Bruises | The Scorch Trials

chapter 1: the beginning

in which
the maze is the beginning
the safe haven is the end
and jess is stuck at middle ground

Alisha Boe as Jess

AND

Johnathon Davies as Theo

THE GRIEVERS CAME slowly. One by one they took people. Night after night they took her friends.

It had all started when Rachel arrived. The poor girl hadn't done anything to warrant the hostility she was shown but Jess knew that not everyone liked change.

The not everyone being Beth. Poor, poor Beth. She was gone now along with so many others. So much bloodshed and now the grievers had come to strike down the last of them.

One final battle.

Spears were sharpened and tearful hugs were exchanged.

Nightfall came.

So did the grievers.

So did the nightmares.

...

Jess shot up in bed a week later. The griever attack had been dubbed 'the nightmare' by the remaining survivors of Group B and so it seemed rightly so. Sweat lingered on her forehead and her breaths came in short, sharp pants. A figure moved directly in front of her but it was too dark to tell whether she was dreaming or not. "Aris?" She croaked out- hopeful.

"Jess. It's just me." Aris reassured her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. Demanded.

He stuttered around an excuse for him being there. He knew that she didn't like him checking up on her. She was fine. She didn't need checking up on if she was fine.

Yet here he was. He knew she wasn't fine. He wasn't fine either. He supposed that no one from the mazes were.

Still, it was almost dawn and he didn't want to annoy his last friend in the so called safe haven residence.

He left.

...
The food hadn't gotten better over the week. If anything, Jess thought that it had gotten worse.

Dinner was entertainment purely because she and Aris got to complain about the food. But once Janson got up to read out a list of names for the safe haven, all thoughts of humour had left her. She didn't care how bad the food was. She'd eat a million pieces of dry bread to not be called on that list.

Jess needed a distraction.

She picked up a piece of dry bread and grimaced at the mould at the edges of it.

Her heart beat picked up considerably at the sound of a chair scraping and loud, clanging footsteps making it's way to the middle of the room.

She didn't take her eyes off the bread.

She wanted to cover her ears when Janson started to read out the list of names but her body would not move. Her hands were clasped onto the disgusting piece of bread still- her eyes unable to stray from it.

She only relaxed her rigid position once he had left.

Aris quickly squeezed her forefinger- their way of silently communicating. Are you alright?

She squeezed his pinky. Yes.

Shouting was what drew Jess' attention away from her piece of bread still in her hand. A voice- louder than the others, shouting one name over and over.

"Teresa! Teresa!"

Jess glanced at Aris. He wasn't looking at her. His eyes focused on the boy shouting.

Little did they know, that boy that really might just be their only hope out of there.

a/n: it has been a year since i first started this story and I can't say that I was very happy with it so IM REWRITING!! I am very sorry about the inconvenience but I am hoping that it will be better written in 3rd person, past tense.

And of course, the maze runner series does not belong to me. Only my oc's belong to me in this ff