up," Gally grumbled in annoyance from the other side of our circle.

"Sorry," I said, unable to help the apology from coming out.

"I'm going to kill you all," Clark threatened in a rumbling growl.

"Uh oh," Frypan laughed. "Maybe it's Clark we have to watch out for, not Alex."

"Don't compare me to that son of a b--"

"Shh!" Nick violently hissed. "Be quiet, all of you."

The room lapsed into silence again.

I had to admit that Minho was practically a furnace from how warm he was. He kept one arm around my middle so that I was pressed against his font, my face in the crook of his neck. It was an intimate but comforting position that confirmed my suspicions- we were definitely more than friends now.

Oddly enough, I was okay with that.

-:-

Despite Nick's own rules, he was loud waking up. He was usually awake before anyone, so when he stood, nobody else moved. I cracked an eyelid open to see him carefully stepping over the legs of the supposedly sleeping Keepers. He was just about to make it to his dresser until he accidentally misstepped and fell, landing on top of Alby and Frypan. A series of curses and exclamations woke everyone else up immediately; I had to stifle my giggles.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Nick apologized frantically to a very murderous Alby and an irritated Frypan. They both gave him sharp glares but said nothing as he climbed off of them.

"Well, that was the worst sleep of my life," Winston sighed as he rubbed his drooping eyes.

"You're telling me," Clark complained with his face still in his pillow.

"Nobody died, so that's good," Matt commented, always the one to point out the obvious. It was the first time he spoke since he came in the room last night.

"What do we do about Alex?" David asked.

"Can I pound his face in?" Gally piped up hopefully.

"No," Nick said as he grabbed clean clothes from their drawers. His mouth was pulled into a tight line. "We banish him."

-------

i want to have a sleepover with the keepers tbh. they're my favorite thing to write.

good news: i'm on summer vacation now (!!!) so that means i'll be able to write a lot more often and get updates coming faster (!!!)

this chapter was short compared to the others but that's ok because the next one is gonna be action-packed!!

-kristyn