Him || The Scorch Trials

Twenty Four

"Why aren't you dead?" He bellowed, his voice whipped away by the surrounding air. He stood tall but still frail, shaking like a house in the middle of a tornado. "Why aren't you dead?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Mara gulped, stepping away from the ludicrous boy. She wasn't sure what he would do if he was close enough to her, so staying as far back as possible seemed like the best option. He was a ticking time bomb, by the looks of him, and he was close to exploding.

"Adam," She spoke up, her voice trembling. "I don't understand. Why are you here? They told me that... that one of the Grievers got you. You were dead, and now you're not. What the shuck happened?"

"I never died," He giggled. "We're good friends. The Grievers are my friends. They took me in and looked after me and made me feel good. They said they would kill you! That's why I took you into the Maze! They said they'd kill you there!"

A silence hung over the air, drowning out Adam's chortles. He was the one who had injected her with that stuff. He was the one she had seen carrying her through the Maze. He was the one that had left her to die.

What else had he done? Was he the reason behind Thomas, Minho and Alby's visit to the Maze?

"I trusted you." Mara muttered in disbelief. She couldn't explain the words she spoke; she didn't understand. "I trusted you with so much! You're crazy! Who the hell do you think you are, Adam? You think you can just throw away someone's life like that? You're not a God. You're not even human. You're just here, nothing but a bloody parasite."

Adam ran forward, locking onto Mara before she could stop him. He held her tightly around the top of her t-shirt, pulling him so close that she could smell the stench of his unhygienic breath.

His maddened, emerald eyes were wide with a hunger she had never seen before. His entire body was convulsing with a furious rage, rattling and quivering as it tried to release itself from his brittle body.

It took every ounce of strength to hold herself back. She wanted to kick and punch and scream, but something deep inside told her not to. Something was telling her to stop herself, to try and figure out why he had tried to kill her, but she knew that it was going to be difficult.

He seemed so far passed gone that it was going to be impossible to question him without provoking him. He wanted her to fight him. He wanted Mara to give him the chance to kill her. She could see the hunger in his eyes.

"I once liked you, Mara! Once, I thought you were brilliant. A miracle." He confessed, spitting into her face. "But you're not. You're a dirty little girl. So wrong, but you think you're right. I saw you do those things to us, but they chose me! They gave me the power to see! You were with them, but now they want me! You're not the important one. You're a pawn, and pawns are made to be used and abused. You've been used, and you were supposed to die! You're a cheater! You cheated the game! You cheated death!"

The boy's voice droned on, his grip tightening with each word he spoke. "I carried you into the Maze, but you got out. I tried to turn your brother against you, but he ignored me. I tried to make Teresa kill you, but she changed her mind. I tried to crush you moments ago, yet you're still alive! Why won't you just die?!"

Surprisingly, she managed to contain herself. She held herself back, no matter how much she wanted to kill him. But there was one thing that stood out among his words. One sentence that had chilled her to the bone.

"What the hell did you do to my brother?" Mara kept her voice low speaking this time with a steady, strong voice.

"Oh him, he's fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. You may not believe me, M, but we're good friends. Until he betrayed me." Adam tutted. "Bad move. Bad move."

In the spur of the moment, Mara took the weakness of Adam and used it to her advantage. She flipped him around with a swift movement, wrapping her arms tightly around shoulders and across his chest.

He faced away from her, silent and but shaking still. Mara held the power now, and she had no intention of losing it again.

"If I wanted to, I could bend your neck forward and break it. It'd cut your supply of spinal fluid and kill you. Or I could shatter your rib cage and let you bleed from the inside. So I suggest that you tell me what happened with my brother."

Mara could feel her body shuddering with fear, but it was the only way she was going to get through to him. Even though she didn't know Andy well, she couldn't lose him. He was the only real family member she had left, or at least that she knew about. Losing him would destroy her, and she had already decided that she wasn't going to face that.

"Mara, Mara, Mara, Mara, Mara. Tut tut tut." He spoke slowly, hanging onto every word he said. Adam's body was strangely still, the heaving of his breaths being the only movement he made. "You forgot to cover my legs."

In a sweeping movement, Adam kicked backwards and pushed Mara away from his back. Immediately after, he leapt forward and swung her around, throwing her with a thud as she hit the ground sideways.

An explosion of shocking pain spread through Mara's stomach, pulling through her body and stretching outwards. Along with that came the scraping of her face against the gravelled ground, sending a wave of blood sprawling across the floor.

A shriek of agony played through the air, rugged and jagged. It took a moment for Mara to realise that the voice did not belong to herself.

Ignoring the flurry of her aching in her body, Mara threw herself onto her back and sat up quickly, looking up to the pale face of boy she faced. He was watching her with intense hatred, but another emotion overtook him still; fear.

Her eyes lingered over Adam's face before travelling down to his chest, stopping over the spear poking through his body.

The intake of breath was limited. His was caught by death's broken hand, grasped by the thin, bony fingers of the one to take his life. Hers was frozen in place, stunned by the scene taking place before her eyes.

"I'm sorry," A third voice timidly spoke up, peeking from behind the boy's standing corpse.

Adam collapsed with one last movement, landing inches from where Mara sat. His head was turned to the side, looking off into the city around them. The stillness of his body was spine-chilling. His eyes were glazed over with nothingness.

Mara's tainted eyes wandered upwards, coming upon the body of a second boy who seemed to have taken on the shaking of the Adam's dead body.

"I'm sorry." He whispered again, his eyes layered with water. He looked at his blood stained hands, the realisation of his actions gyrating through every part of him.

"Newt," croaked Mara, straining to look through her glassy eyes. She gulped. "Newt..."

No other words could be formed, Mara would choke at the thought of speaking up.

Adam didn't die in the Maze. Newt had killed Adam.

Adam was dead.