The Garden of Heathen

Visitor

(Did you read the new ending to the previous chapter?)

Gertie was not expecting the scene in the living room when she came downstairs that morning. Gally sat there, mouth open as his head rested on the back of the couch, a lumpy blanket laying beside him. Gertie approached the end of the couch opposite Gally and gently pulled the blanket back only to find a pair of feet. She bit back an idiotic grin, knowing now that Aussie had her head in his lap. She shuffled to Gally's end of the couch and daintily stuck her finger in his nose. He snorted awake, his hand instinctively grabbing at Aussie's shoulder. Gertie grinned directly into his tired and confused face

"Good morning Prince Charming. What do you have there?" She asked cheekily.

He glared up of her for a second before rubbing his groggy face with his free hand.

"Did you two have another one of your adorable heart to hearts and cuddle session after she told you about Rani?" Gertie pressed, pursing her lips together as she tried to make her eyes as doe-like as she could.

Gally's head snapped up as his piercing gaze caught her off guard.

"What about Rani? "He asked deadly serious.

Gertie's expression dropped.

"You mean, she didn't tell you?"

"No, Gertie, I think we established that," he said, his patience wearing dangerously thin. "But I'd really like to know, so why don't you tell me."

"Oh," Gertie cringed, kicking herself for not being able to resist teasing him and getting herself into hot water. "Well, gosh, I don't know if it's my place to say."

The look of murder in Gally's eyes prompted her to say it any way. She sat down with an exaggerated sigh.

"OK, so Rani woke up and wanted to talk to Aussie because it turns out she remembered her," Gertie began.

"Remembered her?" Gally repeated with furrowed brows.

"Yeah, from before the maze."

"How is that possible?" He asked in surprise.

"I don't have a single clue," Gertie admitted. "But she said that Aussie did evaluations or-what are they called? Aptitude tests! She'd figure out what everyone was best at before they were sent to some school or something."

"A school? Wait, who did Aussie do these tests on -supposedly?"

"All the girls here and- get this, boys too," she informed him.

He sighed and threw his head back.

"I'm so confused," he said tiredly. "Do you believe any of it?"

"I'm not sure. Rani has been sick and I don't know exactly what that thing did to her. Honestly, she might have dreamed or hallucinated the whole thing. But I think Aussie believes her. She got kind of scared, she asked Rani if she had any thing to do with sending us here to the maze. Rani didn't think so. She said something weird though, she didn't think Aussie was supposed to be here."

Out of every thing Gertie just said, that last bit made the most sense. He didn't think she was meant to be here either, what with her being so different from most of the girls. Like Gertie mentioned the night that Thena punched her, Aussie wasn't the tough and intelligent variety that predominantly populated the Garden, but more emotional and creative. There had to be some kind of reason or explanation for this.

"Why didn't she mention any of this to me last night?" He said quietly as he squeezed Aussie's shoulder lightly, her head still resting on his leg as she slept on.

"What were you guys up to then?" Gertie asked suspiciously, squinting at him.

"I found her out side, collapsed from period cramps," He explained succinctly.

Gertie eyed him for a moment more then shrugged.

"She probably wasn't thinking of much else, she doesn't think at all when the cramps hit her like that," Gertie tried to reassure him. "Or maybe she's trying not to let it get to her."

For the next few days Aussie didn't bring it up at all, though it was pretty much all she could think about. She stayed in the house until her period was pretty much over and hung out with Rani alot, talking about what she remembered. Rani finally got the ok from Gertie to end her bedrest and started to build up her strength again by helping Aussie with the chores. She eyed the maze doors nervously, obviously traumatized by what happened to her in there. She never told Aussie the details of the creature or the attack, and Aussie was too worried about Rani's mental health to ask for those details. The only thing that did come from it all was the name: Grievers.

Gally kept his training up everyday, always asking Joan to make it harder for him and her always begging him to take it easier so he wouldn't hurt himself and be put out of commission.  He always made sure to pop in the house to check on Aussie in the evenings when the other girls had gone to sleep. Once she stopped crashing in the house, he vacated her little home for her, setting the tent up near it and staying in that instead.

She was in his dreams every night, new memories becoming clearer each time. He didn't trust these memories to be true yet, he just wasn't really sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him no matter how much his gut told him to believe. He wouldn't mention it to anyone until he could make more sense of it all.

That particular night as he lay in the tent and fell into a deep sleep, he dreamed an old dream. He was carrying Aussie through the maze again. He still felt her fingers tracing on his back and her breath on his neck as they walked down a long, straight corridor of the maze, a figure on the horizon waving to him again. Suddenly, Aussie pulled back, her face filling his vision as her hands cradled his cheeks.

"You remembered her," she whispered  with a smile before turning to look over her shoulder.

The figure on the horizon was no longer just a figure, but clearly Gertie. Somehow it was clear to him now that Aussie had been right all along, Gertie was his sister. It just felt true.

"So, the note," Gally spoke in his dream for the first time. "It was 'Because You Love Her', but it was about my sister?"

Aussie turned and looked at him, her soft gaze roaming his features for a moment.

"I don't know, was it?" She asked softly as she leaned closer and brushed her nose against his.

He tilted his face up, fully intending to finally get the kiss that had so far eluded him, even if he had to settle for it in a dream. Sad to say, he was not going to get that kiss either. In fact, he was slowly waking up to a horrifying reality. The dream had felt so real, the pressure on his hips from carrying Aussie and the breath on his face was so convincing because it was real. He realized that as he came to, his hand reaching up and landing on a warm, smooth thigh beside his waist as hands moved up his chest. But something was wrong, something didn't feel right to him. It felt like a cold hand had reached into his chest and grabbed his heart with a vice-like grip.

"Aussie?" He asked, half dreading the answer, but it didn't come.

Finally he concluded that the thigh he still had his hand on was far too thick and muscular to be Aussie's. He sprung into action immediately, throwing the girl off of him and scrambling in the opposite direction, out of the tent. Once he was clear of it he turned to face the tent again, breathing heavily, waiting to see who had just tried to molest him.

Aussie had been up to go to the bathroom when some motion caught her eye. It looked like Gally had just gone into his tent, probably returning from his own trip to the bathroom or to get a drink of water. Either way she thought nothing of it as she walked by. But then she swore she heard Gally call her name. She stopped and turned back only to see Gally burst from his tent like he'd just discovered a snake in it. And in a way he had, because, a moment later, Hedy hesitantly stepped out of the tent.

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YALL!! What happened??? Why no comments on the last chapter?? My anxiety went nuts cuz I'm not used to that lol. It made me sad 😂 but I tried real hard to bring you this new chapter anyway even though I had no comment serotonin to fuel it. That's why it's shorter and you get a naughty cliffhanger.