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ESTHER woke within seconds of seeing the boy.
She'd gone to bed after devising a decent enough plan to kill Harriet and from the way her mind was still churning, she wasn't sure if she'd actually seen the boy or if he was simply part of her imagination. But now, as she looked back at it, he had definitely not been real, otherwise, the snow would've landed on him rather than avoid him.
Yes, he was not real.
She took a small breath, more to calm herself than because her lungs needed the cold air, not that it was very good, it left her throat with a dry ache and she almost wished for the hot air she had once experienced in the summers at WICKED's facility.
She wouldn't get that back until she corrected the trials, then, and only then, would Ava allow her to return.
As Esther slipped out from under her bedding she glanced around, numerous girls were already out of their beds and pulling their packs together, night had barely begun to set over the maze and its inhabitants and still, most seemed worried.
Harriet had sent them to bed early, in hopes of getting the girls rested before they ventured out into the maze. Esther didn't feel very well rested, she felt like a ton of bricks had been slammed onto her head and then tied onto her back. And the feeling only intensified as she moved to slip on her thick pair of boots.
God, how long did Ava expect her to stay here? It was already awful enough interacting with the people she had grown up watching and practically torturing on a mental- and somewhat physical- scale, but to have to kill one? She'd have to ask Ava to have the memory removed once she returned to the facility, she didn't want to have to relive Harriet's death night after night.
She watched as the other girls slipped their packs onto their backs as if this wasn't something new to them. As if going into the maze at night had been the most normal idea in the world. What Esther wouldn't have done for a few extra hours of sleep...
But she knew there was no rest for the WICKED. And she knew that she had a very important task waiting to be completed, and the sooner it was accomplished, the better. For her and everyone else.
Once she finished dressing for the cold night she too slipped her pack onto her back and began to follow after the nearest girl, she couldn't remember her name but could slightly recall it began with an E, perhaps it was Elsie or Ellen, she'd figure it out later, that is, if she wasn't gone by then.
A large group of girls, led by Harriet, had gathered near the entrance to the labyrinth they called the maze. She let her eyes follow after each girl as the one he'd been following- Elsie or Ellen- drifted off towards a small group of girls within the larger group that Esther had identified as her friends before being sent into the maze.
