The Maze (Harry Potter 4 and the maze runner)

Into the fray

"Please...please don't kill him, kill me instead-

-"Stand aside you silly girl-

"No please, take me, please-

A flash of green shot from his wand as he watched the life seep from here eyes with sadistic glee.

I opened my eyes, to find Thomas shaking my shoulder. Instinctively I reached for my wand, to find Cedric already dressed and ready. Behind my eyelids clung shards of a forgotten memory.

" You ok Potter? You look like you just battled a Horntail" he grinned at me. I shoved my glasses on and followed him out towards the opening of the maze in the pale light of dawn.

"I think I'd take the Horntail any day over this" I said, waving to Minho in the distance.

"I never did congratulate you for your little stunt with the broom" he patted me on the back. As we approached Minho, he beckoned us over.

"We're going to explore sector seven today, it's open today which is odd because it's supposed to be..." He broke off "did you bring your magic sticks?" he asked 

"If you by magic sticks you mean our wands, then yes" Cedric grinned. Minho rolled his eyes and put away the map.

"Let's go" he broke off into a sprint, we followed behind him, my hand gripped tightly around my wand.

We'd been running for a while before Minho held us up. 

"Sector seven" he spread his arms out. We'd reach an opening, where giant shards of concrete dotted the landscape. I strained my ears, listening to the eerie silence.

"Wait" Cedric pulled out his wand "homenum revelio" he flourished his wand. There was a haughty silence that followed.

"We're alone" he said.

Minho sunk to the ground pulling out a map. Spidery crimson trails trekked up the paper with numbers scribbled illegibly.

"We have about half an hour to explore this area before the chances of us becoming Griever food multiply tenfold. Think you can make time go faster?" He shot a hopeful look.

"No, but I can set up a perimeter that will warn us if anything comes lurking" Cedric flourished his wand and murmured an incantation. A pale blue swan seeped out of his wand, dipping it's head shyly. Cedric smiled wryly at me.

"It's a patronus, it can send messages. Heard you performed a corpereal one last year Potter" he stole a glance.

"Yeah but making them send messages was more of a Hermione thing" I grimaced hearing her voice in my head. Honestly Harry...have you ever even flicked through the Standard Book of Spells?

"So if a Griever comes looking..." Minho broke off

"Then I'll blast it with my wand...the patronus is if something else finds us before the Grievers" he murmured under his breath.

"Death Eaters?" Thomas asked. I nodded and began walking.

"What are those signs? 'Wicked is Good'...what is that even supposed to mean?" I asked as we trudged along a row of concrete monsters.

"Something we're still working out ourselves. We think it's from our Creators" Minho said, making a right turn.

" By Creators do you mean Ministry of Magic?" Cedric spun and looked at me knowingly.

"Never heard of any Ministry of Magic before...the most magical thing that ever happened to us was this shank coming out of the box" Minho nodded towards Thomas.

"Then everything went to hell" Thomas mumbled. 

As if on cue with his words, there was a distant speck of darkness that blotted out the sun light. Dread pooled into my stomach, my fingers tightening around my wand.

"What is that?" Minho breathed next to me.

"Somethings wrong. The maze has stopped moving. I can't hear anything" Thomas spoke from my right. In the distance a dot of light flitted past the hedges, the figure of the hauntingly beautiful swan dissipating in the air.

"They're coming" Cedric whispered "Minho...you know the maze inside out...where do we hide?" 

"We've never explored this section before, how the hell am I-"

"Minho pull yourself together and think goddamn it" I listened into the darkness and heard the faint sound of a woman laughing, sinister peals of derision.

"What about the Glade?" 

"We can't go back, we'd be endangering their lives. I think I the walls are changing..." Minho's voice hitched up a notch with panic.

"Harry if they find us..." Cedric broke off.

"I know Cedric..." I turned to Minho 

"We have to go further in, I think they might be another alcove, or somewhere to hide, there has to be something-

"What about the Grievers?" Thomas whispered

"We have to go Harry, I see them-" 

"Now Minho we go now or-

There was a sound of laughter again, this time closer. I pulled us around the corner and blasted a hole into the brushes. As soon as we climbed in, they wove their way back into shape, obscuring us in darkness. 

I could just make out the whites of Thomas's eyes as the voices neared us. There was simply only time to frantically hiss 'nox'.