TST: Searching In The Scorch :Sequel to The Maze In Her Heart: ✔ (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 2: The Boy.

"Holy shuck." Minnie whispers, eyes wide. Sammantha remains standing there, shock still. I glance over at the window, hands trembling. Adrenaline is coursing now, like it did back in the Maze with the Grievers. For a second, it was hard to tell which was what, and that gurgling sound came back. 

I shake my head and realize the gurgling was coming from the person, with streams of blood spouting from its mouth. Small beads of red tainted foam bundles at the corners of his mouth. I take a deep breath, feeling drops of sweat begin to bunch around my hairline. "Stay here." I say before walking to the window. 

"Marie, you're actually crazy!" Sammantha shouts, before reaching for the door and jangling it again. 

"I'm not. I-I just need to see it closer." I take a few steps towards the creature at the window, hands raised as if he was armed. When he sees me, his face lights up. Upon closer inspection, I can see the blood running down his chin had reached his chest, leaving his tattered shirt damp and faintly red. His face was covered in deep cracks, like valleys, dark around the edges. His eyes had no white, and were all dark and black and watery like black ink. His teeth were almost all gone, except for a few jagged top teeth, which he gnashed into his bottom gums. 

        "I'm a crank! Kill me." He shouted, almost joyously. He gripped the bars, tightly. His nails were long and crooked, and his knuckles were littered in scabs. I eyed them, watching the flexing hand muscles move under his tough leathery skin. 

"What? What's a crank?" I shout over his screams and mumbles. The bars gave a groan as he tugged on them. 

"Kill me!" he screamed, frowning now. The mood changed so quick it gave me whiplash. I took a step forward, eyeing the surrounding area for any weapons.

"Kill me... Kill me! Kill me!" he shouts in my direction, but his eyes are lost, far away. It was if he was talking to someone in his mind, someone he imagined there, but who really wasn't. I turned to look back at the two girls, who were watching, wide eyed, like deers caught in headlights. 

I turn back to see he has lifted himself to level with the window, his feet narrowly resting on the bottom of the window. His face was dead set, serious, frowning. He once more tugged at the bars, tilted his head back, and gave a guttural scream. I cup my ears and ease to my knees, cringing. It was worse than fingernails against a chalk board- it was a scream of pure insanity. 

He snaps back to face me, one hand releasing to scratch madly at spiderwebs of black veins trailing across his neck. He bares his two teeth, as if showing them off, purses his lips, and blows out. 

I scream and instinctively raise my arms, deflecting the drops of blood. Despite the curtains taking most of the impact, I feel the warm liquid splatter across my skin, dripping onto the carpet. I feel a sense of furious naseua sweep over me. The blood that had previosuly run cold sped up, boiled.

        "Who are you?" I shout, straightening up. Blood patterns my arms, and some parts of my face. Blood that was no doubt brewing in the pits of his stomach, gums, and mouth. 

He tilts his head, slowly revealing his teeth again. "I'm a crank!!" he says, as if it's the most obvious thing ever. Anger finally bubbles over my head and spills to the ground. 

"Where did you put Roxie?" I demand. I had no real reasoning for believing the crank had Roxie, but anger guided my actions, I reached out, and pushed them through the bars. I can hear Minnie shout, but before she can even finish screaming my name, the footholds of the crank had given way. His feet slipped from the force of my hands and the swung wildly, before he gave way. For a second, I thought I had actually killed him, but his hands grabbed at the bars just in time. He swung like he did before, feet flailing beneath him and holding to nothing. 

Fear occupies his eyes for a split second, before the madness returns. "Wheeee!" he shouts, releasing from one arm and holding on from one hand.

        "We need to get out of here." I say urgently, turning back to the girls. They're both staring in horror at the man, who is still hanging. Minnie's eyes flicker to my face. 

"You got a little..." She says, and walks up, wiping her sleeve across my cheek. I take a deep breath, shake out my fingers, and look up at Sammantha, who is jangling the doorknob again. 

"Nobody is out there. Literally not a single soul." She shouts over the crank, who was shouting and laughing once more.

Minnie breaks away and reached out, grabbing a fire extinguisher off the wall. She flicks the switch on and the foam sprays out like a power hose. White bucket fulls of foam spray outwards, coating the room. Her body jerks back and forth, guided by the hose. Eventually, however, she aims at the man. 

He screams, scrambling to hold onto the bars. If I knew better, a shred of sanity came back to him as he shouted, "No!" Then he fell, hands releasing the bars, and tumbled to the ground below. It was at least five stories, and the sound of his bodies impact barely made a thump to my ears. 

"He asked for it." Minnie said breathlessly, tossing the empty extinguisher to the side. She wiped the sweat of her cheeks and brow, breathing heavily. I place a hand over my heart and feel my pulse. It's racing a hundred miles per hour, like how it did when Newt and I kissed, or when I was battling the Grievers. 

Sammantha let go of the handle and leaned against the door. Silence fell across the room, with the exception of the heavy breathing, and Minnie flattening down her wild curls. 

And a toilet flush. 

All three of us glance over at the bathroom. There's a sliver of yellow light peeking from the door cracks. 

"Roxie?" Minnie says, raising her brows. The sink runs, and then shuts off.

The bathroom door opens and we all three stand there, ready to ask Roxie why she was screaming. However, as the light hits our eyes, it takes a few seconds for us to realize that that wasn't Roxie... In fact, it wasn't a girl at all. As we all take a collective step back and shield our eyes, a boy with a mop of floppy brown hair, sunken cheeks, and big lips steps from the bathroom, shaking out his hands. 

"You're not Roxie." I say quietly, almost as if a whisper. 

The boy gives a confused look, and that's the only thing he's able to do before Minnie swings her fist right into his temple.