Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

WICKED is an organization dedicated to killing and experimenting on all kinds of supernatural creatures, especially the rare ones. They have a lot of data and notes on different kinds of creatures from their experiments and research, maybe more than anyone else including hunters. This organization is well known and respected in the hunter community, but miraculously has been kept quiet to most of the supernatural community. There are only a few supernaturals that have even heard of WCKD at all, let alone know what happens there. Most of the ones that do know about WCKD are either enslaved there or work for them for one reason or another. This organization has an unlimited amount of resources and very advanced technology at their disposal, which is part of the reason most supernaturals don’t know about them.

WICKED stands for: Weres Imprisonment Corporation: Kill, Experimentation Division

WCKD notes: some supernatural creatures 

Raijū: A legendary creature from Japanese folklore, meaning thunder beast. Its usually appears as a blue and white wolf twice the size of a normal wolf, sometimes with electric tendrils wrapped around its body. Some say this creature can appear with wings and multiple tails as well. These creatures are extremely powerful and people feared them and started hunting them down. This lead to them to nearly go into extinction. 

Abilities

• enhanced senses/enhanced abilities 
• electric immunity, electric manipulation, electric mimicry 
• flight, ride lightening, fly the speed of light
• transform between forms (human and raijū), partial transformation 
• intangibility

Weaknesses

• mistletoe 
• mountain ash
• mosquito net

Phoenix: This is a legendary fire bird that can be found in many cultures’ mythology. This bird has feathers made of gold and red with eyes the color of sapphires. This creature is considered immortal due to the legend that after a long lifespan of 1000 years it burns in fire and in its ashes it is reborn again. This bird is extremely powerful and very hard to kill, then when you kill it it’s reborn on three days. There can only be one Phoenix at a time. 

Abilities

• immortality, reincarnation 
• create fire, fire manipulation, incineration touch, fire mimicry 
• shapeshift (humans or other birds), change shape
• tears can heal any wound infection 
• regeneration 
• teleportation 
• supernatural senses/abilities 

Weaknesses

• iron 
• Mistletoe 
• mountain ash (not really, can turn on fire and burn through)

Toraōkami: The name toraōkami means tiger-wolf and that is basically what this creature is.it is believed this creature first came from the hybrid of a werewolf and weretiger and has evolved into this creature over time. These creatures usually live in packs and have an alpha like werewolves, but can do very well on their own too. Fully transformed it has the body of a tiger and the head and face of a wolf. This creature has colorful stripes and two sets of claws. The first set is like a werewolf, the second behind the first are sharper and longer, plus they are retractable. To top it off they have a whip like tail that can paralyze you if it strikes, similar to kanima venom. 

Abilities 

• transform between forms (human, toraōkami), partial transformation 
• two sets of claws (second retractable)
• Whip Tail with paralyzing substance 
• absorb pain
• enhanced senses, enhanced abilities 

Weaknesses

• wolfsbane
• mountain ash
• mistletoe 

Griffin: A legendary creature that is famous with being part eagle and part lion. The head and front half looks like a eagle, while the back half looks like a lion. The griffin is fiercely loyal to those it considers friends. This creature is considered a noble, fearsome and protective. They can use the air around them as a weapon against others. Long ago people thought these creatures were majestic and worth being worshipped, but people started to fear them for their great power. Due to their fear people attached and killed many griffins. Eventually, it evolved a shapeshifting ability to be able to successfully blend in and hide among people. 

Abilities 

• transform form (human to griffin), partial transformation 
• supernatural senses, supernatural abilities 
• telescopic vision
• air slash
• healing claws

Weaknesses 

• mountain ash
• mistletoe 
• electricity 

Nekomata: This creature resembles a cat. They have two forms a kitten form where they look like a kitten with two tails. The second form is the saber form. It transforms into the saber form by covering itself with fire. When the fire dissipates it comes out as a huge saber tooth cat with magical fire around its feet and tails. These creatures are believed to have the ability to speak and understand spoken language and can transform into any human they want in order to trick people. People believe this creature is an evil demon with the taste for human flesh. 

Abilities 

• shapeshift to any human, transform between kitten and saber form
• pyrokinesis, magical fire, fire immunity 
• flight (saber form)
• enhanced senses, supernatural abilities

Weaknesses 

• mountain ash
• mistletoe 
• ice element

Ōkami: The ōkami is a wolf spirit and is a close cousin with the werewolf. Many believe that this creature is an ancestor that evolved into the lycanthropy gene. These creatures have to be born with this gene, unlike the werewolf there is no way to pass this gene onto someone without it. They are all able to transform into a full wolf form and are not controlled by the phases of the moon. A legend says this creature was first formed when the spirit of a wolf and man merged into one, which is why they have a human form and wolf form. 

Abilities 

• transform between wolf and human form, partial transformation 
• enhanced abilities, enhanced senses
• fangs, claws

Weaknesses 

• wolfsbane
• mistletoe 
• mountain ash 

Shapeshifter: This type of shapeshifter is very unique compared to other shapeshifters. Most other creatures with the ability to shapeshift are limited to the forms they can take or it takes huge amounts of energy to maintain the form. This shapeshifter isn’t limited by any of this. This creature can take any form it wants for as long as it wants without using much energy because it is natural for them. It takes time to master the ability for this creature. This creature is incredibly rare and can mimic some abilities from the shape it takes, but they aren’t as strong as it is for the natural creature. 

Abilities 

• shapeshift into any form 
• mimic some abilities 
• enhanced senses, enhanced abilities 

Weaknesses 

• mountain ash
• mistletoe 
• weakness of the form it takes

Elemental: These creatures look human, but have powers that no human could do. These creatures are able to create and control all the elements around them. That may include, but isn’t limited to ice, water, fire, air, electricity and so on. It is unknown how many elements one can control. These creatures are also incredibly rare and master of blending in. 

Abilities 

• Create, control, immunity to elements it controls

Weaknesses 

• unable to heal
• human weaknesses 

Werechameleon: Not much is known about this creature except that it can be created through the bite or born. This creature doesn’t like fighting and tries to stay out of confrontations. They don’t usually live in packs, but some will. 

Abilities 

• turn invisible, blend in, anything or anyone it’s touching turns invisible 
• travel through dimensions, bring others through dimensions 
• transform to lizard form, claws, teeth, spikes
• poisonous spikes, poisonous bite

Weaknesses 

• mountain ash 
• wolfsbane
• mistletoe 

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Kidnapped

DeeDee was the first of many children kidnapped by WCKD for their newest project designed for young supernaturals. This project is called the maze trials. The strange thing about them taking DeeDee is that she wasn’t a supernatural creature of any kind. In fact she was 100% human. She was from one of the most influential hunter families in the world, which is the only reason they could have been remotely interested in her. At the time of her abduction she was visiting her grandfather. The story he told everyone was that she had asked to play in his yard and when he went to check on her, she was gone. He concluded that she must have been taken right out of the yard. DeeDee had only been four years old when this happened and to this day nobody knows the true story of how or why she ended up with WCKD. 

Later on WCKD changed her name to Teresa. The employees of WCKD raised her with their morals and beliefs from that point on. Teresa had also been trained to become one of the most skilled and deadly hunters in the world. 

Kenzou was six years old now and had just started the first grade. This was a huge deal to him because this means he’s a big kid now. He’s not a little baby kindergartener anymore that needs constant supervision, unlike his little sister. Being in first grade meant he was granted a little more freedom like being allowed to play on the big kids’ playground with all the older kids, which was so cool. He liked it so much more than kindergarten. At this rate, maybe even the grown-ups would quit treating him like a baby once they realize just how big he is now. 

His sister was only five years old. So she had just started kindergarten. Kenzou thought she was actually pretty cool for a sister, even though she was a baby compared to him. His sister wasn’t a big crybaby or a mean brat like some of his friends’ sisters were. His sister liked most of the cool stuff he liked and was big enough to play all the awesome games he made up with him. At least she wasn’t the kind of boring sister that only liked girly dolls and other stupid girl things, even if she did like stupid girl things a little.

Since she was in kindergarten now they went to the same school, which was pretty cool. Even though it was cool, it also caused a little bit of a problem for him. The thing was since they went to the same school and got out of school at the same time their mom couldn’t pick him up form the first grade hall and his sister from the kindergarten gate at then same time. Kindergarteners weren’t allowed to be released without a parent there to get them, but first grade was, so that means she had to pick up his sister from the kindergarten gate. 

His mom said it was okay because he was big enough to walk to the kindergarten gate from his classroom by himself and meet her there. That would be fine and cool, except for the fact he was the tiniest bit scared to walk there all by himself. The kindergarten gate was really, really far from his classroom. It wasn’t like he could even tell his parents that he was a little scared to walk there by himself because that would make him seem like a baby and he was trying really hard to show them how grown up he was now. This was a problem he would just have to figure out by himself. 

After a couple of weeks of walking to the kindergarten gate on his own he realized how stupid he was being for being so scared. This wasn’t scary at all. He was still in the school with tons of teachers and parents around, so what could happen to him? Later on he would realize just how wrong he had been. 

One day on his way to the kindergarten gate he was stopped by a blonde woman that kind of looked like  a doctor because of the white coat she was wearing. This seemed weird to him because he thought doctors were supposed to be at the doctor office. 

The lady told him she was a doctor on a very important mission that will save millions of lives, but she needed his help. Kenzou thought it must be important because that was a lot of people to save. He couldn’t even count to one million, let alone millions. Were there even that many people in the world? He wasn’t sure, but the doctor probably knew what she was talking about. He had agreed to go with her to help her on this mission because it sounded really important. His parents would understand when he explains how many people he helped save. Plus, saving all those people would make him a superhero like in his favorite movies. 

“Thank you for helping me with this assignment. My name is Ava” The doctor had introduced herself as they left. 

Ava took him to a big building she said was called WICKED. He thought that was a really strange name for a place to save people at. Not long after he got there they changed his name to Minho. Every time he to correct them or use his real name they hurt him a lot. Eventually he couldn’t even remember what his real name was and was forced to go by Minho. It didn’t take him that long to realize Ava had lied about saving people. Minho didn’t know if he would ever see his family again. He really missed his parents and sister. 

Stephen knew a secret that most grown-ups didn’t even know. If he told people about this secret they would all think he’s crazy, not that he would ever try telling anyone the secret in the first place. 

This tip top secret secret was the fact things like werewolves, weretigers and other monsters were real. Things most people thought were only scary movies and bedtime stories really existed. His mum said they were called supernaturals. Honestly, it was all a little scary, but it was cool at the same time. 

The only reason he knew about the supernatural at all was because his sister was born as a supernatural creature and she told him about it. Of course after she told him she got into loads of trouble for telling him because apparently he wasn’t allowed to know. They were twins and the bestest friends ever so they told each other everything. What did their folks expect? His sister wouldn’t keep that big of a secret from him. 

After his mum’s initial anger she explained some things to him. His mum told him that she was a supernatural too, a weretiger. The supernatural gene ran in their family, but only the people who had the gene were allowed to know about it. Stephen wasn’t allowed to tell anyone the secret, not even his younger brother. She insisted the reason the humans in the family weren’t allowed to know was to protect them. That just seemed kind of silly to him though. Wouldn’t it be easier to protect them if they knew about the supernaturals? He wasn’t sure but that made more sense to him than them not knowing, so he would just have to trust his mum on this one. He was one of the humans in the family, which is why he wasn’t supposed to know, but he’s really glad that he does know. 

His sister was a supernatural creature called a toraōkami. He wasn’t sure what that was before because he never heard of it before. His mum explained it was kind of like a mix between a werewolf and a weretiger. Stephen thought that was so cool, but his mum didn’t think so. She thought it was really dangerous because Lizzy couldn’t control it yet. She was always worried about Lizzy losing control and hurting him, but he wasn’t scared of that. Lizzy would never hurt him, no matter what. His mum was just being paranoid. 

Sometimes their folks would send away their younger brother to stay with other family. This was code for they wanted Lizzy to work on learning how to control her supernatural abilities. They had an older brother too, but he was hardly ever around and he was a werewolf so it didn’t matter if he saw. Their little brother was human like him, so their parents didn’t want him to find out about the supernatural. Honestly, Stephen hated keeping this secret from him and he hoped their little brother learned about it on his own one day. 

Lizzy has been practicing trying to get one of her sets of claws to appear all morning. She hasn’t really made much progress. Stephen was trying to make her feel better about it and encourage her that she would get it, but she was getting really frustrated with herself. All of a sudden there was a loud bang right outside their house. Not long after the bang the door burst open to reveal some strange people. 

The one in front was a blonde woman with a white lab coat on like a doctor. 

“We’re part of an organization called WCKD and we’re here for the twins. If you hand them over quietly, then no harm will come to the rest of this family.” The blonde woman explained calmly. 

“No! You can’t take my children!” His mum growled out before protectively standing in front of them. 

“If you won’t willingly hand them over, then we’ll be left with no choice than to take them by force. Either way they will be coming with us and we won’t be responsible for any damages or injuries caused.” The woman replied threateningly. 

At this point the people standing behind the woman stepped in front with some weapons. Stephen and Lizzy held each other in fear as their mum prepared to fight them. Her claws and fangs were out ready to attack these people. The people with the weapons got them ready to strike. Then his mum ran towards them to attack them with her claws. The people were prepared for this and dodged her attack easily. One man came from behind his mum and stabbed her with some kind of knife thing. His mum screamed in pain after this. 

“What is that? It’s no ordinary dagger.” His mum asked. 

“That blade was forged with mountain ash and laced in mistletoe. You don’t have much time left.” The man explained evilly with a smirk. 

His mum growled again before trying to slash at him, he dodged but she got another man. She managed to take out a few others as well before she collapsed. 

“Mum? Are you ok?” Lizzy asked despite her fear still clutching onto Stephen. His sister always was braver than him. Maybe that’s why she was born as a supernatural and he wasn’t. 

“No. I’m not, I won’t be. I’m so sorry baby.” His mum answered. 

“What have you done?!” His dad asked in horror after realizing his mum wasn’t going to heal this time. 

“Hand over the twins or you will have he same fate as your wife.” The woman threatened. 

“Don’t worry. I will. This is all their fault and I don’t want them anymore. Go ahead and take them.” His dad stated as he moved out of the way to go to their mum. 

“George! How could you?” His mum questioned in complete disbelief. 

“How could I not, Cynthia? You’re going to die because of them! We also have two more sons to think about. I need to protect them. If handing these two over means keeping them safe then that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’d rather lose two kids then all four.” His dad explained. 

“You two need to run.” His mum demanded completely ignoring what his dad said. 

“But what about you? We can’t just leave you here with them.” Stephen pointed out. 

“You have to. It doesn’t matter because I don’t have much time left. I’ll just slow you two down. I want you to be safe. Remember that I love you. Elizabeth protect your brother. Go now!” His mum instructed as she struggled to get up to attack the men again. She was trying to create a distraction so they could escape. 

Lizzy got up and pulled on his hands to get his attention. “Come on Stevie! Get up! Mum’s right, we have to go now.” Lizzy exclaimed urgently. Stephen got up silently and followed her. They quickly ran to the back door to escape. 

“Someone go after them and remember that I need them alive.” They heard he woman yell as they left. 

They went out the door and slammed it shit. Lizzy pulled on the doorknob which caused it to snap off. This was done to slow them down. After this the twins ran down the street as quickly as they could. After awhile of running they stopped because it seemed like they lost those men for now. They decided it was a good idea to hide until those WCKD people gave up on finding them. They were hiding in the tunnel in the empty playground. 

“What are we going to do?” Stephen whispered to his sister. 

“I don’t know. We can’t go back home now. What do you think those people want with us anyways?” Lizzy whisper asked back. 

“I have no idea. We’re only little kids. Why would dad turn on us? I thought he loved us.” Stephen asked sadly. 

“He does love us. Maybe he was just scared because they killed mum.” Lizzy suggested trying to cheer him up. 

“That’s no reason to betray us.” Stephen answered. 

Before Lizzy could say anything to this those WCKD men had found their hiding spot. They were on one side of the tunnel trying to grab them, but the twins ran out of the side they weren’t on as fast as they could. It wasn’t fast enough though because one of the men was able to grab Stephen’s arm before he could get away. It was the same man that killed their mum. 

“I’ve got one of them.” The man announced to the others. 

“Let go of me you big bully!” Stephen demanded as he struggled to get away from the man. 

“Quit struggling you little brat!” The WCKD man yelled in reply. 

“Stevie?” Lizzy asked as she stopped to see what happened to her brother. She saw her brother struggling to get away from the same man that killed their mother. “Let go of him now!” She commanded angrily. 

“Lizzy get out of here! Save yourself while you can. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay.” Stephen told her. 

“No way! I won’t leave you behind. I’ve already lost the rest of my family today. I’m not going to lose you too.” Lizzy said determinedly. 

Lizzy ran towards the man holding her brother hostage. On the way somehow claws popped out of her fingers. She used these to slash the man’s arm. The man instantly let go of Stephen due to a combination of the pain and surprise. 

“You did it Lizzy! You brought out your claws! Stephen exclaimed in excitement of his sister’s accomplishment. 

“Yeah. Now come on. There’s no time to worry about that.” Lizzy insisted as she grabbed her brother’s hand. The two started running from the WCKD men again. 

“Get them!” He heard the WCKD man command. 

While the twins were running the WCKD men came up with a plan to capture them both. They had learned something from the girl protecting her brother at the risk of getting captured herself. 

The twins weren’t able to make it very far because they were exhausted from all the running and escaping. They stopped and hid on the side of the building while they caught their breathe. 

“We need to find a better hiding place. “ Lizzy pointed out. 

“I know. I’m so tired though. I just can’t keep up with you Lizzy. I’m not a supernatural like you. “ Stephen explained through his heavy breathing. 

“I know. Even I’m tired. We aren’t safe here though and we need to keep moving. Come on.” Lizzy said insistently. 

“Ok. Let’s go.” Stephen agreed. As they were leaving the alley the WCKD goons showed up behind them. 

“There you brats are.” One of the men said. 

“Just leave us alone!” Lizzy yelled at them. 

“Sorry but we’ve got orders to take you two back to WCKD. We didn’t go through al this trouble chasing you, just to come back empty handed.” The man replied. Lizzy growled at the men before stepping protectively in front of Stephen, just like their mum did with them earlier. 

The men readied themselves for the fight. As Lizzy started clawing, biting, hitting and anything else she could think of to fight them off. Little did they know that they fell right into the trap the WCKD men set up. While she was fighting these men, one man snuck from the other side of the alley to get to Stephen, whom had his back turned to him, watching his sister fight the other men. The man grabbed Stephen from behind, of course Stephen struggled to escape, but the man was much stronger than him. The man put a blade to Stephen’s throat once he had him secured in his grip. 

“Surrender yourself now or your brother gets it.” The man threatened. This caused Lizzy to turn around to see the man holding a knife to Stephen’s throat. Any false move and Stephen would be dead. 

“Don’t do it Lizzy. Just get out of here. Don’t worry about me.” Stephen instructed. 

“I can’t abandon you! I can’t let you die!” Lizzy exclaimed in fear. 

“It’s ok. Please just run. I love you. I don’t want them to hurt you.l Stephen pleaded. 

“I love you too. That’s why I’m going to surrender.” Lizzy said in defeat with her hands up. 

“No!” Stephen protested, but was ignored. 

The WCKD goons took both of the twins after Lizzy’s surrender. The man still kept a good hold of Stephen the whole way lost in case his sister decided to try anything fast on them. They were taken to the WCKD headquarters where they were separated. WCKD changed their names to Newt and Sonya. It took a long time for Newt to accept his new name, but with enough torture he finally did. After that he was put in the boys’ bunk with the rest of the kidnapped boys. He wasn’t allowed to see his sister at all. WCKD even made him pretend he didn’t know her. 

“Hi! I’m Minho. What’s your name?” A dark skinned boy about his age introduced himself. 

“Newt. At least that’s the name they gave me. I can’t remember my real name anymore.” Newt explained. 

“That’s probably for the best then, that way they won’t hurt you anymore.” Minho replies before adding, “Why do you talk funny?”

“I don’t talk funny. I’m from England though.” Newt answered. 

“Oh. Maybe that’s why. England was really far from where I lived. How old are you? You look around my age.” Minho continued the conversation. 

“Seven.” Newt answered. 

“Me too. I’ve been here for a year already. I don’t think I’ll ever see my family again.” Minho said sadly. 

“I don’t have much family anymore. They killed my mum and my dad turned us into them. They have my sister, we’re twins, and they won’t let me see her.” Newt explained sadly as tears filled his eyes. 

“That’s rough man. At least I know my sister’s safe with my parents.” Minho sympathized. Newt started crying. 

“Hey don’t cry. I’ll help you see her again.” Minho offered to cheer Newt up. 

“Why? Why would you do that for me? You don’t even know me.” Newt questioned suspiciously. 

“Because we’re in this together. We’re going to be best friends.” Minho decided happily. 

“Ok.” Newt agreed with a smile. 

Aaron had lost his parents at a very young age. They died ok a very bad car accident. The entire car had been smashed horrifically and Aaron had been the only survivor. The fact he was able to survive really confused the police and doctors. They couldn’t understand how he was able to survive such a terrible accident, but eventually chalked it up to be a miracle because a child so young shouldn’t have had a chance to survive something like that. One thing about it that was strange was the fact most of his injuries healed so quickly that they were completely gone by the time he got to the hospital. Despite this fact, he also suffered from minor cuts that had a really hard time healing. The whole incident was rather strange. 

Aaron had only been about four at the time of the accident so couldn’t really remember much about his parents. The only things he had to remember them by was one family photo and the name they had given him. For this reason he loved his name. Even if he somehow lost the picture and forgot everything else about them, than nobody would be able to take his name away or so he thought. 

Since the death of his parents he had been put into the system and sent to child haven. Aaron didn’t have any other family. For three long years he has been sent from one foster home to another. Each one always had an excuse or problem why they couldn’t keep him. This whole situation was very frustrating. Finally at the age of seven there was a family that wanted to keep him, he was finally getting adopted. Little did he know that this happiness wouldn’t last long. 

His new adopted parents were late picking him up from school one day. That wasn’t really a big deal to him though. He knew there was probably traffic or something slowing them down. Maybe they just lost track of time. Aaron just walked to the park across the street from his school while he waited for them to come. There were lots of other kids from his school there playing. Some of them were even his friends. He was playing with his friends while he waited when some strange people came up to him. There was a blonde woman that kind of looked lime a doctor with a doctor coat on. 

“Hello Aaron.  My name is Ava Paige. Yo need to come with me.” The blonde doctor said. 

“What? I can’t. I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers and I’m waiting for my adoptive parents to pick me up.” Aaron explained to the crazy woman. 

“You seemed to have misunderstood. I wasn’t giving you a choice to come with me or not. I was just informing you what is going to happen.” Ava clarified sternly. Just as she finished this sentence a car pulled up. It was Aaron’s adopted parents’ car. Aaron felt relief flood through him because this meant he would be safe from this crazy lady. 

“Come on Aaron. Why are you talking to that woman? I thought I warned you about talking to strangers.” His adoptive father called as he stepped out of the car. 

“Coming.” Aaron replied as he attempted to pass the woman to get to the car. Before he could get past the woman Ava grabbed his arm. 

“What do you think you’re doing? Let go of him now.” His adoptive father demanded as he stepped closer. 

“He is coming with us.” Ava told his adoptive father. 

“No he isn’t. He’s coming home with me and I don’t want to see you near him again.” His adoptive father argued, “I’ll call the police.” he continued. At this point all the kids in the park were watching this scene unfold. 

“Take the boy and get him situated.” Ava ordered as she pushed Aaron towards one of the men with her whom grabbed the boy and started taking him away. While this happened he could see his adoptive father try to stop them, but some of the other men restrained him to stop him from intervening. 

“Also make sure to swipe all the memories of anyone that has been in contact worth Aaron. I have preparations to attend to.” Ava instructed the rest of the men as she left with the man taking a struggling Aaron away. 

They took Aaron to a place they called WCKD. He was told they somehow erased all the memories of his adoptive parents so it was like they never even met. They wouldn’t be able to remember him at all, let alone try to find him. Aaron wasn’t even sure how that was even possible. 

The next thing they did was change his name. They hurt him a lot until he forgot his old one. They managed to take away the one things he thought could never be taken from him, the last thing he had left from his real parents. They took it away so throughly that he could never get it back even if he got away from these people one day. This fact made him really sad. 

After that he was put in a place with a bunch of other boys. This is when he realized all these kids must have been kidnapped just like him. Maybe they made them change their names too. This fact didn’t make him feel any better though. It just solidified the fact that he would never escape this place. When all this sunk in he started crying again. 

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you crying.” An older blonde boy asked with a funny sounding voice. 

“Because these WCKD people kidnapped me and I’m probably never going to escape them. I want to go home.” Charles explained through his broken sobs. 

“Hey, don’t cry, it’s ok. We all want to go home. One day we’ll find a way to escape this bloody dump.” The blonde boy reassured him. 

“You probably think I’m a big crybaby because everyone here is probably in the same situation as me and nobody else is crying.” Charles belittled himself. 

“Hey, none of that. I don’t think you’re a crybaby. When I first got here I cried a lot too. It’s bloody normal because we’re a bunch of kids that miss our families. In fact most of us cry at first.” The blonde boy comforted. 

“Really?” Charles asked in disbelief. 

“Course. Plus, we’ll be outta here in no time. My friends and I are making escape plans. I’ll make sure to bring you with us when we escape.” The blonde boy encouraged. 

“You really think we can escape?” Charles asked hopefully. 

“Yes. In the meantime we can amuse ourselves by giving the WCKD goons hell. They hate it.” The blonde boy suggested which got a laugh out of Charles. “I’m Newt. What’s your name?” Newt introduced himself. 

“They’re making me call myself Charles. They made me change my name and I hate it. I can’t even remember my real name.” Charles explained sadly. 

“Yeah. They make all of us forget our real names and give us stupid ones. If you hate Charles so much, let’s just call you Chuck instead.” Newt suggested sympathetically. 

“Chuck sounds so much better than Charles. Thanks Newt.” Chuck said appreciatively. 

“Hey I understand. They tried calling me bloody Newton. That wasn’t buggin’ happening.” Newt explained. 

“Hey Newt! Who’s the new kid?” An Asian boy asked as he came over and put an arm around Newt’s shoulders. Newt just rolled his eyes as he shrugged the other boy’s arm off of him. 

“This is my new friend Chuck.” Newt introduced him to the other boy. 

“Hi Chuck! I’m Minho, Newt’s best friend.” Minho introduced himself enthusiastically as Newt rolled his eyes yet again at his friend. 

“Minho is a bloody idiot, but harmless. He can be a lot of fun too. I think you’ll like him Chuck.” Newt explained with a smile on his face before adding, “Come on Chuck. I’ll introduce you to the others. You’ll fit right in.”

Chuck thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here after all as he followed Newt and Minho. 

Stiles and Scott were investigating Alex’s house for any clues on who took Alex’s parents. The whole house looked like it had been abandoned. There wasn’t any furniture or anything. Well, the whole house looked abandoned except for Alex’s room that is. The kid’s room looked like a normal boy’s room. That just made this whole thing even stranger. The rest of the house looking like a ghost town, but this room is perfectly normal? 

As they were going to leave the room to investigate some the photos in the room caught Stiles’ eye so he decided to look at them. They looked fine, except for the fact that Alex was the only shown in all of them. They were obviously photos taken with his parents but it was as if his parents had been completely erased from the pictures. This case kept getting weirder by the minute. 

While Stiles was still studying the photos trying to make sense of them a woman entered the room through the doorway. Stiles looked up expecting it to be Scott, but was surprised to see an older blonde woman with a white lab coat on. 

“Who are you? How did you get past Scott? Are you connected to those guys that took Alex’s parents?” Stiles fired off a round of questions at the woman. 

“My name is Ava Paige. I’ve been dealing with the supernatural for a long time so it’s no problem getting past a juvenile werewolf and no I’m not connected with the ghost riders.” The woman, Ava, answered all of his questions in order without batting an eyelash. 

“Who exactly are you? What are the ghost riders?” Stiles asked perplexed at this confident woman. 

“We don’t have time for this right now child. You’ll be in danger if you stay here in this room. The ghost riders are coming.” Ava warned. 

“You aren’t making any sense. Why would I be in trouble with the ghost riders because I’m here.” Stiles asked even more confused. 

“Come. We don’t have the time.” Ava said urgently as she pushed Stiles towards the window. Right outside was some kind of very advanced hover craft that Stiles had never seen before, not even on the internet.  Ava pushed him onto it before jumping onto it herself. The craft slowly lowered them to the ground where Stiles jumped off onto the ground outside. 

“Okay. Now explain. Who are the ghost riders? How was I endanger in that room? How did you even know?” 

“The ghost riders are the ones you’re looking for that took that boy’s parents. They are going to take the boy too, which means one would go to the room and anywhere else that has any things with memory of him to erase them. If you were in the room when they showed up and you saw them, then they would target you to erase next. I can’t have that, it would ruin all my plans.” Ava patiently explained everything. 

“What do you mean by they erased them? How do you know they would target me? What plans are you talking about?” Stiles continued to question the woman. 

“Ghost riders don’t just take people, they erase them. Being erased is exactly what it sounds like. It means you’re erased from existence. They would have targeted you because they target anyone who sees them and you would have seen them when they came to the room you were standing in.” Ava explained. 

“Take you out of existence. You mean like dying?” 

“No, you don’t die. It’s so much worse than dying. They take you somewhere, in a different dimension maybe, and everyone you know and love forgets you completely. It’s like you never existed in the first place and you’re stuck wherever they take you.” Ava explained patiently. 

“How do you get rid of them? How do you un-erase people?” Stiles asked curiously. 

“They will move on somewhere else on their own. The key to getting someone back from being erased is to remember them. If they can be remembered then they can return. Also, maybe a werelizard could help you. They have the ability to turn ‘invisible’ but they aren’t just invisible they’re in another dimension. They can go where the ghost riders go and reveal them.” Ava elaborated. 

“That’s so crazy, but then again so is everything else about the supernatural. I’ll keep this in mind and look into it. How do you know so much anyways?” Stiles asked suspiciously of all the knowledge this woman seems to have. 

“Don’t trust anyone, do you? That’s exactly why you’re perfect to be the candidate. That and your endless curiosity.” Ava replied vaguely. 

“A candidate for what? What are you talking about?” Stiles asked more confused than ever. 

“That will come in time. I know all about the supernatural because I’m from an organization called WCKD. There we study the supernatural. It’s my mission to learn everything about it to complete the ultimate goal. I’ve seen things you can’t imagine.” Ava explained a little bit about where she gets her knowledge from. 

“I don’t know about that. I’m pretty sure nothing’s crazier than my imagination. You wouldn’t want to go in there, might scare you.” Stiles joked sarcastically. 

“The reason I’m here is because I want you to come with me to WCKD.  You really fascinate me.” Ava said completely ignoring Stiles’ joke. 

“I fascinate you? Why in the world would I fascinate you when you study about the supernatural? In case you hadn’t noticed I’m not anything special. I’m not supernatural.” Stiles pointed out in complete surprise. 

“That is precisely what makes you so fascinating. You aren’t supernatural, not really, yet you radiate power and magic. You have the potential to train this power within to become something truly amazing. Maybe more powerful than the supernaturals. Added to your natural power you can also manipulate mountain ash and wield any weapon designed to kill the supernatural with some training. I believe you would be absolutely perfect to help me with my goal. I want you to come with me, so you can help complete the maze trials.” Ava ranted about nonsense. 

“You’re crazy. Are you sure you aren’t mixing me up with someone else? If I could be so powerful, don’t you think I’d have used it on the multiple times I’ve been running for my life? Yeah, that might have been helpful.” Stiles retorted sarcastically. 

“You don’t even realize your own potential, do you? You have the power you just need a little help triggering it and training it.”  Ava insisted. 

“I think you need to get your head checked.” Stiles suggested. 

“I will give you one chance to come willingly. If not I will have to take you by force. So will you come willingly?” Ava offered. 

“Hell no!” Stiles said before walking back in the house to find Scott. Ava sighed, hoping it would be easy this time, but of course not. Ava got her radio out to call for backup. 

                         ~~~~

“Janson I need you to acquire the target. He won’t come willingly as we were hoping. You can use the ghost riders presence to your advantage.” Ava informed the man over the radio. 

“Great. Tracking the brat down and forcing him to WCKD should be fun.” Janson replied sarcastically over the radio before adding, “At least this one doesn’t have claws to slash me like that blonde menace.”

“Just get the job done. Don’t underestimate him either. He may be the most powerful of them all.” Ava warned over the radio. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get the job done.” Janson replied over the radio before turning it off to make preparations to capture the last subject for this project. 

                           ~~~~

The next day Stiles told Lydia about the information he learned about the ghost riders so she could check it out. He didn’t completely trust that Ava hadn’t lied to him about the whole thing. He conveniently left out  the part of he potential kidnapping. Stiles would worry about that later. He wanted to deal with the ghost riders first. Maybe if he ignored it the WCKD problem would vanish. 

Lydia did her thing and confirmed the ghost riders theory. Apparently, Ava hadn’t been lying about that and knew her facts. Later him and Scott went to the police station just to confirm the kid had already been erased. The question was who would be their next target. 

Later Scott and him decided that the next target would most likely be Liam and Hayden since they had been there when Alex’s parents were first erased. They were all at the school trying to prevent them from being erased by the ghost riders when Stiles got a bad feeling that something bad was about to happen. 

Stiles was attempting to tell Scott about the whole WCKD organization, but he wasn’t sure where to start. He knew Scott would want to know about an organization that ‘studies’ about the supernatural. Most likely, especially since that woman basically threatened to kidnap him, they were kidnapping and experimenting on supernaturals. Scott would definitely want to know about that, so he could find a way to rescue them all. Also, Stiles wanted to be more honest with him after the whole Donovan fiasco. If he had been honest with Scott things wouldn’t have gotten so out of control. Theo wouldn’t have been able to twist everything up so much to his advantage. 

Since he couldn’t seem to find the right words to start the conversation Scott told him to tell him later. That was probably for the best because they really should be focusing on the ghost riders right now. Stiles just had a feeling he should tell him now, rather than later. Oh well. 

He and Scott had gotten separated after that. It wasn’t a big deal, they get separated all the time. The only difference this time is Stiles had a really bad feeling about this, something was going to happen. 

To make matters worse apparently everyone was forgetting him. Mrs. Martin hadn’t recognized him earlier when he saw her. That was strange. Then when he tried talking to Liam, Mason and Hayden they didn’t seem to recognize him either. Mason even asked if he even went to this school. That was really weird. The worst thing yet though was the fact his own father hadn’t known who he was. His father asked him his name. That was downright scary. Everyone was forgetting everything. He got his phone out to call Scott because he didn’t know what to do. Scott, his best friend, would know how to fix this. He always does. 

When he answered Stiles felt relieved at first until he realized that Scott didn’t know who he was either. Stiles hung up the phone and started thinking  about everything. Suddenly it dawned on him, he was the next target. That was why everyone was forgetting him. He was going to be erased. He thought he was safe because that woman, Ava, had told him he was since he hadn’t seen the ghost rider. She had been right about all the other information, so he assumed she was right about that too. He knew better than to assume. 

Maybe it was because he was supposed to see them if she hadn’t intervened. Maybe getting him out of there before he could see them didn’t matter to them. Maybe they already knew who was supposed to see them before it ever happened and would target that person anyways. It didn’t really matter why. All that mattered at this point is that he was next regardless of why. This was really bad. He didn’t know what to do and he didn’t have anyone to help him now. 

He had to get out of here, find a way to escape somehow. The question was how in the world was he supposed to get away from supernatural beings that ride the storm without anyone to help him? He honestly had no idea, but he’d have to figure it out fast. 

He ran into Lydia while trying to find a way to escape. Miraculously she was able to still remember him and she was looking for him. Lydia realized that he would next when Malia didn’t remember him. She had asked him if he had seen the ghost riders. He explained that he hadn’t because a woman intervened. He told her his theory on why they might be after him anyways, but neither one of them know enough about them to know if his theory is true or not. Lydia promised not to leave him. How ironic that he has wanted her to say something like that most of his life and when she finally does he’s about to be taken by ghost riders. 

The ghost riders started popping up everywhere they turned. They were running and had to keep changing directions because there was another ghost rider. Stiles decided the best course of action was to go to Roscoe, his Jeep. Maybe they could outrun them by car. 

They had gotten into the Jeep and Stiles was just about to start it and drive away, but he realized it was pointless. It didn’t matter where he went because they would find him. Soon Lydia would forget him too. There was no stopping them. Lydia had asked what he was doing, she was so panicked. 

“You’ll forget me.” Stiles conceded. Lydia denied it, she kept insisting that she wouldn’t forget. She was denying the inevitable. 

“You will.” Stiles insisted before continuing, “The key to coming back from being erased is to be remembered, so just try to find some way to remember me, okay? Remember how you were the first girl I ever danced with. Or how I had a crush on you in Freshmen year, Sophomore year, Junior year. Remember how you saved my life.” Stiles grabbed a hold of Lydia’s hand as she interrupted. 

“You saved mine too.”

“Just remember… remember I love you.” Stiles finished as one of the ghost riders took him out of the Jeep. He wasn’t worried though, Lydia would find a way to remember him. He trusted her. 

Suddenly all the ghost riders melted into normal men. The one who grabbed him melted into an ugly older man with a smirk on his face.  This really confused Stiles. Were these the terrifying ghost riders? They just looked like normal men. 

“What?” Stiles questioned in bewilderment, not really expecting an answer. 

“I’m Janson from WCKD. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. I have orders from Ava to take you back to WCKD with me.” The ugly man, Janson, explained with the same smug smirk. 

“What happened to the ghost riders? How?” Stiles inquired even more baffled than before. 

“All of it was an illusion. The ghost riders were never after you. It’s pretty easy to accomplish such a complex illusion when you have so many different supernatural creatures at your beck and call using the mind controlling chip implanted in their brain. This was all the work of a kitsune, the master of illusion.” Janson explained with that smug smirk Stiles decided he wanted to knock off his face. 

“You won’t get away with this. Once the illusion wears off my friends will come looking for me. Then they’ll take down your whole organization.” Stiles informed. 

“If your friends ever remember you, which I highly doubt, they’ll still think you were taken by the ghost riders. They are still a problem in this town, they just weren’t after you. By the way, everyone not remembering you wasn’t part of the illusion. That was completely real done by us.” Janson taunted. 

“Doesn’t matter. They will remember. Lydia will figure it out. They’ll stop the ghost riders, then come hunt you down.” Stiles assured confidently. Janson scoffed at this. 

“Even if by some miracle they manage to remember you and track us down as you say, you won’t remember them by then. And your untrusting nature won’t allow you to trust them.” Janson taunted some more. 

“How do you figure?” Stiles asked   

“Simple. We’re going to swipe your memories and throw you in the maze with the rest. You might not even survive very long there.” Janson explained with his stupid self satisfied smirk. 

After being kidnapped Stiles was hauled away to WCKD. They changed his name to Thomas, which he resisted. He refused to answer to Thomas at first, but every time he resisted and refused they put him through indescribable pain. This was the worst pain he has ever felt, which was saying something considered he runs with werewolves. Eventually, the pain caused him to forget what his name was in the first place and was forced to use Thomas. 

After finally accepting his new name  they sent him to some operation. If the gossip is to be believed the operation was to get some kind of chip implanted into his brain. That kind of operation sounded dangerous, but he seemed fine, also he didn’t really feel any different. 

After that the bite was forced onto him. He had never wanted the bite, he didn’t want to become a werewolf or whatever else that might make him turn into. They reassured him that he wouldn’t actually turn because he already had supernatural elements within his blood, so it would just trigger that. They were right in the that fact because the bite didn’t heal like it would if he was turning and he also didn’t die. This kind of reminded him of when Peter bit Lydia. 

The next thing he knew he was waking up in a metal box with absolutely no memories of his former life. He had no idea where he was or where he was going. This box was moving similar to the way an elevator would. He started calling for help because he was terrified. He wasn’t even sure if anyone would be able to hear him. He couldn’t remember anything at all, not even his name. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Trapped in the Maze

The metal box was moving upwards kind of like an elevator and was making a horrible creaking sound as it moved. The sound sounded like metal grinding metal. It was really strange how he couldn’t remember a single thing about his life, yet at the same time was able to remember other things. He could remember how things worked like how to use a computer or how to read and write. He could also remember facts such as who the first president of the United States was or that wolves hadn’t been seen for about 100 years in California, but he wasn’t able to remember anything specific about his life or how he learned this stuff. He couldn’t remember where he was, how he got here or even his own name. It was really strange because his brain seemed to be working fine, except for the fact he couldn’t remember anything. It was like a car whose parts all functioned perfect, but wasn’t able to drive for some reason that was unexplainable.

It was pretty dark in here, but as he looked around he was able to make out that there seemed to be boxes of items all around him. He didn’t know where he was, but all the stuff reminded him of some kind of cargo vehicle used to transport items from one place to another. Why in the world would he be in there? He got up to feel around the box he seemed to be trapped in to see if there was a way to escape it. He was able to feel cool metal all around him, but no matter where he felt there didn’t seem to be any kind of door or opening he could use to escape. Yelling for help hadn’t worked earlier so he figured he must be far enough away that no people were able to hear him. How was he supposed to escape this place and how did he even get here in the first place? There were so many thoughts and questions racing through his mind when the box came to a jolting stop causing him to stumble.

The box was opened up at the top to reveal a place filled with dozens of boys looking down at him, like they had been expecting his arrival. There had to be at least 50 or 60 of them standing there. They all seemed to be pretty young though, maybe in their mid to late teens. Seeing all these kids made him wonder about his own age, that was yet another thing he was unable to remember. He wasn’t sure how old he was, but he felt like he was older than these boys looked.

He could hear them talking amongst themselves, but it seemed like every other word was a foreign word he had never heard before. Things like slopper, shank and shuck. He wondered if half of his vocabulary was forgotten along with his memories. What did those words mean? Could it be some kind of code the boys used to obscure the meaning to outsiders? At the moment he was really confused and wasn’t really sure if he could even trust these boys. They could be the ones responsible for his memory loss for all he knows, although he wasn’t sure how.

A large boy jumped into the box with him, “Rise and shine. Day one, Greenie.” The boy said as he pulled him out of the box.

“Greenie?” He asked the boy but was ignored. As the boys talked he took this time to take a good look around this place. They seemed to be in a very large clearing full of grass. On one side there were some trees that looked like it could be a small forest. Throughout the clearing there were some very poorly made structures, nothing like the buildings he could recall from what little memory he had left. Some looked like they were meant to be buildings of some kind, while others didn’t look like much of anything, possibly they were still in the process of being built. All of them looked to have different levels of stability, some seemed as if they would collapse at any minute, while others seemed pretty stable. He wondered if they were built by these boys, it was obvious that they weren’t built by professionals, but rather people trying to do their best when they really didn’t seem to know what they were doing.

Surrounding the entire clearing seemed to be very large and intimidating grey walls covered in ivy. It looked as if they were being caged in this place by those walls. He wondered why they were all sent here in the first place because going by the memory loss and the walls it was obvious ending up here was no accident. Was this supposed to be some kind of prison they were sent to as punishment for committing heinous crimes? As he pondered this thought he noticed there was an opening in the wall. He decided this must be the way out of this place and made a run for it.

As he ran the boys all burst out laughing for some reason he wasn’t able to understand. One of them exclaimed something about a runner, but he wasn’t really sure because he hadn’t been paying attention. None of the boys had come after him or tried to stop him in any way, but it turns out that they didn’t really need to because he stopped himself by tripping over his own feet and face planting into the grass. After his very graceful fall some of the boys came up to him. After helping him off the grass they took him in a confinement that could only be considered some type of home made prison. They said he wasn’t in any trouble, but he needed some time to slim it, whatever that means. While he was in his little prison it seemed like time dragged on, but in reality it probably hadn’t been that long at all. He was really nervous about what was going on and where he currently was. Finally, a dark skinned boy opened the door to his cell to let him out as long as he promised not to take off running again.

The dark skinned boy introduced himself as Alby and offered his hand, but he refused to shake it. He still didn’t know where he was or if he could trust this boy. Alby eventually got the message and took his hand back. Alby had explained it was normal for him not to have any memories of his life before being sent here. Apparently the people who sent them all here somehow take away all their memories beforehand. The boy assured him his name would come back to him in a few days at the most because it was the only thing they were allowed to keep from their old life. While Alby was explaining this stuff to him some other boys came up to Alby to ask odd questions about how things should be done. He realized that Alby must be their leader.

With a welcoming smile Alby said something he would never forget, “Welcome to the Glade.”

Alby was showing him around this place they called the glade when another boy approached them. Unlike the other boys this one didn’t seem to have any questions for Alby. This boy had dirty blonde hair and beautiful chocolate brown eyes. He was tall with a small lithe frame and had the most breathtaking smile. This boy was absolutely beautiful, the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. This boy was the personification of an angel brought to life. He was unable to take his eyes off of this beautiful boy as he wondered if he had ever been blessed with the sight of someone so stunning in his life before being sent here.

“Greenie meet Newt. When I’m not around he’s in charge.” Alby introduced the angel to him.

“It’s a good thing you’re always around then.” Newt replied with a strange, but alluring accent as he held his hand out for him to shake. He surprised himself by shaking hands with him. Alby gave him a strange look as they shook hands, probably due to the fact he had refused to shake hands with him earlier, but said nothing.

“Hey Greenie. That was some faceplant ya did earlier.” Newt told him as he laughed. His face started heating up in the realization Newt had seen that embarrassing fall he had.

“Newt I’m going to put you in charge of the Greenie since he seems to like you so much. It’ll be your job to teach him everything he needs to know about the Glade, keep him outta trouble and find a fitting job for him.” Alby explained to the blonde boy.

“Sure Alby.” Newt agreed easily as Alby started walking away.

“Ok Greenie, I’m going to finish showing you around here, then I need to get some work done. Alby’s got somethin’ special planned for tonight. I’ll leave you with Chuckie while I’m working.” Newt explained to him as they started walking.

“Sure.” He found himself agreeing easily, though right now he felt like he would agree to just about anything this boy suggested if it meant he could spend more time with him. Newt already seemed to have some kind of hold over him and his actions and they just met. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if that would be a good thing or a bad thing yet.

Newt did exactly as he said he would, he showed him around the Glade and explained some more things. He told him that there were only three important rules he had to follow here. The first one was to never harm another Glader which was easy enough. It wasn’t like he wanted to hurt anyone anyways. The second rule was that everybody had to do their part, there was no time for slackers here. Again this rule didn’t seem too hard. This rule made sense and he could handle that. The last rule was they were never allowed to go beyond those walls, except for runners. This rule he wasn’t so sure if he could follow.

Unfortunately, Newt said this was the most important rule to follow and the only he would never be forgiven for breaking. The problem with the rule was he really wanted to know what was beyond the walls, what they were hiding from him. He wasn’t stupid he knew they were hiding something, they were being too vague about it all. He also knew that beyond those walls had to be their only way of escape. He wondered what could possibly be out there that had all these boys so terrified to leave this prison. Why were runners allowed to leave, but not the rest of them? The only answer Newt would give him about what was beyond the walls was ‘nothing good’.

“Hey Chuck, this is the new Greenie. We’re done with the tour and I need you to watch over him so I can get some bloody work done. Make sure he stays outta trouble.” Newt explained to a pudgy kid with dark curly hair and dark eyes that looked so much younger than all the other boys he had seen so far. He couldn’t be older than twelve.

“Sure thing Newt.” Chuck happily agreed. Why did he need a babysitter in the first place? It wasn’t like he was going to go looking for trouble.

“Thanks Chuck. Greenie this is Chuck, he’s in charge of you while I’m busy. Don’t get into any trouble while I’m gone. Good that?” Newt explained to him with a level of authority in his voice that he hadn’t heard before.

“Come on Newt. It’s not like I’m going to go looking for trouble.” He complained to the blonde angel that was treating him like a little kid.

“Good that?” Newt asked with the weird phrase again ignoring his complaints.

“Yeah, sure. Good that?” He agreed copying the weird term Newt had used, but it came out more like a question than a statement, but apparently it was good enough for Newt because he gave him a smile smile before he turned to walk away. As Newt walked away, he noticed that the blonde walked with a limp. For some reason he hadn’t noticed this before. He decided he would have to ask Newt about it later.

“Hey Greenie. Remember your name yet?” Chuck asked curiously.

“Yeah, it’s Thomas.” Thomas answered honestly not seeing a point in hiding his name from the Gladers.

“Cool, it’s nice to meet you Thomas.” Chuck said happily, this boy just seemed like a big ball of energy.

“Hey Chuck, how old do I look to you?” Thomas asked Chuck curious to know the answer.

“I’d say about seventeen. And in case you wanted to know about five foot nine, brown hair, brown eyes and ugly as fried liver on a stick.” Chuck answered laughing at his own joke. Was he really that young? It felt like he was much older than that.

“What’s that?” Thomas asked referring to this thing he had seen following them around the Glade with a flashing red light.

“That’s a beetle blade. It’s what the creators use to watch us. Don’t worry about it, they won’t hurt you unless you’re stupid enough to touch it.” Chuck explained before adding, “Shank.” Unlike the other boys he didn’t seem as comfortable using the weird slang as the other Gladers, like he hadn’t quite grasped the Glader slang yet.

“The creators?” Thomas asked trying to see how much information he could get out of this boy.
“The people who sent us here.” Chuck explained like it was common knowledge, though to the rest of them it probably was.

“How come nobody else here will answer any of my questions?” Thomas asked the boy confused that so far he is the only one that has really answered any of his questions.

“They will soon enough. They just don’t want to overwhelm new Greenies with too much information at once. You can probably get Newt to answer some questions tonight, he’s not as strict about it as Alby. He’s a lot more understanding to new Greenies, at least he was with me.” Chuck explained.

“How is getting some answers going to overwhelm me?” Thomas asked incredulously at this explanation.

“There’s a lot of klunk going on here that you don’t understand.” Chuck answered vaguely, frustrating Thomas even more.

“Exactly my point. If nobody tells me anything, then I can’t understand!” Thomas yelled in frustration, waving his arms around.

“I’m sorry Thomas, but I can’t tell you everything. I can tell you what klunk means though.” Chuck said looking not the least bit sorry at all.

“Fine.” Thomas grudgingly agreed, knowing he wasn’t going to get any more information from Chuck at the moment.

Thomas had stayed with Chuck listening to him talk for a little while, not that he knew anyone else besides Alby and Newt who were busy doing some work. Chuck was a nice kid, but it didn’t seem like he actually knew much more than he knew. Chuck had managed to tell him a bunch of nonsense about the Glade that didn’t seem very important. At the moment he wasn’t really listening to what Chuck was tattering on about, but kept looking back towards the big opening in the walls. Apparently, Chuck had been the newest Greenie here before him so he had only been here a month, which explained why he didn’t seem to know much.

Chuck had noticed that he got bored from all the talk because he shook his shoulder to get his attention. The boy said they were going to have some fun, but for some reason Thomas got a bad feeling about that. Despite this he decided to follow Chuck anyways and tag along. They stopped walking on the side of one of the better built buildings and he noticed that there was a window near the top.

The curly haired boy explained that this was where the bathrooms were. This fact really confused him because he wasn’t sure what kind of ‘fun’ they could possibly have outside the bathrooms. Chuck didn’t give him an answer to this unasked question and started tapping on the bathroom window instead.

Thomas couldn’t figure out what the boy was up too. He got that bad feeling in the pit of his stomach again, yet he ignored it once more. The boy in the bathroom started asking who was there when suddenly out of nowhere Chuck jumped up to put his face in the window and screamed loudly.

The person in the bathroom started screaming at them, mostly Chuck, but before the boy could come out to see them Chuck grabbed his wrist and started running in a random direction, forcing him to run so he could keep up. Chuck thought this prank was the funniest thing because he wasn’t able to contain his laughter during the whole run and now that they had stopped had doubled over laughing some more. Hopefully, whoever was in the bathroom wouldn’t be the vengeful type. He looked up to notice that they had stopped running in front of the big opening in the walls he had been eyeing since he arrived to this place.

“Hey Chuck? What’s in there?” Thomas asked gesturing towards the big opening in the walls.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never been outside the Glade before and nobody’s allowed in there except the runners.” Chuck answered shrugging his shoulders in nonchalance. How could this boy be perfectly fine not knowing what was out there?
Right after Chuck had finished this sentence a couple of boys came running out of the opening. As they passed they greeted Chuck.

“What about them? They just came out of there.” Thomas pointed out not liking the fact nobody was telling him what he wanted to know. Frustration leaked into his voice.

“Yeah, but that’s different. I said nobody was allowed in there except runners and they’re runners. They know more about the maze than anyone else.” Chuck explained.

“Runners? Wait, what maze?” Thomas asked catching that Chuck called it a maze. Were they trapped in a huge maze like lab rats?

“I didn’t say anything about a maze. What are you talking about?” Chuck tried to deflect nervously looking around anywhere but at Thomas. So this maze was one of the secrets the Gladers were hiding from him. He would just have to try to fish more information out of Chuck.

“You said maze. What are you guys hiding from me? Are we trapped in a giant maze?” Thomas questioned the nervous boy as more frustration leaked into his voice by the minute.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about. Come on, let’s go find Newt, he’ll be able to answer any more questions you have.” Chuck offered as he grabbed Thomas’s arm to try pulling him away from the maze. What was in the maze? Why was everyone trying to hide it from him so badly?

Thomas easily pulled his arm free from Chuck before walking back up to the opening, trying to get a better look inside. He wasn’t really able to see anything from here, so he was about to go through the opening to investigate some more when a boy came marching up to him and harshly shoved him to the ground. It was the same boy who had pulled him out of the box when he arrived to this place.

“What do you think you’re doing Greenie? You’re not allowed in there, especially not now.” The large boy told him in a demanding tone. He ignored the boy as he tried crawling past him to get back to the opening, more determined than he was before. These boys were definitely trying to hide something from him and he wanted to find out what. The boy easily blocked him, successfully stopping him entrance into the maze.

“Stop. Just slim it Greenie, nice and calm. I can’t let you go in there.” The boy told him as he continued to block him from the large opening. At this point Thomas pushed himself back onto his feet. Some of the other boys must have noticed the commotion because they all started coming over, probably to help this boy stop him from going in there.

“What are you doing? You can’t keep me here!” Thomas shouted as the frustration seemed to explode from inside him, forcing its way out. To his shock after this explosion the large boy blocking his way had been pushed to the ground, as if the air itself had turned against him and attacked.

“We can’t let you leave.” Alby replied from behind him causing him to turn around to see all the other boys. They were intent on stopping him from going through the opening for some inexplicable reason, but he had made a split second decision and decided he would just make a run for it. Hopefully these boys would follow their own rules of only allowing runners in the maze, so most of them would not be able to follow him. Before he was even able to take one step Newt had suddenly appeared right in front of him. How had he been able to move so quickly? Thomas hadn’t even seen him move. He could have sworn he was behind Alby a second ago, but maybe he had been wrong.

“Greenie you need to slim it now. Everything you need to know will be explained to you.” Newt told him placing a hand on his shoulder. After this he felt a jolt of electricity run through his body effectively paralyzing him. He had started to fall because of this but Newt saw it coming and caught him, gently placing him on the ground. He wasn’t able to move at all and he could still feel the aftershocks of the electricity course through his body. How did that even happen? It’s not like there was any electricity present here at the moment. Did Newt’s touch cause that somehow? He vaguely remembers reading that the touch of someone you like can cause shocks, but this was ridiculous.

Not even a minute after this he heard a strange grinding sound coming from the big opening in the walls. Then he saw something that shouldn’t be possible. The walls had started moving towards each other to completely close the opening. He realized if he had been allowed to go through the opening then he would be trapped out there right now. Had the Gladers known the walls would move? He still couldn’t figure out how that was even possible. These walls were huge and looked ancient yet moved easily like a sliding door.

“Next time I’ll let you go in there.” The boy who shoved him warned, having gotten up at some point.

“Oh, piss off Gally. He just got here, he doesn’t know anything about the bloody maze yet.” Newt defended him causing his heart to thump a bit faster.

“Whatever Newt. Make sure to keep a better watch over him next time.” The large boy he had learned was Gally said as he turned around to leave.

“Come on Greenie. You should be able to move now.” Newt said as he helped him up from the ground. Strangely Newt was right, he was able to move. This fact caused him to become even more suspicious. Was Newt really responsible for that electric shock and if so how had he done it?

Newt informed him that they were preparing a bonfire to celebrate his arrival to the Glade. This fact made him feel a little bit guilty for causing so much trouble earlier. Newt had refused to give him any more answers than he already had, but promised to answer some of his questions later. Thomas would just have to be patient and wait. He realized that he must not have been a very patient person before he was sent here. Finally, they had finished preparing the bonfire and started the fire. Newt had directed him to sit with him against a log that was a little away from the rest of the Gladers, which was fine by him. Maybe now Newt would finally give him some answers.

“I thought I told you to stay out of trouble.” Newt scolded him, making him look away sheepishly.

“I’m sorry Newt. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I just wanted to know what was out there.” Thomas apologized, feeling even more guilty under Newt’s gaze.

“Hey, I get it. You know we all feel scared and so bloody lost when we first arrive in the box. You need to understand that we’re just trying to protect you. You need to trust that when we say not to do something, then there’s a bloody good reason for it.” Newt explained seriously. Thomas couldn’t find a trace of real anger on his face, just understanding. Chuck was right about Newt being the understanding one, he honestly didn’t want to know how Alby would have handled this conversation.

“Ok.” Thomas agreed understanding Newt was right after today.

“Here. Put some hair on your chest.” Newt said offering his drink effectively changing the subject. Thomas took the offered drink lifting it to his mouth to take a sip only to immediately gag and spit it back out on the ground in front of him. Whatever that stuff was, it tasted terrible. Hopefully he had never had the displeasure of tasting something so awful in his old life. Newt started chuckling at his misfortune, probably expecting this reaction considering he knew how awful it tastes. He asked, “What is that? While still trying to erase the terrible taste from his memory.

“I don’t even know. It’s Gally’s recipe, a trade secret.” Newt responded continuing to lightly laugh about it. Thomas looked behind them to where Gally was wrestling with some other Gladers before scoffing, “Well he’s still an asshole.” he finally replied.

Newt looked at him with a serious look before responding, “He is, but he also saved your life today. Trust me the maze is a dangerous place, especially at night. You can never go in there.”

“Why is it so dangerous?” Thomas asked curiously, hoping Newt would give him a straight answer about the maze.

Newt sighed before answering, “There’s these creatures, more like monsters actually, that live in there. They won’t hesitate to kill you, any of us really. There are some in there during the day when the doors are open, but at night when the doors close it’s infested with ‘em. The most dangerous ones only come out at night too, we call ‘em Grievers, nasty buggers. Because of the Grievers nobody has ever survived a night in the bloody maze.” This answer gave Thomas the chills.

“Some of the others come into the Glade during the day to attack sometimes, but they’re nothin’ compared to the Grievers.” Newt continued his explanation, which made Thomas feel like they had been placed in some kind of horror film.

“We’re trapped here, aren’t we?” Thomas asked the question that has been haunting him since he saw those doors close earlier.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it though, we’ll find a way to escape soon enough. You see those boys over there by the fire?” Newt reassured pointing to a group of boys sitting by the fire a little ways behind them.

“Yeah.” Thomas answered not understanding where Newt was going with this, what did those boys have to do with finding a way to escape this prison?

“They’re runners. The one in the middle is Minho, the keeper of the runners. They go in the maze everyday, mapping it, looking for a way out of here. If there is a way to escape Minho will find it.” Newt explained pointing out towards an asian boy. Thomas felt a bit jealous that Newt seemed to think so highly of this boy, but ignored it.

“How long have you guys been here?” Thomas asked curiously, wanting to know how long they had been trying to find a way out.

“I’ve been here for nearly three years, but I wasn’t the first one here, Alby was. He’s been here a little more than three years I think. They send a new boy once a month through the box, as you’ve probably already heard. Alby spent a whole month here alone.” Newt answered with a look of sadness on his face, a look that made Thomas want to go in the maze himself to find a way out of here. It was obvious Newt didn’t like it here.

“Why has it taken them so long to find a way out?” Thomas asked dreading what the answer might be, it was already revealed to have monsters living in the maze.

“It’s not that easy. Listen, do you hear that?” Newt asked. It took Thomas a minute, but he did hear something. It sounded like some kind of grinding sound, like when the maze doors had closed earlier.

“Yeah. What is it?” Thomas asked already having an idea, but hoping more of those walls weren’t able to move.

“Everynight the maze changes, that sound is the walls in the maze moving around.” Newt explained. He knew the doors had moved, but the entire maze was able to move. How was that even possible?

“How is that possible?” Thomas asked the question on his mind.

“I don’t know. That’s somethin’ you can ask the creators if you ever get to meet them?” Newt answered honestly. Thomas would definitely have words with these creators, but it wouldn’t be about the maze at all.

“Why were we sent here? Who sent us here?” Thomas asked instead wanting to know why a bunch of kids would be sent to such a dangerous place. “Are we like criminals or something and this is our punishment for our crimes.” Thomas continued speaking some of his thoughts out loud.

“I don’t know the answer to that. Just like you I was sent here with no memory of my life before this, but I doubt it. I mean Chuck can’t be older than thirteen and I don’t think he’s capable of committing some horrible crime to get him this kind of punishment. Plus, if we’ve committed some horrible crimes don’t you think they would want us to remember what we’re being punished for?” Newt replied doubtfully to his theory, but Thomas wasn’t convinced, this sure seemed like a prison.
“My best guess would be because we’re all supernaturals and the creators wanted us to be isolated from the rest of the world.” Newt suggested revealing another secret that had been kept from him.

“Wait you’re supernatural? All of you?” Thomas asked surprised to know so many supernatural creatures had been put in one place and still hadn’t managed to escape. It was weird how he was able to remember the existence of the supernatural, yet was unable to remember any specific details about his life. He couldn’t even remember one conversation from his life. It was almost like they had somehow picked out certain memories he was allowed to keep, while taking out the rest. He could remember about the supernatural and some creatures like werewolves, kanimas, chimeras and so on, but he was unable to remember how he learned this.

“Yeah.” Newt answered looking him in the eye with his beautiful chocolate brown eyes. Thomas felt like he could get lost in those eyes, but in an instant they changed from the familiar chocolate brown to a brilliant glowing amethyst color. They looked different but they weren’t any less beautiful to him. He thought each color had its own unique beauty. The color mystified him a bit though because with all the supernatural information in his brain he could not ever remember meeting a supernatural creature with this unique eye color. In another instant they changed back to the soft chocolate color as if they had never changed in the first place.

“Wow. What are you?” Thomas asked curiously.

“The creators call me a chimera, but I’m not actually sure what that is.” Newt answered with a shrug.

Thomas knew what a chimera was, but that was a long explanation and he decided that he would explain that to Newt later. For now he would try to learn more about this place, “If all of you are supernaturals then why’d they put me in here? I’m not supernatural.” Thomas asked wondering why he got placed in a place full of supernaturals.

“You are supernatural. You have to be ‘cause they only put supernaturals here. Why would they suddenly change that?” Newt insisted, but he really didn’t think so.

“I remember the supernatural, but I don’t remember being supernatural. Actually I can’t really remember anything about myself except for my name.” Thomas explained to Newt just how deep his lack of memory went.

“We can all only remember facts about the world or things we’ve learned, but not anything specific about our life. That’s why you can remember about the supernatural, but not anything about your life or how you learned this stuff. It is a bit strange that you don’t remember what type of supernatural you are, most of us do remember that with our name. It’s the only two things they let us keep. We’ll figure it out eventually though.” Newt explained, confusing Thomas. Alby had told him his name was the only thing they were allowed to keep.

“Alby said our name was the only thing we got to keep. He never said anything about the supernatural.” Thomas commented to see if Newt would tell him more about it.

“I know. Alby doesn’t want new Greenies to know about the supernatural right away. He thinks it’s too much to take in at once with the memory loss and being trapped here on top of it.” Newt elaborated and Thomas had to admit Alby might have a point about it being a lot to take in at once, but he would still rather him to have been honest with him about it all from the beginning. The fact that he knows Alby deliberately left this out makes him distrust him. He wonders what kind of life he must have led before this to be so distrustful of everyone.

“If Alby doesn’t want us to know right away then why are you telling me about it?” Thomas inquired wanting to know why Newt would tell him this when Alby clearly hadn’t wanted him to know yet.

“I could tell you ain’t a sissy and could take it. Plus Alby put me in charge of you, so that means I get to decide what you need to know and when.” Newt answered with a shrug like it didn’t really matter, but Thomas got the feeling there was more to it then Newt was letting on. Newt didn’t seem the type to go against the rules, but he didn’t comment on it. “Plus, the secret was outta the bag when you blew Gally away from your way like that and when I stopped you from gettin’ yourself killed in the bloody maze.” Newt continued the explanation.

“Wait, you mean when you somehow managed to paralyze me to the floor? How’d you do that anyways, it’s not like you shifted into whatever you are.” Thomas questioned with fake accusation in his voice.

Newt laughed at this before replying, “Don’t need to shift to use my abilities. Here let me show you.” Newt held up one of his hands palms facing up. Thomas watched in fascination as a small ball of electricity formed in his palm before he dissipated it completely. Newt never once lost control of it either. “I created a very tiny jolt of electricity to temporarily shock your body enough so it couldn’t move for a few minutes.” Newt finished his explanation.

“Do I even want to know how you know exactly the right amount of electricity to shock someone with to paralyze them for a few minutes?” Thomas teased the blonde boy who looked sheepish at this question.

“Probably not.” Newt answered with an embarrassed flush on his face. Thomas thought it just made him look even cuter than normal. Thomas just laughed in response.

“Okay, that’s enough questions for one night. Come on Greenie you’re the guest of honor here. Let’s celebrate.” Newt said as he got up grabbing his hand to pull him up as well. The feeling of Newt’s hand in his gave him a warm fluttery feeling inside and he didn’t want Newt to ever let go. Much nicer than the feeling he felt earlier at his touch.

Newt took him around the bonfire introducing him to the other boys, especially the keepers who he’ll be working with until they figure out what job best suited him. Thomas didn’t say anything to Newt, but he was sure he wanted to be a runner. He decided to address that issue another time. There was a different keeper for each different job in the Glade: Frypan was the keeper of the cooks who seemed like a pretty cool dude so long as you don’t mess with his cooking. Zart was the keeper of the track-hoes, which Thomas referred to as gardens, he was really quiet and kept to himself. Winston was keeper of the slicers, the butchers, and he gave Thomas the creeps for some reason. There were only two med-jacks or the doctors of the Glade, but Clint was the keeper. Gally was the keeper of the builders, the ones responsible for the falling apart structures around the Glade. Newt said they were good with their hands but had nothing much going on upstairs as he showed Thomas the universal crazy sign with crossed eyes, it was hilarious. There was also the sloppers where Chuck worked or the trash clean up crew, and the baggers who picked up dead remains to take to the graves, but Thomas couldn’t remember who the keepers were. There really was a job for every need of the Glade, which was good since these boys seemed to be mostly surviving off their own skills.

While they were walking around the bonfire a boy had bumped into him from behind. Thomas turned to see and realized it was just one of the boys from the wrestling match against Gally, most likely he had been tossed into his back. Gally noticed him and somehow managed to goad him into a wrestling match that he was currently losing at the moment. Thomas had no clue what kind of supernatural Gally was supposed to be, but it didn’t seem to matter much because he was huge in human form. Thomas stood no chance against him. Gally apparently thought it was very entertaining to push him around the wrestling circle, not that he gave him much resistance with his pitiful attempts to push back. Gally was really strong and he didn’t know if he was even using any supernatural strength or not.

“Come on Greenie. You’re not even trying.” Gally taunted using the nickname Thomas had started to hate. He put up with it from Newt, but he wouldn’t from this bully.

“My name is Thomas, not Greenie.” Thomas said frustratedly.

“What’s wrong you don’t like Greenie? What should I call you then? Shank.” Gally taunted using another of the Glader slang words.

“How about you try calling me by my name.” Thomas sassed as he managed to evade onee of Gally’s pushes.

“Oh is poor little Tommy insulted?” Gally continued to taunt him causing him to get even more angry.

“It’s Thomas!” Thomas shouted as he lunged for Gally who easily pushed him off, but when he went to grab at him again by some strange occurrence Gally was flung to the floor as if by the air itself, just like earlier. One time was one thing, but two times couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Still it probably needed to happen a third time to really be a pattern. After that Gally got really angry and threw him to the ground really hard causing him to hit his head on the ground hard enough to see stars. The wrestling matches had been ended by Alby after that who scolded Gally for being so rough.

“Are ya okay Greenie?” Newt asked concern showing clearly on his face as he offered him a hand.

“Yeah, I think so.” Thomas answered by taking the hand and pulling himself up.

“I think that telekinesis stuff you do is cool.” Newt praised with a smile on his face. Thomas was confused, telekinesis? Is that what was happening with Gally? Was he really doing that?

“Telekinesis?” Thomas questioned to see what Newt thought about it.

“Yeah. It’s happened twice now. Gally isn’t the clumsy type to fall like that so it has to be you.” Newt answered

“I don’t even know how it keeps happening. I just keep getting really angry or frustrated with him and it happens.”

“The strong emotion is probably fueling your abilities, whatever they are. You’ll learn to control ‘em, don’t worry. Come on, it’s getting late, let’s go to bed.” Newt explained as he led him away from there.

He was arranged to sleep next to Chuck outside on the soft grass since there wasn’t any more room in the Homestead, the building kind of like a house with rooms. There probably hadn’t been enough room in there for a long time considering how many other boys were sleeping outside on the ground as well. The lucky boys were able to get hammocks to sleep in instead of the ground, but Thomas didn’t really mind. Everytime he fell asleep he had these strange dreams about a girl and water, but couldn’t remember anything other than that about the dreams.

Early in the morning someone shook him awake and covered his mouth before he had a chance to say anything. He looked up to see who it was. Relief flooded him when he realized it was Newt. Looking around Thomas could see all the other boys were still sleeping. Why was Newt waking him up so early? It still looked as if it was dark outside.

“Shh, you don’t want to wake up Chuckie, do ya? Follow me. I want to show you somethin’.” Newt whispered as he gestured for him to follow. As silently as possible Thomas got up to follow Newt, but it wasn’t very silent at all. At least it seemed like he hadn’t managed to wake anyone else up. Thomas had no idea what Newt could possibly want to show him this early in the morning. Couldn’t whatever it was wait until it was at least daylight? He was curious about what it was Newt had wanted to show him, so he followed him without any complaints. They walked to the walls of the maze, but somewhere on the side, not where the doors had been.

“I’m sorry for waking you up so early, but it’s necessary for what I want to show you. You can only see ‘em when it’s dark out.” Newt told him, not really seeming all that sorry at all.

“It’s fine. What did you want to show me?” Thomas asked even more curious than before. Why could they only see whatever Newt wanted to show him when it was dark out? Newt gestured to the huge ivy covered wall as if he was supposed to understand what was so fascinating about the wall.

“I don’t get it. Why are you showing me the wall? I saw them yesterday.” Thomas asked puzzled at what he was supposed to be looking at. Newt rolled his eyes before walking up to the ivy covered wall and pushing aside some of the ivy to reveal a small rectangular window. It looked completely black as if someone had painted it. Thomas couldn’t believe that there was some kind of window in the wall. He wondered where the window led to.

“This is what I wanted to show ya. Come look.” Newt explained as he looked into one part of the small window, leaving a space open for him to look. Thomas walked to the window to look through it like Newt asked, but saw nothing except more walls. What was the point of this window?

“What are we looking for?” Thomas asked Newt.

“Have some bloody patience Greenie. One’ll come soon enough.” Newt answered vaguely, frustrating Thomas. He sighed as he continued looking out the window as patiently as he could. He waited for whatever Newt wanted to show him. And waited. And waited. Honestly, he started to question if anything really was going to happen at all. Did Newt really wake him up so early for this? What were they waiting for? Why couldn’t Newt just tell him what he was supposed to be looking at? Not for the first he realized he clearly must not have been a very patient person in his old life. On the other hand Newt must have been very patient because he was just standing there perfectly still, looking out the window as if he wasn’t bothered at all by how much time seemed to pass.

“What are we waiting for?” Thomas finally asked impatiently getting fed up with all the waiting.

“Would you bloody shut it? You'll know when it bloody happens.” Newt scolded him, still not telling him what they were waiting for.

“Well it seems kind of stupid waking me up so early and not telling me what for.” Thomas pointed out. To his own surprise he added, “Shank.” with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Newt burst out laughing at this.

“I like you, Greenie.” Newt replied once he cut his own laughter off, but still didn’t tell him any more. Seeing Newt laugh like that distracted him from his frustration and anger causing warm feelings in him instead. He thought Newt’s laughter must be the most beautiful sound he has ever heard, but that thought didn’t surprise him considering how beautiful this boy is. Not a minute later Thomas was being urged to look through the window again by Newt. He saw a huge bulbous creature that couldn’t be anything natural. Actually, the word Newt had used last night, monster, better described this thing than any other word he could come up with. It almost looked like a giant spider shadowy thing with mechanical legs, except it also had a huge mechanical tail that reminded him of a scorpion. He could also see what looked like blades and shears protruding from other parts of its body. This monster was a horrific mix between animal and machine. Looking at it caused terror to chill his blood to ice. The creature seemed to know it was being observed because it started climbing the opposite wall before jumping at the window. He was able to see this creature had no eyes and razor sharp teeth used for tearing through flesh. Thomas jumped back in horror, but the creature hadn’t been able to break through the window as he dreaded it would. Instead it bounced back onto the ground. He stepped away from the window completely, not able to look anymore. At the moment he felt so petrified it felt like this bone chilling fear had stolen all the air out of his lungs. Despite this he had to ask what that thing was.

“What is that thing?” Thomas asked Newt, his voice coming out shaky.

“It’s what I told you last night, we call ‘em Grievers. The worst of all the creatures livin’ in the maze.” Newt answered sending even more chills through Thomas’s bloodstream. “We don’t usually show anyone this, let alone Greenies, so do me a favor and don’t tell anyone I showed you this. Alby will be really mad if he finds out I showed you.” Newt finished.

“Why’d you show it to me then?” Thomas asked confusion coloring his voice at this.

“I knew you were curious about the maze and I needed to show you exactly why you can’t ever go in there.” Newt explained as he gestured towards the window he had shown him causing even more fear to spread through his system.

“Alright. I won’t tell anyone, it’ll be our secret.” Thomas assured the blonde boy as he attempted to give him a smile. He probably didn’t manage to pull off the smile though.

“Look Greenie. Like I told ya last night, the Grievers are the worst of ‘em, but the other three creatures aren’t a walk in the park either. This is why I wanted you to see, so you could see for yourself that this ain’t a joke. This is serious and we need ya to learn how to survive and develop your abilities.” Newt explained and Thomas understood why he wanted him to see this, but he felt more terror enter his body to make a home. Even with all the supernatural knowledge he had, he had never seen something so horrible before. How had all these boys managed to survive all this time?

“Come on Greenie. There’s somethin’ else I wanna see.” Newt called out to him as he started walking away. Thomas wasn’t sure if he wanted to see anything else here. This reality was a nightmare. He followed Newt anyways though. Newt had led them along the wall until they reached the closed doors. Newt glanced at his watch before looking at Thomas.

“The doors will be opening in a couple hours.” Newt informed him. Thomas was confused at why they were at the closed doors a couple hours before they opened. Newt had made a very clear point that he didn’t want Thomas anywhere near the maze, so why were they at the doors?

“What are we doing here?” Thomas asked hoping Newt would give him a straight answer this time.

“The walls are infused with mountain ash. That stuff makes a barrier to stop supernaturals from crossing. Since these walls are infused with it, it stops most of us from even touching ‘em. Everyone except for me that is. I wanna see if you’re like me, if you can touch it too.” Newt explained gesturing towards the doors.

“You’re a chimera, that’s why you can touch mountain ash. Chimeras are genetically engineered supernatural creatures created from science rather than natural supernatural means.” Thomas explained, figuring now is as good as any time to tell Newt about chimeras. Newt’s eyes widened in surprise at this information.

“How do you know that?” Newt questioned, surprise showing clearly in his features.

“I don’t know. It’s part of the stuff I know about the supernatural, I guess from my previous life. I have no details about how I learned it, just the facts.” Thomas tried to explain.

“Bloody hell. That means you knew about chimeras before your memories were taken. You’re the first person sent here that has even heard about chimeras. What else do you know about ‘em?” Newt exclaimed in surprise and excitement.

“Well let’s see, uh, I know they’re created through science, like I just said, which is why they aren’t limited to the supernatural rules like other supernaturals. Usually, they have traits from two different species of supernatural or more. They aren’t as strong as a natural supernatural.” Thomas explained to Newt everything he could think of about chimeras.

“That’s amazing, you’re a genius.” Newt praised causing him to flush in embarrassment.

“Thanks, I guess.” Thomas replied trying in vain to hide the blush on his cheeks.

“So they made me into this? Why?” Newt asked more to himself than Thomas.

“Guess that’s just something you’ll have to ask when we escape, huh?” Thomas told him. Newt gave him a smile in return, though Thomas could tell it wasn’t genuine.

“I still want you to try touching the doors.” Newt replied gesturing towards the closed doors towering over them. Thomas walked up to the doors figuring he had absolutely nothing to lose by trying. Either he would be able to touch or he wouldn’t. He lifted up one of his hands to place it on the door. He was able to touch the door and wasn’t forced back by an invisible barrier as he had expected might happen. After a few seconds of touching it something else he hadn’t expected to happen did. The doors started making the grinding sound he had heard yesterday indicating they were moving. Thomas pulled his hand away as if he had been burned, but it was too late, the doors had already started opening. In his panic he glanced at Newt to see his reaction. Newt had looked back at his watch then back at the opening doors with a panicked look. That couldn’t be good.

“What did you do? It’s not time for the doors to open yet.” Newt asked, the fear obvious in his panicked tone.

“Me? I just touched it like you told me to.” Thomas defended himself, not sure how the doors started opening just from being touched.

“This is bad, really bad. The Grievers aren’t gone yet. What if they decide to come in the Glade? They’ll kill us all. Try to close them.” Newt said his panic was getting worse by the minute. He was almost hyperventilating at this point.

“How?” Thomas asked not panicking too, not nearly as bad as Newt though.

“I don’t bloody know, Try touching it again.” Newt suggested, which was actually a really good idea. That is what had caused them to start opening after all. Thomas placed his hand on one of the open doors just like he did earlier, but this time nothing happened. Thomas tried doing different things with his hands to try to jump start the doors to close, but nothing seemed to be working. The doors were stubbornly staying wide open. Newt had been right. This would be really bad if he couldn’t figure out how to get these doors to close.

“Try imagining the doors closing when you touch it.” Newt offered. It couldn’t hurt any more than this, so he closed his eyes imagining this working this time and the doors closing. He placed his palm back on the doors with the image in his head and his eyes still closed. To his surprise he heard the grinding sound coming from the doors. He opened his eyes to see the doors were actually closing and it wasn’t just his imagination. He turned around to look at Newt who looked relieved, the panic had left his face.

“Bloody hell! You did it Greenie. Don’t touch any more walls until we can figure this out.” Newt told him and Thomas couldn’t agree more.

“Come on Greenie. We gotta get back before the wake up.” Newt said as he started walking away from the walls further into the Glade. Thomas followed him wanting to forget the whole thing with the doors just opening like that.

Later on after the doors had opened naturally and the runners had left Newt had found him again to let him know that he was going to start working today. He was going to work with each of the keepers for one day to find out what job suits him the best. Newt wanted to know if there was any job in particular that he wanted to start out with. Thomas already knew what he wanted to do. He hadn’t told anyone yet, but he knew he wanted, needed, to be a runner. Despite seeing that monster this morning he still had an urge to go out in the maze. He really couldn’t explain this feeling, just that he had to be a runner.

“I want to be a runner.” Thomas admit with determination. After saying this he saw the smile on Newt’s face disappear. Seeing this he kind of wished he hadn’t said anything about being a runner.

“Absolutely not.” Newt answered leaving no room for argument, but Thomas tried to argue his point anyways.

“Why not?” Thomas asked.

“Didn’t ya pay attention to anything this morning? You saw a Griever and how dangerous the maze is. Didn’t it scare you ?” Newt told him, not seeming to understand why he would want to go anywhere near the maze.

“Yeah, it scared me, but I just have this feeling that I need to be a runner.” Thomas tried to explain, but it didn’t seem to get through to Newt.

“Nobody wants to be a runner. You have to be chosen to become a runner.” Newt told him trying to dissuade him, but it wasn’t working.

“How do I get chosen?” Thomas asked trying to figure out how to become a runner, ignoring all of Newt’s warnings.

“You are completely insane.” Newt said not answering his question.

“Yeah, yeah. Now tell me how I can get chosen to be a runner.” Thomas brushed off what Newt said, hopefully Newt would answer him if he pushed him enough.

“You can’t.” Newt insisted still not answering how he could become a runner.

“You have to be voted in by the council. That’s all the keepers plus Alby and I. We have to have a gathering and vote whether you can become one or not.” Newt finally answered the question before adding, “You won’t get anyone’s vote right now. You’re just a Greenie that barely knows his name, it takes time to earn the respect needed to become a runner.”

“Help me convince everyone that I need to be a runner then.” Thomas requested, but was immediately shut down.

“No. I don’t want you to become a runner, I don’t want you in the maze at all, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Newt admitted as he looked away from him. Newt was completely convinced he shouldn’t be a runner or even be in the maze. Thomas noticed something he hadn’t noticed before though. Newt was completely terrified of the maze, more so than the others seemed to be. He had this scared look in his eyes every time it was mentioned. It almost seemed like Newt was scared of the maze itself and not the monsters that lurked inside. This fear Newt had was one of the reasons he wanted to become a runner in the first place. He couldn’t stand seeing this boy so afraid. He wanted to find a way out of this place so Newt wouldn’t have to be so afraid all the time, so he could find happiness away from this nightmare. Newt deserved to be happy, not trapped in this prison treated like a lab rat.

“Newt…”

“You’re just a Greenie, maybe later on ya can become a runner, but not now.” Newt said interrupting him. “Only the best of the best ever become runners and nobody knows you well enough right now to determine that.” Newt added.

“If only the best of the best become runners then why aren’t you one?” Thomas asked dropping the subject of him becoming a runner for now, he would try again later when Newt wasn’t so worked up over it.

“I was a runner not too long ago.” Newt revealed, leaving out any details about it. Thomas was confused about this fact. If Newt had been a runner then why was he so against Thomas becoming one? Why was he so scared of the maze?

“What happened?” Thomas asked remembering that Newt walked with a limp, probably from an old injury, and wondered if that had happened while he was a runner. “Is that how you hurt your leg?” He added. Newt’s whole body seemed to tense at this question and Thomas saw a haunted look in his eyes before he quickly looked at the ground to avoid eye contact.

“Yeah.” Newt answered tensely clearly not wanting to talk about it but continued, “I was running from a Griever. The buggin’ thing almost got me too. I managed to escape, but not without any damage. Before I got away, it snapped my leg. I’m okay, but I will always have this limp.”

“I’m sorry.” Thomas said even though he knew it wasn’t his fault, he hadn’t even been here yet.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Come on you’re going to work with Winston as a slicer today.” Newt said dismissing his apology. Thomas followed him to the blood house where the slicers work.

Winston had dark greasy hair, dark eyes and tanned skin, all around he seemed to be pretty average. Then again since all these boys were supernaturals he probably wasn’t so average after all. Winston explained the job of being a slicer to him. It wasn’t all about killing and slicing animals up as he had feared, but it didn’t sound like his cup of tea either. Winston took the time to show him around the bloodhouse and to all the different animals they had. One of their jobs was to take care of all these animals. They even had a black labrador retriever named Bark, but apparently the name had been a joke since this job was actually really quiet. Winston told him the dog had already been here before any of them along with all the other animals.

After showing him around they had got started on the real work. The first thing they needed to do was feed all the animals. That had been easy enough. After feeding the animals they got to work cleaning out their stalls, scraping their klunk, - he found himself using the Glader terms more and more - and cleaning the animals themselves. This wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it would be. During the whole process Thomas had asked Winston tons of questions ranging from being about the job to about the maze. He had learned that Winston was a werewolf, which Thomas knew plenty about. He must have been around a lot of werewolves before he was sent here.

After taking care of all the animals’ needs they got to the part of the job he had been dreading since he got here, the part where the slicers got their name. Today they were going to kill and butcher a pig for food. They hadn’t even started and he could already feel queasy. Winston wasn’t going to make him actually kill the pig, bless his soul, but he still had to watch Winston do it, which wouldn’t be fun. Winston on the other hand had this manic kind of smile on his face at the prospect of doing this part of the job that made Thomas feel uneasy. Winston seemed to enjoy this part of the job way too much. Briefly, Thomas wondered if Winston was put in this prison for being a serial killer. Thomas watched as Winston walked up to the innocent, unsuspecting pig holding his hands up. As he reached the pig claws popped out of his fingers revealing his intentions to the pig. The pig squealed in fright at seeing this, but it was pinned in.

“Are you sure you’re supposed to kill it like that?” Thomas asked before Winston had a chance to sink his claws in the pig.

“Yes, I’m sure I know how to do my own job, Greenie.” Winston answered, shooting him a look that looked very annoyed.

“Isn’t that unsanitary though? What if people get sick?” Thomas asked some questions, showing his concern for this method.

“This is the fastest way to get the job done. Plus, we’re all supernaturals, so we can’t get sick.” Winston explained, seeming to get even more frustrated.

“Doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it.” Thomas commented defiantly, mostly trying to stall for more time.

“Just slim it already! Do you have to ask me questions every five seconds? It’s driving me insane.” Winston growled out angrily before turning back towards the pig to finish his job. Winston went back to the pig with his claws out, using them to slice a fatal blow on its jugular. Blood splattered everywhere. Thomas honestly felt like he was going to be sick or pass out, whichever one comes first.

To distract himself he asked a final question against his better judgement, “How can you kill the animals you take care of?”

Winston growled out angrily before shouting, “You’re so annoying! Get out of here before I decide to kill you too! Find Newt, tell him you’re not going to be a slicer!” Thomas took off running out of the bloodhouse, not needing to be told twice. He probably shouldn’t have asked Winston so many questions, but he was so curious and it was hard to keep it inside. It was a relief that he wouldn’t have to work as a slicer anymore though. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he could handle watching anymore animals be killed, let alone actually kill one himself. Clearly, Winston didn’t seem to be very patient either. Oh well, it did accomplish his goal of getting out of the bloodhouse faster. Hopefully he wouldn’t hold a grudge against him for this because that would cause an obstacle to becoming a runner since he needed all the keepers to vote for him. Thomas finally found Newt working in the gardens.

“Hey, Newt.” Thomas greeted the beautiful blonde boy who looked up at him with a shocked expression.

“What are you doing here, mate? You’re supposed to be in the buggin’ bloodhouse with the slicers today.” Newt asked him puzzlement on his features.

“Winston sent me away. He said to find you and tell you that I’m not going to be a slicer.” Thomas answered earnestly leaving out the part of him driving the boy up a wall with all his questions, hoping New wouldn’t ask.

Unfortunately, his wish didn’t come true because Newt did ask. “Keepers usually keep Greenies the whole day. What did you Greenie?”

“Well, I may have, uh, annoyed him too much by asking him too many questions. I guess he’s not a very patient person.” Thomas answered sheepishly.

“Bloody hell Greenie.” Newt replied before adding, “I shouldn’t have sent you there. He’s not patient at all, so not a good match with your undying curiosity. You can work here with me and the track-hoes for the rest of the day.” Thomas agreed to this idea, happy to stay with Newt. So far he and Chuck were the only Gladers that had been nice to him, the only Gladers he liked so far.

“The keeper of the track-hoes is Zart.” Newt reminded him pointing out another blonde boy in the gardens before adding, “He’s a lot more patient than Winston, so you shouldn’t have a problem.” Thomas looked at the other boy and remembered he was the quiet boy who mostly kept to himself Newt had introduced him to at the bonfire. He waved at Zart in greeting who waved back.

While all of them were working on the gardens Thomas decided this would be the perfect time to ask Newt some questions that had been bugging him. “Has anyone tried climbing to the top?” He asked Newt curiously. Surely, if they climbed to the top they would be able to see the exit.

Newt tensed up when he heard this question as if hearing it physically heart him, but Thomas couldn’t understand why he would have this kind of reaction to this question. Newt finally answered, “Tried it. The ivy doesn’t go all the way to the top.” not bothering to even turn around to look at him. “And besides where are you going to go from there?” Newt asked him in return. Thomas had to admit that he had a point there. Even if they could see the exit, how would they get there? Probably a dead end there, but he wouldn’t give up yet, there had to be a way out of here.

“What about the box? The next time it comes up-”

“We tried that. The box won’t go down with someone in it.” Newt cut him off. Another dead end. Thomas had to think a minute. They had been put here through the box, but Newt said it won’t go back down if someone is in it, then the box leaves the Glade leaving the box hole. That was it, what if they went down there.

Before he was able to say anything Newt spoke. “And that won’t work either.” Newt denied before he even had a chance to hear what he was thinking.

“But you didn’t even know what I was going to say.” Thomas said petulantly, but he was not pouting.

“You were going to suggest going down the box hole, making a rope with the ivy. We already tried that. We made a really long bloody rope out of the ivy and one of the Gladers went down the hole using the rope. As soon as he was out of sight we could tell somethin’ happened, so we tried to pull him up, but only the top half of his body was left. Somethin’ came and cut the shank in half.” Newt explained, apparently having the ability to read his mind now. That story was so crazy. It couldn’t be true, could it?

“Do you have the ability to read minds? How’d you know I was going to ask that?” Thomas asked seriously. He never knew what supernaturals were capable of, Newt really could have the ability to read minds.

“No, not that I know of anyways. I knew you were going to ask that because it was obviously your next train of thought. “And before you ask, yes that story is true. You can check the bones in the bloody graveyard if you want.” Newt again somehow read his mind pointing towards the cluster of trees. He remembers that the woods, deadheads as they call it, is where Newt said the graveyard was located. Thomas ignored this to make another escape suggestion.

“What if we-”

“We tried it! Twice!” Newt exclaimed, interrupting him again finally turning around to face him. “Anything you think of, we’ve already tried it. The only way out of here is through the bloody maze.” Newt finished gesturing towards the open doors.

Newt took a few minutes to calm down before speaking again. “Sorry Greenie. You need to understand we’ve been here three years trying to escape. Why don’t you go dig up some fertilizer for us from the deadheads? Get your mind off of it for a while.” Newt suggested as he passed him a bucket and a shovel.

Thomas took the items passed to him before walking towards the deadheads, as Newt calls it. He muttered to himself along the way about this task being the only way he could help. While he was here he decided it was a good time to take a look around, maybe check out the graveyard. He looked around him as he walked deeper into the small woods, wondering why it was put in the Glade in the first place. Thomas noticed something sticking out of the ground so decided to take a closer look to see what it was. He bent down next to it. It looked like some sticks or bark sticking out of the ground with a name scratched across the middle. After a second he realized what he was looking at, this appeared to be a makeshift grave marker, so this must be part of the graveyard. He looked at the grave marker to read what the name was. George he read and wondered what happened to this boy to cause him to die here. Was he attacked by those monsters Newt said came in the Glade? Whatever had killed him, he must have been one of the first to die because this grave looked like it had been here a while. He looked around at the other grave markers, some seemed new while others had a lot of wear and tear like this one. There were so many graves here for all the fallen Gladers. He wondered what kind of monsters would put a bunch of kids in a place like this? Supernatural or not, they were still just kids and didn’t deserve to have to fight for their lives everyday, or to have to bury their friends because the monsters got to them.

Thomas was walking around the gravesite looking at all the graves lining the deadheads. There were so many. It saddened him that so many boys’ lives had been abruptly brought to an end here. As he continued to look around the graveyard he noticed that one of the graves seemed to be different from the others. He decided to go over to it to investigate why this one was different. The Glade was so organized so there had to be a reason for it, hopefully he would be able to figure out why on his own. The other graves had similar markers made out of bark with a name etched across the middle, but this one had a whole box instead. He walked up to it and noticed it was open on the top, which was weird. He decided to take a look inside to see what was in there. All he could see were bones resembling the top half of a skeleton, but where was the rest. Why would there only be bones to half a skeleton? The bones towards the bottom looked like they had been cut, a very clean cut, not ragged like a knife. Why would the bottom half of a body be cut off? It looked almost as if a very large blade had just sliced this person in half. Then he noticed some writing on the box, but not a name like he expected, so he decided to read it.

It said: ‘Let this half-shank be a warning to all: You can’t escape through the Box Hole’.

After reading this Thomas remembered the story Newt had told him earlier about not being able to escape through the box hole. He had said something came and cut him in half when he went down the box hole, but Thomas hadn’t believed it was true. He thought Newt was just trying to scare him. The realization that the story was true hit him hard knocking the breath right out of him. He wondered, not for the first time, if this place really was some kind of prison that they were all stuck in until they died. Newt didn’t seem to think so, but he could be wrong. The fact of the situation was they were sent here with no memories of their life, they were trapped here with no obvious way to escape, the only possible escape was through the maze which was heavily guarded by bloodthirsty monsters. The maze might not even have a way to escape, it could be a giant trap with no way out. The Gladers had been here for three years trying to find a way out through the maze without any results, so odds are there is no escape. This sure sounded like a prison to him, but if it was one, then they all must have done some really terrible crimes to be put in a prison l like this.Thomas was broken out of this thought when he heard a sound in the otherwise silent woods. It made a small snapping sound like someone had stepped on a twig.

“Who’s there?” Thomas asked as fear took a grip of his soul. There was no response to this. He could hear footsteps echoing over the ground now.

“Who’s there?” Thomas repeated, trying to hide the fear in his voice. He wasn’t successful. Even to his own ears he could he just how scared his voice sounded. Again there was no answer. Thomas didn’t let his guard down because he knew there was someone or something out here with him. He knew he didn’t imagine those sounds so started looking around to try to find out what was there. He heard another noise, this time able to tell it was coming from behind him. He quickly turned around to face whoever was there. He felt relief flood his system as he realized it was only one of the Gladers.

He sighed in relief, “Ben right?” he asked not certain if he got the right name. There were a lot of Gladers and a lot of names to remember. The other boy didn’t answer him, just stood there staring at Thomas. He noticed something seemed off about the boy, he seemed to have a sort of deranged look in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

“Ben? Are you okay?” Thomas asked concerned that something may be wrong with the other boy.

“You. This is all your fault.” Ben answered this time with a low growl through sharp fangs. At the same time this happened his eyes flashed a bright lime green color. They were captivating, though nowhere near as beautiful as Newt’s supernatural eyes are. Thomas knew this couldn’t be good. It was probably a warning sign that he was about to attack. What if he didn’t have control? He knew that some creatures lost control when they were first turned. “I’m going to make you pay traitor!” Ben snarled out this time. If the first one hadn’t been a warning, then this one definitely was. Thomas didn’t wait another moment, he turned around and ran as quickly as his feet would carry him, completely forgetting the shovel and bucket on the floor. As soon as he started running he could hear Ben chasing behind him.

Thomas was trying to run out of the deadheads as fast as he could, to where there were other Gladers. They would know how to stop this lunatic. Unfortunately, he tripped over a tree root causing him to fall on the ground. He tried to get back up before Ben caught up, but it was too late. Just as he had gotten up Ben tacked him back to the ground. Ben had him pinned to the ground and dug his sharp claws into his forearms. Instead of worrying about the pain he was trying to struggle himself free from Ben’s grip. It was no use though because the only thing this accomplished was making his claws sink deeper into his arms.Thomas yelled in pain this time.

He realized this was it. Ben was going to kill him for some reason he couldn’t understand. He has never even spoken to Ben before now, so why did he want to kill him? It wasn’t because he had lost control. If that were the reason then he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from ripping him to shreds right now. No, he was holding him there, but he hadn’t made a single move to kill him yet.

How could he manage to escape this when Ben was clearly much stronger than him? Apparently whatever supernatural creature he was supposed to be didn’t have superstrength. Still despite the fact he had absolutely no chance of escaping this he couldn’t just give up and accept his fate. No, if he was going down, then he would go down fighting. Ben finally lifted up one of his clawed hands to hold it in front of his face, probably planning to rip his throat out with it. Thomas took this chance to use his one free arm to try hitting Ben to knock him off. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t work. Ben looked as if he hadn’t even touched him, let alone punched him. Ben gave him a manic smile before pulling his clawed hand back preparing to give him the fatal attack. Helplessly, he brought his free arm up to try blocking the claws as best he could. He closed his eyes anticipating the pain he would feel before dying. Before anything happened Ben was harshly thrown away from him like an explosion. Thomas opened his eyes just in time to see him smack against a tree.

Thomas didn’t take the time to question how this had happened, instead he took this opportunity to get up and run. It didn’t take long for Ben to get back up and chase after him. This did give him just enough time to barely stay ahead of him until he got out of the deadheads. Once he reached the open Glade he started yelling for help, hoping one of the Gladers would here and come to help him. Ben had caught up to him by this point and lunged at him knocking him to the ground again.

All the commotion must have attracted the attention of the other Gladers because he could see Newt along with some others running this way. Newt was far faster than the other Gladers, but he didn’t move nearly as fast as he had that one time, the first night when he stopped him from going into the maze. He watched Newt form a small ball made from electricity in the palm of his hand before throwing it this way. For a minute Thomas thought it was going to hit him, but it flew right above him to hit something behind him, then there was dead weight on top of him. It had hit Ben. He rolled himself out from under the other boy and watched as he fell on the ground, unable to move. He realized that Newt must have paralyzed him.

“What happened?” Newt asked, looking at him. Thomas wondered if people could talk when paralyzed with Newt’s ability. He hadn’t tried talking at the time, too confused about how it had happened just from Newt touching him.

“I don’t know. He just came out of nowhere and attacked me.” Thomas answered honestly as more Gladers had reached them.

“Lift up his shirt. Check him.” Newt ordered one of the other Gladers in his authoritative voice. Thomas had no clue what they were checking him for though. Ben seemed to try protesting this, but that was pretty difficult to do when you were paralyzed. Gally walked up to him to do as Newt ordered. Strangely when Ben saw it was Gally he seemed to deflate and stop trying to protest. Gally lifted his shirt up to reveal a hole with purple and black veins surrounding it. It wasn’t pretty.

“He’s been stung.” Gally said sadly with tears brimming his eyes. Thomas was surprised by this show of emotion from the tough boy. Those two must be really close for him to be so upset by this. Thomas still wasn’t sure what that meant. What had stung Ben? Did that cause him to act so violent?

“Put him in the pit!” Alby ordered as the other Gladers gave Gally a look of pity.

Newt walked up to Gally placing a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry Gally. I know this must be hard for you.” Newt comforted the distraught boy. He added, “You don’t have to be involved in the banishing. Everyone will understand.”

“No. I have to be there for him until the end. Even if doing so will break me.” Gally replied denying what Newt had offered. Thomas still didn’t understand what they were talking about. Newt had said something about banishing Ben, but how were they going to do that when they were all trapped here? After this Gally bent down and picked the other boy up gently intending to carry him to the pit.

“Newt, get the mountain ash to secure the pit.” Alby told the blonde boy who just nodded before walking away to do as he was told.

Alby noticed that his arms hadn’t healed where Ben had dug his claws. He took him to the med-jacks to treat the injury. Well, he could cross supernatural healing off the list of supernatural abilities as well. Most supernaturals had this ability, so this fact should narrow the list down substantially. The only problem with this is he couldn’t remember any type of supernatural that didn’t have some type of advanced healing factor. This made him wonder if Newt had been wrong about him after all. Newt had said he had to be some kind of supernatural or he wouldn’t have been sent here, but he could be wrong. Maybe he really wasn’t supernatural like everyone else here. If he wasn’t supernatural then why would the creators put him here with a bunch of supernaturals?

He met Jeff who was one of the med-jacks or doctors of the Glade. Jeff had dark skin and short curly hair. Jeff seemed surprised that something like this hadn’t healed naturally by now. Jeff said he hasn’t met very many supernaturals who couldn’t heal on their own, this job was mostly here for more serious injuries that needed extra help healing. Thomas didn’t have the guts to tell him his theory about not actually being a supernatural. He would keep this information to himself until he could find out for sure.

Once Jeff had started treating his injuries, it was pretty obvious how he got this job. The other boy held his hands out making two identical spheres of water appear in the palms. It was very similar to how he had seen Newt make little electric balls, except with water instead. Jeff then took the spears of water and covered both injuries with them. The water started glowing a soft green and he felt a tingling and itchy sensation on his arms. After a few minutes of this Jeff removed the water from his arms to reveal, to his amazement, that the skin had been completely healed. It looked like they had never been injured in the first place.

Jeff explained to him that he was an elemental, which means he could create and control some of the elements. He hadn’t mastered them all yet, but he was able to use water to heal. Thomas thought this kind of
supernatural was badass.

After being healed Alby had given Thomas the rest of the day off. Thomas assumed he did this because Ben had gone crazy and attacked him. He had been wandering around aimlessly since then. Alby had joined him, most likely to keep an eye on him, but said anything.

He saw an Asian boy dart out of the maze. He looked like the boy Newt told him about, Minho keeper of the runners. Although, it seemed strange for him to come back from the maze so early. Thomas was sure the doors weren’t supposed to close yet and yesterday they hadn’t come back until the doors were about to close. The boy had started sprinting towards them and he was curious what the Asian boy could want. Once the boy reached them he stopped only to double over, breathing heavily. He probably needed to catch his breath after all that running.

Alby must have thought it was strange for him to be out of the maze so early too. “Minho what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in the maze.” Alby asked the Asian boy who was still breathing heavily.

“I have something to tell you shank.” Minho managed to get out between heavy breaths. Thomas was surprised to see this boy talk to Alby so disrespectfully.

“Well, get on with it then, shank. I ain’t got all day.” Alby replied, not batting an eye at how this boy had talked to him.

“Give me a minute. Go get me some water, then I’ll tell you.” Minho demanded. To his surprise Alby turned as if to do as this boy demanded. Thomas was confused at why this boy was allowed to talk to the leader like that. Who was this boy? Why was he allowed to order the leader around?

Alby turned back to him before leaving, “Only Minho can get away with talking to me like that. If you try something like that, you’ll be Griever food faster than you can blink.” he threatened.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Thomas replied.

“Good that.” Alby said before taking off to do as this boy had ordered. Now that Alby was gone it was time to get answers from this boy.

“Why are you allowed to order Alby around? I thought he was the leader.” Thomas asked, hoping this boy would give him a straight answer. So far the Gladers loved to be very vague when answering questions.

Minho rolled his eyes before saying, “Slim it Greenie. You don’t know anything.” Annoyance was lacing his voice.

“That’s because you guys won’t tell me anything.” Thomas argued. He hated that nobody wanted to tell him anything.

“I said slim it. I hate Greenies and all their questions. Newt is so much better at dealing with them.” Minho complained.

“Like you were any better as a Greenie.” Thomas muttered, but apparently Minho heard him.

“I was one of the first Greenies here, shuckface.” Minho responded.

“You guys are like a pack, right? So I just thought Alby was the alpha. He acts like it.” Thomas pointed out, ignoring Minho’s last response.

Minho sighed in exasperation at the realization he wasn’t going to stop questioning everything. “Look, shuckface, let’s get some things straight. Yes, we are a pack. Technically, Alby and Newt would be considered the alphas, but unlike other packs, they don’t go making all the decisions and ordering everyone else around. We’re separated into leaders, we call them the keepers. They’re in charge of a particular job, but they also get a say in any decision made. All the keepers meet in what we call a gathering to make a decision. All the keepers get a chance to say what they think and we vote. Whichever side has the most votes will win the decision.” Minho explained. This cleared a lot of things up that he had been questioning.

“That makes sense. I think Newt was telling me something like this.” Thomas said to himself. Again Minho has heard him.

“I can see you’re a genius.” Minho said with sarcasm dripping from his voice. Before Thomas could say anything else Alby had returned with a cup of water. Minho took the water and downed the whole thing in one go.

After he was done drinking he handed the empty glass back to Alby. “I found a dead Griever.” Minho informed, causing an incredulous look on Alby’s face.

“A dead Griever? Are you sure?” Alby asked, not sure if he could believe this.

“It sure looked dead to me. It was just laying, not moving at all.” Mino answers somberly.

Alby thought about this new information for a few minutes before coming to a conclusion. “Take me there. I need to see this.” Alby told the Asian boy, confidence showing in his eyes.

Minho shook his head in denial before speaking. “No, it’s too late to go today. We’ll never make it back before the doors close. I can take you there tomorrow.”

“Fine. We’ll leave as soon as the doors open.” Alby reluctantly agreed.

“Good that.” Minho replied in agreement. Right after this they were interrupted by a loud alarm sound. What did that mean?

“No way.” Minho stayed after the alarm sound stopped.

“It’s impossible.” Alby agreed. This made Thomas even more curious about what that sound was supposed to mean.

“What’s going on?” Thomas curiously asked the other two boys.

“It means the box is coming back up with more supplies and a new Greenie.” Minho answered, obviously still confused about the whole situation.

“What’s wrong with that?” Thomas asked, wondering why they were making such a big deal about this. From
what he has learned the box always comes back.

“Because the box just came up yesterday. It’s too soon for it to come again. The box always comes up once a month, same day, same time like clockwork.”Alby answered, frustratingly leaking into his voice. Thomas wasn’t able to ask anything else because the boys took off towards the direction of the box. Thomas decided to head towards the box as well. He wanted to see for himself what was going on. On his way to the box he ran into Chuck.

“Thomas there’s going to be another Greenie! Can you believe it?” Chuck exclaimed excitedly. The boy was so excited that he was practically bouncing the whole way to the box.

“This is so cool. It’s only supposed to happen once a month and I had to wait a whole month for you, but now there’s already another new Greenie coming.” Chick continued to happily chatter on about the new Greenie. They made it to the box hole. All the other Gladers were gathered around it as well, but the box wasn’t here yet.

“How long after the alarm until the box comes?” Thomas asked the other boy, cutting off whatever he had been saying.

“Oh, I’ve only been around when the box came up once, but it took about half an hour.” Chuck answered honestly before continuing with excitedly talking about it. The box finally came out of the hole. Gally was strangely absent, he was the one to open it for him, Thomas wondered if he was with Ben since he seemed upset about him being stung. He still didn’t know what that meant, he’d ask about that later. Newt was the one to open the box and jump in.

“What do you see Newt?” Alby asked from above.

“It’s a girl.” Newt answered in a confused voice. This news caused all the other Gladers to go crazy. Thomas realized this was probably the first girl they could remember meeting. It would be the first girl he could remember meeting as well, but that fact didn’t seem to phase him. Alby hushed them all just like he did when he had arrived.

“I think she’s dead.” Newt said causing another uproar from all the other Gladers. Alby hushed them again before directing Newt to bring her body up. Newt came out of the box holding the dead girl, placing her down on the grass in front of the box. The girl really did seem to be dead because it didn’t look like she was breathing. The girl had long curly dark hair, the same shade as a raven’s feathers. Her dark hair contrasted beautifully against her fair complexion. He had to admit the girl must have been beautiful.

“It’s too bad she’s dead. She looks like she was hot.” Minho commented, earning him a smack in the back of his head from Newt.

“Ow, Newt. What was that for?” Minho asked the blonde with a playful smirk as he grabbed his head dramatically.

“For being a bloody slinthead.” Newt answered, but he could tell that the blonde wasn’t really that mad. Evidently, Minho could tell too because he burst out laughing.

Unexpectedly, out of nowhere the ‘dead’ girl opened her crystal blue eyes, sat up and took a big breath before warning, “Thomas...Thomas everything’s going to change.” after this she fell back down into her coma like state. How did that girl know him? Did he know her before he was sent here? If so, then how could she remember him when her memories should’ve been wiped?

“Med-jacks!” Alby called indicating for them to take a look at the girl. Jeff and Clint came up to check the girl out.

“Alby, Newt, there’s a note in her hand.” Jeff told the two leaders handing it over to Newt.

“She’s the last one. Ever.” Newt read the note aloud so all the Gladers could hear. All the Gladers broke out talking about this. Some were really panicked about the box never coming back, while others were talking about the girl. Alby shushed them once again, seeming to be annoyed with the lot before turning on him.

“Greenie get over here!” Alby ordered, anger seeming to roll off of him in waves. Thomas really didn’t want to go over there to face Alby’s rath. What could he have possibly done wrong anyways? He went over there anyways knowing it would be much worse if he avoided it now. Plus, Newt was there too, surely he wouldn’t let Alby get too mean, right? He trusted Newt, as strange as that seemed considering he had just met the guy yesterday.

“Greenie, do you know her?” Alby asked in a stern tone of voice.

“No. I don’t know anyone,except you guys.” Thomas answered, not completely truthfully. The girl did look familiar somehow, but he wasn’t going to tell Alby that. He did not trust Alby.

“She doesn’t look familiar to you at all?” Alby questioned him, not seeming to believe him.

“No. I’ve never seen her before in my life.” Thomas lied.

“Are you sure about that ‘cause she sure seems to know you.” Newt said as he walked up standing next to Alby. Unlike Alby Newt didn’t seem to be angry at him.

“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t know her. I have no idea how she knows who I am.” Thomas insisted. He hated lying to Newt, but he couldn’t change his story now, not in front of Alby.

“You can tell me if she does look familiar. You won’t get in any trouble.” Newt calmly reassured him. Newt made him almost want to tell the truth, but one look at Alby’s mad face changed his mind.

“I’m sure. She doesn’t look familiar at all.” Thomas lied to Newt, feeling horrible about it. Alby didn’t seem to buy it because he marched past Newt up to him and grabbed him by his shirt, lifting him above the ground.

“Don’t lie! You are going to tell us what you know now!” Alby yelled in his face. Thomas was so scared of Alby at this moment. The dark skinned boy was much stronger than him and he had no idea what he would do to him. “If you don’t, then I will have you banished with Ben tonight! Good luck facing the Grievers.” Alby added. Thomas finally understood what banishment meant, they were going to force Ben in the maze at night to be eaten by those monsters. Alby had also threatened the same fate to him, which terrified him to the core.

“Alby, stop it! This isn’t helping any, innit. You need to let go of him and slim it.” Newt said as he came up putting a hand on Alby’s shoulder. Thomas could see the gesture for the threat it was. Newt was implying that if Alby didn’t let go of him and calm down then he would paralyze him. Alby seemed to realize this too because he slowly put Thomas back down before backing away.

“Alright Newt, but we need to call a gathering.” Alby told Newt before walking away from them.

“Greenie, you can talk to me about it when you’re ready, yeah?” Newt offered, apparently, he hadn’t been fooled by his lying either. Then Thomas remembered how werewolves could detect lying by monitoring a person’s heartbeat. He wondered if Alby and Newt had this ability too.

“Yeah.” Thomas agreed. Maybe he would tell the truth to Newt later on, when Alby wasn’t anywhere near them. If he learned anything about what Newt just did for him, then he learned that he really could trust Newt and he wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. If he stood up to Alby for him, whom Newt seemed really close with and respected immensely, then he would stand up to anyone else for him too. Newt gave him a small reassuring smile before turning to walk away.

All the Gladers were standing by the doors to the maze to watch Ben’s banishment. The boy looked much worse than he had when he attacked Thomas earlier that day. He still didn’t know what being stung meant or how it could happen, but just by looking at Ben he knew it couldn’t be anything good. Ben looked like he had been plagued by a horrible disease that slowly kills you. Thomas couldn’t believe that just yesterday this boy seemed healthy and happy.

All the keepers of the Glade were holding these strange long pole things. The poles were really long, about double the height of a he Gladers, but the top was flat sort of like a big T at the top. The keepers were all standing in a large semi circle at the entrance to the maze doors, surrounding him. Thomas already figured out they were going to use the wooden poles to force Ben into the maze as the doors were closing.

When the doors had started closing Gally threw a bag of supplies into the maze. All the Gladers had lifted the wooden poles up and faced them towards Ben and started walking towards the closing doors forcing Ben to walk backwards. Ben was pleading for them not to do this. He especially looked at Gally and pleaded with him. Thomas could tell those two must have been really close, so he knew this must be really hard on him. Gally ignored Ben as the keepers continued to push the boy in the maze. The doors were closing right where Ben was standing so he had to either move more in the maze or get crushed. Neither option seemed very appealing to him. Ben decided to move backwards into the maze just as the doors closed. The last Thomas saw of him was a frightened look mixed together with betrayal.

At some point Chuck must have walked away from this, probably not wanting to watch any longer. Thomas couldn’t blame him. He had just gotten here and the only thing he knew about Ben was when he attacked him, but he still felt bad for him. Nobody deserves the fate he was given. He couldn’t understand why the banishment was necessary. Wasn’t there any other way they could have solved this problem? He also felt guilty because this happened as a result of the boy attacking him. Logically, he knew it wasn’t his fault and he couldn’t have done anything to stop it, but he still felt guilty. Alby said that Ben belonged to the maze now before all the rest of the Gladers started walking away from the closed maze doors.

Thomas thought about going to the doors and trying to make them open like he had early this morning. Before he was able to make a move Newt grabbed his arm and continued walking away forcing him to walk away as well.

“Don’t even think about it Thomas. There’s nothing we can do to help him, this is for the best.” Newt explained before he could even ask. Yet again Newt was able to read his mind.

“Why? There wasn’t anything else we could do to help him?” Thomas asked feeling horrible after watching the banishment.

“Greenie, he was stung.” Newt said as if he was supposed to know what that means.

“What does that mean?” Thomas asked, tired of being the only one out of the loop around here.

“When you get stung you go through the changing. The changing makes you really sick, like you saw with Ben. It causes unbearable pain, it makes you go crazy and attack people. Eventually, it will kill you.” Newt explained. Every time he learned something new about this place it just kept getting worse.

“How do you get stung?” Thomas asked, dreading the answer.

“Those monsters I told you about all have stingers. Sometimes they out right kill you, sometimes they just sting you and you slowly die. Even with supernatural healing and Jeff’s healing abilities we can’t heal someone who’s been stung. We’ve tried everything.” Newt explained forlornly.

“That’s horrible.” Thomas said wondering, not for the first not the last, what kind of monsters would put a bunch of kids in a place like this. Did they enjoy watching all of them suffer and slowly get picked off one by one.

“Yeah, but it’s our reality.” Newt replied somberly.

Later on in the night after everyone went to sleep he was laying there wide awake. He couldn’t get the images of Ben’s banishment out of his head. Wasn’t it bad enough living with those monsters attacking them? They had to have this deadly stinger that even supernaturals couldn’t heal from. It sounded horrible and he hoped he never got stung. In the middle of his thoughts someone came up to him and touched his shoulder. This time he knew it was Newt because he and Chuck were the only Gladers that seemed to bother with him and Chuck was asleep next to him. He looked up at Newt to see what he wanted.

“Greenie, come with me.” Newt instructed. Thomas knew from last time he was to go quietly, but he grit his teeth at the nickname. He was starting to hate it when Newt called him that. He didn’t want Newt to just think of him as the stupid new Greenie. He didn’t say anything, just got up quietly and followed Newt.

“What are you showing me this time?” Thomas asked, too impatient to wait and find out.

“I’m not really showing you something’. More like testing something.” Newt told him, still not telling him what. Turns out he didn’t have to wait too long because Newt stopped at a small little building that looked more like a shed than anything else. He followed Newt inside and looked around to see tons of paper with some kind of drawings on them. There was a little table with some kind of tarp over it. He wondered what they were hiding under the tarp. He watched Newt walk up to an empty corner of this room, then he reached on the floor and pulled on it. To his shock this revealed a secret opening in the floor. Newt walked through it and he followed quickly, wondering what the Gladers were hiding in there and why he was being allowed in on this secret. Once they got down there he looked around and noticed there were all sorts of different types of weapons all over the room.

“What is this place?” Thomas asked in awe.

“We call this the weapons room.” Newt said with a smirk. This made Thomas feel really stupid because of course that’s what this was.

“The room above this is called the map room, where the runners map the maze at. Only runners are allowed in there. You can’t tell anyone that I showed you this room. Not many of the Gladers know about this buggin’ room, not even all the keepers. They’re not allowed to know about it. Minho, Alby and I are the only ones that do, so ya gotta promise me you won’t tell anyone.” Newt revealed completely baffling him. Why would Newt show him this room if it was such a big secret?

“I won’t tell anyone, promise. Why are you showing this to me?” Thomas asked, curious to know Newt’s reasoning.

“Well, I wanted to test somethin’ with you, but I didn’t have to show you the buggin’ room for that. I showed you the room ‘cause I wanted to show you that I trust you. For some strange reason I trust you, even more than some shanks I’ve known for a few years.” Newt explained with a blush spreading across his cheeks. Thomas still thought it looked really cute on him.

“Thanks. I trust you too, which seems weird because you and Chuck are the only ones I trust here.” Thomas replied giving Newt a warm smile.

“Okay, enough with the mushy feelings and let’s get to business.” Newt said brushing his compliment off, but it didn’t fool him, he saw Newt’s blush spread further. He didn’t say anything about it. “I wanted to test somethin’, but nobody else can know about it yet. If Alby found out about this, he’d banish you for sure.” Newt added.

“What are we testing?” Thomas asked, accepting the subject change.

“Remember how you made the maze doors open and close by touching them this morning?” Newt asked, making him even more puzzled. What did that have to do with this? This wasn’t anywhere near the walls.

“How could I forget? The maze doors opened while those monsters were still running around.” Thomas said incredulously.

“Well, I thought about how you could do that and I came to two conclusions. The first one is you somehow have the ability to manipulate mountain ash to your will. Since the maze walls are infused with the stuff, you touchin’ it caused the mountain ash circle to break, forcing the maze doors open. The second one is that you can control an earth element of some kind and manipulate the walls themselves to move. I have my money on the first theory.” Newt elaborated making Thomas feel dizzy. Both of the options Newt suggested seemed far fetched for him to be able to do. He wasn’t even able to heal himself without help, so how was he supposed to manipulate anything as strong as earth or mountain ash. Newt took a breath before he started explaining again. “It’s very unlikely for you to have an earth element ‘cause it would take a lot of bloody control and practice to make those doors open like that, which you wouldn’t have right away.”

“Wow. I think you’re expecting too much from me.” Thomas said doubtfully. There was no way he could do the things Newt was suggesting.

“Nonsense Greenie. You’re somthin’ else.” Newt dismissed using that nickname he hated again. He couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“Don’t call me that, I don’t like it.” Thomas said as calmly as he could. He didn’t want to make Newt feel bad, but at the same time he wanted to get across that he couldn’t stand it when he called him Greenie.

“Call ya what? Somethin’ else?” Newt asked, his brows furrowing up in clear confusion. It was adorable, but Thomas had to stay strong, get his point across.

“Greenie. I hate it when you call me Greenie.There’s a new Greenie now, so call her Greenie.” Thomas pointed out, which only caused Newt to look even more confused.

“But I always call you that. What am I supposed to call you?” Newt asked with a cute little pout on his lips. Oh, this boy was going to be the death of him one day. Did he always have to look so darn cute all the time? How was he supposed to concentrate on anything with his adorable little pout looking back at him.

“Well, gee, I don’t know. How about you try using my name?” Thomas said, putting as much sarcasm as he could in it. Newt laughed out loud at this like he just made the funniest joke ever.

“Alright, Tommy.” Newt said, putting emphasis on the name. It was the same name Gally had used to taunt him along with a few others and he thought he hated it, but he liked how it sounded in Newt’s voice.

“Tommy?” Thoas asked with a smirk on his face.

“I mean, uh, sorry. I know you hate it. It just slipped out.” Newt stammered out an apology which made Thomas smile in fondness at this boy.

“No, I like it.” Thomas reassured the blonde boy who he had just noticed started to blush at some point during his apology.

“But you said you hate it when some of the other Gladers called you that.” Newt pointed out as more confusion marred his face.

“Yeah, but I like it when you call me that. You’re different, I like you. I don’t like them.” Thomas explained with a dopey smile causing Newt’s blush to get even darker, but he gave him a bright, happy smile in return. Like always, Newt’s smile stole his breath away. Thomas wanted nothing more than to be able to make this beautiful boy smile all the time. Newt made everything he did look beautiful to him, but when he smiled like that, he was absolutely breathtaking.

“Alright, mate, let’s get started.” Newt said as he brought out a jar of black sand. “This is mountain ash and I want you to try manipulating it.” Newt explained as he opened the jar to take out some of the black sand, mountain ash, to test it. Newt put a pile of mountain ash on the ground and told him to touch it, but nothing special happened when he did. Nothing he tried seemed to work.

“Try imagining what you want it to do. See it in your mind, then move it.” Newt suggested. Thomas remembered he made a similar suggestion when he miraculously got the maze doors to close again. He closed his eyes imagining the mountain ash becoming a circle around him before picking it up and throwing it in the air. He had no idea what gave him the idea to throw it, but it felt familiar, like instinct. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was a big grin on Newt’s face. Then he looked around him to notice the mountain ash was in an enclosed circle around him. His eyes widened in disbelief. He had actually manipulated the mountain ash, he couldn’t believe it.

They had practiced manipulating the mountain ash for a while, but it came pretty easily to him. The more he did it the easier it got. By the end of their practice he was able to manipulate the sand any way he wanted to, sometimes without even touching it. Newt warned him that manipulating mountain ash infused items like the walls would probably be more difficult than just mountain ash itself.

Newt also wanted him to try something else. He strongly believed that telekinesis was one of
his abilities. Thomas had to admit that three times someone had been pushed away from him, as if the air had suddenly attacked them. Three times was a pattern, so he had to give it a shot. Newt insisted that he try it with something that wasn’t mountain ash, so he tried using a rather small rock.

This was a lot harder than the mountain ash trick had been.He looked at the item he wanted to move and thought about it moving, trying really hard to reach for it with his mind, but nothing seemed to happen. He had no clue what he was doing. Newt was very supportive and encouraging about the whole thing, which made home want to succeed even more. After trying for a long time with no results he got really angry and frustrated at the same time. This seemed to cause the rock he was focusing on to jump in the air and fling itself away from him.

Thomas looked at it with wide eyes, this was undeniable proof that he was able to do it. Newt explained that his abilities would be stronger and more out of control when he was under high stress or his emotions were out of control. Apparently, the goal was to learn to control it on his own, without the help of his emotions. Newt suggested that he visualize it in his head first. This was a lot more complicated than it sounds, but he focused on the rock Newt had put in front of him.

He visualized the rock being lifted into the air. As he focused and visualized what he wanted he felt a strange feeling within him, this feeling was warm and powerful at the same time. This feeling felt like pure energy, but he had no idea how he knew that. He concentrated on strengthening that feeling in his mind. As this happened it felt as if there had been some kind of switch inside his head he had hit. He was flooded with this raw power he knows he has never experienced before. After this the rock, along with all the weapons in the room, started wobbling before slowly lifting into the air.

Despite knowing he could do it, he was shocked when this happened. Somehow he had unlocked a power within himself that had been hidden before. He could literally feel this power in his head, which he hadn’t felt before. He wondered if there were any other switches in his head he had to unlock.

“You did it Tommy!” Newt exclaimed excitedly. Thomas looked over to him and Newt gasped at what he saw, which confused him.

“You’re eyes, they’re so beautiful. They’re glowing, but not like the supernatural glow, it looks more like they’re lit up with some kind of power, like how I imagine magic to look.” Newt tried to explain. This fact surprised him greatly.

“What color are they?” Thomas asked curiously.

“It looks like liquid turquoise. It’s mesmerizing.” Newt answered, making Thomas smile. After this he felt a sharp pain slice through his mind.

“Tommy are you alright?” Newt asked, suddenly next to him.

“Yeah, I guess learning to move things with your mind causes a headache.” Thomas managed to joke, still loving it when Newt called him Tommy. Newt laughed with him, seeming relieved that he wasn’t seriously hurt.

After that Newt had called it a night. They had been doing this for half the night, so they needed to get some shut eye before the others woke up after all. Newt seemed pleased with the progress he had made, but warned him not to say anything to anyone. Thomas knew he was going to secretly practice his telekinesis in secret.

The next morning Thomas had seen Alby head into the maze with Minho when the doors opened. He thought only runners were allowed in the maze. Still he knew they went there to see the dead Griever. He had a bad feeling about this and hoped they would get back safely.

Thomas had secretly practiced his telekinesis in the deadheads where nobody had been. It still gave him a splitting headache every time, but he seemed to be improving his skill and had a little more control. After he was finished practicing he found Chuck. They talked and hung out for a while. Thomas wasn’t sure what it was about this kid, but despite not knowing him for very long, he already saw Chuck as a little brother. He wondered if he had any siblings before the creators sent him here.

At lunchtime Thomas noticed that Alby and Minho hadn’t returned yet. Surely, they should have returned by now. They left first thing in the morning, while a lot of the other Gladers had still been sleeping. He noticed Newt by himself a little way away from him and Chuck. Newt looked really anxious and worried. He was pacing a hole in the ground. Thomas knew it was because Alby and Minho hadn’t returned yet, it was obvious that he was really close to them.

Thomas and Chuck decided to go over to Newt to try distracting him from his thoughts for a while. Chuck happily talked Newt’s ear off, the boy sure loved to hear his own voice. Newt listened attentively to the boy, much better than he did most of the time, and added comments here and there. Newt always gave Chuck this fond look and let him chatter on and on around him. Thomas guessed he wasn’t the only that thought of Chuck as a younger brother, the boy just must have had that effect on people.

His plan to distract Newt worked and didn’t at the same
time. Newt was distracted from the problem at hand and conversed with them, worked with the hoe-jacks and so on, but at the same time he could tell that the worry for his friends were still on his mind. As the day went on, still with no return from the boys in the maze, Newt seemed to get more and more anxious.

The maze doors would close in a few hours at this point and they still hadn’t returned. Everyone in the Glase had started to worry at this point, though most of them hid it well. Even Thomas had started to worry by this point. It didn’t look like they were going to make it back at all. Newt was a mess. He was pacing in front of the maze doors, all pretense of work forgotten.

Thomas has suggested that they could go in the maze and find them. Newt’s eyes widened as pure terror crossed his expression. He managed to stammer an answer out that he couldn’t go in there, nobody could go in there. Thomas remembered that Newt cas completely terrified by the maze. He felt stupid for even suggesting it.

He waited with Newt by the maze doors as time ticked on. He desperately tried to offer as much comfort as he could, but it didn’t seem to help Newt at all. The doors were ready to close any minute now and he couldn’t see any sign of them as he looked through the open doors. Something terrible must have happened to them. Most of the other Gladers seemed to have accepted that they wouldn’t make it back by now and went on with their duties and lives. At some point Chuck had joined them and held one of Newt’s hands in comfort.

He heard the familiar grinding sound the doors made when they were moving. The doors were closing now and there still wasn’t any sign of them. After another agonizing few seconds he finally saw them. Minho was practically dragging Gally towards the doors. What had happened to Alby? He told Newt that they were coming now who had looked at the ground forlornly. Newt looked relieved for a second before the horror dawned on him that despite this, they weren’t going to make it.

Thomas put his hand on the closing doors, desperately imagining them to stop moving. He just wanted to stall a little time for them to make it out of the maze, but it didn’t seem to work. He kept trying, but the doors stubbornly kept on closing at the same speed. He looked back at Newt and watched as all the hope drained out of his beautiful face. Then he saw sadness and grief take its place. Thomas couldn’t stand seeing him look so upset and hopeless. It tore at his heart.

Thomas decided that he had to fix this. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let Newt go through this pain. He had made a dangerous decision. If he couldn’t stop the doors from closing, then he’d just have to go in there himself and make sure they all survived a night in the maze. It might be impossible, but so was moving things with your mind and he had accomplished that. Determinedly, Thomas pushed himself through the small gap of the closing doors.

“Tommy no!” Newt screamed once he realized his intentions and tried to grab a hold of him to stop him, but it was too late. Thomas had already traveled too far through the closing doors. After he had finished squeezing himself through to the other side the doors had finished closing. There was no return now. Thomas found himself trapped in the maze.

“Congratulations shuckface. You just killed yourself.” Minho said cynically, sure that they wouldn’t be able to survive a night in the maze.