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My hand clutches to his. My body shakes uncontrollably at the thought of a wind blowing us down from the tall wall. But what does it matter?

The sun is on its way down and the doors will close any minute now. I told Theo that we should have gone deeper into the maze but he said that he didn't want to spend his last minutes walking. He has a point.

I just pray that Chuck won't see us the next morning. If our bodies are still there by then.

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My hand grips the flowers even harder. I had taken the long way through the woods to pick them. There is only one spot in the whole Glade where you can find beautiful flowers like these and luckily for me, it is well hidden behind the trees in one of the contents and no one knows about it.

The once blue and white flowers have already slumped over and look more dead than the bodies under the ground in the graveyard. I glance over my shoulder a sixth time to make sure that no one is following me. It is early morning but every boy in the Glade is awake and doing their assigned duties.

After climbing down from the tower, I headed straight into the woods without any of the boys seeing me. I don't need to tell Jeff anything for him to know that he has to be ready for any patients without me. I never told him where I was going every morning but I never needed to as the boy had picked up my pattern of going to the woods every morning. I'm not sure if he knows what I am doing or if he simply doesn't care. He knows it is personal stuff and that is enough for him to take on the role of the main med jack every morning until I arrive back, never asking any questions.

I walk between the trees before slowing down when I see the first grave that marks the entrance of the Deadheads, our very own cemetery.

I walk past the wrecked graves that slowly have rotted away over the years before stopping by the most decent-looking one. My flowers from yesterday are still there, their white leaves turning brown. I shove them aside and place my new flowers on the muddy ground.

My gaze brushes over the name, engraved into the wooden plank that stands over the grave. Theo.

A smile slips over my lips as my gaze falls back to the flowers knowing that Theo would have hated me for mixing red and pink.

I never cry when I visit Theo, knowing that he would reserve me a place in hell if I shed any tears over him. He'd always told me to never cry, that my tears weren't worth anyone else. That's why I never cry thinking about the people who put us into the Glade. They don't deserve shit, least of all my tears.

I remain in my spot, kneeling by his grave in silence while letting the mud stain my knees until I hear a twig snap behind me. Within two seconds I've risen to my feet and grabbed my knife in the process before spinning around, tossing my weapon to the sound. The knife lands in a tree, not even an inch from Thomas's face. I watch as a few short chopped-off hair strands slowly drift to the ground.

Thomas yelps and almost drops the bucket in his hands. My intention was never to harm him. I am great with a knife and had control of the blade the moment I heard the twig snap behind me. But no matter who it would have been, he is sneaking up on me and the knife is just a warning to not do it again.

I march over to him, stopping in his face before pulling the knife out of the wood. "You needed a haircut anyway."

His lips part and his eyes widen while I watch his chest rise at a rapid pace.

"You just tried to kill me?" His eyes ping pong between my cold face and the shiny blade in my hand with his guard clearly up.

"Wrong," I say calmly. "If I would've wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have missed. I never miss." My words are more of a warning and threat than a statement.

"You almost cut off my nose." He huffs, still in a state of shock.

"Oh, don't be dramatic, Tommy," I say turning my back on him to head out of the forest. Thimas ruined the moment for me anyway and I have to get back to Jeff. "You were the one sneaking up on me. What are you doing out here anyway?" I ask over my shoulder as I flip my knife around my fingers, making it move rhythmically almost like it is dancing before I tug it into my holster.

"Uhm... I was getting the fertilizer." He holds up his shovel and I turn around fully to laugh at him. But my laughter scathes in my throat as my eyes fixate on something behind Thimas.

"Ben?" I ask. I instantly know that something is wrong. The boy is always happy or at least looks it. Even if he isn't smiling, his eyes or body language will always be lit up. The boy in front of me is everything but that. He stares furiously at Thimas, with his jaw clenched and muscles tightened. He draws harsh and enraged breaths without tearing his gaze from Thimas like he doesn't even hear my call out his name. Instead, I watch as his hands curl into fists and his breathing accelerates.

"Ben, are you okay?" I ask softly. His body trembles and his eyes remain in Thimas with flames growing behind them which immediately answers my question. "Somethings not right." I alert the brown-haired boy and take a harsh step forward to join up next to him. My fingers wrap around his lower arm to lead him away but Ben gets first. He jumps toward Thimas and I feel the boy leave my grasp.

Thomas lets out a pained yelp as the two land on the ground.

If the opponent was anyone else, I would have placed my knife between his eyes the second he jumped at Thomas but now he isn't anyone else. He is one of my closest friends and I can't just kill him.

Instead, I pick up Thomas's bucket before ramming it at Ben's head, hard enough for him to fall to the side but not hard enough to cause any major damage. This gives Thimas a chance to get back on his feet.

"Go!" I yell at him. A hint of hesitation flashes over his face and his eyes shift between me and Ben who's still on the ground. I push him toward the end of the tree line and yell at his stupidity to even consider staying. "Go!"

Two seconds later, Thomas is racing out of the woods leaving me with the other boy. Ben struggles to get back up and when he finally has risen to his feet his eyes are filled with even more rage than before.

"Ben, listen to me." I try, putting my arms in the air to show that I am unarmed and no threat to him. "It's me. Vanya."

I know it is a stupid move to try and calm him down instead of fighting back or at least running but I can't do that to him. I don't want to fight him.

He doesn't say a word before sprinting at me so fast I barely have any time to react. I make a hopeless attempt to reach for the bucket again but miss it by mere inches as my body is shoved backward. Ben lands on top of me but I am one step ahead and have already placed my feet to his stomach and I forcefully shove his body over mine, making him roll for several moments giving me an opportunity to stand up.

I force myself to run.

Before Ben has gotten back up, I am already heading out of the trees. But Ben is fast, and apparently even faster in the state he is currently in as he manages to catch up to me within only a few seconds.

I try to scream, but it catches in my throat turning into a strangled cry for help as my body is shoved to the ground. Ben's weight falls over me and I make an attempt to roll over before kicking Ben away from me. But pain doesn't seem to bother him as he quickly jumps over me again, pinning my arms to the sides of my face while his nails dig into my skin. I scream and kick violently as his hand lets go of my wrist, wrapping tightly around my throat instead.

My screams are muffled by his harsh grip. My hands travel over his face, hoping to make him stop.

Before the Gladers make their way over to us, my knee collides with Ben's crouch, hard enough to cause a slight reaction making him loosen his grip on me and move back a bit. I whisper a short 'sorry' before connecting a kick with his face and the boy falls back just as Newt and Gally kneel down next to him, pinning either of his arms to the sides of his face.

I hunch forward and grasp for breath as my fingers graze over the sore skin on my throat. Minho and Thomas join up next to me with either hand on my back as I cough.

I look up at Ben who is being held down by Newt and Gally. Blood pours from his nose where my foot kicked him and I instantly feel bad.

"What the hell happened?" Fry pan asks. His voice panicked and concerned.

"He just attacked us," I say in between my harsh gasps for breath.

"Are you okay?" Chuck asks as his eyes scan me for wounds.

I chuckle, holding up my hand to signal that he doesn't have to worry. "I'm great," I say sarcastically even though I know that Chuck has a hard time understanding sarcasm.

Ben's breathing has steadied as well as mine. I kneel next to him alongside Alby who pushes through the crowd.

"Lift his shirt." Alby orders. Newt does as he is told and lifts the mud-stained white shirt revealing a black hole with unsettling dark veins tracking from it.

I bite down on my bottom lip and pull Chuck's head away from the sight by hugging his head away. I wish there is a way for me to shield him from the horrible cries that leave Ben's mouth.

"Please! No please!"

"He's been stung," Alby states, causing a wave of gasps to flood through the crowd.

"In the middle of the day?" I question and Alby looks up at me looking equally confused as I sound.

"Please. Please." He cries. "Please just help. Just help me."

I bite down harder, letting the metallic taste seep into my mouth. I wish I could tell him that he is going to be fine. That I will help him. Cure him. I always cure my patients. But I know there is nothing that I or anyone else can do to cure Ben.

Alby stands up straight. "Put him in the pit."

The boys around him instantly follow his orders and begin to carry the screaming and fighting boy who struggles against their grip as they force him away and into the pit.

I know that I should be with them, as I am a medjack but I can't make myself see that. Not again.

𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟏 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐚𝐯𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬!!
the intro is a flashback of something that happened before Thomas came into the maze. I'm so excited to write about that storyline and for u guys to read about what happened.
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