Stubborn Cold Yet Sweet Princess in the Glade

Chapter 5 ~No way out~

I sit on a chair beside Ace's bed waiting for him to wake up. Gally enters the tent and stands beside me. From the corner of my eye, I see him cross his arms. I keep my eyes on Ace's body but decide to speak up.

"Need anything?" I ask coldly.

"Ben is at the doors already, he's waiting for you." he answers in a voice almost like a whisper. I stand up and walk around him.

"Watch him. Let's just hope he wakes up in a good mood. Who knows? He might reciprocate." I say sarcastically. I hear him sigh then says "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"

"I'm not the one on a bed with a wound on his head. Say that to him. I'm not angry at you. See you later." I walk out of the tent and run towards the open doors to the maze. I see Ben leaning against a wall looking down at his feet.

"Hey, thanks for waiting. You got my pack?"

"Yeah. Here. Come on." he throws me my pack and starts to run into the maze. I run after him while putting on the pack.

For some reason, after only a day of not going in the maze, I already miss it. The maze somehow calms me down. Maybe because I believe it's our way out.

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After hours of running, we finally decide to go back to the Glade. Even though I didn't want to, I agreed because Ben is obviously exhausted. We walk inside and Ace greets us while carrying some wood.

"How's your head?" I ask pointing to his bandaged forehead.

"Oh, it's okay already." he smiles at me.

"What's the wood for?" Ben asks.

"Gally asked for them. I'm a builder now." he says proudly. I nod, pursing my lips together. 'He isn't mad at Gally, like, not even one bit?' I thought.

"Okay. Well, we have to go now. See you, you proud builder." I walk past him and head to the homestead but stop because Ben calls me.

"What is it?" I ask, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Umm.. Don't you want to come to the map room?"

"Map room? The shuck is that?"

"Wait, you mean Minho never told you about the map room for a month?!" he asks, looking extremely surprised.

"Wait, take me there first." I quickly demand. I swear, if this map room thing is important, I will tear Minho's hair apart for not telling me! I honestly wasn't told about anything like map rooms. Alby assigned Minho to tell me everything about runners and everything related to runners.

Ben leads me to a different part of the woods, where I never see anyone go to. I guess everytime I get back here, all I have in mind is to rest.

We enter this little wooden shelter and inside are papers hanging on walls and a table with a cloth over it. I walk towards it and Ben goes to the other side of the table.

"Okay, before I tell you this, please explain why you never have been in here before." Ben says after a good ten seconds.

"Minho never told me and I never see anyone go here, not even you or Minho. I just go straight to the homestead. None of you invited me here..well, until today. Which takes me to his question: Why do you only now think about inviting me here?"

"Well.. Everytime we would get back, you would instantly run to the homestead as fast as you can. Only now does Ace come up to stop you before you would've ran off." he explained. I slowly nod and clear my throat. I tug on the white cloth signalling him to take it off and he does.

On the table is what seems like a small maze made out of wood and pebbles. Must be the replica of the real maze.

"Well, what's so special about this that you have to make a shelter in the secluded part of the woods?" I ask Ben. He opens his mouth to answer but closes it again because of Minho's voice.

"Hey, you two, how's the run today?" he greets casually and stands beside me.

"I think you should be the one to explain to her Minho. You're better at this. I'll  go now." Ben leaves after saying that. Minho smiles at me but I stare at him in disbelief.

"What?" he says after about a minute.

"Don't "what" me. You never told me about this room!"

"Oh yeah.. Well, I guess I'll tell you now." he walks around the table and looks at me from across the room.

"Okay. Spill, sassy queen."

"This is the whole maze. All of it." he says seriously.

"If this is the whole maze, then that means you already found a way out!" I yell, slightly angry. He tries to speak but I continue, "Why didn't you tell us? Wait.. Are you one of those people who put us here? Do you want to—"

"We're not one of them!" he shouts cutting me off. This catches me off guard because Minho has never shouted at me before. "There is no way out. If there was, then we would have been out of here already. We would've seen it by now."

"Are you sure that this IS all of it? What if—"

"There's no more what-if's, okay? I've been to every dead ends. I've been to every corner of the maze. There's no way out."

"Then why would you lie to us?" I ask, still trying to process everything he just said.

"Alby's call. He wanted everyone to think that there is still hope. If he didn't think of this plan, maybe the others would have lost their minds." he says in a matter-of-fact tone. I nod slowly. That means we're stuck here forever?

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Everyone on the table chats with each other while I just eat my dinner in silence. I look at the doors that open up every morning. I could hear those grievers screaming. Newt told me back then that those things caused most of the deaths of some gladers.

"Hey, you okay, (Y/N)?" Newt asks, putting his hand on me shoulder. I nod at him and continue eating my food. He pats my shoulder a couple times before pulling his hand back.

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Short chapter, I know. Sorry for the late update.

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Labyu Vanillavers~ ❤️❤️