Her || The Maze Runner

Thirteen

The keepers and Mara were forced into a large room of the Homestead she had never seen before. There were 13 sets in the room all together, ten for the keepers, two for the leaders and one for the shank in trouble. Or in this case, Mara.

Eleven boys sat in front of Mara as she sat opposite them. She recognised a few, like Minho who was the keeper of the Runners and Frypan, the keeper of the cooks. Of course, she knew Newt and Alby as well, who were both at the center of the line of seated boys. The empty chair was supposed to have held Gally, but his state was not good enough for him to attend.

"I declare this Gathering begun. Mara, you ain't to say a shuck thing as we do this, got it?" "As you know, the last few days around the Glade have been different, and this shank seems to be the cause of it. We don't have a lot of time, since we'll be havin' a newbie soon, which is yet another thing that has changed after this shank's arrival: Two greenies in one month, matter a days even. The differences Mara has brought about include: being a shuck girl, not arriving in the box, being the subject of the boys who have gone through the changing's dreams, recalling memories in dreams and much more. Right, we'll start with your opinions then. Zart the fart you start."

"I think she could be good. Why would the creators send us a girl who can remember stuff for no reason? Maybe she's the key to gettin' out of this shuck place." He shrugged. Looking up at Mara. Someone was on her side, and she couldn't help but smile.

Whispers filled the room, but they were too layered for her to figure out what was going. Eventually, Alby called on everyone to shut up and they did. The rest of the Gladers gave their opinion, one or two though Mara was the key, but the rest were against her. Nearly every single Glader except Zart, Minho and Newt.

"Can I ask what's been happening in these dreams?"

"Well, I keep hearing this name frequently as well as a few others. Thomas, Teresa, Aris, Rachel and Andy. Its mainly Thomas though, and another girl but I don't know her name. She hasn't told me." She explained, her eyes gazing along the seats of boys.

"Anyone else?" He said, looking directly at Newt this time.

Mara shifted in her seat. She didn't want to tell them everything, especially the bits about Newt. He was the only one she could trust, definitely not any of those shanks sitting around her.

"No."

"M, you can tell us. You can tell me." Newt said, rising from his seat. However much she wanted to tell him, and she really did want to, she couldn't tell him then. She couldn't tell him what she had seen with the risk of ruining his chances of escape. If half of the Gladers were against her, they'd be against him too if they knew his link to her.

"Sit down Newt." Alby ordered, but Newt just walked closer to Mara. He was disobeying Alby, the leader of the pack, and walking towards Mara instead. What was he doing?

Once he finally reached Mara he kneeled before her, placing his hands on her knees and leaning towards her. "It was me, wasn't it?" He whispered, so only Mara would hear him. "You saw me."

"Newt come back here." Alby demanded, his voice declining into an angry whisper.

Mara didn't know what to do. How had Newt known she had dreamed about him? All she could do was nod slowly at the boy who's expression turned into a friendly smile.

"It's okay, you can tell them. I don't mind."

"What are you shanks talking about? This is a gathering, means everyone hears everything." Alby sternly sighed as he pushed in between Mara and Newt. A quiet scream in the distance tore Mara's attention from the gathering, but no one else seemed fazed.