I Know Places [Thomas The Maze Runner]

[05: The Dream]

Everything sounded muffled. Elle felt like she was moving, but her body remained still as she slept. In her dreams, she received flashes of memories she would forget when she woke up.

Elle was by herself in a sterile, white room. One of the walls was a large window so she could easily be observed. Almost every room Elle had been inside for the last six months was identical to this one. Sometimes, instead of a big glass wall, there was a two-way mirror. Elle couldn't count the hours she spent staring at her reflection, waiting for someone to tell her what was happening.

This wasn't what they had promised her. She hardly ever got to see him anymore.

Elle couldn't tell how long she had been sitting alone and was endlessly doodling on the plain piece of paper they had given her to keep her entertained. She had been working on a little farm area, placed on top of lush green grass. Elle thought of a name for the drawing before writing in the slanted cursive of an eleven-year-old: The Glade.

An abrupt noise caught her attention, forcing her to look up from her drawing to see the woman with blonde hair in the white lab coat entering the room. Elle wasn't surprised to see her. This woman was familiar to her. Chancellor Ava Paige, as she was publicly known. She was the person Elle had seen most since she was taken from her family. Elle could still remember the day this woman walked into her life. At first, it seemed like Ava Paige had all the answers to Elle's questions. She was intelligent and had an air of confidence and assertion that made Elle want to trust her. But now, she wasn't so sure anymore.

The only good thing about Ava Paige arriving in the room was that, for once, she brought someone with her. "Elle, this is Thomas," she introduced a boy Elle's age. He had dark brown hair and matching eyes with freckled pale skin. Elle couldn't quite make out what this boy was feeling. He was almost stoic. His face was expressionless, and it gave none of his thoughts away. "He's going to be your friend here at WICKED," Ava Paige continued. The smile on her face was just as questionable as her morals.

"Why can't I pick my own friends?" Elle asked. Her voice was higher pitched than it was now, reflecting her youth and innocence.

"Well of course you can, my dear. But I think you and Thomas will get along very well," Ava Paige said softly, trying to seem caring even though Elle had soon realised everything was in order.

"Why?" Thomas spoke up, finally making himself known aside from Ava Paige's introduction. Elle met his eyes, tilting her head as she observed him. He liked to ask questions, just like her. At that moment, she decided that she would like Thomas. Not because Ava Paige told her to but because she noticed that same spark of defiance in him.

"Because the two of you are special," Ava Paige said, taking note of Elle's drawing and picking it up. "What's this, Elle?"

"Just a drawing," Elle replied. "I called it The Glade because that's what an open space in a forest is called. And I drew a little forest, there," her small hand pointed to the trees in the drawing as Ava Paige looked it over.

"I like it." Ava Paige smiled. "I'll be holding on to this for you," she said, taking instead of asking permission. Even at eleven, Elle realised this was how things worked at WICKED. "Now, I have a little task for the pair of you. I need you to think of something we could use to test people. Where would you put them if you wanted to test the human mind? To find its limits and observe its responses."

"What about a desert?" Thomas suggested, thinking it through. "The harsh environment will offer multiple tasks and troubles for the human mind. Minimal shelter, water will evaporate, and there definitely won't be enough supplies to last for a long time."