Stolen [The Maze Runner Fanfiction]

XLII. Promises

"Woah, nice bruise you got there Sky." Kate comments, when I wander into my room the next morning. She giggles as I look in the mirror. "Where were you all night?"

"Yeah, yeah shut your shuck face," I say, but I'm smiling. Maybe I did have something to thank Gally for besides the bruise... some sore lips. Even in the mirror I can see that they're puffy and swollen. I see a dark spot on my neck and inwardly cringe, letting my hair fall down in an attempt to cover it. "Lovely." I say out loud, poking the bruise like an idiot to see if it hurts. Yep, still hurts. I sigh and bend over to lace up my shoes. After so many days off, running is going to hurt.

I follow Kate out the door, stopping in the kitchen to grab breakfast before heading out. Frypan is up early, and already in the kitchen. He hands us each an apple and we head out to the doors. As usual Minho is already there. What time does he get up? I wonder, dragging myself out of bed at six thirty in the morning is hard enough.

"Sky your face!!!" Are the first words out of his mouth. I'd snuck out this morning before he woke up, so he'd yet to see how bad the bruise from gally's punch had gotten over night.

"Yes, slinthead I know, so shut up." I snap, frowning at him. I'm already tired of hearing about my face.

"I'm going to kill Gally." He says shaking his head, ignoring my outburst.

"Ya well, if he went into the maze, he's probably already dead." I comment, bending over to stretch out my legs.

"Let's hope." Kate sneers.

The doors open and we take off, heading to our usual sections.
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I reach the glade on time, ten minutes before the doors close, and jog into the map room. I ignore the stares, directed, I'm sure, at the huge bruise covering half of my jaw, and cross the room to where Minho stands, waiting for me.

"How'd it go?" He asks wrapping his arms around me the second I get to the table.

"Same as always, nothing new but I made it back."  I say pulling out a pencil and paper, starting my map without even thinking about it. At this point, I'm pretty sure I could draw my section with my eyes closed.

"Think Thomas is enjoying his day in the slammer?" I snicker, signing my name at the top of the paper.

"Definitely." Minho answers rolling his eyes. 

"Maybe we should go keep him company?" I laugh.

"Sure why not."

We finish our maps and head out,  jogging towards the slammer. When we get close I realize Chuck is already there.

"It's hard to miss someone you don't remember." Chuck says. We slow down, not wanting to interrupt there conversation. "Give this to my parents, if you find them." He continues, handing Thomas what looks like a small wooden figurine.

"No Chuck, you give it to them, I'm going to get you out, I promise. Stop your mom's crying." Thomas says, placing the figurine back in Chuck's hand. I realize it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen in the glade, and suddenly I don't feel like talking. I look at Minho and shake my head in Thomas' direction, he nods and we turn around heading to the homestead instead.  But before I'm out of ear shot, I hear Thomas mumble to himself.
"They stole love from us. That's what they stole."

Or they tried to, I think correcting him in my head. In my mind I see Mal and Newt, Kate and Clint, Minho and I, all of us together. Ya, definitely tried. Tried and failed. I smile at the thought, stopping mid-run to look at Minho. Good job wicked, you tried.

"What?" Minho asks, when he notices me smiling.

"Nothing." I answer shaking my head.

"Not nothing, what are you thinking about."

"Wicked is a failure." I announce, for once actually hoping wicked heard me.

"Why's that?" He asks, curious now.

"They tried and they're failing."  I explain.

"Hey shanks." Alby says interrupting. Wait Alby? Shouldn't he be in bed? He looks ten times better than yesterday, awake, without nasty green veins criss-crossing his skin.

"Hey Alby, what are you doing up?"
I ask hoping he doesn't notice me staring.

"Going to get Thomas out of the slammer." He answers.

"How do you feel?" Minho asks.

"Like a piece of Klunk." Alby responds, walking past us to go and get Thomas.

"Don't we all." I mutter, touching a hand to my jaw. It brings thoughts of Gally and grievers, and my good mood disappears as fast as it came. "Don't we all."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The next day~

"Ok so each day different sections of the maze are open, the doors never move but the way to get there does." Minho explains. Today is Thomas' first day of running, so Minho decided we should go to the map room first and explain things to him. I don't know why I had to come, but Minho insisted, so guess who had to wake up early?

"Ok I think I'm ready?" Thomas says, taking one last look at the maps in his hands.

"No 'I thinks' either you're ready or you're not." Minho says heading towards the map room doors.

"I'm ready." Thomas says, more sure of himself this time.

"Then let's go running."  Minho replies, taking off towards the maze doors.

"I needed to be there for that why again?" I ask falling into step beside him, something that almost comes naturally after running together for so long.

"You didn't." He answers with a smirk. "I just didn't want to have to deal with Thomas by myself."

"Sometimes I really hate you." I say, shaking my head.

"But not all the time." He says, giving me a big grin.

"Whatever shuck-face." 

"Are you two together or something?" Thomas asks suddenly.

"Wow, someone's a little slow." I say rolling my eyes in Thomas' direction.

"Seriously dude, you just now figured that out?" Minho says.

"Well no I just... Nevermind." Thomas answers.

"Have fun boys." I say when the doors start to open.

"Not gonna tell me to be careful?" Minho asks raising an eyebrow.

"Nope, last time I told you to be careful you almost died, so I figured I'd do the opposite." I say with a smile. 

"That won't happen again."  Minho assures me.

"It better not!" I yell backwards, turning down my corridor.

Today I find the same things as usual, and I barely even notice when I jog past the cliff, a strange 'ending' to the maze. Here the walls of the maze seem to intersect with nothing but sky, the floor cutting off in a bottomless cliff, but unless you want fall to your death, not a very good exit.

I run my section and make it back to the glade with plenty of time to spare.