• Trial Two: The Scorch •
||𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃|| Blake is cracking like the stone walls she had escaped from. Each lie, betrayal, challenge, and death pushes her into a deeper hole of emptiness. Blake and the Gladers thought they escaped from the madnes...
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4. Newt was glaring at Thomas now. "Serious?"
Thomas nodded, then hastily look at Aris. "Who killed her? What happened?"
Blake didn't have the slightest clue who they were talking about. She and the rest of the Gladers were getting used to Thomas's weird mind powers.
"Who killed who?" Minho said. "No more of your voodoo klunk while we're around."
Thomas's eyes were glasses, wet surfaces from not blinking. He finally broke his gaze with Aris and looked over at Minho. "He had someone he could do this with, just like I did. I mean ... do. But he said they killed her. I want to know who they are."
Blake turned her attention from Thomas to the new boy, Aris. Aris's drooped, his eyes looked closed but the arch of his eyebrows expressed the pain for someone he cared for. Maybe even loved. Although Blake's memories played like a magic trick of disappearing and reappearing, she was all too familiar with the pain of losing someone. "I don't know who they are. It's too confusing. I couldn't tell the bad guys from the good guys. But I think somehow they made this girl Beth ... stab ... my friend. Her name was Rachel. She's dead, man. She's dead." He covered his face with both hands.
Blake's posture deepened as her thoughts went to piece the puzzle. There were only two boys the rest were all girls. Only two people could talk by the mind. Their Maze had been set up the same, but just genders had been switched. Aris being the male version of Teresa. Rachel being Thomas. Beth being Gally. And...She matched up with Toby. The thought creeped her out, made goosebumps slither across her arm.
"Well, how'd you end up with us?" Newt asked. "Where are all these girls you keep talking about? How many of them escaped with you? Did they bring all of you here or just you two?"
Aris looked up, wiped a couple of tears from his cheeks. Toby who had remained quiet during all of this patted him on the back. Even he looked like he wanted to cry.
"Want me to explain the rest, man?" Toby offered.
"No, no. I got it." Aris looked up 'Look. I'm just as confused as everyone else. About thirty of us survived, they took us to that gym, fed us, cleaned us up. Then they brought me to this place last night, saying I should be separate since I'm a guy. That's it. Then you sticks show up."
"Sticks?" Minho repeated.
Aris shook his head. "Never mind. I don't even know what it means. Just a word they used when I got there."
Minho exchanged a glance with Thomas and Blake, half smiling. Looked like both groups had come up with their vocabulary.
"Hey," one of the Gladers Blake didn't know by name called out. He was leaning against the wall behind Toby, pointing at him. "What's that on the side of your neck? Something black, right below your collar."
