maze to her heart ~ newt¹✓

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 ℕ𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟 | leaving the glade

LEAVING THE GLADE

⋆✤⋆

The sunlight that poured into the slammers in bright, yellow rays was enough to wake the redhead up. The pounding in her head and the blazing sun in her eyes brought Rae to sit up. When her eyes adjusted to the light, the first thing she noticed was the wooden bars in front of her and a pair of light brown eyes staring at her. Last night was a blur, but Rae did remember the griever attack. Her heart ached at the memory, all the people she lost - her friends. But the one thing she couldn't put her finger on was why she was in the slammer.

"You okay?" the skinny boy asked with concern, his breath quiet but steady. Newt leaned against the bars as his eyes never left the girl.

"No-- What happened?" Bringing her hand to her cheek, Rae brushed her fingertips along her skin, only to wince when she felt a sharp pricking. Suddenly, everything came flashing back to her: the confusion, the chaos, the screams, the fight.

"Gally has taken control. He said we had a choice. Either join him... or get banished at sundown with you, Thomas, and Teresa."

Was Rae that bad at being first-in-command that her own friends turned on her? When they elected her leader unanimously, she hoped that would be the first step in welding everyone together. She couldn't, she wouldn't, pin the blame on Thomas for what was happening. The rules she put into place were the only thing that held them together, and Rae broke them more times in the past week than anyone has in three years. "Newt, you're second-in-command."

"Gally has everyone convinced that Thomas is the reason all this has happened, and you let him get this far."

"Newt, you have to let me out," Rae said, reaching her hand out through the bars, which Newt took in his. Rae assumed Gally was watching Newt's moves, in case he tried anything, so there was no point in asking him. Even though destruction laid all around Rae, Newt was the one person that seemed whole. He didn't come across as discouraged or glum in this situation. Maybe that was what Rae was attracted to about him.

The redhead heard a faint voice, calling Newt. Upon deeper hearing, the voice was coming from the slammer next to Rae's. Newt shifted his attention to Thomas and Teresa.

Although Rae couldn't see the two, she could hear them talking. "I remember," Thomas said quietly. The blonde tilted his head in confusion. That was a vague statement made from Thomas.

"What?"

"This place... it's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison, it's a test. It all started when we were kids. They would give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us. And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork."

Rae had never seen the maze as a test. What was the test? Who would be the last one alive? If so, Rae thought it was sick and cruel. These people, WCKD, were just as bad as the Grievers they had to encounter.

"Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you have been here... I was on the other side of it. So were you." Thomas looked at the girl in the slammer with him. The dark-haired girl eyed Thomas; she was paralyzed with concern.

"Why would they send us up if we were with them?" her voice came out in a quiet squeak.

Newt shook his head and exhaled. After a few silent seconds, he said, "It doesn't matter. Any of it. Because the people we were before the maze don't even exist anymore. These Creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now, and what we do... right now. You went into the maze and you found a way out."