CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
• delaying the inevitable •

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WITH THE FEELING that something was wrong, Evony shot out of bed, activating her pounding headache. One hand went to her head while the other one helped to push herself off the mattress. An underlying sense of guilt was eating away at her stomach, consuming her, except she didn't know where it had come from.

The answer came to her quicker than she would've thought, and it came in the form of a boy.

Thomas.

She had just gotten herself off of the bed when the door to her hut flew open with an extravagant amount of force. In rushed Thomas, who, in his startled state, panically ran over to her and wrapped her in his arms.

Evony ignored her headache-which had at first taken up the majority of her thoughts-and focused her attention on the boy that was clinging onto her.

His arms made their way completely around her back as his head was tucked into the crook of her shoulder. Small sniffles sounded from him, and Evony began to rub up and down his back to try to help.

"Thomas?" she said softly, her lips resting barely an inch away from his ear. He didn't answer, only responding by moving one of his hands to her head. She soon felt the soothing motion of his fingers gliding through her hair.

It wasn't long that they stayed like that, because Evony was concerned about what was making Thomas cry, so she pulled them apart and forced him to look at her. They still found a way to remain close, though. The boy's hands were now resting at her jaw, and hers were placed loosely on his arms.

"You're alive," he mumbled, running a thumb along her cheek. A weak smile of relief made its way into his lips.

Evony remained with unanswered questions, but she knew she could get them later; it was more important to make sure he was okay first. "Yes, I'm alive. I'm right here," she paused, "Is everything okay?"

His eyes dropped to the floor as he shook his head slowly, "You died," he explained, his voice shaky, "I watched you die."

"Thomas-"

"It was my fault, Evs. You were in pain and I just stood there and watched."

Evony grabbed onto his hands and pulled them away from her face, resting them down in between their chests. "I'm right here," she reassured, but Thomas still didn't seem convinced.

"No-no, you're not!" He tried to push away from her but Evony pulled him back. There was a faint redness in his eyes that she was able to make out in the darkness.

"Thomas, I'm okay. Nothing happened; I'm not hurt," she repeated over again. Taking their intertwined hands she led them to the bed. She lifted them up in the air, rubbing one thumb over his knuckles, "See," she motioned to their hands. Thomas visually relaxed from next to her.

"I'm- I'm sorry," he said, guilt making its way into his face. Evony didn't need to say anything, so she pulled him back into a hug. "It felt so real."

"It wasn't. It was just a n-" but as she started to say the word something clicked inside her brain. Suddenly the situation they were in was a lot more urgent; now she needed to know the details of what really happened.

"Thomas," she said, gaining his attention, "We have to tell Alby."

"What, no," he stood back up from the bed, this time letting go of her hands, "Why tell him?"

Just then, four more people rushed into her hut. Newt and Alec in the front followed by Minho and Max who were rushing quickly after them.

"What's going on?" Max asked, looking between her and Thomas' frazzled faces, "We heard screams."

Thomas stifled next to her, "You followed me."

"Well, actually first we lost you," Minho cut in, "But yeah."

Newt shot the runner a glare, "Of course we followed you, Tommy. Nobody gets up and screams like that for no reason."

The room went silent after that, the five of them waiting for Thomas to get on with explaining what happened to trigger such a strong reaction. It wasn't until Alec pushed out from behind the three taller boys did anyone make a sound.

"You had it too," he asked. Evony knew he was referring to the nightmares, but Thomas didn't. She had never filled him in on all the details of the chaos happening in the glade, the slicers dreams included. Thomas looked back at her with questioning eyes, and she gave a slight nod in return.

"Uh- yeah."

"Who was it?" It was Newt who spoke this time, his voice taking a liking to the leadership tone he put on when instructing the Gladers.

Both Minho and Max were lost as well, "Who was what?" the latter asked.

Newt put his hands out to gesture to them to stay quiet. "Who died, Tommy? In your dream."

It was clear Thomas didn't want to go back to those memories, as they felt so real and all he wanted was to forget the possibility of her dying. Evony decided to step up, clearing her voice and announcing in a solemn way that he had seen her meet her end. "It was me."

Newt and Alec shared a look, both of their faces going white.

Minho placed a hand on both Max's and Thomas' shoulders, "Okay, can someone explain to us less knowledgeable people what's going on before I lose my mind trying to read your facial expressions."

"Thomas and Alec," Evony explained, "The same thing is happening to them."

"These dreams," Newt tagged on, "They feel so real that they think they killed someone. Or in this case, it's me and Evy."

"But I would never kill you," Thomas claimed.

Evony grabbed the hand by his side and squeezed it three times, "I know, and Alec would never want to hurt Newt."

The room went silent again, the pairs migrating closer to each other in either suspicion or comfort. Talk about death was never an easy topic, it was usually tried to be avoided in the Glade unless it was for telling the greenies the risk of going into the maze. So, all the sudden conversation about the two second-in commands- was coming as a shock, and none of the six knew what to do or what it meant.

Evony broke the prolonged quietness, "We need to get Alby and the rest of the gladers who were friends with Jake, Eddie and Will, and host a meeting."

Thomas squeezed her hand back, "What's that going to do."

"I don't know," she replied unsurly, "but if we don't get an answer soon then I have a feeling something terrible is going to happen."

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They managed to collect over twenty Gladers to participate during the meeting. All of the Keepers, plus anyone who were friends or had dealt with the fallen Gladers. Alby had still been indecisive when it came to the information they told him-about how now it wasn't only Alec who was experiencing these real life hallucinations.

Due to the fact that nobody was supposed to work tomorrow since it was a dedicated off-day, at least half of the Glade population had gotten wasted.

Evony included.

The ones were easy to spot out, as anyone who was attending the meeting had to have been woken up from their sleep. They looked overly tired, and most had a hand pressed up against their head to try to soothe their headache. She even watched a boy puke outside before they entered the hut.

Evony was currently situated next to Thomas, the two sitting down on one of the handcrafted benches the builders had made for the hut. She could tell the boy was still shaken up, so she tried to comfort him by placing a hand over his knee.

Thomas gave a thankful smile back before letting his eyes fall back down to the floor.

"Can I have everyone's attention," Alby called out; the twenty some boys raised their heads to face their leader. Evony did the same, except her gaze kept drifting over to the brunet to make sure he was okay.

He actually seemed quite calm; she was proud of him for staying so strong.

Their leader began to speak, pointing at each of the people as he spoke. "This gathering has been initiated by our two second in command, Evony and Newt. These two shanks feel the need to bring us together regarding the deaths of Eddie, Jake, and Will. Before anybody speaks, I would like the individuals who were close with one of those Gladers to step forward."

A total of about ten boys stepped out from the back of the crowd and made their way to the front. Included in this group was none other than both Aaron and Gally; she wasn't sure how to feel about that at the moment. She could only hope neither of them made for complications while she and her friends tried to figure out what was going on.

"Good, now I don't care what happens next, so Evony; Newt, you two take over." He waved them to the front while he stepped to the corner of the room. The second in command gave each other a brief glance, then stood up from the boys they were sitting next to.

Evony cleared her throat, once again pushing past the throbbing headache she was currently experiencing. "Uh- I'll start off by saying sorry that we had to wake all of you up. I know it's the middle of the night and-"

"Just get on with it," someone yelled from the muster of boys.

She didn't let their comment phase her; after two years she had learned to ignore their boyish comments. "And-," she continued, "you all are probably tired from last night, so I promise to keep this meeting quick."

From across the room Minho shot her a seal of approval, looking to her left she could also see how Max had taken a seat next to Thomas and was briefly patting his shoulder for attempted comfort.

Evony looked to Newt, and he carried on from where she left off. "We have reason to think that the suicides were no accidents."

Chatter started amongst the gladers.

"There's been signs that show the deaths are linked and could possibly-"

"You sure they weren't just successful attempts rather than failed ones?" a boy's voice cut through the ruckus. She saw Newt attempt to answer back, but the male beat him to it. "I mean if anybody would know the difference it would be you, right Newt?"

More shouting erupted, and Evony saw the blonde freeze for a split second. That's all it took for the little flame in her to ignite.

She charged over to where the voice of the boy was coming from. At the sound of her raised voice all the other Gladers who weren't the one speaking moved away from the boy, making him the easy target. "Come here."

The male raised his hands in a mocking fashion, stepping towards her with lanky movements. He was someone with a skinnier build, but somehow still so much taller than most of the others. His jet black hair was shaved to a buzz and he was wearing short pants and a tank top that had obviously been cut from a shirt. As he approached her he smirked with a tease, shooting a glance at Newt to trigger her some more. Evony only used her anger to grip on the collar of the boy's shirt and drag him across the middle of the room.

His hands clawed at his throat from where the shirt was short circuiting his breathing, but she didn't care, and apparently neither did many of the other boys, seeing as they were doing nothing to stop her. Alby was the only one yelling at her to slim-it, but she knew she could take it up with him later if she had too. After all, she could practically do anything and they would keep her around.

Because some boys still believed that if they never got out of this place she would need to be used for reproduction.

Like she would want to have children with them anyway.

Once the boy was placed to stand in the dead center of the room, Evony released his collar and let him stagger his breaths for a second before she spoke. "Your name's Marshall, right?"

The boy looked at her with a scowl.

"And you're a slicer, correct?"

Marshall kept his face in a frown but reluctantly nodded.

Evony directed her stare to only him, "Which one of them were you close with?" she asked-rather harshly-referring back to the three fallen Gladers. The slicer glanced around the room for help, but it seemed that nobody was going to attempt to stop the events from unfolding. She noticed him doing this, but she didn't let her eyes strain from anywhere but his own.

Finally he gave up, "Yes, princess. I'm a slicer, and I was very close to Eddie who happened to work with me."

She ignored the nickname, "Right, so did you by any chance notice anything wrong with Eddie the past week or so before he-as you would put it-completed a successful attempt."

The room fell into a silence, and she took this time to examine the expressions written on the other boys' faces. She saw mostly proud smiles radiating off of her friends and several other gladers who seemed to be impressed by her straightforwardness. Evony also caught Thomas' gaze for a split second long enough to see him shoot her a thumbs followed with a grin. That single action alone gave her enough confidence to continue on with her interrogation.

She turned back to face Marshall.

"I can only remember him telling me these stories," he explained, "I think they were to make me scared or something; kept saying he was going to kill me."

"Kill you or had already killed you," Newt implored, his blunt expression returning back to his normal facade. That was one thing she admired about her friend, he never let anything affect him too deeply, and if it did, he never let it show.

She only wished she could do that, but unlucky her anytime something remotely bad or out of place happened her heart would start to race and her palms would begin to sweat. It was almost always clear when she didn't feel good, and she hated that she couldn't hide her emotions as well as the rest of them.

Marshall paused, "It might have been killed or not killed; doesn't matter. Point is, he said some weird shit that not even I could understand."

Evony and Newt both made eye contact with Thomas and Alec who were sitting on the benches. Both of the boy's eyes were wide with concern at the exchanges being made between them and Marshall.

"So if he was saying he had killed you," Evony addressed, she was starting to put together a pattern and she had only spoken to one out of the twenty boys, "did he seem calm about it or more in a panic like state?"

"I'm sorry, what does this have to do with the deaths?" Alby questioned. Everyone looked over to the now loudest voice in the room.

Minho crossed his arms tightly, "Admiral, you're going to have to shut your hole and listen or else you're about to lose two of the Glades best members."

A faint smile lifted on Evonys lips at his statement; the Keeper could go on and on about how much he found Thomas annoying or how he found Alec different, but hearing him say they were important just confirmed her suspicion that he really did care about them.

Alby started to protest, but was cut off by another Glader slipping out from the far back of the crowd. Evony recognized him immediately as the boy who had confronted her about hosting a funeral for Jake. The bricknick still had fiery red hair and freckles, except this time he was a lot more stable then the last time she saw him.

"Jake said he saw me die, and it wasn't calm," he said assertively, "The first time it happened he said he had sprinted all the way from his hammock to make sure I was alive."

She swore her heart stopped for a second.

Thomas. Alec.

Then another Glader stepped forward, the boy who had been bent over crying at Will's funeral. He ran a hand over the stubble on his chin, tears fighting the urge to not leak from his eyes. "The same thing happened with Will."

Finally Marshall answered the question, repeating the same thing as the boys, "Eddie was scared."

The realization was overwhelming, and she had to fight against her better judgment to not crumple on the floor right there and then. If everything they were saying was true, and the three Gladers experienced the same type of nightmares as Alec and Thomas, then that meant...

She couldn't even begin to fathom what that meant.

Evony swallowed the lump in her throat, daring to turn to look at the blonde next to her. Their eyes met and it was clear there was only one emotion radiating off the two of them: fear. Complete and utter fear.

"Did anyone of them seem sad; depressed even?" Evony quickly asked, she wasn't ready to accept the meaning of everything that's happening. "Was there anything that happened that could've made them want to.."

She couldn't finish her sentence, but there was no need for her too; everyone knew what words filled in the blank spots of her sentence.

The three boys then shook their heads. "Me and Will," one of them said, "We- we had told each other that we meant- that we meant a lot to each other the night before"-he looked down-"I don't know why he would commit the next morning; he had seemed so happy. At least to me he did."

Evony collected the information, but still she had put herself in a deep case of denial. She wasn't losing two people that meant a lot to her and her friends. No, she refused. But as the weight of the situation grew with the tension that filled the room, she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to prevent the inevitable. Now the lump in her throat had grown bigger, and she could feel how her heart was beginning to race faster.

"Hey, Evy you okay?" It was Frypan; he was pulling her out from the center of the room and back to where Thomas and Max were sitting. Hearing the words from Alby that the meeting was over, she nodded in agreement, watching as the confused Gladers left the room with frowns.

However, that's not what the other bunch of them were doing, because while some of the Gladers might not have cared enough to really think about what was going on, her and her friends were. Everything that was happening was starting to make sense. From Alec's nightmares to the random suicides that came out of nowhere. Now add Thomas in there and it was another added obstacle.

It was as Evony stood in front of her friends, watching their low faces as the group attempted to not make eye contact with eachother did she accept that things were going to be different from now on. At first Alec's nightmares had been something to be cautious over. Something to keep an eye on. Now there was a very high possibility that both him and Thomas were going to die.

Everyone who had the nightmares had died, so why would her two friends be any different.

The group dispersed after agreeing that they should try to get a few hours of sleep before daybreak. It was pointless, really; nobody was going to actually manage to shut their eyes for a period of time. Not after all that they had learned. Evony wondered if she was ever going to be able to sleep again. Knowing Thomas was at risk of death made her more unsettled than ever. All she wanted to do now was to protect him; she didn't care if that meant being with him at all times or losing quality rest.

As everyone left to go to the hammocks, Evony caught Thomas' wrist, making him turn around with hasty movements.

She was surprised when Thomas spoke first, not thinking that he would be ready to accept his fate anymore than she was able to. Then again, maybe that was her emotions getting the best of her.

"So, guess I'm going to die."

Evony looked up to meet his gaze. In some way his eyes were almost darker, like the normal honey shade had been sucked out and replaced by a lump of charcoal.

She shook her head, "No, no you're not."

"I know you listened to everything they said in there, Evs," his voice had raised from the first statement he spoke, "All three of those Gladers committed suicide after having the same nightmare as I had."

"But maybe-" Her words latched in her throat, the tears prickling in her eyes not making it any easier to breathe.

Thomas stepped forward, his eyes softening as he heard how her breaths were quickening in pace. "Hey, hey," he consoled, reaching his hands up to her face and wiping away a tear, "It's going to be okay."

"No-"

"Evony, look at me," he said softly, and she lifted her head to meet his eye, "everything will work out; maybe my death will help you figure out what's going on. Help you stop any other Gladers who might be going through the same thing."

She just kept mumbling 'no' over and over again. She wasn't ready to lose him, not now; not ever. It had only been around five months since he had arrived in the Glade; that wasn't nearly enough time for her to have spent with him. There was so much more she wanted to do with him. So many more memories she wanted to make.

Thomas couldn't die. If he died then she might as well have been gone too. Five months felt like such a short time, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to live without him. He was like a lifeline to her, somebody to pull her spirits up and remind her that there was still hope.

"You don't understand," Evony mumbled.

Thomas cut her next sentence off, "No, I do. I would feel the same if this was switched. I wouldn't think I'd be able to live without you."

"I'm sorry-"

She saw the confusion in his eyes. "Sorry?" he repeated, "Evs, you have nothing to be sorry for; this isn't your fault."

"I know, I just-"

With the failure of words her mouth was able to produce, the boy stepped forward and wrapped his arms over her shoulders. His warmth instantly overtook her, providing a level of comfort only he was able to make. Her own arms then curled around his waist, clutching the fabric of his shirt to pull him closer.

"It's going to be okay," he assured again, "let's just pretend for now that everything's okay; there's no reason to stress."

Evony nodded, and while it wasn't what either of them wanted to hear, they both knew that was as close as they were going to get to a semi-okay solution.

After all, now they were simply delaying the inevitable.

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MAE's FUN NOTES
cue Thomas' and Evony's
character development

also if it's not obvious Evony
has severe anxiety related to
fear of the unknown and change.
she also feels guilt for everything
even if it wasn't her fault which
causes her to over apologize

and for the nightmares think of
it as shifting to a reality just to
watch someone you love die
and then carrying the trauma
back with you when you wake up.

Hope y'all enjoyed!!!!

(also the not okay movie is almost
out and 🤭🤭🙌)