They Left Me Once (Gally X Reader)

Why Alone?

[Past]

"If you go back out there, don't expect me to be here when you come back." Gally coughed up the words which kicked and scratched to stay inside of his lungs. He didn't want to say them. But with the flaring thoughts inside of him, all he knew to do was turn to anger. The one thing he could do was push the one person he trusted away. Looking up from the ground, he was met with Y/N's broken and conflicted expression. She looked away from him shamefully, pursing her lips and balling her fists.

Gally could tell there was something she was holding back. He reached for her hand but it was cold to the touch. She pulled away again. All he could wonder was what was on her mind and why she had to keep it from him. Y/N was the one person in the Glade he actually trusted. The one person he'd confide in and allowed himself to grow close to. Now, he was wholly questioning if he'd made a mistake. Why wasn't she showing the same transparency to him? Unless, this friendship was nothing more than his imagination working in overdrive?

All of this time in the Glade, had he really let himself get that up inside of his own head? Had he let his and Y/N's relationship mean everything to him when it wasn't even really there? Did all of this mean absolutely nothing? Had he fooled himself into loving someone who didn't think twice about him?

No. He knew that wasn't true. Yet that crippling anxiety inside of him tried to convince him it was.

"I found something," Y/N said for what felt like the thousandth time. "I need to go back."

"No you don't!" Gally's voice boomed as he stepped forwards. "At least not alone. Just tell Minho and let him go with you. Why do you have to do this by yourself?"

The girl began to tremble and voice began to break. "I might've found a way out—the nightmares—"

Gally could feel his fingernails plowing into the palms of his hands, any colour draining from his face. She would never answer him when he asked why this anomaly she'd found in the maze had to be explored alone. "It's no good if you end up dead! You said it yourself: you aren't sure if it's safe. And after all we've built here? Maybe there is more out there like you say, but why are you risking your life for it? I feel like—"

Y/N stumbled back from the sheer force Gally's words pushed her back with. She was torn between the person she cared the most about and the possibility of a future outside of the maze. The runners, especially Minho, could feel they were close to getting out and just had to push a little harder, a little further. But for reasons she wasn't able to share with the other runners, at least not yet, she had to go this alone.

Gally knew why Y/N ran out there every day. After all, each morning when she left, she promised to run her hardest so she could find a way out. She promised each morning to pave the way to a better life for everyone in the Glade. But, that notion didn't change the fact that she had to run the maze everyday and down every corridor which could always be hiding a griever. He didn't want her to have to do that anymore. She'd been running too hard for too long. It was time she stopped before she burnt herself out completely. The boy could see she was already running on fumes.

This morning, she didn't make that same promise before departing into the maze. Gally was heartbroken. A different kind of heartbreak, though. One he'd never felt before. It was a deep ache that made breathing difficult, a feeling of hollowness in his bones. Y/N wasn't one to simply forget the promise she made every other day to him. The promise that she'd be back to meet him at the maze doors and head for dinner.

Alby dragged the staggering builder away from the maze doors, trying to make him forget about it, saying she'd be back before he knew it. Saying that once she got back, they could sit down and figure things out. Not once had a disagreement between the pair gone unresolved within minutes of honest conversation. They had been friends for a long time. Good friends. Real friends. Despite their differences in the beginning, Y/N and Gally managed to hold a close bond many of the others were envious of. But there was something about this dispute, this hour, this day in particular, that made Gally's mouth taste sour. Something told him this day wasn't going to be like the others.

Surely enough, it wasn't. Minho returned one runner short. The dark haired boy had a look on his face Gally could recognize anywhere and under any circumstance. It was one of pity, guilt and sorrow. Y/N was gone.

"What happened?" Gally began to panic. "Where is she?"

Everyone knew Gally was about to explode on Minho. Ben and another runner strode forwards to catch the builder before he pummelled straight into Minho, fighting to hold him back. He fought his fellow Gladers with every bit of energy he had, but it was useless.

"You said she'd be safe!" Gally screamed at Minho. The words hit the keeper of the runner with a sharp pain, taken aback by Gally's sudden rage. It was known to everyone here that Gally could have a temper, that he could be explosive, especially when scared. But this was a new side of Gally no one had really seen.

"I promised I'd keep an eye on her! I can't guarantee her safety in the maze!" The boy forced back, turning away from his friend in anguish.

"So what the hell happened to her?!" Gally asked in his delirium.

"I don't know—"

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Gally seethed, kicking to break free from the people holding him back.

"She disappeared! I—"

The Glade fell silent now that everyone was aware of the commotion at the maze doors. Gally, though hot-headed and harsh at times, was usually the calm, collected one. So, to see him screaming, crying and thrashing around, cursing his friend was a sight which seized hearts. Gally's mind burned with the heat of a thousand fires.

"I should have known she was gonna shuck off on some stupid adventure after how she was acting this morning. But I can't control her every move." Minho scrambled for words, trying to find a way to justify his loss of the girl.

Gally tried to collect himself. He'd just lost the one and only thing he actually cared about. Now, he had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Tears screamed down his face and he met Minho's eyes one last time.

"You send out a search party tomorrow and you find her."