A/N: During a recent Q&A, I asked James Dashner if he ever read TMR fan fiction, and if he had any concepts or characters he'd like to read about. He said he didn't read a lot, but he'd love to see some about characters we really didn't get to know, such as Aris. Since I've been dying to write about Group B anyways, I decided to tackle Rachel's death from Aris's POV.
Couple of notes: 1. Group B calls Creators "Founders." 2. I named my Group B OCs after religious figures. 3. I actually ship Rachel/Aris, so it was written to be taken romantically, but it can be read platonically if you'd prefer.
Hope you enjoy!
Never had I felt a bigger sense of relief than when I see Rachel standing across the room.
Through all this, through all we've been through, she's still here. Her hair is wild and her breathing heavy, but she's here.
We've just escaped the Maze and come down a slide into this room. It's big and clean and bright. I don't remember light bulbs being this powerful. I squint slightly and shield my eyes. Out of the corner of my eye I see Rachel give me a small smirk.
As I'm taking everything in, I notice a lady standing there in a white lab coat. She clears her throat and everyone gets quiet. I can feel the anger radiating off these girls- I'll be surprised if the lab coat lady leaves here with all her bones intact. Because we all know who she is.
She's a Founder.
"Welcome back. Over two years, and so few dead. Amazing."
As she begins to talk, I walk behind everyone to get to Rachel. People don't seem too keen on getting out of my way, but they do it grudgingly.
I'm only half listening as I finally reach Rachel and grab her hand. She gives it a squeeze and says in my mind About time you came over here.
I smile at her, but she doesn't look directly at me.
She's beautiful, she really is. I wish I knew what we were like before being thrown into the Maze...
I'm lost in thought as I feel her tense up. She drops my hand and takes a step forward.
She seems off, but I can't put my finger on it. She's acting uptight and anxious.
Where are you going? I ask her, but as the thought leaves my head, I feel her presence leave me. Somehow, instinctively I guess, I know that she's somehow turned off from telepathy.
I open my mouth to say her name when I see a door open and Bethany walks out.
Bethany, who never liked anyone but hated Rachel and me in particular. Bethany, who disappeared on the back of a Griever only a few nights ago. Bethany, who is breathing heavily and shaking, looking just as tense as Rachel.
"Rachel…Rachel…I can't, I don't…" she says.
Rachel doesn't react at all. She just stands there, frozen.
Then all hell breaks loose. Girls erupt in screaming as Bethany pulls out a knife. The screaming intensifies as it leaves her hand. It flips in the air, heading straight for its target- right for…
"NO!" I scream before I can stop myself. I tell my legs to move, to jump in front of her or push her out of the way, to save her, but I can't move. My feet stay firmly planted on the ground and refuse to listen to my brain.
A millisecond later, my body decides to work, but by that time it's too late. The knife has found its mark and there's no saving her.
She's on the ground, blood already seeping onto her shirt, trying to hold back tears.
I'm by her instantaneously. I'm crying harder than she is, but I try to calm myself down.
Girls stand around me, silent. I hardly notice them.
I feel the world slowly come crashing down. This can't be happening. We were safe, we escaped, it was all over. She can't die now!
I stare into her eyes as they become more and more distant. I'm stroking her hair and mumbling that I love her, gripping her hand and trying to keep my sobs to a minimum.
Her eyes struggle to lock with mine one last time. "I love you, Aris," she says.
My breathing catches and I purse my lips. "I love you, too, Rachel."
I lean down and press my lips to her forehead.
As I pull back I see that she is in her last seconds. Her eyes aren't focused on anything as she blinks one last time.
Her breathing stops. Her hand goes stiff. Her eyes are lifeless and I gently pull them closed.
She's dead.
A moment later I hear someone scream and realize it's me. I'm not saying anything, just yelling. My throat is sore and my eyes burn. My nose is running and I must look a mess but I really, really don't care.
She's dead. She was killed.
Bethany. Bethany killed her.
I whip my head around to face her, to make her own up and pay for what she'd done, but she was gone.
For the first time I noticed that some of the other girls were crying, too. Not many, and no one was outright sobbing, but a few girls had tears silently rolling down their faces.
My initial reaction is anger. Why are they crying? Why are they upset at all? They never liked me, they never liked her, what right did they have to be crying right now?
Then it all comes together. They're not sad about Rachel- they're sad that another innocent kid was killed. They're sad that these Founders claimed another life.
And apparently, this made one life too many.
Trisha is the first to lunge at the lady, with Sara and Bia following close behind. By the time Harriet and Sonya pry them off, the Founder lady has a bloody nose and is clutching her stomach.
"WHAT IS THIS?" Trisha is screaming. "YOU JUST WATCHED A GIRL DIE! YOU JUST WATCHED AS SOMEONE PULLED OUT A KNIFE AND MURDERED HER! YOU'RE HORRIBLE PEOPLE! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"
"Trisha! Trish, calm down," Harriet is pleading, but it's useless. Soon other girls are joining in.
"Why were we trapped in a Maze!?"
"How could you do this to us!?"
"What the hell is going on!?"
Shouts fill the room, the noise growing louder and louder and words muddling together. I'm not paying attention to any of it. I don't care. My mind wanders off into a place of sorrow, of incomprehensible despair. I try to look away from her but I can't. Her body still, her shirt bloody, and her tears drying. It's too much.
Then everything happens at once.
A gunshot. Screams. More gunshots. Then a split second of the most absolute silence I've ever experienced.
"We don't have time to explain. Just follow me and run like your life depends on it. Because it does," I hear a man's voice say. Part of me wants to turn around but I can't make myself move away from her, as if taking my eyes off her body might cause it to disappear forever.
I hear people start to leave the room, but I can't make myself get up.
"Aris, come on!" Sonya yells. She grabs my arm and pulls. "Aris!"
I struggle to resist her and manage to keep myself firmly planted beside Rachel's body.
Sonya relaxes her grip and kneels down beside me. "Aris, I'm sorry. I'm truly, truly sorry. Whatever you two may have done in the past…you don't deserve this. She doesn't deserve this. But it happened. Aris, we have to go. We have to go now. We'll come back for her later if we can, I promise. But we have to go."
I squeeze my eyes shut and know that she's right. She helps me stand up and together we run towards the door. I almost turn back to look at Rachel one last time, but I know that if I do, I'll just run back to her and never leave.
My vision is blurred by more tears. I focus on running as hard as I can, following the red blur of Sonya's hair.
Finally, we catch up to the others who are jogging towards a run-down looking bus. A man dressed in black and holding a scary-looking gun waves us in. "Come on! We're gonna get you somewhere safe!" he's yelling at us.
I run the back of my hand along my cheeks, trying to compose myself. I'm the last one to climb the stairs of the bus and notice that the other girls have left me a seat to myself in the back. I don't hesitate to take it.
Harriet and Sonya start to pelt the man with questions that I'm not really paying attention to. The images of the past hour keep flashing across my mind. The Maze. The escape. Rachel's smirk. Bethany. The knife…
My thoughts drift to the moments before it happened. How nervous and jittery Bethany seemed. How tense Rachel got as she took a step forward. How my feet refused to move for a split second before working again. Almost like it wasn't me controlling my motions…
Almost like it wasn't Rachel controlling her motions…
Almost like it wasn't Bethany controlling her motions…
Almost like someone else was controlling us.
I didn't need to think twice about who that 'someone' might be.
Founders.
The Founders did this. The Founders probably made Bethany throw that knife. The Founders probably made Rachel step forward to take the blade to the heart. The Founders probably kept me from moving in front of her.
The Founders did this. They're the reason she's dead.
Not just that…they killed her.
They killed her.
They killed her.
They killed her…
I repeat the phrase over and over in my head until my tears are from anger, not sadness.
They killed her.
They killed my best friend.
And they won't get away with it.