Run - Tales From The Glade and Beyond

Rachel

Beth seemed to struggle internally for a split second. Her face registered calm, then anger, pain, desperation, back to calm. Then, she threw it. It was so quick, there was nothing to block, nothing to flinch from. A knife in her hand one second, the air next. The sound was the worst part. The thud. Sonya's scream. A small, strangled noise in the back of her throat that felt as loud as gunshot in the near silent room. Everything seemed to pause, as if the universe had stopped to see this one event. She stumbled backwards, one arm clutching her abdomen, the other seeking support. Her knees buckled and she fell. The others where there in an instant. Sonya taking her hand, Harriet gently pulling the knife free, Aris holding her head and brushing her hair out her eyes.
"You need to go now." She choked, "You don't know what else they'll do."
"No! You're hurt. Please, Rachel, don't do this."
"You're free! We made it out. You have to run."
"No!"
"It hurts!" Her voice broke and she clutched Sonya harder. "Please leave me. I can't, I can't walk."
"We'll all carry you. Please, Rachel, you solved it! We're free now!" He was shaking, desperately trying to do something, anything.
"I can't. I can't! Please run!" She was sobbing, now, clutching the wound in her stomach, blood staining her hands.
"No! You have to come! You said! Remember? You said we'd all live in a row of cottages and visit every day! We'd tell little kids stories about the time we solved the maze! I can't tell them by myself." His voice was relatively steady, but tears streamed down his face. "We need you."
"It's ok. It's ok. We'll be ok." She'd stopped crying and gently reached up to wipe away his tears.
"It's ok," he repeated, "We'll be ok." He kept repeating it until light faded from deep, hazel eyes and her grip on Sonya loosened.
"Rachel. Rachel! Rachel, no! No!" He shook her shoulders. She was already gone, something that could have been a small smile left on her face. "Here." Harriet reached over and gently pushed her eyelids shut. "Now she's only sleeping."

"STOP!" Sonya shouted. She hadn't turned around, but seemed to have sensed Beth turn to leave, face still devoid of emotion. Sonya rose slowly, gently letting Rachel's hand rest on the floor. She walked towards Beth and punched her so hard in the side of the face, something must have broken. "SHE WAS A CHILD." She delivered a kick to the abdomen, sending Beth to the floor. She knelt beside her.

"For two years, we've stayed in that maze together as a family. I was your sister and you were mine. Rachel was too. And she's dead. And you mean nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. I doubt you will ever have a family again. I hope you see nothing but pain for the rest of your life and I hope you never learn to live with what you've done. The next time I see you I will kill you. I don't care if it's in the busiest street on the planet, I will put a dagger in your chest and you will stuffer all the pain and more. Better still, I'll do it now." Sonya lunged for the dagger that lay on the floor, but Harriet was too quick. She kicked the dagger out of Sonya's reach and pulled her back. Sonya didn't struggled, but screamed, "I'LL KILL YOU, MURDERER. YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO HIDE FROM WHAT YOU DID." Beth didn't seem to reach to any of this, just stared blankly, blood seeping out of her nose and from her cheek, as if Sonya were shouting in a foreign language. The woman who was watching beside Beth, who'd introduced herself as Ava Paige, looked concerned, but made no move to stop them and remained silent as she had throughout the whole ordeal, alongside the other observers behind the glass windows.

As Sonya took another breath to continue, an alarm began. Ava Paige looked slightly more panicked and retreated into a back room. About nine armed figures burst into the room, sweeping guns around the room until they noticed the figures behind the glass and opened fire. They didn't scream, or try to get away, they only sat there and fell, one by one.
"We've got to get moving! Grab the kids and go!" One figure shouted.
"You're safe with us, girls. We need to leave!" Someone had already taken Sonya and Harriet by the arms and led the through the door, Sonya sobbing and shouting at Beth. Most of the girls were being ushered into the corridor beyond the door, until only Aris remained. "It's ok." He whispered one last time, before allowing himself to be dragged away and into the world beyond the maze.