𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀 - TMR, Gally ¹

𝟢𝟣𝟫，𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭, 𝐲'𝐚𝐥𝐥

CH. NINETEEN
┗━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┛

"No," she says. "I don't remember that."

"I do," he says, lowering his voice. "I was planning to escape the place—"

"What place?"

"The Creators." He sighs. "I was planning to escape them for a while already, yet couldn't find a way to do it. Messed with the airwaves once I stole a walkie from a guard, but it didn't give me much." A pause. "Until one day, you were there, calling out all these names I didn't understand."

A frown starts to form on her face. This isn't what she remembered at all. It would've been nice to have lovely memories, too!

"We spoke. You explained something, but I couldn't hear it. It's like they blurred your words in the memory. And then I explained about where I was. You knew the location. Then by the weeks, we spoke more and more. Me about escaping, you about things that were still getting blurred." He takes a breath. "After a while, we figured out you could help me and Minho escape, since he had joined our talks a while ago."

"But that never worked," she realizes.

"No," he says sharply. "We got caught once we stood outside. You were supposed to be waiting there, but you weren't."

Her eyes avert. "Because they were bombing the place where I stayed."

"I guess. They took Minho and I away. As a punishment, we got that Griever. But it was probably worse for him. Alby shared they all had to watch him on a big screen, one by one. I only had to go through it once. Maybe twice, I don't know."

"And then you got angry."

"Yes, of course." As if it's obvious, he nods. "I was upset about the Griever, mad you weren't there, and really believed you left us behind. I only figured out you got bombed a year later, but you never appeared through that time. I thought you were dead."

"I was wandering in that desert all alone," she mutters. "Until they caught me."

He hums. "Then you appeared, indeed. Camil arrived about a week before you. Or well, they allowed us to talk to him a week before you. I think he had been there for quite a while. He told me about your place, but it was blurred after all. I did hear about you running off. Guards dragging you two away. But you fought and managed to slip off. He couldn't."

"And then you got angry because I left everyone behind."

"Yeah," he says. His cheeks grow red. "I was still upset about the Griever, angry you weren't waiting for us, and once I found out you ran off, I lost it. Because why could you run off on your own, but not with me?" A long pause. "...and with Minho, of course."

Joan sighs another time. "I believe when I got there, they used me to make serums. Because I had the knowledge. But it was too hard. When they wanted answers, they either used those syringes, causing pain, or showed me the video of you and the Griever, which felt like it hurt more," she explains. "Then they left me alone and I watched the screens of y'all in the Glade, 'cause you got sent there in the meanwhile. Together with this boy. His name was Thomas."

"What did he look like?"

"Brown hair. Taller than me but shorter than you."

"I believe most people are taller than you."

She shoots him a glare, followed by holding up her middle finger. "You saw him too, then?"

"Yeah. Watched him and another girl prepare things for the Maze, or whatever they were doing."