WICKED property || Maze Runner (Janson Fanfiction)

Chapter I

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Esmeralda was a young girl when WICKED came for her. She was living in England with her mother, father and younger brother Marco at the time. Although, she was born in Spain and had Spanish origins, she spoke fluent English.
She was also immune to the Flare virus, the very disease that took her brother from her. Marco was only  four years old, and tragically fell victim to the Flare. Esmeralda was only six and had to watch her brother descend into madness. It was traumatic for the young girl, a memory that would haunt her forever. The effect it had on her mother was worse. She never really spoke much after that, and her father was much the same.

She was seven years old, however, when the WICKED gaurds stormed the city, or at least what remained of the city, her family were living in. They had found a small community, mostly made up of adults and elderly alike. She was the only child there, which was a frightening experience for a child. She had no one her age to talk to. It was an even more frightening experience when masked men, all carrying large guns, took her away from her mother and father. They scooped her up, ignoring her mothers cries and pleads, and ignoring her fathers shouts of anger. They even whacked her father around the head when he tried attacking one of the gaurds, causing young Esmeralda to cry and cry and cry, until her eyes were red and puffy and her nose was runny. All to no avail as she was soon being transported to a large facility, which she soon learned was a research facility called WICKED who were using immunes like her to find a cure for the virus.

And that's how Esmeralda ended up at WICKED. That's also where she earnt her new name 'Eve'.
The scientists at the facility wanted something more American, and they forced young Esmeralda to start referring to herself as Eve. And so she became Eve. But she never forgot her mother and father, or her brother. She never forgot her old name either.
But they did.
In their minds, she was Eve, but in her mind she was still Esmeralda. Still the young Spanish girl, running around the little English village they lived in. Still the young girl learning to play catch and ride a bicycle. Still the young girl who watched her brother become the very thing they feared. Eve, however, was the young girl to live at WICKED. The girl to grow up being given puzzles and tests by scientists trying to test her intelligence. The girl to have needles constantly jabbed into her arm, and tests on a daily basis. The girl to be sent to a maze... and the girl to escape.

*

Eve sat alone. She had been sitting there for a while, just staring around the room she was put in. She had escaped the maze, and was taken to a strange facility. Of course, without her memories, she had no way of knowing if she had ever been here before. She sat in a small room. An interrogation room, by the looks of it. There was a table in the middle, with two chairs either side.
And although she pretended not to realise, she knew she was being watched through the one way mirror beside her. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Finally, the door opened and a man walked into the room holding a file.
He was middle aged, roughly mid-30s and wore a white turtleneck. His hair was neat, and he had a stubble but it was hardly noticeable. He looked smart, but then again so did everyone at WICKED. Eve also noted that he was a handsome man.
He smiled at her, purely out of politeness though.
"Sorry about the wait." He said casually, his voice was a little raspy.
Eve only nodded in response.

He sat down opposite her, placing the file on the table infront of him. She noticed his polite facade, and he seemed like he didn't really care much about this questioning.
"Well, let's get started, shall we?" He smiled again, and Eve picked up on his Irish accent, "My name is Janson. You're Eve?"
Now it was her turn to talk, "Yes." She kept it short.
He nodded, opened the file and cleared his throat. "It's nice to meet you, Eve."
"What's that?" She pointed to the file. Janson smiled and pushed it towards her, amused at her curiosity. She leaned over the table and looked at the file. There was a photo of her in the corner, along with her name. There was lots of other information about her, such as her age (18) and her nationally. Since she couldn't seem to remember anything about her life before the maze, she was surprised to see she was Spanish.
The thing that shocked her most though, was her name. It read Eve, obviously, but beside it there was a little side note. It read "Birth name: Esmeralda".

"Esmeralda?" She repeated outloud to herself. As far as she was aware, her name was and always had been Eve.
Janson chuckled and nodded, "Yes, your name before your life at WICKED was Esmeralda. A pretty name, I'm not sure why they changed it."
She didn't pay much attention to what he said, as the name Esmeralda gave her a sense of reminiscence. She recognised the name, felt a connection to it but for what reason she couldn't say. It only just hit her what Janson had said.
"They changed my name? Why?" She looked up from the file, curiosity once again getting the better of her.
Janson shrugged, not the answer she was expecting, "I don't know. I wasn't here at the beginning, when WICKED started taking immunes such as yourself."
A smirk played on his lips, he wasn't telling her the truth. He probably did know, but he just wasn't going to tell her. She didn't push any further though. She looked back down at the file and scanned over it once more before pushing it back over to him.
He was still smirking, clearly amused at something. He closed the file again, letting there be a moment of silence before continuing.

"I'm going to call you Esmeralda." It was more of a demand then a request.
She shrugged, and although she didn't want to admit it outloud, she did prefer the name Esmeralda.
Janson continued, "It's a much nicer name. Eve is bland." He was being very blunt in his insulting of her name, earning a scowl from Eve. In her opinion, he was being extremely rude and disrespectful.
Janson didn't say anymore on the name matter, he simply smiled at her then seemed to move on to a new subject entirely.
His professional demeanor was back in seconds, "Well, the reason I'm here and reason you're here, is because I have a couple of questions about your time in the Maze."
"Ask away." She just wanted this to be done with now.

He cleared his throat again and re-opened her file, "You'll be pleased to know you haven't been selected for the Scorch Trials."
Eve had no idea what that was anyway, but she was pleased that she didn't have to go through any more trials. Still, she was curious as to why.
"Why not?" She asked simply.
Janson seemed to have expected this question, "Because, your results from the Maze Trials were good enough. We've decided to run... Other tests on you instead." He smiled, although what he said was very ominous.
"Other tests?" She repeated back, the idea was intimidating.
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it too much. You'll know when the time comes," His smile doesn't falter. "Now, tell me about your experience in the Maze."

The interrogation lasted for another 20 minutes, each question along the same line as that one. Eve recounted her time in the Maze, explaining her emotions - how she felt at certain points - and about her thought process. Eventually, Janson drew to a close.
"Well, Esmeralda, I believe that's all the questions I planned to ask you," He looked down at her file as if to double check. "Although, I do want to ask something else..."
Eve narrowed her eyes in curiosity, and tilted her head to the side, "What?"
"You are going to be a cooperative subject, aren't you?" Once again, he was basically telling her to be cooperative rather then asking.
She took a moment to answer, thinking the question over. Eventually, she just nodded. He smiled then stood up, his mood changing back to the fake nice guy.
"Thank you for your time. I'm assuming you're hungry." He checked his wrist watch, "Lucky you. They'll be serving lunch in about half an hour. You'll be escorted to the canteen."
Eve hadn't been to the canteen yet, all her meals had been brought to her in her room. She was looking forward to eating there, because she knew there other subjects she could talk to.
Janson picked up the file from the table and bowed his head before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. She sat in silence for another minute or two before two gaurds escorted her to the canteen. In the time she had in between, though, she thought over everything Janson had said. Her name, Esmeralda, mostly.

She decided she was going to refer to herself as Esmeralda from now on, since it was the name her parents gave her. She couldn't remember her parents, but she assumed that she loved them very much when she could remember them.
Referring to herself as Esmeralda also gave her a certain type of power. It was almost defiance, since WICKED wanted her to be Eve.
But she wasn't Eve. She was Esmeralda.

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