❝faking sleep to count your breath❞

IRIS PRACTICALLY JUMPED OUT OF BED AT THE SOUND OF CLANGING IN HER ROOM. She was half awake, and she could figure out where the hoise was coming from until she saw the grate for a vent pop out from underneath her bed. She immediately reached for the knife that she had hidden in her boot, and she spun it around for a second, getting a good grip on it before swinging under the bed to see who was breaking into her room.

"Jem?" she called when she saw the familiar face of the boy staring back at her. His bottom half was still inside the vent, but his arms and torso were on the floor as he climbed out, sliding the grate out of his way. He did not answer. Instead he just grabbed the edge of the bed and climbed up as she sat back up on the mattress. She questioned, "How did you get here?"

"Vents are magical things," he answered, gesturing to where he had just climbed out as she slid over to make space for him on the bed. He sat at her feet as she tucked and rested her chin on her knee, gazing up at him with her very tired eyes.

She then shot him a concerned look because he was kind of the last person she expected to climb into her room at night, considering their past and all. There had to be something wrong, right? Why else would he be there? "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine," he assured her, and she breathed out a sigh of relief. He leaned back against the wall that the bed was against. He groaned lightly and ran a hand through his hair. He informed her, "I just...couldn't sleep."

"It's been a long day," she confirmed. She would not be able to sleep if she had just lost her best friend. She was surprised that he was so put together already. He had been fairly calm all day, but seeing him in that moment, with his hair messed up and his eyes tired and red, Iris could tell that he was not doing so well.

He cleared his throat, wanting to change the topic for a moment. He gestured around her room with a small smile and told her, "You got a nice place here."

"I know, right? I really love the cool metal tones and the plain white walls," she added with a light chuckle, looking around with him. It had no dents of cracks in the floor or ceiling, and it looked completely untouched except for her unmade bed. "It's very homey."

"Yeah, and the ten bunk beds for just you really adds a nice touch," he responded. The amount of empty beds in her room made her feel even more lonely than she already did.

"What can I say? I like to sleep around." They stared at each other for a moment before they started laughing, and she was glad to see him smile after everything that had happened. Once silence overtook them again, she spoke up. "Hey, you're welcome to stay here for the night if you need a break from the guys."

He sighed, "I just need them to stop asking if I'm okay."

"Well, are you okay?" she asked, and she winced when she realized that was exactly what he just said he did not want. He shot her a look, and she quickly corrected herself. "Sorry. I can talk to them."

"It's all right. I should probably go. The guys will get worried if they wake up and I'm not there," he replied, wiping his clammy hands on his pants as he stood up, leaving her on the bed on her own. She nodded in understanding and watched him carefully as he slid back under the bed. Before he went, however, he stuck his head back out. "Hey, Iris?"

"Yeah?" she called back, leaning over so that she could look him in the eye. Her voice was hopeful for some reason, even though she had no clue what she was hoping he would say. Maybe she just wanted to hear his voice some more.

After a second, he shook his head. "Never mind. Goodnight."

《 ✢ 》

"I WANNA KNOW WHAT'S THROUGH THAT DOOR," THOMAS INFORMED THEM. He had just gotten through explaining what he and the vent boy saw the previous night. They had apparently spied on whoever had taken them in and saw them bringing what looked like bodies into a room.

Newt sighed at him, rolling his eyes as Janson called out more names to take to whatever the hell the farm was. Thomas seemed convinced that they were being sent to die. "Now, we've been over this. You said they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw. It could've been anything under there."

"I know exactly what I saw. They were bodies. Aris said they bring in a new batch every night," the other boy told him, causing them all to furrow their eyebrows at the new name.

"Who the hell is Aris?" asked Minho, and Thomas responded by lifting his hand up and pointing over to the loner boy that they saw earlier. Iris finally pieced together the part about the boy in the all girls Maze and the guy that had been pointed out to them yesterday. Minho looked back over at Thomas with a 'seriously?' expression. "Well, I'm sold."

Janson finished up, handing his clipboard to one of his little guard friends. "And last but not least, David. Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

"Okay, until we know anything for certain, we should just keep our heads down and try not to draw any attention to ourselves, all right? What is he doing?" the blonde boy questioned because as soon as he said the first part, Thomas had jumped up out of his chair. He started walking onward the double doors that everyone had just walked out of.

Frypan replied, "I think he's drawing attention to himself."

"Hang on. You weren't called. This is a restricted area, kid," one of the guards at the door told Thomas with a sneer. Pretty much everyone that they had met there had been overly polite, and then, there was this guy.

Thomas tried to push through them, but they just held him back. Iris wondered what he planned to get when he thought of this idea because he really shocked her sometimes. "I just wanna see my friend. Can you let me through?"

"Get your ass back in that chair," the guard ordered, and Thomas turned around for just a split second before he whipped back around and tried to shove through the guys. Jem, Iris, and the rest of the Gladers ran over to them to back him up if he needed if, and when Janson showed up, they held him back.

"What's happening here? Thomas? I thought we could trust each other. You know we're all on the same team here," Janson reminded them, but he said it in such a way that made Iris uncomfortable. He nodded to the guards when he got no response. "Get them to their bunks."

Apparently, the guards don't care about the girl's privacy or just did not want to do the extra work because they just threw Iris in the room with all of the guys. Minho whipped around to face Thomas when the door closed and locked behind them. "What the hell was that about?"

"You didn't really think they were just gonna let you through?" Jem asked with raised eyebrows. The boy just might be as stupid as Gally kept saying that he was.

"Nah, of course I didn't. I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door." He whipped out a key card, and they realized that he must have stolen it from the guard. Newt rolled his eyes when he saw it. "Newt, they're hiding something. Okay? These people are not who they say they are."

The blonde boy shook his head before jogging his friend's memory about what happened in the Glade. "No, Thomas, you don't know that! The only thing that we do know is that they helped rescue us from WICKED. They gave us new clothes. They gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time. Some of us a lot longer than others."

"Hey, Thomas," called a voice, and they all whipped around as the grate on the vent clattered to the ground, reminding Iris of the previous night and Jem's visit to her room. Aris stuck his head out from under the bed. "You got it, didn't you?"

The boy he was speaking to nodded and climbed under the bed with him. "Yeah. Let's go." He looked back at the Gladers one more time. "All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. But I got to find out for sure. Just cover for me. I'll be back as soon as I can."