"You'll Always Be My Princess...."

Chapter 22

Bright lights.

People.

Machines.

Thomas.

Teresa.

Newt.

Why is he in a tank?

I did this.

I helped.

"You idiot!! She was never meant to be sent there!!"

A gun shot.

I'm drowning.

There's water.

I'm dead.

No.

I'm alive.

My eyes slowly flutter open, when I see Thomas and Teresa looking down at me.

"Are you okay", Thomas asks.

"You were down longer than Thomas", Teresa adds.

"I injected more", I say, before sitting up.

"So, you remember?"

"I remember injecting myself with the griever stinger, yeah", I say.

"What the hell were you thinking", Chuck sighs, making me look over at him.

We're in the pit.

I see Minho, Newt, and Chuck outside the pit, watching us.

Newt looks... awful.

Like he hasn't sleeped... at all.

"What happened", I ask.

"Gally has taken control. He said we had a choice. Either join him, or get banished at sundown with you three", Newt explains, not looking me in the eye.

"And the others agreed to that", I question, groaning, as I stand up.

"Gally has everyone convinced that we're the reason all this has happened", Teresa explains.

"Well, he's been right so far", I sigh.

"What are you talking about", Minho asks, confused.

"This place, it's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison, it's a test. It all started when we were kids. They would give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us. And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork", I explain.

"They were sending them up into the maze", Newt sighs.

"Yeah, but not all of us."

"What do you mean?"

"Guys.... I'm one of them. We're one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for a while, until I was accidently sent down here, when I was actually supposed to be.... dead. I was supposed to end up like everyone else who did their part but wasn't fit to be in the maze. Dead...", I sigh, not being able to look at Newt. "Teresa... Thomas... we did this to them..."

"No. That can't be true..."

"It is. I saw it... and so did Thomas..."

"Why would they send us up if we were with them", Teresa asks me.

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter..."

"She's right", Newt says, making me look up at him. "It doesn't matter", Newt says, looking me in the eye, as he's speaking to us. "Any of it. Because the people we were before the maze don't even exist anymore. These creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now, and what we do, right now. You went into the maze with Thomas, and you found a way out", Newt sighs.

"Yeah, but if we hadn't, Alby would still be alive", I sigh.

"Maybe. But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing. Pick your ass up and finish what you started. Because if we do nothing, then that means Alby died for nothing, and I can't have that", Newt says.

"Okay", I say, before standing up. "Okay, but we gotta get through Gally first..."