Different (The Maze Runner)

Chapter 23

My eyes slowly open, and I see Chuck sitting at the foot of my bed. "Hey skank."

My eyes widen. "What did you just call me?!"

"Skank. What, did you lose your memory again? Skank is a Glader vocabulary word."

"Chuck its shank not skank!"

"Then what's a skank?"

"Not important."

He laughs. "Sorry... still getting used to everything here. You've been asleep for a few days so your boyfriend's been helping me out. Pretty nice guy."

"Wait, I was asleep for days?"

He nods. "About four days this time."

I sigh. That means I've spent just under two weeks unconscious.

"You need the rest, Lyss. Have you looked at yourself lately?"

I shake my head. "No, there's only one mirror in the whole Glade and it's in my hut."

"Hang on then, I'll be right back." He gets up and walks out of the small room.

I sigh and sit back as I wait for him to return. When he does return a couple minutes later, he hands me my mini-mirror and says "take a look at yourself. You haven't gotten to since the sting."

I take the mirror and look at my reflection. What I see is so bad it's almost horrifying. My skin is a very pale color, I have dark circles under my eyes, my brown eyes have turned a darker shade of brown, and my hair is all knotted. I'm a mess. "Oh my god..." I quietly mutter.

I sit up and start running a hand through my hair, attempting to get some of the knots out.

"Believe it or not, you looked much worse last week. Your veins were a sickly shade of green. It was disgusting."

I roll my eyes. "Thanks for the compliment, Chuckie."

"Chuckie? Since when do you call me that?"

I shrug. "Since when do you call me Lyss?"

"Since a while ago at this point."

"Well then I call you Chuckie as of a few seconds ago. Do you not wanna be called that?"

He shrugs. "I guess you can. But only you."

I nod. "Alright, only me."

He grabs the chair he was sitting in and brings it so he can sit by my head. "Did you... remember anything?"

"Yes. Anything specific you're looking for?"

"Our family. Parents, other siblings, anything?"

He doesn't know that I'm the only family he has left... he doesn't know that they're dead. That our parents are dead, and any other siblings we might've had are dead. But I don't wanna crush the poor kid's hope, so instead I shake my head. "Nothing. Just some stuff about me."

He nods slightly. "Alright, let's not talk about that. How're ya feeling?"

"A lot better, actually. I'm not in pain."

"Not being in pain is always a good thing. I'm sure someone will hear us talking and get you some food."

In response to the word food, my stomach growls. "I haven't eaten much in the last two weeks."

He sighs. "Fine, I'll get you food. Be back in a minute." He gets up and leaves the room again.

I sit back and think about the memories I recovered this time around. I guess the first one was when I met Aris. Honestly, I don't know why half the stuff I'm remembering is about him. It's like someone's trying to tell me something. The second one, with Ava Paige, someone might've been trying to tell me something through that one, too. Ava said something about Chuck being an important Variable. What even is a Variable? And then the third one, what was I even doing? Testing Newt?