This Conspiracy

Chapter 33

Author stuff: And now for something completely different.

Trigger warnings for this chapter: Vomiting and body fluids.

Chapter 33

In Which We Venture Into A New Mind

Adne was the frayed end of a livewire.

Energy buzzed in every part of her. It sent her running, lungs aching and mind humming. It made everything seem fuzzy. Jolting, shocking, jittering through her veins.

She was so charged up that if someone were to touch her, they would be on the receiving end of a rather powerful shock. She needed to expel it before... before... before it consumed her and ruined everything around her. But she couldn't. Not here.

Away. She had to get away.

Away from the boys and Flossy and their whole shuck system of government. Whose brilliant idea was it anyway to make her speak about... that?

She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to think about it. She wanted to forget about it. She wanted, no, needed to run.

Which was why, when Ash called her a liar and the boys all started shouting over one another, she took the chance. She shot up and out the door — and away from everyone.

Distantly, she could hear Flossy call after her. Her voice strained and fearful, but it was more of a far off memory echoing around her mind. It only grew more distant the farther she ran, away from the Homestead and into the Deadheads.

She was away from the peering, daunting eyes of the boys, but the Deadheads weren't much better. The air seemed to be pulled from her lungs and everything was so close — so, so close. Too close and choking. There was something caught in her throat and seemed to be growing up and out her mouth — roots or a branch.

No, it was bile and sick. It burned all the way up and past her lips, leaving her cold and trembling on the forest floor.

She wiped the sick and saliva off her chin with the back of her wrist, leaving her skin with a sticky sensation clinging there. Even after wiping her hand on her shirt.

She made it a few more long strides and then the world buckled around her. She rolled down a hill of sort, leaves and twigs scraping against her skin. She hoped there was no poison ivy around.

When she finally came to a stop, it was at the bottom of two hills. They were steep along the sides and slick, if the dampness and mud streaking against her skin and clothes was anything to go by.

She lied there for several moments, gasping in ragged breaths, taking note of any injuries. All superficial, except for her ego. She was glad no one had seen her fall down.

At least, she thought so until a body tumbled down after her, landing near her feet.

The body shuddered for a moment and then a diamond shaped face with brown-almost-black eyes — unfamiliar and extraordinarily pretty beneath a mane of strange, red hair. It was the girl Archie had brought back from the Maze.

The girl opened her mouth and winced as a dry croak escaped her lips.

"...over here," a voice from overhead said. It was one of the boys.

Both of them froze, barely breathing. Ande took a quick glance at the girl. Her dark eyes were glaring up at the edge of the steep hill, sweeping from side to side. Her hands were clawed into the ground, digging into the soft earth. And her mouth twisted into a silent snarl.

Above them, heavy footsteps crunched over branches and dry leaves.

Adne pressed herself further into the soft earth. If only it would open up and swallow her. A pale form cut through the dim light and then something stopped it.

"Careful there, Girlie," a voice over them said. "Don't want to fall down there."

She knew that voice.

"Justin?" Adne said, her voice scraping against her own eardrums.

"Adne?" Flossy said above them. "Adne, how did you — Archie, Jeff, can you two go get some rope? Adne?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I brought half the Glade with me. They're worried about you."

She blew out a puff of air. Not ideal, to say the least.

"Just," she said, licking her lips. "Just get us out of here, and I'll call it even."

"Us?"

. . .

It was a game.

Not to her but to them.

She would never make something so cruel, so useless into a game.

And it was a game they wanted her to play again.

Well, not necessarily. They wanted her to participate in the game again. To help solve whatever useless puzzles and riddles they made up for this group.

Not that her own group had solved it. She doubted they could, as much as they bickered. Her group wouldn't solve the maze for a long time.

They didn't know... They wouldn't know...

By now, they thought she was dead. Which was fine. Well, no it wasn't. It hurt to know that they thought she was dead.

Which was why she did what she had to. And it had cost her... it cost her a lot.

Friends and family. Strangers. Her life.

Her ability to speak.

She remembered, quite vividly, the icy bite of metal slicing through the muscle. Red, hot blood choking her as she fought — tried to fight. The ache of the dislocated shoulder from the struggle and the burn from it being put back in place.

She'd come out alive — being stung and pulled out — and she'd come out alive, again — thrown into another maze.

She didn't know these... boys, but she would, in time. They wouldn't know her, though. They couldn't.

At least, not yet.

For now, it would be best for them to think she was all scrambled in the head. It would be for the best.

And when she could, she would tell them.

Author stuff cont'd.: I rewrote the last scene and numerous scenes with her in them because I forgot I cut out her tongue. Well, not me personally, but you know. (vaguely gestures to WICKED)

The Adne bit was added in when I got to a point of rewriting and realized that I'd said everything I needed to say was said in less than 500 words. I don't like posting anything shorter than at least 1200 words. That's just a weird preference of mine.