Her || The Maze Runner

Nine

Everything went silent. That couldn't be it, could it? There had to be something else Mara could do to save him. He couldn't die. She wasn't going to let him die. As he fell the ivy from around his waist zipped through the air, and an idea sparked through her head.

Mara scrambled for the ivy, trying to grip it in her hands. She got ahold of it, but it moved too quickly, taking her down the hole with it.

"Mara!" Newt screamed, but there was nothing he could do. She was going to die and there was nothing anyone could do to save her. It was the end. The same miserable fate as Nick awaited her, just because she tried to save his life.

She closed her eyes, hoping the pain wouldn't be too bad.

The fall jolted to a halt, she was hanging there. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked up to the top of the box hole see Newt tightly gripping onto the ivy with a line of boys behind him holding onto the man-made rope. They had saved her life. Another few seconds and she would have been dead.

A gust of wind sounded below her, along with a shriek and the sound of metal against skin.

Mara froze. Was that... Nick? Whatever had happened, she definitely didn't feel like sticking around for it to happen to her.

"Pull me up! Quickly!" She screamed, looking up at Newt who faced her with a look of confusion, but did as she asked. Luckily, she hadn't fallen too far down the hole and was soon back on the cold hard floor of the Glade.

She stood as the boys reeled up the rest of the ivy, and what she saw sent a shiver up her spine. Nick's drained body emerged from the hole, but not all of it. The remains of him laid across the floor, his empty eyes staring up at the sky. He was bleeding intensely from where his legs should have been, where the blade had cut through his bones.

Mara couldn't look, the thought of it made her sick. She let that happen, she let him die. Sure, she hadn't known him for long, but she was the reason he had died. She knew it.

Pushing through the crowd, she made her way over to the trees known as the Deadheads. It contained the graveyard. She stopped as the thought crossed her mind and changed directions. Standing near other dead people certainly wasn't going to help. But she couldn't help it, she had to throw up.

Mara held one of the trees nearer her with her left hand, leaning over to face the floor and it happened. And it wasn't pretty.

"Hey, you okay?"

Mara knew it was Newt but she didn't turn to him, she felt too sick. She didn't have to know what he was thinking to know he understood. He had known Nick a lot longer than she had, the pain must have been worse for all of the other Gladers. They knew Nick, and his death was not light. Even though Mara couldn't remember her last life she knew that was the second worst thing she had ever witnessed. The grievers still held first place.

After what felt like ages, Mara stood up straight and turned to Newt. She hadn't realised the tears streaming down her face, all she could see was the tears he was holding back. She had done this to him somehow. The boy and the girl in her dream had told her so.

"Its my fault Newt." She sobbed, she had to tell him even if he wouldn't ever forgive her. He deserved to know.

"What-"

"I had a dream about it. There were voices... They were telling me all of these things I didn't understand and... Nick. They said he was going to die Newt. I could have saved his life but I didn't. I was too late." She said, a tear dripping from her dirt-covered face.

He stood there for a moment thinking, perhaps they were good thoughts. But they were more likely to be bad. Mara braced herself for the shouting and yelling, but it never came. Instead, Newt walked over to her and engulfed her with his arms, pulling her closer to him.