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It was late in the night and for the second night in a row, Allie went to bed with the haunted image of Ben's face burned into her mind, tormenting her. He was gone. Banished to the world of the Grievers. Allie could only hope he got what she wanted him to know. She was sure that if he got it he was blaming her for everything that went wrong in the Glade about now. But that thought was still better than the latter.
That Benny was taken to wherever Grievers took their prey. Allie knew that this time if she closed her eyes and tried to sleep it just wouldn't be happening so she got up and made her way towards the Graveyard. Halfway through she could hear steps behind her, but that didn't bother her. Allie figured it was one of the boys making sure she was okay.
When she got to a certain tree she sat down and leaned her back on the trunk of it. Allie didn't know if she was surprised or really rather not when Thomas sat beside her. This time though he wasn't quiet. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No." Allie said, her voice quivering.
Thomas looked at her and questioned himself if he should be quite instead, but by this time everyone knew Thomas was a curious boy and so he asked another question.
"What is the Changing?" asked Thomas. Allie looked over at him. Question of her own in her eyes. That's when Thomas said. "You said that Benny was... changing and that it was only matter of time before he got either Banished or killed."
Allie took a deep breath, before she looked back at the sky and started to explain "The Changing is very painful. First there's unconsciousness, that happens after a person is stung by a Griever. Then hallucinations and seizures. They look ashy, permanent veins, a case of hives and self-inflicted bruises and scratches are scattered on their skin. Their eyes look bloodshot, like they did not sleep in days, but cried instead. Most of the time when the person would be stunged, they would get some of their own memories back. These memories are... well, fleeting at most. There are only bits and pieces. Most of the memories are horrible, it causes the people to go insane... aggressive."
"Like Ben." Thomas whispered.
"Yeah, like Benny." Allie whispered back. They were quite for a minute, lost in their thoughts.
"Is it my fault?" Thomas asked, it bothered him that Ben got Banished because he tried to kill him.
"Thomas, Ben was stung, it was only a matter of time before they Banished him or killed him. You were just in his way." She said still looking up to the sky.
That made Thomas feel a tad bit better, but he still couldn't help but feel that it was his fault. "Were you and Ben close? You seemed to be. I mean... What did you say to him before... well..."
Allie sighed and tried to change the subject. "Does Chuck take good care of you? He's a sweet kid."
