Maze girl

✧༺ 21. Rune ༻∞

The morning air was heavy, thick with humidity, and clinging to my skin as we stood near the Maze entrance. The sky was overcast, with the sun only barely managing to peek through the dense clouds. It felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. My legs ached slightly from yesterday’s run, but it was nothing I couldn’t push through.

Minho stretched beside me, his usual confident smirk plastered across his face. “You ready for another exciting day of running in circles, Rune?” he teased, though there was an edge of seriousness in his tone.

I rolled my shoulders, adjusting the strap of my pack. “If you call yesterday’s near-Griever encounter ‘exciting,’ then yeah, I’m ready.”

Thomas chuckled, leaning against the wall, but his eyes were focused on the Maze, like he was already mapping out the day’s route in his head. “Let’s hope today’s a little quieter.”

Minho snorted. “Quiet doesn’t exist in this shuck place.”

Newt had walked us to the entrance earlier, like always, and I could still feel his lingering touch on my arm, his whispered “be careful” echoing in my mind. I took a deep breath, shaking off the nerves. We’d done this so many times now that it should’ve felt routine. But the Maze was never routine. It was alive, unpredictable, and every time I stepped into it, there was a part of me that feared I wouldn’t come back.

Minho waved us forward, and we took off at a steady pace, our footsteps thudding against the dirt path. The air in the Maze was cooler than in the Glade, the shadows of the towering walls swallowing most of the heat. The silence here was its own kind of oppressive, broken only by our breathing and the occasional distant rumble of stone shifting somewhere out of sight.

The first hour passed uneventfully. We took turns navigating, following the paths we’d memorized and marking any new changes. Minho was sharp as ever, calling out directions and keeping us in sync, while Thomas and I worked together to update our maps when we paused.

But there was an undercurrent of tension between us, unspoken but palpable. The discovery of the crack three days ago had shifted something in all of us. It wasn’t just running anymore; it was searching. Searching for confirmation, for hope, for something to prove we weren’t just chasing shadows.

By the time we reached one of the farthest sections of the Maze, the air felt heavier, the humidity sticking to my skin and making every breath feel like an effort. The walls here were taller, the stone darker, almost like it had been burned. I glanced at Minho, who had slowed his pace, his gaze scanning the surroundings.

“You feel that?” he murmured, barely audible over the sound of our footsteps.

Thomas nodded, his expression tight. “It’s… different here.”

I swallowed hard, my fingers tightening on the strap of my pack. “Different how?”

Minho didn’t answer immediately, but his body language told me everything I needed to know. He was tense, alert, like a predator sensing danger. “Keep your eyes open,” he said finally, his voice low.

We continued forward, slower now, our senses heightened. The air felt colder the deeper we went, and there was a faint sound—almost like whispering—that sent a chill down my spine. I glanced at Thomas, who looked equally uneasy, his hand brushing the wall as if grounding himself.

Then we saw it.

The path opened into a clearing, smaller than most of the open areas we’d encountered in the Maze. At first glance, it looked unremarkable—just another space surrounded by towering walls. But as we moved closer, I noticed something strange.

The ground here was covered in a layer of fine, silver dust, almost like ash. It shimmered faintly in the dim light, catching the edges of the weak sunlight filtering through the clouds. At the center of the clearing was a structure—a low, rectangular stone block, about waist-high, with strange carvings etched into its surface.

“What the hell is that?” Thomas whispered, his voice barely above a breath.

Minho moved cautiously, circling the block with deliberate steps. “Looks like some kind of altar,” he muttered, his eyes narrowing. “But what’s it doing here?”

I stepped closer, my curiosity outweighing my caution. The carvings on the stone were intricate, looping and twisting in patterns that seemed to have no beginning or end. At the center of the block was a small, circular depression, about the size of a fist.

“Do you think it means something?” I asked, my voice soft.

Minho shrugged, though his expression was anything but casual. “Everything in this shuck Maze means something.”

Thomas knelt beside the block, running his fingers over the carvings. “These symbols… they almost look like numbers.”

I squinted, following his gaze, and realized he was right. Among the looping patterns were small, distinct shapes—numbers, etched so finely they were almost invisible.

“What do you think it’s for?” I asked, a knot of unease forming in my stomach.

Thomas shook his head. “I don’t know. But I think we need to tell the others about this.”

Minho nodded, stepping back. “Agreed. Let’s mark it and head back before something decides to find us here.”

We quickly recorded the location and details of the clearing, the strange altar now burned into my memory. As we started the journey back, the unease lingered, mixing with a strange kind of anticipation.

This wasn’t just another part of the Maze. It was something deliberate, something left here for us to find.

By the time we reached the Glade, the overcast sky had darkened further, the first drops of rain beginning to fall. Newt was waiting near the entrance, his face lighting up with relief when he saw us.

“You’re late,” he said, though his tone was more teasing than reproachful.

“Yeah, well,” Minho replied, clapping him on the shoulder. “We found something. And it’s big.”

As we explained what we’d seen, the unease in my chest didn’t fade. The Maze was changing, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever we were heading toward, it was going to change everything.
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They are getting somewhere, but I can promise you one thing — in the next two chapter will happen A LOT!!