𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦, thomas (tmr)

Chapter Nineteen

"You're going out in the Maze?" She asked perplexed, earning an eyeroll in return.

Alby scoffed in offense, pulling on the running shoes that had been hiding under his bed since the last time he ran the Maze. Things had changed so quickly yet so permanently that Clara couldn't remember the boy's previous role.

"I was a Runner, you know. For two years." He replied in annoyance, almost mumbling.

She snickered to herself, glancing towards Minho, who met her with a teasing glare towards an oblivious Alby. Clara stifled a loud laugh then, having to go straight faced when Alby looked back to her.

"We'll be back shortly after noon." He informed her, gesturing to the door so he and Minho could get a head start on the route they needed to take.

"Hey, hang on!" Clara's brow furrowed in confusion, and she caused the boys to both stop in their tracks. "Why aren't I coming?"

Minho tilted his head towards Alby, as if to emphasise the girl's question, and the leader just sighed heavily. The look of pity on his face already told Clara everything.

"Listen, it hasn't been that long since you got hurt. We don't want you to risk anything."

She had to take a few steps away to stop herself from taking her anger out on Alby. She was fine now. Why couldn't he see that?

"I just want to help! You know I could, I know the Maze well."

"You ran it for a few weeks, Clara-"

"-Yeah and I got obsessed! It was almost terrifying how well I knew it all."

Apart from that one corridor.

The one that she knew she saw, but was closed off when Minho got there after she got attacked. She couldn't help but get the sense she had seen something that she wasn't supposed to see.

And the concussion she got quickly after discovering it only helped in making the details of it all become even more blurry. In short, she could barely remember anything about it, only that she'd never seen it before.

In hindsight, the girl wouldn't have used her unhealthy obsession with the Maze as a way of getting Alby to let her go out in the Maze. Especially as it failed miserably.

"Yeah, and we don't really want that obsession returning, do we?"

Clara clamped her mouth shut, and Alby looked triumphant as he resumed his march towards the Maze doors. Minho shot the girl a helpless look, wishing he had the power of Alby to let the girl tag along.

"Alby!" As her anger boiled over, she stopped the boy right before he stepped inside the Maze. "You're using my old injury as an excuse. It's frustrating - especially when I am perfectly fine now. You're not gonna be able to do it for much longer."

Turning back towards the Glade, she half hoped that Alby would yell after her, stopping her in her tracks and telling her that she could come too. However, she wasn't surprised when nothing of the sort happened.

Looking over her shoulder at the two boys, she was frustrated to see they had started off into the Maze without a goodbye. She let out a small noise of indignant, letting herself whirl back around and point her middle finger at Alby's retreating back.

"Go shuck yourself!" She yelled out childishly, not caring for the stares she received from surrounding Gladers.

"What's wrong?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice next to her, chuckling softly at Thomas' wide eyed stare at the sight of the stone wall. Letting herself relax the tiniest bit, she was able to offer up a friendly smile as a way of telling him she wasn't moody today; not towards him at least, and not yet, at least.