𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦, minho (tmr)

Chapter Thirty Nine

The moment Florence felt them hit the ground, she was down the ladder in an instant, waiting beside the door impatiently for Newt to get it open. Despite her impatience, he remained calm, using his tools to break the lock and open the door.

As soon as it was done, Florence pushed it open and bounded inside.

Inside were rows and rows of kids, all with their hands tied up by hanging metal chains, keeping them from leaving their seats. They all looked tired beyond belief, as if the life had been drained out of them. It probably had been.

She could sense Thomas and Newt joining her either side but she paid them no attention as she scanned through the kids on the train. Her heart was beginning to sink as she looked over each and every one of them.

Surely Minho would've made some noise of recognition once he had seen us...

And he would've; if he was on the train.

"Aris, hey, you guys okay?" Thomas moved forwards towards Aris and Sonya, the boy looking drastically different with a swelling black eye.

Florence moved afterwards, somehow briefly putting Minho at the back of her mind to greet her two friends, giving them a loose hug. As she turned back, she could see the relief flooding Harriet's face, and only wished she could feel the same with Minho.

She wandered up to the top of the train, hearing Thomas's words of reassurance to the kids in the back of her head, before reaching the end. For a moment, she stood facing the wall, dread having consumed her.

He isn't here.

She turned back to her friends, stealing Newt's attention, who met her eye with a horrified expression. They were all thinking the same thing.

Where is he?

Florence turned and left the train abruptly, not wanting the others to see the tears that filled her eyes. Despite Minho being captured and the way it obviously affected her, she had not cried in front of anyone since it happened.

But that didn't necessarily mean she didn't cry alone. Returning to the room she shared with Brenda, she felt a hot rage bubbling up inside of her.

Of course Minho wasn't in there. Of course we had saved almost everyone except him.

She was ecstatic they had saved dozens of kids from WCKD's grasp, but the person she wanted to see more than anyone was Minho.

Her hands steadied on her desk as she stared back at her reflection in the mirror standing up on it. It was dusty and clouded, but she could see a blurry version of herself. Her eyes were glowering in anger and her hair was dirtied and tangled and far too long, stretching to her elbows.

Far too long.

She repeated the three words in her mind over and over until she felt like she was about to explode.

Then she began to scramble through the drawers, searching through Brenda and her things for something specific as an idea popped up in her mind. Sifting through the endless nonsense they had shoved away, she bit her lip anxiously as her heart thumped with anger.

Finding a pair of scissors, she took a clump of her hair in her hand, pulling it tight, and chopping it off swiftly. The rage that was building up suddenly dissipated.

She continued to cut it, the discarded hair falling around her feet. Using smaller chops now, she began to even out the length. It was a drastic change from before, only falling over her shoulders now, like how it was back when she was sent up into the Maze.