Every One of Us [Book 2, Maze Runner]

Did someone say depresso again? (3)

I shaked a little, watching that guy fall all the way to the floor. There was no way he could survive that, and suddenly, I felt disgusted. For a moment there, I felt like I could hear a loud, deep thud and squelch because of his bloody landing, but it was probably just my random mind. Hopefully. Nevertheless, the sound of blood splattering was still in my head.

Still kind of trembling, I looked at my position, but not before wiping a little speck of blood on my hand. I didn't know how I had been hanging on - my legs were dangling so dangerously on the ladder hanging on to the compartment that if I made one tiny, wrong mistake, my death would be grave and gruesome. I probably would need help getting up, because I was not flexible enough to reach the upper ladder steps in a position like this.

"Can someone help me?" I asked. Unfortunately, when I tried to reach up the ladder, I saw everyone already looking at me. They saw what happened. I gulped.

"Oh, um... yeah," Newt said, then he said something to everyone else standing on the train compartment.

Since my neck felt strained for looking up so long in an... unnatural position. Right now, my knees felt like jelly - how long had I been down here? 5 minutes? 10? Was I just overreacting. Maybe.

When my thoughts dispersed, I heard someone coming down the ladder. I looked up for one millisecond to see who it was. Thomas. Tommaso.

I stopped looking at him, then stayed hanging, my arms by my side. My head suddenly started to feel... weird. It hurt a little. Probably because of the blood going down to it.

"Can you try to reach your hand up, Alaynah?" Thomas asked. I looked up again, and Thomas was reaching his hand out for me to take it. I took a breath. I probably needed a chiropractor, preferably a five-star one, since my stupid fat body probably couldn't reach up. Something would probably be wrong with my bones if I couldn't reach.

I tried to reach up, straining my hands really close to Thomas', but our fingers only brushed slightly before disconnecting.

"Uh, just a little closer," muttered Thomas, but I had absolutely no idea if he was talking to me or himself.

Nevertheless, while my legs were feeling like jelly but also as if they were on fire, I sucked in a breath, then tried to reach Thomas' hand at a tight grip. This time, luckily, Thomas grabbed my hand successfully, which, however, left me in a really uncomfortable position. As I had stated a little earlier, the back of my wobbly [and big] knees were resting on one of the bottom steps of the ladder,  holding me up, while my stomach was arched [probably not gracefully] so it would be easier for Thomas' hand to reach mine.

"How do I...?" I asked, but didn't know how to word it properly. "How do I get out of this highly uncomfortable position?"

"Just kick your legs away from the ladder, Alaynah!" Thomas responded. "I'll keep you from falling by keeping hold of your hand, trust me!"

"I am very aware of that, Tommaso, I'm just not aware of how to trust you won't drop me, because I can feel my hand slipping!" It was true - my hand was going sweaty because of the effort it was taking me to vend like this.

"How can you not trust me?!" Thomas asked, but then he hesitated, then said, "Look at me."

For a second, I felt like laughing. Seriously? "Look at me." It reminded me of the Ashley dance trend. "Ashley, don't look at him. Look at me! Ashley, look at ME!"

Thomas then continued with, "Does this face look like it can lie to you or fail you?"

"Well damn, Tommaso, you got me there. Touchè... Okay, fine. I'll do it. I'll trust you. But I'm not doing it because of you. I'm doing it for your face." I stuck out my tongue at him like a whiny child.

Slowly, but surely, I kicked my feet off the ladder, which meant the only thing holding me up was Thomas' hand. "Well, get on the ladder quick if you don't want to fall to your death!"

Suddenly, the berg felt like it was going way faster. My heart started feeling like it was racing out of my body. I also felt really dizzy, as if I had taken a sleeping pill, and my whole body started trembling. My breath quickly shortened, and my hands tingled. Tears stung my eyes.

"You okay?!" Thomas shouted over the loud heartbeats that echoed in my mind.

"I think... I think I'm having a panic attack," I said through breaths and gasps.

"Shit! Just uhh.. hold on to the ladder, uhmm..."

I could not hold on to the ladder at all, even if I had tried. My fingers unclenched from Thomas' hand, and I suddenly started feeling lightheaded, like I was about to pass out. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I did. I passed out.

[Some of you might know that you will probably not pass out from panic attacks, but in this case, Alaynah was also hyperventilating, which I wanted to make clear. I researched so I could sound highly medical 😭🙏.]

Short chapter mb.