flower | newt ✓

THREE

chapter three;
the vents

"ARIS I'M GONNA BE SO PISSED IF WE'RE GONNA GET MURDERED" Thalia whispered-yelled to the crawling boy in front of her. Even though Aris' back was facing her and she couldn't see his face, she could feel her friend was rolling his eyes at her.

"We're not gonna get murdered, Thalia. Stop being paranoid" he explained. Thalia raised her eyebrows as she kept crawling through the small dusty vents.

"That's not very convincing" she muttered. She couldn't tell if Aris didn't heard or her just simply ignored her, but he didn't answer as he stopped at another opening of the vents. Aris began to unscrew and opened it. Thalia stared at the boy wide eyed. "Aris what the hell are you doing?!" she exclaimed. Aris ignored her.

"Psst! Psst! Hey! Down here!" he whispered-shouted. He is actually crazy, she thought.

"Aris, stop that!" she shushed. Aris ignored her once again and continued to call out whoever was on the other side of the vents. After a lot of pssts and 'Aris stop that!', a figure finally popped out from the opening.

"Hello?" the voice called back. The new boy from the latest maze, the one with dark hair and brown eyes popped his head to the vents. "What the-"

"Shh! Follow me" Aris shushed the boy. He gestured the boy to come with him as he turned around and faced Thalia. He gestured Thalia to turned around.

"I'm not leading the way!" she whispered. Aris rolled his eyes and mouthed an okay. It was complicated, but somehow he managed to fit his body through the tiny space between Thalia and the walls of the vents and he lead the way.

Aris quickly crawled front and Thalia was still behind with the boy. "Aris! Wait up!" she said. She turned to the boy behind her and gave him a weak smile. "Nice to meet you" she said before she followed her friend and took the right turn in front of her.

"C'mon! Hurry!" he said as he crawled a lot faster from before, leaving Thalia so much behind. Thalia groaned at the boy. After a while, the boy behind her finally spoke up. Which stopped Aris, thankfully.

"Wait, what are we doing?" he asked. Thalia pointed at the boy.

"What he said" she said. Aris rolled her eyes at the girl and just signalled her to followed him.

"C'mon we're gonna miss it" Aris said. He took another right turn and Thalia sighed at her friend. She heard the boy behind her muttered something under his breath that Thalia couldn't understand before following Aris.

After what Thalia felt like forever, Aris stopped and gestured them to come closer to him. He was kneeling and he was looking down at another vent opening. "What are we doing?" the boy impatiently asked. Aris shushed him and gestured him to get closer.

Thalia kneeled beside Aris and watched the small opening of the vent below her. "Aris, nothing is he-"

"Shh! Be patient" he whispered. Thalia scoffed at her friend at watched an empty hall from a small opening vent, which in Thalia's opinion, is very uncomfortable.

Although, the hall didn't stay empty for another minute. A doctor that actually checked her up when she got there walked in, carrying her key card. She was looking around, as if she was worried someone would see her before some other doctors walked in, rolling a hospital bed that was covered. And it was clear that a body was under the white sheet.

Some kind of device was on top of the sheet. It was something pretty technologically advanced. The doctor took no hesitation as she slid her key card to open the door and the doctors behind her followed. The doors closed and thousands of questions flowed through Thalia's mind. Her mouth couldn't keep close any moment and she blurted out the question.

"What the hell was that?" she asked in unison with the boy beside her. They looked at each other for a minute before they turned to Aris for answers.

"They bring in new ones every night like clockwork" he answered. Thalia was about to throw in another question but was cut off by the boy beside her.

"Do you know what they do with them?"

"I don't know. This is as far as I've gotten" he answered. Thalia thought hard for a minute. Those bodies. They must've been the kids that were called out every dinner. That means...

"Rachel" Thalia said in a low breath. Aris turned to her and gave her a brief look. He nodded. Her friends. They were all taken by those people for god knows what, but Thalia knew that it wasn't anything good.

"Whoever goes through that doors never came out" Aris said. Thalia turned to him and lowered her head. She felt like she has failed. She failed her family, her sisters. The girls must've been there, and they're probably not dead, but they're sure as hell not alive. And to Thalia, that is just as worse.

"Who's Rachel?" the boy asked. Thalia turned to him before answering.

"She was our friend in the maze" Thalia answered. It was silent for a moment before Aris continued.

"I don't think anybody really leave this place" he concluded. Thalia nodded in agreement. The girls are in there, she knows it. "C'mon. We better go back before someone notice" Aris said. Thalia nodded and followed him turning back to the way they took before.

"Why did you show me this?" a voice behind her asked. She and Aris stopped and looked at him.

"Because maybe they'll listen to you" Aris answered. "Something weird is going on in this place and i know you think so too" he added. The boys shared a glance before Aris turned back.

"Wait. What's your name?" he asked. Thalia stopped and turned to the boy.

"Thalia. This is Aris" she said, motioning to the boy in front of her. He nodded.

"I'm Thomas" he said. Thalia nodded and gave him a small smile before following Aris through the vents.

A/N
Sooo.. this story is flopping lmao. But i love it and put too much effort to not post it so, here u go i guess?

EDITED
01/05/2019