匚卄卂卩ㄒ乇尺 乇|ᘜ卄ㄒ
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"I'm not proud of what i've done, but i did it for you. It was all for you."
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Newt and Aife looked at each other before they ran to see what all the commotion was about, the other gladers following behind them. Thomas ran out of the dead-heads screaming for help. His chest was heaving as he glanced over his shoulder.

He made his way over to them and Aife noticed someone following behind him. Ben. He tackled Thomas to the floor and pinned him down by his forearms.

"I'll kill you!" Ben wrapped his hands tightly around Thomas's neck. Aife noticed Thomas was beginning to grow purple as he clawed at Bens arms in an attempt to get him to release his grip, but it was no use. Newt held a shovel in his hands and smacked Ben right in the face, causing him to fly off of Thomas and loosen his hold.

Aife helped up Thomas and stared at ben as her heart dropped.

The boys were pinning down Ben, a line of blood dripped towards his cheek from the impact of the shovel.

"Yo, What the hell happened?" The girl demanded for an answer. Thomas frantically replied, "He just attacked me!"

She made her way towards Ben and watched him, the look in his eyes was all too familiar. She clenched her jaw and ordered, "Lift his shirt, now."

Bens face grew terrified and he began to plead against it, shaking his head violently in protest, but they didn't listen. They lifted Bens shirt and we were greeted with a black hole in his stomach that was surrounded by black, blue and red veins. Bens eyes were nearly black. His blond hair was damp and fell over his forehead. The color of his face looked as if it had been drained completely.

His breathing was severely uneven. He had tears rolling down his face, but not sad tears. Angry tears.

The boys slightly grimaced at it, Gally spoke out and stated the obvious, "He's been stung."

"In the middle of the day?" One of the gladers asked with a confused tone laced within his voice.

The struggling boy was panting heavily as he watched the girl. The other gladers glanced at her and waited for her call.

"No- No Aife please-"

"Put him in the pit."

He began to scream against it as the gladers forcefully picked him up and dragged him away. She shut her eyes and let out a sigh as she comprehend the fact that she now have to banish one of her closest friends.

It sent a pang through her chest, his screams of pain and pleading nearly broke her in two.

"What happened to him?" Thomas asked Aife. She let out a sigh and began to explain the situation to the boy.

"It's called the changing. It's what happens when someone gets stung."

He looked at her with pinched brows and an unreadable expression as he observed her face, "Has it happened to you?"

Aife inhaled a sharp breath, obviously avoiding before responding with, "I better get going. Banishment starts at sundown."

*

They all stood around Ben, who wore a white tank top that had now turned into a musty cream color and brown shorts. He was scrambling as he inhaled deep breaths in fear.

"No, no no! Please! I'll get better, just give me a chance!" He begged as the boys carried large sticks and waited for Aifes command.

His hands were tied together and he sat on his knees. She walked forward and untied his hands by cutting him loose with her knife, he began to scream once more. Black blood mixed in with his spot and dripped down his chin, she held back a grimace at the sight of it all.

Aife attempted to block out the sound of his screams, but it was no use.

"No! Please!"

"Poles!" Aife shouted, the boys immediately pointed their sticks towards ben and slowly walked closer and closer, pushing him towards the maze walls. She stood by Minho as she watched with a cold expression. She felt her bottom lip tremble.

She watched as her friend was being sentenced to death.

"You have to believe me! Please!"

The doors closed in on him and he had no other choice than to reluctantly walk into the maze in order to avoid being crushed alive. Slowly and painfully.

"No!!" He shouted one last time before the doors closed.

The girl shut her eyes and released a shaky breath and they stood in silence. Thomas looked at them with an incredulous look, she simply said, "He belongs to the maze now."

The boys began to walk away, and she headed to her room to cool off.

*

At the moment, Minho and Alby have decided to go into the maze. They had wanted to retrace bens steps to see where he had gotten stung. They have yet to come back and Aife is trying to calm down her nerves, but she can't help but think about if they don't make it back on time. They could be injured. The girl offered to go, but Alby insisted she kept an eye on the glade.

Newt stood beside her as he carried a machete and was hitting at the roots of a stump. He was beginning to huff in annoyance as Thomas asked questions over and over again.

"Okay but, why would Alby go in the maze? I mean he's not a- he's not a runner." He asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Because he volunteered to go with Minho and i trust him. We need to find out what's really going on."

"He's different. Alby went to place Bens footsteps before sundown- look- Are you gonna help?" Newt replied as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his arm, it was glistening and sweat dripped from his hair as he placed his bottom lip between his teeth.

"Okay, so he's gonna go back to where Ben got stung-?"

"Alby knows what he's doing alright. He and Aife know better than any of us." Newt replied as she sat in silence next to Zart. He nudged the girl with his knee and gave her a questioning look, she only gave a nod in reassurance.

Chuck sat next to Thomas as he carved into a small piece of wood.

"What does that mean?" Thomas asked, still not understanding the entire situation.

Newt stood up straight and rubbed his ear as he clenched his jaw before speaking, "Alright, it's like you've heard, yeah? Every month, the box sends up a new arrival. But someone had to be first, alright? Someone had to have spent a whole month in the glade, alone. But in their case, it was two months. And that was Aife. She knows the calls she's making. She taught Alby everything she knows."

Thomas processed this new information as he snuck a glance at her, she ignored it, but she felt his eyes burning holes into the back of her skull.

"I mean, it can't have been easy. But once those other boys started comin' up, She saw the truth. And she learned that the most important thing, is that we all have each other. Because we're all in this together." He said as he gestured his machete around to all of them, trying to get his point across.

Thomas quietly stood up and began to work, causing a ghost of a smile to quickly appear on the girls face.

"Yeah, there you go greenie."

*

Minho and Alby have yet to come back and she's trying to calm down her nerves, They are all standing under shelter due to the rain, but she can't help but be curious. It's never rained in the glade before.

"What if they don't make it back?" Thomas asked from beside her.

"They will," Newt assured him.

"But what if they don't?" He asked once more.

This time she turned to him and spoke bitterly, "They will." She wasn't just trying to convince him, but herself as well.

*

They stood at the doors as they waited for Minho and Alby to return.

"You guys see em'?" Winston, keeper of the slicers, asked from beside the girl. He had both his hands on her biceps as he stood behind her.

She squinted her eyes before pointing in the distance, "There!"

Minho was spotted, but he had a limp. She squinted her eyes further to see him carrying something.

No, someone.

Alby.

Alby was injured. And The doors are now closing. She began to shout and try to encourage him to move quicker.

"Come on! Run!" She shouted as she cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. She could feel her palms beginning to sweat as she grew even more nervous than she already was. 

Minho released a groan as he tilted his head to the side, his mutters were full of exhaustion. Aife could see his pained expression. He fell straight to his knees as he gave up on even trying.

"Run, Minho!" Newt shouted.

"Hurry!"

"You can make it!"

"You gotta leave em'." Gally shouted.

She began to grow impatient. She stepped back and forth on her own feet and felt her chest heaving up and down. He isn't gonna make it.

They'll die.

The doors were nearly just about to shut before she turned to Newt and nodded at him. He gave a confused expression before it finally clicked at what she was about to do

She had to.

Before she knew it, she was moving forward and fought back the hands trying to stop me. Aife squeezed herself between the closing doors that nearly crushed her. The walls narrowing down on her caused her chest to heave more violently and her heart thumped harder against her chest.

"No!"

"Come back!"

"Aife!"

The girl tripped to the floor and placed her hands in front of her before she felt a body collide with her own.

She looked up to see Thomas.

This shank ran in too, she thought to herself.

She walked over to Minho who was panting on his knees from running and she placed a hand on his back and held his hand with hers as she looked him over for any possible injuries.

His cheeks were coated with sweat and dirt that glistened against his skin, creating a darker color, darker then his usual tan skin. He looked up at the girl with relieved eyes to see that she was okay, but also angry. But when he turned to Thomas that changed.

It was pure anger and he looked at him like as if he was the stupidest Klunkhead in the world

"Congratulations greenie, You just killed yourself."