"Oh, I wish that you hadn't pulled the trigger
Shot me down with my bitter heart
My blood is getting thicker
You shot me down, you shot me down"

The Originals were by the swamp in the deadheads as they talked about their day.  Most of it was Minho complaining about another fail day of finding nothing in the maze. Clara stood a bit in the swamp, her ankles in the water as she threw small rocks at nearby trees.

Newt was sitting against a tree as he played with his fingers, chuckling at something Minho said.  Minho then got up, noticing Clara's back was turned to them.  He smiled to Newt and put a finger to his lips, indicating for his friend to be quiet.

Minho carefully walked closer to her and when he was close enough he shoved her, but sadly for him she grabbed his wrist.

"Oh shit!"  Minho exclaimed as he fell in right after her.  Newt was laughing his ass off as he watched the scene unfold, standing up.

Clara resurfaced as she gasped, her now wet hair all over her face as she stood dripping wet and moved her hair away from her eyes.  Minho jumped out of the water as he coughed.

"Ah, Dammit."  He groaned as he looked at himself.

"Now that was amazing."  Newt pointed between the two, smiling.

"I can't believe you pulled me."  Minho looked to her then touched his now ruined hair.

"If I'm going down, you're coming with me!"  She smiled wickedly and jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around him and her legs around his waist.

"Wait-no!"  Minho scrambled before the two fell back in the water. The two basically wrestled in the water before Minho picked her up and held her above his head.

"Minho, put me down!" Clara laughed.

"Ok." Minho threw her, letting her splash in the water. She easily popped up and shoved water at him as he laughed.

"Come on. You two need to get that gross water off of you." Newt said, walking to the edge of the swamp.

"Help me out." Clara grinned as she reached out for Newt.

"Oh, no. I know your games Clara." Newt said seriously as he took a step back.

"I'm not going to do anything Newt. I seriously can't get out. It's deep." She told him softly and Newt sighed before nodding. He walked closer and grabbed her hand then her arm with his other hand and pulled her.

"You better not-"

And in went Newt.

"I can't believe you actually fell for that." Minho shook his head as he climbed out of the water.

"This is what I get for being nice." Newt groaned and slapped the water then splashed some at Clara when he heard her giggling.

~~~

"Why isn't Clara here?"  Leo asked as him, Alby, Minho, Newt and Nick were in the map room. 

"Because it's about her."  Alby said as he held a small piece of paper in his hand.

"What do you mean?"  Nick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This came up in the box today with the new greenie."  Alby unfolded the piece of paper.

"What does it say?"  Newt asked.

Alby looked down at the paper, preparing to read it once again.  He's been reading it for hours, wondering what to do with it, how he should take this.

"Sacrifice Clara to the maze and you all will be free."  Alby read and the others looked at one another with wide eyes.

"Wh-What?"  Leo took the piece of paper from his hand, not believing him.  He couldn't believe it.  It was true.

"The creators are telling us to sacrifice her?"  Minho asked as his arms were crossed against his chest.

"Yeah."  Alby nodded, looking down.

"This is crazy."  Nick breathed out as he started to pace in his spot, shaking his head.  "What if we don't do it?"  He asked, looking to Alby.

"You want to kill her??"  Leo exclaimed, looking at Nick.

"That's not what I'm saying!"

"Everyone calm down."  Alby told them and took a deep breath.  "We need to hold a gathering." 

"Clara needs to know about this."  Nick gave Alby a look.

"I'll tell her."  Minho jumped in.

"Are we seriously going to take a vote to see if we should sacrifice her?"  Leo gave Alby a shocking look.

"Get everyone in the gathering in twenty minutes.  Nick, stay with Clara, she shouldn't be in there."  Alby instructed as Nick scoffed at him.

"I'll go tell her about it real quick."  Minho said as he looked to Newt, his friend looking back at him.  Nick was already heading out, his fists clenched at his sides before he stopped and looked at everyone.

"Oh, and by the way.  My vote is no."  He hissed before leaving, Minho following after, giving Newt one last look.

"What are you building?"  Clara asked as she sat cross-legged on the grass, looking up to Gally.

"Just some stuff."  Gally smiled.

"Wow...that tells me so much."  Clara smiled widely.

"I know.  I'm so great with the smallest details."  Gally held his hand to his heart dramatically.

"Clara."  Minho's voice sounded through the two glader's ears.

"Hey, Minho."  Clara stood up as Gally hammered away.  Minho held the piece of paper towards her as she grabbed it reluctantly.

"What is this?"  She asked and Gally stopped what he was doing and looked over.

"It came up today with the greenie."  Minho looked at her with an unread expression.

She read it slowly while Gally made his way over and looked at it as well before looking at Minho.

"What the shuck is this?"  He asked, Minho didn't respond.

"There's going to be a gathering, Nick is going to stay out here with Clara."  Minho said, mostly to Gally.

"Wait.  Wait.  She's not going to be part of this?  What?!"  Gally furrowed his eyebrows as his head snapped from Minho to Clara.

"Am I going to die?"  Clara's voice cracked as she looked to Minho then to Gally.  Both of the boys hearts broke at that.  Minho didn't say anything and Gally pulled her into a tight hug.

"No.  You're not.  You're going to be fine...I promise."  Gally sighed and ran his fingers through her hair, trying to comfort her.

"The gathering is going to start in a bit."  Minho told Gally.  Gally let go of Clara and gave her a reassuring smile before heading off.  Clara looked up to Minho, him looking back at her.

"You're not falling for this right?  They won't let you all out if you do this."  Clara spoke.  Minho parted his lips before answering.

"Of course not."  He gave her a small smile and she smiled a bit back. 

Minho saw Nick heading over and made his way to the gathering, his eyes looking ahead of him then to the grassy field at his feet.  Minho already knew what his vote was going to be and for poor Clara, it was a yes.

Minutes after the gathering started everyone was talking at once.  Alby quickly quieting them down as he already knew this meeting was going to be hell.

"You can't be serious.  Clara has been here since day one and you want to sacrifice her?!"  Gally stood in the middle as he looked from Alby to the rest of the gladers.

"This shouldn't even be a vote.  No way we are killing her.  You can't believe the creators.  After what they've done to George and Stephen.  She's family."  Gally almost shouted.

"But what if it's a way out.  One sacrifice for all of us to be free."  A glader spoke up.

"I'm going to beat your ass!"  Gally whirled around to that glader and more chaos started. 

"You-You guys can't be serious of actually killing her, right?"  Leo looked at them.

It seemed like more gladers were onboard of sacrificing her then the ones who didn't.  Gally looked over to Newt, giving him a pleading look as voting already started.

"Newt?" 

"Gally-I-She...this could be our way out."  He looked at him sadly.

"She's your friend! She trusted you!"  Gally yelled at him, not believing what he was hearing.

The meeting only lasted 17 minutes.  The ones who voted No were Gally, Leo, Nick, Hank, Clint, and two more gladers...everyone else voted Yes.

Nick sat with Clara in front of George and Stephen's graves. He watched her place the seven blue Ipomoea flowers down on them. He chewed his lip nervously. He had no idea what was happening in that gathering but something told him it was nothing good.

"Clara, I wanted to thank you." He looked over at her, Clara slowly moving her head, looking back at him with her big brown eyes.

"For what?" She asked, smiling slightly.

"Everything...especially after George." He nodded slowly.

"Of course, you're family." She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him.

Nick hugged her back just as tight, tears pricking in his eyes as he kept his cries in. He just knew. He knew that this was going to be the last time he gets to hug her and hear her voice. The last time he would see her smile.

Once they pulled away they headed out of the deadheads and made their way through the glade. Clara was too busy talking to Nick and looking over at the open door that she didn't even notice the group coming their way. Nicks' breath caught in his throat as his mouth hung open slightly. He felt a tear escape from his eye that fell to the ground. Nick looked to Clara and she looked at him with worry.

"Nick?"

He quickly grabbed her hands, looking down at them as he held them tight then looked back into her eyes, his mouth still hung open slightly as he was breathing out.

"I just wanted you to know that I voted No."

Clara's face suddenly turned to realization. Her fate was made. Before she could even let go of Nick, a pair of arms wrapped around her and tore her away from Nick.

"NO!  NO!"  Clara screamed out with fright.

"Clar." Nick choked out as his hands immediately flew to his mouth as more tears fell from his face.

Clara fought back Ben that was pulling her towards the open doors. She screamed and flipped her head back, hitting him square in the face before stabbing her elbow in his stomach, making him let go and hunch over in pain.

She made a run for it in the opposite direction but she didn't even get ten steps in before she was tackled to the ground by Alby. She kicked and fought back, but he was much stronger then she was.

"YOU CANT DO THIS!" She shouted as Alby had a steel grip on her.

"YOU CANT TRUST THEM! THEY WONT LET YOU GO!" Clara screamed in horror, tears already streaming down her face.

"Alby!" Gally yelled as he ran over, trying to get to his best friend. However, Ben made a comeback and grabbed him. Another glader, running over and helping, making sure Gally couldn't move.

"STOP!" Gally pleaded.

The doors already started to close. Alby continued to drag Clara while Ben and the other glader restrained Gally who was yelling for them to stop this. Clara looked from Nick's crying form to Leo trying to comfort him. Then to the other gladers who seemed like they didn't care.

Clara took in all of their expressions. Especially Minho and Newt. They looked sad, disturbed even. But she knew. She knew they voted Yes. They were both part of getting her killed.

"Alby, please. They won't let you out!  Please don't do this.  Don't do this to me!"  Clara looked at him with distraught, he simply ignored her. The doors closing more as her frightful screams filled the glade. Then Alby pushed her in the maze like nothing. Right before the walls slammed shut, Clara continued to scream.

Then it was silent...

Gally breathed out as he was free from the two gladers grip. He fell to his knees as his eyes never left the closed doors in front of him. A few other gladers had tears running down their face as they just stood there, not knowing what to do next. They just killed someone innocent.

~~~

Clara ran for her life during that night in the maze. She breathed out heavily as she looked behind her slightly as she ran. The griever screeching behind her. She did everything she could. But with the maze changing, and the griever hot on her tail. She didn't stand a chance. That's when the pain came.

The griever dragged its claw right down her back, hot-screeching pain filling through her body as Clara screamed for her life. But she kept going...she kept fighting.

The griever hissed again, but this time it jumped in front of her and dragged its claw down her right arm. Then once again. Only this time it was down the right side of her face, all the way down to her chest.

Clara fell down as she dragged herself. She had to keep going. She had to keep fighting, she felt her own blood pool around her as she reached out, pulling herself. The griever watched her and hissed yet again before scrambling away.

Clara gasped as she kept going, not stopping. But she wanted the pain to stop. The pain was so excruciating. She wanted it to stop. Dear, God. Make it stop.  She remembered that day George died.  She could see it in a blink of an eye

They're going to kill you
All of them

It wasn't the creators.  George meant the gladers.  Then the conversation she had with Stephen.  He tried to warn her.  He did, he truly did.  But she kept pulling herself, she pulled herself and let out a battle cry.  She could hear Stephen...she could hear his voice.

You never quit. You keep fighting.

Clara dragged herself one more time, clenching her teeth before she laid where she was at. The warm blood sticking to her like honey and seeping into her clothes like a sponge.

"For how long?" She whispered out loud as her vision started to become blurry. She looked ahead of her as her head was resting slightly on her left arm. A pair of feet making their way towards her before they crouched down in front of her. Stephen, smiling down at her and speaking once again. 

Until you can't.

Clara's breath caught in her throat once again and Stephen's figure soon became blurry as a bright white light shinned in front of her, replacing Stephen's form.  It wasn't Heavens light though.  It was something else.  She saw people with white coats run her way as they yelled something.  But she couldn't hear them clearly.  It was all blurry.

"Please...kill me."  Clara begged from the pain.  The last thing she saw was a man with a rat like face reaching out towards her.  Then everything went black. 

**End of Part 1**