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UPON her arrival, the girls had helped Esther pack her things for the next night's venture and helped her get settled into a cot among the other girls in the barracks, but as she laid down to sleep- her belly full of soup one of the kitchen girls had made- she found that only bits of Thomas riddled her thoughts.
She thought about what he'd done, and how she knew he was to be sent into a maze for his betrayal, she wondered what maze that would be, it couldn't be hers, not when Aris was already supposed to be the male counterpart to Rachel.
Maybe he'd be put in Group A's maze, he'd easily adapt there among the others, but that wasn't what she feared. She was stuck on whether or not he would survive within the walls that would confine him to the maze.
Unlike Esther, Thomas did not have the same natural block that her brain had created for her in the womb, if the procedure was performed on him, he would forget everything and everyone.
Including her.
Not that it bothered her too much, she hadn't known him well before and she hadn't tried very hard to get to know him, but still, she felt bad. Especially after he'd refused to conduct the procedure a second time and dropped her into the box where she would be safe with the girls inside.
She was packing away a small medical kit when one of the girls- Vera- came over and handed her a bundle of socks, she wasn't sure why she was so surprised, it was snowing and didn't seem as if it was going to be stopping anytime soon.
She should've been grateful.
But she wasn't, she wanted more than anything to escape the wretched maze and Wicked.
And she knew that would only be possible if she played the sheep they had turned all the others into, give them their variables and run into their open arms once she was out so she could slip back inside and destroy whatever she'd left standing.
That was what she wanted to do more than anything.
She drifted off to the memory of Thomas pulling her into his arms while Teresa lay on the floor, it was comforting in a way, to know that in the end, he had been looking out for her.
When she woke all she saw was the white flakes floating down from the sky, for a moment she forgot where she was, and she was confused until she turned over in her cot and saw Lise shrugging on her coat. The two met each other's gazes for a moment before Lise gestured to the shacks behind Esther, "you should get up unless you wanna miss breakfast."
Esther blankly stared at the girl before she trudged off into the snow, it wasn't until Lise had disappeared that the girl climbed out of her cot and quickly dressed, while it was only her second day here, she knew what was to be expected, she'd watched long enough to know how to fit among the others.
