A/N: I know, I know, y'all probably hate me for writing this instead of updating my story, but the thing is, I've been wanting to write this, and though I don't have either the energy or time to think of and write another chapter of either of my stories, I present you with this. An epilogue to Darkness, a story which resides in the deepest corners of my heart.

Aidan and Lee and Kyra were my first OCs. They were my debut to this website. And now, though my new stories have gotten more hits than them, they'll never truly leave my heart.

Now, for anyone out there reading this who hasnt read the last chapter of Darkness, Aidan is alive. And he lives with Kyra and the rest of the Gladers in an epic kick butt place called Paradise. Which is where they went after after they esacaped the maze. Any auesions on how Aidan's alive, well, the bullet hit his collarbone and he was ina coma for Five months and WICKED cured him and sent him and the other Gladers to a place called Paradise. This doesnt have any spoilers for Death Cure, so feel safe reading this.

Moving on...

ENJOY! :)

~.~.~.~.

Aidan:

I let out a breath. Even though I couldn't see it, I knew it was nighttime here in Paradise. I lay in my cot, fingering the rough material beneath me. I really wanted to see the stars that I was told dotted the night sky in beautiful patterns, but all I saw was darkness. I blinked, wondering for a second whether when I opened my eyes, magically, everything would appear once again. I would be able to see the stars, I would know how pretty my sister is, I would know how beautiful Paradise was. No such luck. It didn't matter whether I closed my eyes or opened them. I only knew darkness.

I felt someone slide into the cot beside me. I knew without asking who it was. I tilted my head in their direction and smiled. "Hey Ky." I reached out with my hand and felt Kyra's hand resting beside my head. "Hey Turnip." I could almost hear her smile in my sister's words.

I pushed myself back and lifted my head, to bring it down on Kyra's thigh. She settled my head into a more comfortable position, and laughed. "Why in the world are you up here, Danny?" Kyra asked. Recently, my full name, Aidan, had been thrown into the garbage, and the nickname 'Danny' was adopted. I had no idea who'd come up with it, but it stuck all the same. I shrugged.

"I dunno. I just like the feeling, I suppose. Open skies, no worries." I paused, and smiled. "Actually, I think I do know why I come up here. This place reminds me a bit of the Glade. Open skies, though I'd think the worries were very much present in that place. It makes me a bit nostalgic, I think."

Kyra stroked my forehead, brushing my supposed blond bangs out of my eyes. I'd been told that I had blond hair and green eyes, but I couldn't confirm the claims. But somehow, I didn't think twenty people would lie about my appearance.

"Why would you want to remember the Glade?" Kyra asked, her tone slightly confused. I laughed, but it was tinged with bitterness. "Thought that'd be a wee bit obvious, don't you think? That was the last time I'd been with Lee."

Silence. Kyra wouldn't respond to what I'd just said, but honestly, I didn't think she could. I knew we all missed Lee, but I probably missed her most of all. She'd not only been my best friend, but something of a twin sister. Kyra was the best sister someone could ask for, of course. But Lee was irreplaceable. I remembered that one night in the Glade, when Thomas and Minho'd been stuck in the maze, and Lee had insisted on sleeping in front of the doors. I'd slept beside her, and we'd pretended to be asleep until Kyra and Newt left us alone, but we hadn't really been asleep. We'd gotten up minutes later and simply sat there for about another hour or two, silently. That had probably been the longest while I'd seen Lee go silent.

Now, though, I missed hearing her voice. Her stupid yet snarky jokes, her strange way of making people laugh even in the most serious of situations. I recalled the last thing she'd ever said to me.

'I'm sorry Aidan…'

Those words had been imprinted on my brain. I could feel Lee's cold and lifeless face on the tip of my fingertips. I could hear Thomas' cries as his sister slowly died in his arms. I could hear the sobs of the rest of the Gladers as we lost a brave comrade. But most of all, I could hear Lee's breathing cease, as my best friend left my side forever.

I closed my eyes, coming out of my reverie. I wasn't going to cry, I didn't have any tears left. And besides, I had a feeling Lee wouldn't have appreciated me becoming a bawling mess thinking about her.

"Why're you here, Ky? You came looking for me?" I asked. Kyra waited for another moment before answering.

"Yeah. Um, the thing is, Danny… well, it's just that… I mean…" She stuttered awkwardly. I laughed again. "Goodness Ky. Out with it. Why'd you come here?" I asked. Kyra took a breath.

"We found something we'd like you to, ah, acknowledge." She said. I noticed how she carefully avoided using the word 'see'. I nodded. "Right then, what is it?"

"Well, Newt and I were cleaning up the attic and- why're you smirking?" she asked, sounding a bit flustered. "Oh nothing." I said, not letting the smirk fall. "So, you and Newt…?"

"Oh shut up Danny." Kyra said, exasperated. She'd gotten used to it though. Minho and I had made it our living goal, teasing Kyra and Newt. Minho told me the two of them turned inhumane shades of red when we did.

"So, yeah, Newt and I were cleaning up the attic, and we found this. It's a letter. A note was there with it, a note from WICKED." She added. I nodded, waiting for her to continue. "Who's it from?" I asked, when I noticed she didn't. Another pause. "Kyra, I asked you something. Who's the letter from?" I prodded, using her full name to let her know I wanted an answer.

"Lee."

I sucked in a breath and felt my mind go for a roll. Suddenly, breathing became a little difficult. I wasn't all that sure I'd heard her correctly. I tried to speak, but no words would come out. I seemed to have lost my voice.

"Aidan, she wrote this before you guys came into the maze."

And just like that, the tiny sliver of hope that had appeared in my chest disappeared. Squashed, like an insect under Kyra's words. My breathing had become slightly erratic, but I forced myself calm down. I was on the verge of hyperventilating, but I cleared my mind. I took in a deep breath, then let it out. Another one. A third.

"Aidan, I know what this sounds like, to you. WICKED's note said Lee'd written this the night before you guys were sent into the maze. She'd wanted this to be delivered to you when and if you ever made it out of the maze, regardless of the fact of whether she was alive or not. I didn't read it; none of us did. You should be the first one to do so." Kyra spoke again.

By now I'd become somewhat normal. My heart was somewhere near my knees, sure. For a moment, I'd harbored the idea that my best friend might still have been alive, and had written a letter to me saying "HAHA SUCKER!" but of course, I should've known my luck wouldn't hold.

"Read it." I said, my voice around an octave higher than usual. I heard the crumble of paper, and knew Kyra was unfolding the letter. She cleared her throat, but paused yet again. "You sure?" she asked. I nodded. I was ready. If this was the last memoir I had of Lee, I wanted to hear it.

Kyra began.

"Dear Aidan. Bro, I really don't know how to start this. I mean, I vaguely recall something they taught in out class about writing letters to friends, but honestly, it's me writing the letter here. If you think for a second that I remember a word of those classes, you're dead wrong. I'd probably been throwing paintballs at the back of Tim's head."

"But moving onto the actual letter which I'm taking the excruciating pain of writing here, if you're hearing this, and I'm not the one reading this out to you, I'm either dead or have been abducted by evil aliens and taken to another planet. My money's on the former. I don't really know why I'm writing this letter to you, but I wanted you to know how thankful I am for having a friend like you. I asked Tommy how I could tell you that without making it awkward and strange, and he suggested a letter. So, here I sit, writing this to you in what I can only describe as atrocious handwriting. My apologies to whoever's reading this out to him, unless it's me. If it's me, I'm apologizing to myself and basically sounding like a retard."

"Um, sorry. Wavered a bit off topic there. I just want you to know, Aidan, that if there's one talent I have, it's picking the right friends. I mean, it had to have taken some talent to have tolerated me all these years. I don't think I'll be able to say thank you enough times for that. You put up with me all through my tantrums, you bore with my quirks. And for that, I thank you."

"Do you remember that time we'd gone fishing from the tenth floor of WICKED headquarters? Man, that had probably been the best day of my life. Sure, we hadn't caught any fish, but taking into consideration the fact that we'd been fishing at a height of at least ten stories off the ground, I'd have frankly been surprised if we had caught any. But that's just one example in a few billion of how you managed to stick with me all through my strange plans."

"Any person of sane mind would've kept their distance from a weird girl whose only defense is sarcasm. Therefore, I certify you insane. If there's a God above, there's just one thing I always ask of him. Tommy always tells me that if you pray for something hard enough, you get it. Well, I always trust Tommy in these matters, so I've been praying for one thing for the last few months. That our friendship never ends. I know, I know. Cheesy. But hey, I'm allowed cheesy wishes, right? Even if I'm dead and not the one reading this to you right now, I think my wish was fulfilled, because though I don't know of the cause of my death, I can guarantee that you and I were best friends till the end."

"Aidan, this is literally the most serious thing I've ever written, not to mention longest. But not enough papers and not enough words will encompass the feeling of gratitude I bear you. I don't think I could've ever gotten a better friend, and I honestly don't think I deserve one as good as you. Heck, I'm glad friends didn't come with price tags, because I'd probably end up broke trying to afford one as good as you. So, I write this letter to thank you. Thank you Aidan for putting up with my strange mannerisms and quirks. Thank you Aidan for never leaving my side, even when just about everyone else said I was wrong. Thank you Aidan for being with me no matter what I did, no matter how crazy I was in doing it. But thank you most of all, for being the greatest friend I could have ever had."

"Like I said before, if I'm not the one reading this to you, it probably means I'm dead. If so, try to imagine a black sea of nothingness, dotted with white spots. That's the night sky. Tommy once told me that if we die, we become stars. And since I'm probably a star now, I'm going to be looking down at whoever's reading this to you and be smiling, because this means you're out of the maze and alive. Now, try to imagine one star amongst all those stars shining really really bright. That one's probably me."

"I think I'll end this letter now, and let the person reading this have a break (if it's me, go me, have a glass of water). I don't know if this letter was corny or good, but I've written this from my heart, and don't think I could've put it any better. So once again, Aidan, thank you for being my friend. I hope your time in Paradise is going well."

"P.S: Imagine the prettiest thing you've ever imagined. That's probably what the sun looks like."

I felt the tears stinging my eyes. Kyra's voice was bleak. I heard a sniff, and knew she'd been reduced to tears as well. I reached up and felt for her face. When I felt her wet cheeks, I slowly wiped off the tears. I let a small smile cross my features. "That's Lee for ya'" I said.

Lee's letter had opened another void in my heart, but strangely, I felt a little free. It felt as though I still had a part of Lee with me. I wasn't saddened by this letter, no. This had given me a tiny part of my best friend back. I closed my eyes and laughed.

"Well then, Kyra, I guess the sun looks a lot like you, right?" I asked my sister. She let out a small "Aww," and a laugh before placing her lips gently against my forehead. I smiled up at her and snuggled closer. I took her hand in mine and held it against my cheek. "Kyra, do you see a star up there shining brighter than the others?" I asked. Suddenly, it felt as though I was three years old again. Kyra waited for a heartbeat before answering.

"Yeah, there is. It's directly overhead." She said. I grinned towards the sky. Even though I knew I couldn't see it, I hoped that star was Lee. And that somewhere up there, Lee was smiling down at me too.

I closed my eyes, even though it made no difference. I took the letter from Kyra's hand and held it close to me, feeling the paper in my hands. My mind wandered to Lee's words in the paper. I smiled.

Suddenly, I sat bolt upright. Kyra gasped at the same moment. "Aidan…" she breathed. My eyes were wide. For the second time that night, I found breathing a little difficult. A certain thing Lee said in the letter repeated itself in my mind. I found myself unable to respond to Kyra's words. But even though I didn't reply, I knew she was thinking exactly what I was.

If Lee really was dead, how could she know anything about us being in Paradise?

~.~.~.~.~.~.

A/N: Did I just…?

Yes, I did.

Am I really that mean?

Yeah, I probably am.

BUT SERIOUSLY, YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!

So, yeah, I know, A cliffhanger ending for a one-shot. You can blame Uncle Rick for that, he showed me that cliffies are extremely cool to write. But I figured you guys should've gotten something for all the support you showed me for Darkness. So, here it was. A nice little piece about our favorite thirteen-year-old. Hope you guys liked it! Leave a comment, if you feel up to it! The review button's just down there! Once again, thank you for all the support and awesomeness you guys showed for this story. Hope this was good!

A Fellow Glader.