Nepenthe (TMR FF) UNDER EDITING

Chapter 31

"Please don't cry, Emma." I gaped at my dark haired friend, opening and closing my mouth, yet not speaking a word. His clothes were torn and dirty, as if he had been rolling in around some dirt, whilst dodging a few Grievers. His eyes looked as if he had gone mad and had only just come back to his sanity, and from the look on his face, I could tell that it wasn't going to last long. "Look, I'm okay. I'm not hurt."

Gally gestured to himself, raising his eyebrows at me. I looked him up and down, my eyes wide when I glanced at his leg, only to see a large gash down his calf.

"You don't look okay." I muttered, just loud enough so he could hear. Gally bit his lip, his eyes flashing.

"I'm alive." He replied, shrugging. I turned my head away, my eyebrows furrowing. "I'm alive, Emma. I'm fine. I'm okay."

"I don't care, Gally! I thought you were dead!" I snapped, clenching my jaw. I refused to look at him, my hands starting to shake. "I couldn't do it, Gally. You told me to look after them, and I couldn't do it."

I sniffed, scrunching my nose up. Gally sighed, shuffling towards the door of the slammer. I turned my head slightly to the left, watching as he clenched the cage door, his knuckles turning white.

"Emma, none of that matters anymore. You have to listen to me-"

"Do you have any idea how you made me feel? You let me think that you were dead, Gally! You told me to protect the other Gladers, and I thought that maybe if I did that, you would forgive me for being part of the reason that you all were put in this hell. Turns out I couldn't do that either." I told him, gesturing around the Slammer. Gally visibly swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing up and down. I let out a wary breath. "I tried to kill Newt, Gally."

Gally's eyes softened, and his grip loosened on the wooden bars. "Emma...he's going to die anyway."

My jaw dropped and my breath caught in my throat, as I watched Gally's eyes harden with malice. My heart pounded in my chest and my knees buckled slightly. "What?" I whispered, stepping back.

Gally chuckled darkly, running a hand through his dirty hair. "They're going to start picking the Glader's off one by one. Every night one of them will be taken until eventually no one is left alive. Not even you're safe, Emma."

"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice breaking.

"Even leaders need to make sacrifices. This is yours." He shrugged, as if it didn't faze him in the slightest. I bit the inside of my cheek, my chest started to heave up and down. The inside of the Slammer suddenly seemed to be extremely small.

"What did they do to you, Gally?" I choked out, stumbling forward. This wasn't Gally. It couldn't be Gally. Something was wrong.

"Stop pretending to be concerned for me! You don't care about me! You don't care about any of us!" Gally snarled, glaring at me as if I was the worst person in the world. "I hate you! This is yours and that shuck faced Thomas' fault!"

Gally started shaking the door, his teeth bared. I turned away, the fear starting to consume my body. I felt like bursting into tears and throwing up all at the same time, but instead, I couldn't do anything but listen to his rage that was starting to release.

"I remember everything. We used to be friends! How could you do this to us?" I bit my lip, squeezing my eyes shut. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

By now, he was screaming, so loud that I was surprised that none of the Glader's had heard. Or maybe they did, and just decided to ignore it.

"Gally-" I muttered, but was cut off by a sob that came from no other than the boy in front of me. I turned back around so that I could see him. I pressed my lips together, my heart breaking at the desperate tears that ran down his flushed cheeks. He looked entirely broken.