Burning Curiosity //Minho

Insanity

"I think your boyfriend is jealous." I looked over at Aris, startled that he had spoken. We had been silent for maybe ten minutes, neither of us saying a word since we started walking. I glanced up ahead of us at all the boys trudging along. Who was my boyfriend? I had a tiny inkling of who Aris might be talking about but I pretended to be clueless.

"Who?" I asked, confused. Aris smirked a little.

"Minho." I locked eyes with Minho as his name left Aris' lips and Minho's words to me all came rushing back. I don't trust him and I want to know how he feels about us, Group B. I want to know everything about him. Minho might think I chose to be Aris' buddy because he told me to. I was just doing it in honor of our old friendship.

"He's not my boyfriend and I think he's just worried because I'm the only girl and I'm "fragile" or something." I said, putting air quotes around the world fragile.

"Well you're definitely not fragile." Aris snorted. I smiled but he seemed confused by his own comment. "I don't know why I keep talking to you like that, like we're best friends. I don't even really remember you." I shrugged. We were kind of like best friends.. Though him and Rachel were closer than the two of us. I didn't have a bond with Aris the way Rachel did. I was supposed it but.. It didn't work out.

And as the time drew closer for people to go into the Maze, I saw less and less of Thomas, Teresa, Rachel and Aris. They didn't want me interacting with them. I was a failed prodigy. They were the golden kids. So despite sharing a room with Teresa, up until very recently I hadn't seen much of her or any of them really. Teresa, Aris, Rachel and Thomas were all kept busy watching the others, preparing to go into the Maze while the Creator kept me sidelined. I became merely a bystander to this whole experiment. That is until Teresa asked me to step in.

"Can you tell me about your Glade." I asked, bringing myself back to the present. "About Rachel." Aris seemed startled by the mention of her name and I knew I messed up. Before Aris was able to answer me how, Frypan gave a shout.

"Look!" He was pointing in the distance at something, two blurry figures heading our way.

"Move in tight everyone. If they try to attack us we have to be ready." Minho commanded and everyone immediately formed a tight huddle, Aris and I somehow went up in the middle of said huddle. As the figures came closer, I was able to distinguish one as a man and one as a women. They looked pretty normal, except for the fact that parts of their hair were torn out, their clothes were ripped and ragged, and their skin was cracked, red and dry.

"What do you think they want?" Somebody next to me asked.

"Maybe they want to rip away parts of our flesh and eat it." Came someone's reply in front of me. I couldn't tell if this voice was joking or being serious.

"Shut up back there." Minho commanded. Everyone fell silent. The man and the women stopped running and stared at us, giving us a berth of at least five feet. "What do you want?" Minho called out. They were swaying slightly and had this dead look in their bloodshot eyes.

"Came to see if you were Gone." The women spoke. Her voice was hoarse and gravelly. Everybody seemed confused by the use of the word Gone. I shivered though, knowing what they meant.

"Gone? What does that mean?" Minho asked, frowning.

"Do you and your friends have The Flare boy?" The man demanded in a loud voice.

"Yeah, yeah some fancy guy in a suit said that we did." Newt hit Minho and the two of them and Thomas shared a few whispered words.

"Would they know about W.I.C.K.E.D?" Aris asked. I shrugged.