Chapter Nine.    09
( that won't save us! ) ━━━━━━━━
↳ TIME IS UP ↲

❝ EVERYONE ALWAYS COMES
LOOKING FOR YOU. ❞

↢ ❦ ↣

LOVELY
Billie Eilish, Khalid

thought i found a way
thought i found a way out
but you never go away
so i guess i gotta stay now
oh, i hope some day i'll make it out of here
even if it takes all night or a hundred years
need a place to hide, but i can't find one near
wanna feel alive, outside i can't fight my fear

isn't it lovely? all alone
heart made out of glass, my mind of stone
tear me to pieces, skin to bone
hello, welcome home

0:20 ─⊙───────── 3:20
↻      ◁ II ▷     ↺

↢ ❦ ↣

      GALLY shut the door behind him turning around to see a girl laying on the bed. Naked. A big smile was on her lips as the boy approached her with a forced smile on his.

      "I've been waiting for you." She greeted.

       "Sorry, Ty, told me. How long?" He asked sitting down on the bed almost forgetting that the girl had no clothes on willing to give him a good time.

      Untying his boots, a little sigh left his lips when he took them off. The girl wrapped her arms from behind him pressing kisses on his neck. "Just a little while." She lied as she had been waiting for him the whole night. "Where have you been? Didn't see you the entire day yesterday."

     "I was helping out a friend." Gally replied.

     The girl slowly nodded feeling he wasn't telling her the full truth but decided to brush it off and change the topic. "You want to, right?"

      Gally hesitated as the girl that occupied his mind was not the girl in the bed. "Yeah," the tall boy responded trying to ignore the feelings for Rosie as he knew she was never going to pick him at the end of the day.

     This girl was.

      "Good." The girl started to help him undress as she was eager to reconnect with him. They hadn't been intimate with each other for a few days now which was strange since they used to be intimate almost every night.

       He tried to think only about the girl under him. He tried to get Rosie out of his mind and focus on the girl that was giving him an immense amount of pleasure. He wanted to get rid of the idea of having a chance because he knew that when Rosie got her memory back — she would want to go back to Newt. So, Gally wanted to spare himself another heartbreak and get rid of the idea of Rosie wanting to be with him.

      Time passes and he shuts his eyes closed, Gally thrusted inside the girl approaching his climax. "Oh, fuck!" He cursed continuing his movements, "fuck, yes, Rosie—"

      Both of them froze the moment that name came out of his mouth. Both of them opened their eyes to look at each other. The girl was baffled as she's heard that name before. "My name's not Rosie. It's—"

"I know." Gally responded pulling out as it went limp, "I'm sorry."

The girl shook her head sitting up and putting her knees up to her chest trying to play it cool. She didn't want him to see her breakdown. "It's fine." She answered fumbling with her fingers. "Just don't say some girl's name again."

Gally opened his mouth to speak as he watched her stand up and put her robe on. "Wait—you're not gonna do something? Break up with me?" He questioned her as he covered himself with a sheet.

"No." She replied running her fingers through her hair, "why? Do you want me to?"

"I just moaned someone else's name when we were doing it." Gally explained motioning with his hands. "Maybe we should break up."

"No." The girl shook her head.

      "No?"

"I love you! You're with me, Gally." The girl responded. "I'll make you forget her if that's what it takes."

     Gally's lips parted as he never heard the girl tell him she loves him. And he wasn't going to say it back because he didn't. He only ever loved one girl and it was not the girl in the room.

↢ ❦ ↣

LOCKING HER APARTMENT, Rosie took a deep breath dressed to go to work for the day. She needed to get the documents from her office. It had a few files about the maze she was in and all the WCKD's documented experiments. She knew it was going to be risky especially when Gally told her to not go anywhere near there. To report to be sick but Rosie was stubborn. She wanted to have as much information as she could get. Not just for her but for Gally and his friends who are trying to stop WCKD from growing further than it already is.

The girl took public transportation heading to work. She did everything normally. Walked in to the building, scanned her tag, and took the elevator to the 16th level on the east wing. What she didn't know was security already notified of her card swiping letting them know she was inside. Every surveillance camera was on her. They were watching every move she made.

The girl heads to her office and starts researching more files that she wanted to obtain. Teresa stopped walking spotting Rosie printing papers at the copier room. "There you are! Where were you yesterday?" Teresa greets entering the room.

Rosie is caught off guard turning to face her as she places the papers facing downwards. "Hey! Sorry, i wasn't feeling well so I called in sick."

"Oh, no!" Teresa replied, "how are you feeling today?"

Rosie smiled making a thumbs up, "way better!"

Teresa returned the smile as she warmed her hands up with the cup of coffee she was holding. "I'm throwing a little Friendsgiving at my place tonight with a few other colleagues. I would love for you to come."

Perfect. Rosie thought. She had an excuse to be out of her apartment and the cameras in her apartment would believe she was at Teresa's. "I would love to! Do you want me to bring anything? Some desserts?"

"If you want to, Reed and Jenny have the majority of the food covered. But I'll text you the deets later. Yeah?" Teresa asks as she is headed out the door waiting for Rosie to nod. "Great! See you then!"

Rosie felt the time go so slow maybe because her anxiety was at an all time high. She was extremely paranoid that everyone knew she had left the city. But everyone seemed to either not know or were pretending. But thankfully, it was about to turn 4 and it was the usual time she would clock out.

The girl took a sigh of relief as she started to pack her stuff. No one knew. If they did, they would have already interrogated her. That's what Rosie thought.

Three guards entered the lab without informing the young girl whose eyes widened in fright. Janson walked in behind them with a fake smile making sure no one else was inside the lab. "Rosalie," Janson greeted.

"Chancelor." Rosie greeted back looking back and forth between the soldiers. "What's going on?"

The man clasped his hands together with a little smirk on his lips, "why don't you answer that question for us, Miss. Adams?"

"I'm sorry?" Rosie pretended not knowing what they were talking about. "I don't understand what you're asking me."

The chancellor snatched the tablet off the hands of one of the soldiers. He swiped through a few pictures before deciding on one and showed the tablet to Rosie. "Is this not you leaving the city?"

Rosie saw the picture of her exiting her apartment following a man in a hood. "Who's that you're following?" He asks.

The girl stayed quiet for a few seconds shaking her head trying to gaslight him. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who that man is. I don't remember that happening."

"Why has he been following you around then for the last few days? Why have you been following him?" Janson questioned once more already knowing why. The girl avoided eye-contact not knowing what to say. Oh, Rosie, we thought you were better than this. You're getting your memories back aren't you?"

"What?" Rosie asked responding honestly, "I don't remember anything!"

"Then who's that man?"

Silence. The girl was not going to speak a word about the boy in the hood. No surveillance camera could have seen his face and for that she was going to remain silent. She would never out Gally.

"I don't know." Rosie lied.

"Don't worry. We'll find him." Janson responds sighing. "He's going to come looking for you. Everyone always comes looking for you."

The girl shook her head, "I don't understand what's going on. I didn't do anything."

"Take her." Janson ordered.

"What?" Rosie asked alarmed as she saw two soldiers coming towards her. "What's going on?"

"We're taking you back."

The girl raised her eyebrows in confusion as she tried to squirm away from the soldiers holds. "Back where?"

"You're going back with the rest of them."

↢ ❦ ↣

"HEY, Gal," The man in the desk chair grabbed the boy's attention. "Your friend you've been talking about, we lost her connection."

"What?" Gally asked walking over to look at the screen.

The guy nodded, "yeah, the tag you both have behind your necks—it's no longer showing. It's turned off."

"How do you turn it off?" Gally asked already speculating the answer.

"Three options." He answered lifting up three fingers. "One, she took it out herself and destroyed it. Two, WCKD themselves turned it off. Or three, she's dead."

A rush of fear formed in Gally as he asked another question, "where was she last?"

"Inside the WCKD building. In one of the laboratories." He explains. "It looked like everything was fine but it randomly stopped working."

"I have to go find her." Gally murmurs grabbing his stuff before heading out of the room doing whatever he could to get to her as fast as he could.

"Rosie! Open up!" The boy banged on the apartment door somehow hoping that Rosie would open the door any second now. "Come on, little one! It's me!" But he waited and waited minutes and knew no one was inside. "Please! Open up!"

     Gally used his entire force and busted through the door breaking it, his gun close to his chest as he went in to scan the apartment. The apartment that was already searched through. Every cabinet, every drawer, every room was opened. Clothes, papers, utensils, blankets everything was all over the floor. There was no sign of her.

     "Fuck!" Desperately, Gally threw whatever was closest to him. The lamp shattered in the middle of the living room. His eyes were watery as guilt consumed his chest. He should have stayed with her that night. If he would have just stayed she would have been safe. The boy shook his head in desperation as he couldn't bear the fact that he lost her again.

     The boy searched through the apartment once more to make sure he didn't miss anything. His world stopped once he saw a piece of paper on the counter hidden where they shared their first kiss. The paper was intended for him.

thank you for everything, gally. everything you've done for me, means the world to me. my memories aren't back yet but even without them, i know i can trust you maybe even love you. but if you're reading this, then that means they've got me. maybe someday we'll see each other again. maybe then ill remember you whole. i hope to see you again.

— your little one

He read the letter again. It might have been the millionth time he's read it but he couldn't believe it. Hours had passed and he still couldn't grasp the idea that she slipped away again.

     The boy looked outside the window watching the moon shine bright as the girl spoke in a soft tone, "everyone is replaceable, Gally."

The boy shook his head, "No. Not her."

     "Gally, please—"

      The tall boy turned to look over at the teary eyed girl who's heart was breaking. Gally knew he was hurting her and it hurt him too because she was a lovely girl but no girl could ever compare to Rosie Adams.

      At least not when it comes to Gally.

     Because even if Rosie fell in love with another person, Gally still belonged to her. Gally would belong to Rosie in this life and in each and every other one that follows. He always belonged to her and forever will.

     Gally turned to glance at the short haired girl as he stated, "I love her and I'm going to get her out of there. I don't care what it takes."