To have and to hold. [Sequel to 'Till death do us apart'.] DISCONTINUED

Chapter Two - Tattooos.

"Riley?"

Newt's hoarse voice floated through Riley's void of unconsciousness. He sounded scared, but Riley knew that he couldn't be as scared as she was at that moment. The whispering voice's words still rung through her mind. None of it made sense. Group D? What happened to group C? If they were going to be all evil and mysterious, they should have at least checked their alphabet first.

"Riley!"

Riley forced herself to open her eyes, pull herself out of the comfortable darkness of sleep, and found herself staring up at a plain white ceiling, the paintwork peeling. She was sprawled on the floor, Newt crouched by her side. "Oh, thank god. Seriously, Riley, you gotta stop doing that." Newt breathed, his dirty blonde hair falling in his eyes. Riley pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. "What happened?" Newt asked. Axel hovered behind him, dark eyes darting from side to side, as if he'd have to make a break for it at any second, and Minho stood beside him, arms folded. Thomas and Frypan were crouched by her other side, and the other Gladers were fanned out behind them.

Riley didn't know how she knew, but she knew that she couldn't tell them about Group D. That would be a bad idea. If she told them, they'd try and help her, stop her from handing herself in to WICKED at the end of the 'scorch trials' or whatever the creepy dude called it, which meant that her friends would be killed, and she was not going to let that happen, not in a million years. "Nothing." Riley said, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "It was nothing. Just freaked out, I guess."

Newt held her gaze with a skeptical, and it took every once of willpower Riley owned not to look away. She didn't like lying to him, but she consoled herself by mentally promising she would consider telling him when she figured out what it all meant. But it was obvious that Newt knew there was something wrong, something she was hiding from him, but he looked away first, adverting his gaze, stood up and brushed his trousers off. "Okay." He said, holding out a hand and helping her up. "Just take it easy from now on, alright? No more stupid stunts."

Riley rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I got it."

"We checked everywhere." Minho announced. "No way out, and no sign of Teresa whatsoever. The door we came in through was all locked up. From the inside, too. Something is definitely up here."

"You're telling me." Thomas muttered, staring at his shoes.

At that moment, Riley noticed a smudge of black scrawl on Minho's lower neck, when he turned to look at Thomas and his shirt shifted a little. "Hey, Minho?"

"Yeah?"

"What's that on your neck?"

Minho looked confused for a second, and glanced down. "What? Where?"

Riley took a step forward and pulled his shirt down a little. It was a tattoo, written in thick, black writing. Property of WICKED. Subject A7, The Leader. The word 'subject' made her feel sick. And property? They were human beings, not objects to be owned. Was that it? They were all just subjects, guinea pigs running around to help WICKED? Riley was sure the tattoo hadn't been there the previous night, and it definitely hadn't been there in the Glade. "Oh, my god." She mumbled, skimming her fingers along the sprawl of ink.

"What?" Minho said, trying to crane his neck to look. "What is it?"

"A tattoo." Riley muttered, her throat dry. "Writing."

"Well, what's it say?"

"It says, property of WICKED, subject A7, The Leader." Riley read out loud, and then scanned the group for their reactions. Everyone bore the same look of confusion, and both Newt and Thomas stepped forward to read the tattoo likewise.

"What the shuck? I don't have a tattoo. I'm pretty sure I'd know if I did. And the leader? I'm not the leader?" Minho spoke rapidly, but the last sentence came out as more of a question instead of a statement. He spun on his heel and ran to the adjoining bathroom.

"Aris, you have one, too!" Someone called out. Aris frowned, and pulled the neck of his shirt down as Minho had done. Sure enough, there was the same scrawl of black ink. Riley cursed and briskly walked towards him.

"Property of WICKED, subject B1. The Partner." Riley read, and then glanced up at him.

"No way." He breathed. Like Minho had done, he ran to the bathroom, leaving the room in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. And then the Gladers started talking, shouts of 'you've got one, too' and 'someone read mine' and 'we've all got them', and within moments it was chaos, everyone tugging the necks of their shirts down, running round and reading one another's.

Riley craned her neck, and saw a smudge of black on her own neck, but she couldn't read it from the angle she was at. She turned, and found herself facing Axel. "What's it say?" She asked, brushing her fingertips along her tattoo. Axel read the words, and then frowned, his eyes widening. "What?" Riley asked. "What is it?"

"It says, property of WICKED, subject D2." He paused, glancing down at her.

"What else?" RIley asked. So, it was true - there was a Group D.

Axel swallowed. "Well, it calls you The Doomed."

Riley blinked. "Wow. That sounds pleasant." She pushed the fear from her mind, and tried her best to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "Let me read yours."

Axel pulled at the neck of his shirt, and Riley stood on her tiptoes to read the thick black print. "Property of WICKED, subject D1." She paused, bile rising in her throat. "D. We're group D. What's that supposed to mean? And, um, it calls you The Saviour."

To Riley, all the pieces were finally falling together, but she couldn't yet see the full puzzle. She and Axel were Group D, but the way the voice spoke about it, there were more of them. She had gathered that this was the Scorch Trials, but she wasn't too sure. One thing she knew for definite was that they were all just lab rats of WICKED, whoever they might be. Her fate had already been declared; she was going to die, but that didn't mean that she was going to let her friends die, too.

WICKED had put them all through so much hardship; each remaining Glader had watched their friends die, everything they had ever worked for fall apart, and all of them had been driven to the edge of insanity and back. WICKED had pushed them all to their limits, killed so many of them already.

And this was only the beginning.

A/N

Okay, first off; this plot may seem like it's going nowhere, but it is, trust me! On that note, if you guys do have any ideas to mold with mine ( which i'm not going to tell you yet mwahahaha ) then please, feel free to message me! I love talking to you guys!

So, in the chapters coming up, a few new major characters of my own will be popping up. I'll let you know one thing, and that is that Group D does actually have more than two members. But, yeah, you'll find out about that later. Sorry for a pretty bad and short chapter, but I haven't updated in forever and figured that I probably should.

Comment and share?

Your move,

Delirious.