CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
• bloody letters •

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Mentions of suicide/death/self harm

TWO MORE GLADERS died over the course of the week. A Builder, and a Track-Hoe. They died the same way as Jake-by suicide, but the way they committed was what was different. The Builder had used a wooden stack and hammer to puncture himself, and the Track-Hoe had slit his own throat with one of the gardening tools.

Evony might not have been close friends with any of those gladers, but the guilt still found a way to eat at her. Everytime she tried to remind herself that it wasn't her fault-that overall it was their choice-she would fall back on the fact of her being Second-in-Command. Her, Newt and Alby were the three people who were supposed to watch over the Glade; make sure that things were going smoothly.

She couldn't help thinking that she was failing, and it was eating her alive.

Evony hadn't gone into the maze the past three days; she was too busy trying to calm the chaos that was the atmosphere of the Glade. She also hadn't talked to many people-including Thomas. If she had it was because they were helping with the bodies. To top it off her and Newt hadn't been able to get the one Glader who knew about Jakes nightmares to talk yet. At least she understood that part-he needed time-but she wasn't sure how much more time they would be able to spare.

She had also been busy with something else. Behind Albys' back, she and Newt had been organizing small funerals for each of the Gladers. They both felt that it was only right that their fellow brothers got a place to rest in peace.

The first funeral was held the day after Jake died. Evony had taken it upon herself to organize the whole thing: making the tombstone, telling the people, digging a hole; she had done all of it herself. The process essentially took the entire day-that was if she counted the hour lunch and dinner breaks she took in between her work. Eventually Newt had noticed what she was doing and opted to help her out for the next two deaths. Together they secretly held a gathering for the friends of the fallen Gladers.

The last of the deaths had happened yesterday; now her and Newt were standing over a hole they had dug together, the body of the glader lying lifelessly at the bottom.

It was a builder who had died, and only her, Newt and his closest friends were standing around the gravesite. Both her and her friend had come to the conclusion that he should be the one to do the speaking-if there even was going to be much speaking.

The blonde cleared his voice, gaining the attention of the four people around him. "Gladers; friends of Will," he addressed. His eyes glanced over to Evony as he looked for reassurance, "We are gathered to bid goodbye to a loved friend."

Heads hung low around them, and tears dripped off of two of the three builders' faces. One of them got down on their knees, their hand grazing over the blank space that was above his friend's body. Watching the boys feel such remorse to Will made Evony sick to her stomach.

This was her fault. She should've known something was wrong. She should've been able to stop the events from unfolding.

The one boy who was on his knees let out an uncontrolled sob; streams of tears ran down his cheeks. It was obvious he was highly affected by the death, she would even dare to say the most affected. Beside that boy were two other gladers-both Builders. It just so happened that Will had been good friends with Aaron.

She wondered how anyone felt compassion for that asshole.

The boy on his knees sniffled and rested his hand on Will's arm. "Can I say something," he asked, looking up at Evony in despair. She silently nodded, waiting for him to speak.

She never actually heard what he said; her thoughts were too focused on what could've caused three people to take their lives. All in four days that was. Her eyes trailed Will's small frame when her attention drew to underneath his wrist. At first it didn't look like anything more than some red lines-probably blood-but the more she studied it she was able to make out the two letters that were written.

CK

Letters-blood stained letters that were engraved into Will's wrist. They couldn't have been accidental; there was no way.

By the time Evony was back to being aware of her surroundings, the boys around her had already started filling up the empty space in the hole with dirt. Newt was helping to comfort the one boy while Aaron and the other builder shoveled the dirt to fill the gap.

She had tried not to pay much attention to Aaron, seeing as he was just like her in this situation-remorsing over a fallen friend. However, she could see in his eyes the way he knew they weren't supposed to be doing this. How they were going behind their leaders back to host this try-hard funeral. He was always someone who stuck to the rules-when they benefited himself, of course. She was starting to become worried he would tell them after this whole thing was done.

Alby wouldn't be happy if he found out both of his second-in-commands went directly against his orders. Evony could see how Aaron could benefit from tattle-telling. He would be praised by their leader for establishing the rules, while she would be on the receiving side of the punishment.

Rules were stupid-that's what she decided.

Once the hole was filled to the brim with dirt and was packed securely together the five of them dispersed through the woods. The two builders stayed at the grave, Aaron took off somewhere to the left, and Evony dragged Newt over to declare what she saw.

"His wrist," she informed, "did you see his wrist?"

Newts eyebrows furrowed; a questionable Look took over his expression as he peered at her with heavy eyes. "No, why the bloody hell would I look at his wrist?"

"There were letters. Letters that looked like they had been carved into the skin," she explained further. Her voice was becoming more weary; she saw the shift in Newt's expression.

"You think Will carved into his own skin?"

"Maybe," Evony sighed, she looked back to where he was just buried, "It was the letters CK, I don't know why he would do that."

The blonde took a moment to think, she could tell by the way he ran his hand over his mouth-something he did when he was lost in thought. "He could've been harming himself beforehand. That's what I did when-" his voice got low to the point where it stopped. Newt's eyes squeezed shut for a moment; Evony knew he was reliving past memories.

She came towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She felt him embrace her for a moment before he pulled away, his face set back to its normal expression like nothing ever happened.

"Hey, Newt," she gave a small smile, "I'm so proud of you, okay-"

"Just tell me what you're thinking," he interjected, his face set with a solid expression. Evony glanced down at their feet for a second then proceeded to tell him her theory. After two years of being his friend she had learned quite a few things about him, one of those being to give him space when he needed it. Newt wasn't once to openly talk about his emotions, in fact, he would rather help other people with theirs.

She nodded, "I was thinking we need to check the other bodies; see if there's a pattern."

"One of those bodies is already six feet in the ground," Newt professed, crossing his arms.

Evony's face remained calm, "I'll dig it up."

"At least check the other boy's wrist first," Newt commanded, "Even then, I'm not going to be able to help you; I promised Alby I would help him with box recommendations."

She let out a frustrated sigh, running a tired hand through her hair. The past four days had been a complete mess; all she wanted was a break, but it didn't seem like that was coming anytime soon.

Evony went to propose another idea to her friend when the sounds of cracking sticks interrupted her. She turned around to see Aaron marching towards them, a smug smile on his face. "Here's the two rulebreakers," he exclaimed, "honestly surprised it's just you guys; I would've thought your brown headed puppy would be with you also."

"Will you slim it," Evony scoffed, "We just had a funeral for your friend, show some respect."

The builder only rolled his eyes, "Eh, friend. That's a loose term. Me and Will only talked because of a mutual connection we had."

Evony and Newt glanced at each other, both of them gave off the same expression-annoyance. She glared back at Aaron, raising her eyebrows to mock back the expression he was giving her. His hand then placed on Newt's shoulder which was immediately pushed off. "Don't touch me," the blonde murmured, and the builder raised his arms in defense.

"If you didn't care then why were you so adamant on showing up," Evony questioned, "That doesn't seem like something a loose friend would do."

"Because I needed a way to see what shady shit was going on without getting in trouble for leaving my post," he replied blankly, "Turns out my thoughts were right. You two are going against Albys orders."

Both Evony and Newt took a second to digest his words. He was going to tell on them-she knew it.

"What do you think Alby will do about this?" Aaron started, the glimmer in his eye was devilish, mischievous. "When he finds out you're skipping your work to do something he explicitly told you not to do."

Newt spoke up, "He won't do anything, not if you don't tell him."

"And why wouldn't I tell him?"

This was when Evony took her chance to step in and use past experiences to her advantage. "Because if you do I'll tell him about all the times you hurt another Glader."

"You wouldn't."

"She would," the blonde chimed in.

Evony faked a smile, "I would, and what do you think Alby will think about that? About you breaking one of the three main rules."

Aaron stayed in silence; she heard Newt snicker from beside her.

"Actually," she drawled out, "Unless you want to have a one-on-one talk with Alby about your behavior later, you're going to help me with some other shady shit I have planned."

She was met with silence again; now she knew her plan would work. Evony glanced down at her wrist, at her watch that had the numbers to tell her the time. 2:38 The runners wouldn't be back yet, but that didn't mean there was a chance one of them took an off day.

"Newt," she addressed her friend, "Do you know if any of the runners stayed back today?"

"I think Max did," he replied quickly. She could tell he knew the plan she was forming in her brain.

The Builder was looking between the two of them, his eyes searching for answers from the friends. "Wait, why him?"

Evony refused to answer, only leaving him with a cliffhanger of words. Perhaps if there were three people digging the job would be done faster, and that way she wouldn't be alone with Aaron. "Guess you'll have to wait and see."

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"I already hate this."

Evony huffed as she forced Max to walk into the forest. "Be helpful, this one time."

A grunt left his lips, but complied and let her lead him through the woods. She had found him while he was taking a nap and had decided against her better judgment to wake him up. Obviously he hadn't been pleased to hear that he was wanted for physical work on his off day, but Evony had managed to convince him.

"This one time includes hanging out with Aaron. You know, the person I get along with the least with," he said with an exasperated voice. One of his hands whacked her in the shoulder to which she shot back a glare.

At one point Max had suddenly stopped, crossing his arms and refusing to go on. Evony had tugged on his shirt and kicked at his feet to keep him moving to the destination. Her friend had simply responded with "you're bossy".

When they arrived in the dead-heads the two found Newt and Aaron waiting for them. At the first sign of their figures the blonde had waved goodbye, probably thankful to be away from the builder. She could also see the tension that appeared on both the boys' faces when their eyes made contact. Whether they wanted to deny it or not, the two had a history of disagreements and arguments.

Aaron looked Max up and down, sizing the boy up, "Why does it have to be him?"

"I'm not happy about this either, guys," Evony claimed, trying her best to restore peace between the two. Both of their expressions didn't calm though, instead she saw clenched jaws and twitching eyes.

This could possibly end very badly.

She let them stare each-other down until it became unbearable-the unbearableness started in only a few seconds. "Look, neither of you have to talk; just let me check one thing and we'll get started."

Quickly, she rushed over through the headstones towards where one of the gladers was laying covered in a tarp. Originally Alby had just wanted her and Newt to put them in the maze overnight, that way they would be gone and forgotten without disturbing any pattern in the Glade. Both the second-in-commands agreed that was stupid, and instead wrapped the fallen gladers each in a tarp and hid the near the back of the woods.

Evony slowly unraveled the tarp, its rough surface feeling tough against her hand. In a way she felt like she was preparing herself for what she was about to see. As if she was just witnessing the start to the crazy puzzle she would soon have to put together.

Her finger gently grasped the boy's wrist, turning it over in suspense. At first she missed it, because it was lower than where Wills had been, but it was there. A small ED was written-carved-around the same spot.

The thumps of her heart started to increase the longer she stared at the sight. Her theory about something causing the suicides was starting to seem more and more likely; she didn't know where that left her unguided thoughts standing.

Evony walked back over to the boys with a heavy look of guilt, they were both standing in silence while holding on to the shovels. "Newt told you what we're doing?" she asked Aaron. He nodded and pressed his tool Into the ground with his foot. Neither of the boys-or herself-looked like they wanted to do what she was asking. Curiosity had always been one of her strongest traits-whether that was in a good or bad way-there was no way she wasn't going to investigate every piece of evidence she possibly had.

Because if she wasn't going to do it, who was?

The three dug for at least an hour.

By the end of the time they had managed to uncover just enough of the body for her to be able to check for the possible letters. In the back of her mind there was a voice nagging her, telling her that doing this would only lead to an unchangeable end, but despite that feeling, she did it anyway.

The boys watched over her shoulders as she brushed away the bit of dirt that was covering Jake's wrist. Just like she thought there were two more blood carved letters in the same spot as the other two Gladers had been.

WI

Now she had a total of six letters, and Evony was racking her brain to figure out how they could fit together. It came to her quickly, after all it was a pretty common word.

"Evony, what is it?" Max asked, worried clear in his voice, "You look like you saw Aaron do something nice for once."

"Shut up, stick," the builder shot back in defense.

She couldn't even laugh at his joke; every part of her body had froze with the realization that the suicides were connected. They were connected, and she felt with everything in her that there was a pattern that they had missed. One that she had missed.

WICKED, she thought to herself. What did that mean?

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MAE's FUN NOTES
this chapter is short bc I
decided to split it and so the
next chapter will be even
shorter ☝️ wow ik

also evony Aaron and max
are actually the most random
trio but who cares

ALSO ALSO next chapter is just
Thomas and evony bc I haven't
wrote them together in a while 😁