GHOSTING
CHAPTER SIX: GUILTY LIES

THERE were plenty of things Lise had always been good at. And one of those things had been leading. She'd shown an exceptional ability to lead from a young age in WICKED's facility and that had made her stand out among the others.

That was why she'd been chosen. People had always followed her because of her natural born confidence in her ability and in those around her. She always pretended to know what she was doing, hoping to relieve the stress others may have felt at not knowing what to do. And for the most part, that had worked.

But now, walking through the maze with this huge group of girls, she realized she had absolutely no clue what she was doing and didn't know how to pretend. This was a very real situation, and if she messed up, it would cost many their lives.

Vera had stayed with Esther for the last hour or so, and as far as Lise knew, she was somewhat stable, physically at least.

The second Lise had seen the girl return from around the corner with blood covering her and tears prickling at her eyes she knew Harriet was dead. And the fact that Esther had brought back the girl's pole only gave her further confirmation that she had tried to fight for the girl, she had tried to save her. And now that she was gone, she was going to realize how hard it had been for Harriet to lead so effortlessly for so long.

Meanwhile, Esther was smiling under her frown of blood. She had killed Harriet with no hiccups and was being taken care of as if she was a victim. Which she very much was not.

The others had remained mostly quiet, except to ask what was to happen next. Other than that, it seemed everyone was silently mourning the loss of their beloved leader.

Once they returned to the field in the morning she was sure that while everyone else was asleep WICKED would silently whisk her away to the facility as they had earlier in her life.

The hours flew by, each one bringing fewer and fewer grievers their way until eventually, a subtle glow over the top of the walls began to shine down over them. Esther knew it was dawn, and she knew that when they returned they would simply have her clean herself up and go to bed. And then this nightmare would be over. She could return to the plot of destroying WICKED from the inside out.

Butterflies batted against her rib cage at the very thought, of the chance to be welcomed back without so much as a second thought. God were they stupid.

But once they returned to the glade and went to sleep, Esther found that she was never rescued from the maze. When the late afternoon sun crept in over the girls through the cold of the snow and she woke to the freezing hell she almost cursed, warm tears dribbled down her icy skin and she turned to look all around her.

There were only the girls. She had never been so disappointed in her life.

Looking around again, she realized most of the girls were already out of their beds, and very few were waking up just as she was. Part of her wanted to stay in bed and sulk, but she knew that wasn't an option.

So, just as the other girls were doing, she climbed out of bed and quickly dressed against the cutting cold of the wind. She yearned for the warmth of the facility and how there had never been a time when she was cold.

Now that she thought about it, WICKED and its staff had never done anything intentionally harmful to her or any of the other children. Yes, some of them had died in the maze- and glade- as a result of the flare, but that was going to happen either way, with or without them putting them into the situation, they would've gotten sick sooner with no hope for a cure if WICKED hadn't collected them as children. Almost ten years of suffering they would've endured if not for WICKED, maybe less if they contracted the deadly disease.

As Esther thought about the facility she found Stephen rolling around in her thoughts, she hadn't seen him in years, it was almost as if he'd been a figment of her imagination. But she knew he wasn't, she remembered all sorts of things about him, his dark eyes, the wind whipping through his hair when a member of the staff had opened a door leading outside during the colder months. She could remember how small his hands had been when they were younger. And then, as if by accident, he suddenly disappeared the following year.

She wondered what had become of him. Was he safe? Or was he dead?

She had a feeling it was neither.

She hoped that Thomas had looked out for him as he had looked out for her.

She also hoped that he was nothing like Teresa.

Stepping out of the small living quarters, Esther buried her hands into the pockets of her jacket, it was colder now than it had been yesterday when she arrived and she found that the snow was coming down in blankets of white. Were they trying to suffocate the girls?

When- and if- Esther ever returned to the facility she was going to give the idiot who decided on such a cold maze a swift kick in the ass. She didn't know how they expected anyone to survive these conditions.

She began walking away from the living quarters- away from the small sanctuary against the snow- and found that within seconds there was snow attaching itself to her thick brown hair. She knew it was pointless to try and remove it as it would melt in the process, so instead of doing such she pushed her hair behind her ears and kept walking.

Lunch was lingering in the air as the kitchen girls dished out the plates and silverware, some people had already finished eating while others looked as if they had just climbed out of bed to get food. But the one thing they all had in common was that as Esther approached they all silently stared at her. She knew why. Harriet's blood was on her hands, she had murdered the girl, but they didn't know that, all they thought they knew was that the girl had been whisked off by grievers.

She just had to hope none of them got smart and realized the truth behind her lie. Otherwise, they were all dead. WICKED would shut down the maze and all of its inhabitants with the simple flip of a switch. They'd unleash more grievers on them than they could handle and silently execute them all without so much as a tear.

Esther couldn't let that happen while she was still there, otherwise, any hope of her being able to carry out her plan would be over.

She was quick to grab a tray of food and head over to where Vera and Lise sat in grieving silence, she almost felt bad for sitting with them, but then again, she didn't know anyone else.

Vera was the first to speak after she was seated, "are we going back out tonight?"

Lise remained silent for a moment before softly shaking her head, "no, we're not," she turned to gaze at Esther with sagging eyes, "I say we wait a week to go back out, calm everyone down, if someone wants to go out sooner they can petition, but that'll be the end of it."

The other girls glanced from Esther to Lise before falling into a permanent silence, some didn't even bother to finish their lunch, Esther felt her stomach's usual howl of hunger subside and knew that she couldn't possibly stomach the meal in front of her at the moment.

Lise was the first of the girls to quickly leave the table with their tray in hand, and eventually, one by one, the other three girls left until it was just Vera and Esther who remained.

"I'm really sorry about what happened."

With wide eyes, Esther turned her head to look at Vera, "thanks..." she mumbled, "I'm sorry I couldn't save Harriet," Vera nodded her head in acknowledgment as she glanced down at her tray, "if you're done I can take you to the med tent and check your cuts again," Esther smiled at the girls offer before nodding her head, "yeah, we can do that."

Esther wasn't sure why, but she wanted to make sure WICKED did no harm to Vera, that even if everything else went to shit they'd protect her and pull her out of the chaos, even if it meant Esther was killed in the process.

Vera was like the friend Esther had never had growing up behind WICKED's walls, the friend she had so desperately wanted.

Following Vera out into the field towards the medical tent Esther could only let her mind wander, and eventually, it wandered a little too far, back into unfamiliar memories from her stay at WICKED, memories she wasn't even sure were hers.

A brown-haired boy reaching out to touch glass that contained a blue liquid, they almost looked like chambers, like the water was supposed to be holding something within them.

She was the boy now, reaching out to touch the blue glass, to see what was inside. It was like electricity charged through her entire body as her finger made contact with the glass.

The last thing she saw was a pair of eyes staring back at her.

Then the black.

Vera turned at the sudden rustling of grass and let a shriek fall from her lips, "SOMEONE HELP! SOMEONE HELP US!" She screamed as she dropped onto the ground next to Esther's twitching body, the only thing she could do was stick her hand into the girl's mouth to keep her from biting her tongue off, and while it hurt her she knew it was better than the girl becoming non-verbal.

"SOMEONE HELP US!" She screamed again, this time she saw people darting out of tents, one of which was Kennedy and another was Sonya, and as they took steps away from their tents they caught sight of the girl on the ground and rushed across the field towards the two girls.

Panting, Sonya slid down onto her knees on the opposite side of Esther and looked the girl over, "what happened?"

"I don't know," Vera croaked her voice hoarse as she held back fearful tears, "I don't know- s-she just collapsed and started twitching, she was just talking to me a few minutes ago and was perfectly fine."

The second Kennedy reached them she grabbed Esther's arms, "someone go to the med tent and start setting up a cot, the other needs to grab her legs so we can get her over there,"

Sonya- being the quicker out of the two- took off for the med tent while Vera grabbed Esther's legs and hefted them up in her arms, "thank you, Kennedy," she spoke, with a shake of her head Kennedy got them moving as quickly as possible across the field and into the tent where only chaos ensued.

Sonya had set out to prepare a cot and the only thing the med tent girls had done was argue with her, "get the hell out of the way!" Kennedy warned as she lowered Esther's front half onto the cot. The four med tent girls around them exchanged aggressive comments as Sonya tried to fend them off, but only one of them seemed genuinely concerned.

Slipping past Sonya, the one girl managed to work her way around the small cot and towards the cabinets where they kept the little bags of fluid, "I'll deal with her, just get the other three out," the girl spoke as she bent down to reach Esther's arm.

CHAPTER SIX: GUILTY TIES

GHOSTING