the kids are alright, thomas tmr

005; i remember you

The wind swept past Ella sourly, causing her hair to fly across her face. She sat with her legs dangling off the side of the tree house, her body leaning against the log of a railing. Her hazel eyes were sunken with sorrow, red streaks flowing to her irises with pain. The skin surrounding her eyes was a dark purple, her nose and lips a vibrant red. Her body ached with complete numbness, something she wished she hadn't come accustomed to.

The opening of the hatch door made Ella quickly turn around, wiping her eyes and cheeks of any fallen tears. "Hey." Thomas's husky voice spoke quietly as he lifted his head up through the hole. Ella gave him a nod of acknowledgment before turning back to face the glade. The boy sat down next to Ella, finding it hard to look anywhere but at the girl across from him. He frowned as he noticed her blotchy red eyes and nose.

The two sat in silence for a while, both not really sure how long, but it wasn't awkward. The boy was trying anything and everything to think of something to say, but whenever he opened his mouth, nothing came out. His mind drifted back to the dream he had last night, the one where he saw himself with a younger looking Ella. Surely if anyone was going to tell him anything about the glade it would be Ella, right? After all, they knew each other. Or at least, he knew her.

"How are you holding up?" The question seemed to slip out of the boys mouth without him realizing, "I mean-how-um I'm not really good at this." He stumbles, causing Ella to crack a smile at the boy. "Tom, I'm okay." The girl placed her hand on Thomas's forearm, sending him a small smile. She hadn't even realized the nickname slip from her mouth, it just came out so naturally, like she has always called him Tom, not Thomas.

The sound of metal hitting concrete suddenly met the two's ears, the girl letting out a sigh as she watched Gally scratch Ben's name off the wall. "I know it sounds bad-" Ella started, her eyes still stuck on the small patch of concrete— "but sometimes I wish I could just get used to this sort of thing." She pointed down to Gally as he continued to scratch through Ben's name. "Would make it a whole lot easier." 

The two sat in silence for a moment, Ella's glossed eyes staring at the closed maze entrance. Her mind raked back to every time she saw Ben running back into the glade. He was always wearing a smile, always cracking a joke, or laughing at something another runner had said. She remembered him at every bonfire, drunk of his ass even before he got his dinner. This was the worst part about losing a glader, because even though the boy was gone, the memory of them still floated around in Ella's head.

"But doesn't the pain make you human?" Thomas spoke, his gaze stuck on Ella. "You're starting to sound like Alby." She giggled, clearing her face of any new shed tears. The two sat in silence for a couple minutes before Thomas spoke again, "Can I tell you something?" Ella locked eyes with him briefly before looking back to the closed entrance. "Of course." "And you won't tell anyone?"

"Whatever you wanna tell me, it'll stay between us, unless it's a way out of here." The two chuckle before Thomas's lips purse and he rubs his hands together. "Well I had this dream last night." Her face contorts into one of confusion and hesitation, "Woah, um I didn't think it would be this kinda of conversation." The boys eyes widen and mouth opens in realization, "What? No! No! It's nothing like that, I promise!"

Small giggles slip past Ella's mouth as she watched Thomas's face redden. "Ok, I believe you." The smile placed on her lips and the endless giggles she created, made Thomas' face flush even more. "It's just, in the dream there was this girl, and all I could see was her face...but she kept saying that everything was going to change." Thomas paused to take a glance at Ella before continuing, "Then this women's voice kept repeating the same thing over and over." Ella turned her body to face Thomas's, and so he knew she had his full attention. "What was the women saying?" "Wicked is good."

Ella's breath hitched in her throat, her lips pursed and her eyes moved to look at the box. Thomas' eyebrows furrowed at her reaction and he was quick to move closer to her. "What is it? Have you heard that phrase too?" Ella shakes her head, taking one last look at the box before looking back to the boy beside her. "No, but...on every box of supplies that we get, the acronym W.C.K.D is stamped on the top." Thomas fiddles with his hands as he looks down, "W.C.K.D? That could stand for wicked right?"

"I'd never really thought about what it could stand for, but yeah, it makes sense. It's just, why would this women say that wicked is good if they're the ones who put us here? I mean we're just kids." Thomas hesitated to include her in the one detail that scared him the most, the small little detail that Ella herself was also in his dream. "Ella, promise you won't freak out with what I'm about to tell you?" Ella only nodded her head, her eyes boring into his own, and somewhere deep down, both of them were dying to know if they recognized each other.

"You we're in my dream." Their eyes locked for a long moment, neither one of them daring to say a word. "But it felt different with you." Thomas spoke lightly, like he was walking across broken glass. "How so?" "Like with the women and girl, it was this sense of, I don't know, recognizing them. But with you...it was like I knew you, like I know you."

"You're in mine too." Was all Ella could say, her eyes glued to his hazelnut ones. "What do you mean?" She sighed and let her hands fall to her lap. She bit her lip in a nervous habit, and she could practically feel his gaze all over her. She took a deep breath before she spoke again, "I don't think I was supposed to be sent here, like maybe I was an error in this whole elaborate plan." Ella looked to Thomas, finding him already with his eyes on her, encouraging her to continue.

"I'm the only girl here Thomas!" Ella began, chuckling. "And I wasn't sent up like everyone else." The boys eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?" Ella sighed, bringing her legs up from the edge of the wood and sitting criss crossed. "I was sent up in the middle of the night, Thomas." When the raven haired boy didn't say anything, Ella continued. "I was sent up in the middle of the night and..." The girl was hesitant to inform Thomas of the twos past, or what she knew of it. It didn't matter though, she assumed he'd find out eventually, and what difference would it make? They would still be trapped.

"And what, Ella?" Thomas resituated himself so he was mirroring Ella. His voice was so gentle and calming, it reminded her of the night he sent her up, where he had promised to be right behind her. "I'm the only one here who remembers what happened to them right before they were sent up." Thomas moved closer to the girl, his face in a state of shock, and wonder, and curiosity. "You remember what it was like before this?" Ella shook her head, lowering it to stare at her fiddling fingers.

"No, it's just...recently I've been remembering small moments— not everything! But something's." Ella lifted her head to look at Thomas, "What do you remember, Ella?" The girls eyes caught Thomas' gaze as she spoke, "You, I remember you."

Before Thomas or Ella could speak again, the hatch door was opened and Newt and Minho popped up. "Am I going to be finding you two up here on a regular basis, now?" Ella chuckled, a small smile gracing her face as she stood up. "You doing ok, El?" Minho asks, his face contorted in concern for the girl. "Yeah, yeah I'll be fine." "Good that then!" Newt chirped up, a large smile drawn across his face. "Well it's sun down, time for bed."

Thomas could only give Ella a glance before he was forced to part from the trio, going his way to his hammock while the others went to the homestead. As the two drifted apart, they shared one last look before going their separate ways.