Redamancy (Minho | The Maze Runner)

十三: Stay

AN: Early update because TMR won in a forum game! \o/ 

This chapter is turned out longer than I thought OTL but please consider voting and commenting if you've enjoyed this extra long chapter! (:

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"She asleep?" a voice quietly asked from the entrance. Newt leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, talking to a hunched figure sitting on the edge of a bed. On the next bed a girl slept peacefully, her chest rising and falling to the rhythm of her breathing. Her black hair was mussed up, some strands sticking to her face and neck. A sliver of moonlight spilled into the room and unto her face, making the tear stains on her cheeks shine.

There was a pause.

"Yeah," a reply came as the dark figure beside the bed stood up and walked over. Minho exchanged a tired glance with Newt as they exited the room and closed the door quietly behind them.

"How is she?" the blond asked after a moment of walking together silently.

"Fine, I think." Minho held out his arms for the other to see. "That shank only quietened down after I set her on the bed and cried herself to sleep."

Newt whistled at the angry red scratch marks that were running down his arms. "She beat you up pretty bad huh."

The other rolled his eyes. "What, you thought she was going to make herself a cup of tea and sit down for a chat after this afternoon?"

Newt shook his head with a slight laugh as he pushed open the door to the meeting room. The other keepers were already waiting for them, standing and sitting around in various spots. They all simultaneously looked up at the sound, glancing up at the pair first before at Minho's arms. The Korean made a face as he noticed the stares, glaring back at them.

"How's Feng?" Alby spoke first.

"She's okay," Minho said as he leaned against a wooden pole. "Sleeping."

The dark skinned boy nodded his head as he turned to the other side of the room where a huddled figure sat on a bench, looking at the ground. It wasn't hard to tell who it was, the blond was shirtless and heavily bandaged around his shoulder and neck. Cuts and scrapes were visible along his fair body and arms where he had dragged them along the ground earlier in a desperate life or death struggle against the crazed runner. He fidgeted nervously, biting his lower lip.

"Lester." Alby folded his arms, his voice commanding. Lester's eyes flickered upwards briefly to meet the other's before looking back down. They were gunmetal grey and strangely calm in comparison to his behaviour.

"Albert and I were running together down to the outer rings." The other began and paused for a moment trying to recall the happenings before, above the vivid memory of almost dying. Lester flinched at the memory of Albert jumping at him, jaws agape and eyes wild. However he could feel the pressure of the keepers waiting for him, so he took a deep breath and continued. "We were almost there, but something caught our eyes as we were moving into more spacious passageways."

"It was a shuck griever, wedged right into a corner. Our first instinct was to run, but Albert called me back. He realized that it wasn't moving." It was a little blur, but he remembered seeing the creature just sitting right in the corner of the maze, its eyes closed and body still. If not for its weapons reflecting off the sunlight through the ivy sending flashes into the maze every time the wind blew, they probably wouldn't have noticed the well-blended monster right in front of them.

"I insisted we leave and get the others first, but that shuck face wanted to play hero." Lester's voice trembled as his breath started to quicken. "H-He wanted to be the one to save everyone, you know?"