Stolen [The Maze Runner Fanfiction]

X. Here

"Great." I growl, rolling my eyes as Newt explains my itinerary for the day. It included Gally and Building things, neither of which I much liked.

"It's one day Sky, you'll be fine." Newt says, rolling his eyes back at me.

"Buuutttt why?" I whine, pleading for him to save me from this punishment I was certain I didn't deserve.

"Just do it." He sighs, "just bloody do it."

I sigh in resignation and head out the door, tailing Minho and Kate.

"Have fun today Sky." Minho says, giving me a careless smirk as he runs backwards toward the maze doors.

"Jerk." I call out, keeping my expression as serious as possible. I'm seriously annoyed with him for being able to run backwards without falling, and thinking about tripping him.

He looks confused for a moment, perhaps because I've managed to keep my face so neutral. I've be working on pretending to be truly offended by his sarcasm, as it seems to bother him more than anything I could say. He opens his mouth to say something, but the maze doors begin to open, and he has no choice but to turn and head for them. I grin and watch him go, my mind wandering much farther than I'd like.

Once he was out of sight, I put thoughts of him aside, and turn to head towards the building area.

"Skylar." Gally says when I arrive, "You're late." I offer my half-hearted apology and wait for instructions.

"You'll be working with me today."
I hold in a sarcastic 'great', and brace myself for the day.

Six hours later, I'm elated to be done with what had been a truly awful day. Which made three terrible days in a row. Baggers, Slicers, and now Builders. The first few days after escaping the med-Jack room had been ok, the jobs weren't fun, but they weren't terrible either. These last few however, has just been downright awful.

Gally was even worse than the slinthead everyone made him out to be, and he had watched over my shoulder the entire day, pointing out each and every mistake. It was infuriating. There had been more to it than that, but I didn't feel like recalling it all as I walked towards the med-jack room, holding a swollen hand.

I had accidentally hammered it more than once today, but this time had been the worst. I made a mental note to stay away from the builders, most of which were jerks, not that I could much blame them since they worked for Gally.

"Hey Clint." I say tiredly, sitting down on a cot without instruction.

"Hey Sky, what's up?"

I don't answer, instead I just hold out my hand. He sighs and leaves the room, returning a few minutes later with a bag of ice. I suck in a sharp breath as he presses the ice to my hand, and try my best not to cry. It's not the pain that threatens to make me cry, I can handle that. It's the build up of bad days, and the constant flow of depressing thoughts that have slowly chipped away at my resolve. It seems silly, to think that something so small, like three bad days is enough to make me want to cry, but here, where you the constantly balance on the thin rope between sanity and giving in to the stress and insanity of it all, it didn't take much.

I hadn't seen much of my friends lately, besides at breakfast and dinner, and was feeling more than a little lonely. Sighing, I thank Clint as he finishes applying my bandage, and head out the door. For some reason, even though I felt lonely, all I wanted was to be alone.

I knew that was scarcely possible right now, as it was dinner time and everyone was around. It would have to wait until later. So I walk dejectedly to dinner, sitting in my usual spot beside Kate.

"Hey Sky." Minho says, sliding in across from me.

"Hey." I reply, barely masking the sadness in my voice. I don't even know why I'm so upset, but that doesn't change the fact that I am.

"Hey Shank." Kate says exaggeratedly, mimicking Newt's accent as they both take their seats.

I offer the best smile I can manage, which isn't much, but I don't want my friends to know that I don't share their good mood. "Hi."

Kate looks at me strangely, and I know she can tell, "how'd today go?" She asks, looking concerned.

I shrug, "about as well as I thought it would." I roll my eyes and fake a laugh, which seems to satisfy her. She turns back to the conversation. I watch with increasing annoyance as her and Minho laugh and talk about runner stuff. Again I don't know why it bothers me, but at the moment everything seems to bother me. How can they be so happy? We're stuck in a shucking maze with no clue who put us here, or if we'll ever get out? We can't even remember our families?!

"you're quiet tonight huh Sky?" Newt asks from across the table.

"Shucking Finally." Minho snickers, "I'm really tired of hearing her voice."

I know he's joking, and it's not the joke that bothers me. I couldn't care less what he's said. I know it's just his way of getting me to talk. Instead, it's my friends' concern that does me in. I can't sit there one second longer and pretend to be happy.

I snap. Slamming my palms into the table I get up from the table, practically running out the door. I look over my shoulder and see Minho, who obviously thinks it's his fault, rise to follow, but Kate grabs him, slamming him back down into his place. He stares after me but doesn't move.

I take off sprinting as soon as I'm out of the door, paying no attention to where I'm going until I find myself standing in the deadheads. I lean against a tree, trying to steady myself. Why am I so upset? I don't know. I don't know. What did I run out?

I slide down the base of the tree. I don't know. I eventually admit to myself that I'm scared. Scared, a little Depressed, but mostly, I was just beyond stressed out. Trying to adjust to life in the glade had turned out to be bit harder than I had expected. I was scared of failing at everything, which depressed me, which made me not care, which made me worry. I was stressing out about every possible thing. It was all dumb and it made my head hurt.

As I sat alone in the quietness of the trees, I began to relax. The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded. It was three bad days, not the end of the world. I could do this. My Friends hadn't abandoned me, they had all been worried, I was the one pushing them away. I could be a runner, but even if I didn't get that, there was always other jobs. I wasn't going to fail, I was going to make it. This was all silly, and none of it would help anything.

I roll my eyes at my own stupidity and curl up against the tree base, letting my exhaustion take over. I was absolutely certain a nap would make everything better.