˚ ༘✶₊˚. ⊹ ˚ . FIRST ACT
❪ SIXTEEN ♥︎ ₊˚༢࿐
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     THE NEXT MORNING MAE had woken up to the sun beaming down on her face from the open window. Her eyes fluttered open, the blue of her iris almost as bright as sapphires as the events of last night flashed in her vision. Her gaze slowly traveled down to her naked body under a thick blanket, her face turning a dark shade of red.

When she rolled over, she expected Gally to be gone, like he always was when she fell asleep in his room — and although what happened between them last night were new and unexpected — Mae wouldn't have expected any different. So, when she turned around to find him fast asleep beside her, she had to hold her breath.

Gally slept close beside her with a hand draped over his naked chest, the blanket stopping just above his torso. She watched his chest rise and fall slowly, and her hand reached over to brush a fallen eyelash away from his freckled nose. A content smile forms on her face, resting her hand under her chin.

     "Are you done staring?" He asked, his voice low and groggy as he pried one eye open to stare.

     She groaned at the ruined moment, "Have you been up this whole time?"

     A slow smile stretched on his face, his ears tinting a soft red. He would never admit to watching her sleep first as he pulled the pillow from behind his head and shoved it lightly into her face, "Go back to sleep." He ordered.

     "We'll miss breakfast." She replied in a muffle, throwing the pillow at the bottom of the bed.

     Gally rolled his eyes, and tugged her closer. "I vote staying here for the rest of the day," He tells her, resting his head right in front of hers. Mae's heart fluttered, raising her chin just enough to kiss him, "I love you, too." He muttered against her lips.

     "Say that again."

     "I love you, Mae."

Mae happily pushed herself above him, and kissed him again, his arms quickly wrapping around her bare back so she wouldn't fall over. Each kiss was softly peppered down the side of his neck until he flipped her on her back and kissed her hard. Mae let out a soft laugh.

     A knock on the door makes them both freeze, their wide eyes locking as Frypan's voice rang through the air, "Man, do not sleep in, I'm making bacon!"

     For good measure, Gally pressed his palm against Mae's mouth to keep her quiet, "I'll be right down. Give me a second," He ordered, his tone clearly showing he was annoyed.

     "And go down to Mae while you're at it! She's not in the Kitchens yet." Frypan continued, "You know that girl will try to serve everyone before herself, so make sure she eats, too!"

     In amusement, Gally nods, "Oh, don't worry, Fry, I'll keep her well feed." Mae rolled her eyes, prying his hand from her mouth the second Frypan walked away from the door.

     "Come on, I'm hungry." She pushes him off and sits up, reaching for her shirt at the end of the bed. Gally closed his eyes, pressing his hands into his eyes.

     "Do we have to go..?" The question was so quiet and genuine that Mae found herself smiling sadly at his expression. It was obvious that the second they stepped out of this room their little slice of peace would be inevitably ruined.

     She took it has her chance to say, "We'll have our whole lives to sleep in once we get out of here. Have a little hut with a dog named Fred or something."

     His face hardened at her words, and in response he gave a stiff nod with a small smile. Mae held back a sigh, and got ready for the day.

At breakfast, Mae and Gally had walked into the kitchen side-by-side and sat down at the Keepers table, where Winston, Zart, Newt, Clint, Jeff and now Teresa sat. Mae happily took the seat across from Teresa and Newt, while Gally shoved Zart out of the way to sit by Mae.

"Good morning," She announced, handing the plate of bacon to Teresa first, "Have you eaten?"

Teresa gives a small nod, "Yeah, I'm good."

"Newt? Winston?" She holds it out to them, and Gally grabs it from her hands and piles multiple pieces on her plate before putting a little on his own.

     "Minho went into the Maze with Thomas this morning," Newt makes conversation. "Hopefully they come across something on their trip."

     The other mutter positive replies, but Gally doesn't say a word. He was eyeing Teresa, the frown on his face clear. He didn't trust her, he didn't trust Thomas and frankly he was starting not to trust Newt either. He felt like Newt was leading them to their deaths, he didn't understand why everyone was so keen to leave this place.

     "I was thinking, with Mae working in the Gardens today that you could help the MedJack's with Alby," He turns to Teresa, eyeing her cautiously. Everyone can tell the reason he's asking for Teresa to stay inside was because they needed to keep an eye on her.

     Teresa gives a soft nod.

     "Gally, I need you to fix the roof of the outhouse, the chickens got up there and pecked at it, so there's a few holes," Newt adds on.

     The Builder gives a stiff nod and stands up. He wasn't that hungry anymore, and by the tension in the room he clearly didn't agree with Newt being in charge of things. So — without much thought — he kissed Mae on the cheek, grabbed a water bottle and walked out of the Kitchen.

     Leaving Mae with the aftermath.

     "Did Gally just kiss your cheek?!" Zart yelled.

     "Is that allowed?" Clint turned to Newt.

     "Are you guys dating?" Winston asked in disgusted.

     Mae began to fumble over her words, "I—, well you see—" She brushes away the hair from her face without much thought, and realized her mistake when Newt's eyes landed on the hickey on her neck.

     "Oh, my god. You had sex?" His voice carried, and the whole room went silent. Mae's face was so red she felt sick, and with a quick wave of his hand for everyone to get back to eating, Newt said, "You had sex with Gally?" He whispered.

     "I'm gonna be sick," Zart paled, pushing his plate away, "That's fucking disgusting."

     "Is that allowed?!" Jeff continued.

     Teresa tilts her head, "Is it big?"

     That made the whole table silent, turning to Mae with the same silent question. The blonde looked between them, not knowing whether to spill all the details or run into the Maze out of pure embarrassment.

     "Okay," Zart holds his hands out, "I'm gonna stretch my hands and you say stop when I reach the right length." Mae goes to respond but he starts pulling his hands apart, "This? This? Seriously? Seriously?!" His hands were obnoxiously far apart.

     "No way, start again!" Teresa said.

     "This is Gally we're talking about." Jeff adds.

     "Stop it, you two!" Newt huffed, turning to Mae and grabbing her hand, "Were you okay? You stopped when you were uncomfortable, right? Was he gentle? He better have been gentle—"

"Unless she doesn't like gentle." Winston teased.

     "Oh, my god." Mae stood up, pressing her palms into her ears, "You guys are horrible! And I'm not going to tok about s-e-x with you!" She spelled out the word in a whisper as if it was against the rules to even say it, her face bright red. "I'm going to the gardens, come on Zart."

He looks down at his eggs, "But I'm not done with my—"

"I said come on!" She shouts. Zart quickly stands up and follows after her, holding his bowl of eggs.

— — — — — — — — — —

     MAE SAT ON THE BACK OF HER legs as she pulled out another handful of overgrown weeds with a soft hum, throwing them into the basket as Zart sat on the other side, planting a line of seeds. She felt lingering eyes on her, and looked up to see Gally, standing on the roof of the Outhouse.

He gives her a wink, and Mae goes red, giving him a short small wave. Zart scrunched his face in disgust, and threw a handful of seeds.

     "Hey!" She shouts, shaking them off.

     "Can you stop undressing each other with your eyes?" Zart complained. "You know how gross that is?"

     Mae opens her mouth to say something witty, but the sound of rumbling from inside the Maze caused everything to be silent. All head's snap toward the West Doors, the rumbling continuing to echo. In fear, her eyes find Gally, who had jumped down from the roof and was already cross the Glade toward her.

     "Come on," He tugs her up, "Keep close."

     As everyone began to crowd the doors, Mae felt a sunken feeling. She hoped — no, prayed — that Minho and Thomas were safe. And when the rumbling stop, she didn't know whether to be relieved or even more worried.

     Minutes felt like hours, and it wasn't until Minho and Thomas turned the corner did Mae realize she was holding her breath. Thankfully, both of them seem unscathed and un-stung, simply out of breath.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Newt asked.

     "What the hell have you done now, Thomas?" Gally snapped. The boy simply rushed passed him.

"We found something, a new passage." He tells Newt and Mae, "We think it could be a way out."

"Really?" The Leader turns to his partner.

Minho nods, "It's true. We opened a door, something I'd never seen before. I think it must be where the Grievers go during the day."

Chuck pushed through the crowd, "Wait, whoa, whoa. You're saying you found the Griever's home? And you want us to go in?"

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." Thomas says.

Mae gives a soft nod, "Okay. . .all right," She looks between the Runner, "What's the plan?"

The question alone sent a panic up Gally's spine, pushing through the crowd with a heated face, "There could be a dozen Grievers on the other side. The truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he's done, as usual."

Thomas angrily turns around to face him, "Yeah, well at least I did something, Gally! I mean, what have you done? Aside from hide behind these Walls all the time?!"

Gally's jaw tightened. "Let me tell you something, Greenie. You've been here three days, I've been here three years—"

"Yeah, you've been here three years and you're still here, Gally!" Thomas screamed in his face. "So what does that tell you? Maybe you should start doing things a little differently."

Mae huffed, taking a step forward, "Boys, please, now isn't the time—"

"Guys!" Teresa called through.

"Maybe you should be in charge, Thomas? what about that?" Gally snaps sarcastically.

Thomas raised an eyebrow, "I'd sure protect her a lot better if I was." He said lowly, just enough for Gally to hear.

The Builder's face twisted, grabbing Thomas by the shirt and making everyone panicked to pry them apart. Then, Teresa's voice bellowed through the crowd, causing the attention to turn to her.

"Hey, it's Alby! He's awake!"

Mae took that as her change to pull Gally's fist off of Thomas' shirt, giving both of them a soft glare, "Stop acting like children, and start working together! I'm serious!" She ordered.

At that, they both closed their mouths.

When they had gotten to Homestead, everyone was plenty surprised to see Alby sitting up straight. He looked exhausted, and his eyes were glossed over in fresh tears as he stared off into space. Clint had wrapped a fresh bandage on Alby's torso, and beside the large gash on his forehead, their old leader appeared to be completely fine — on the outside.

"Has he said anything?" Minho asked urgently. Teresa shook her head, "Alby?" He called out.

Newt cautiously took a seat beside his friend, leaning over to meet his eyes, "Alby, you all right?"

Mae found herself leaning forward, eager to hear the words of their Leader. They hoped that he could give them some answers after the changing, some unlocked memory that could give them another piece to their unsolvable puzzle.

But, Alby's lips began to quiver and Mae found herself reaching up to grab his hand. The boy flinched slightly, but eased at the girl's touch like he always had. Thomas got on a knee, glancing at Minho before speaking too.

"Alby, we might have just found a way out of the Maze." He tells him. "Do you hear me? We could be getting out of here."

"We can't leave," Alby's words hung in the air with a thick tension, "They won't let us."

Mae faltered, "Alby, what do you mean?"

"I remember."

Thomas looked worried, not just for Alby but for himself. In he remembered that means he knew what Thomas was before, and the thought of someone else knowing who he was before he did scared Thomas. Mae couldn't help but be curious, did Alby remember her too? Who was she to WICKED?

"What do you remember?" Thomas asked.

"You." He says, "You were always their favorite, Thomas. Always. Not even Mae, who she was to them, still, it was you."

Mae moves forward, like Thomas she was eager to hear more, "What was I to them, Alby? Who?"

Alby's eyes were strained on Thomas, he looked utterly betrayed by the boy and Thomas didn't have a clue why. "Why did you do this? Why did you come here?"

"Mae!" Gally shouts, grabbing her attention instantly. She looked up, just know hearing the screams from the others outside. Gally's eyes were filled with fear as he pushed off the wooden beam and pulled her up.

The group had rushed out of Homestead, where multiple boys were grabbing torches and running toward the doors. A nervous chill ran up Mae's spine as she looked around.

"Winston!" She shouts, causing the boy to stop, "What's happening?!"

"It's the doors." He says, "They won't close."

oh no, our doors, it's broken—

11.5.21