ACT I SCENE XXVIII
PRIAM


WHEN THOMAS CAME TO, he found himself lying on a bed in one of the rooms upstairs. He blinked and felt his left temple throb with a dull ache. Then he remembered the crazy girl that punched the daylights out of him.

Chuck had said there was a girl that he could talk to. That she wouldn't mind giving him the answers he wanted.

Fat chance.

He looked about the dark room and felt around him for a light switch. He hoped there was a bedside lamp nearby. His hand managed to grab hold of something that felt like one and fumbled around for the switch. The light went on and he saw Cassandra sitting in a chair next to him. He swore out loud and started violently.

The girl sniffed with disapproval as her dark eyes bore holes into his face and Thomas stared back at her in disbelief.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he exclaimed.


Her eyes slid away from him and she scowled, muttering unintelligibly underneath her breath. After a long moment, she turned back to him indignantly.

"Alby made me stay here until you woke up to apologise," she told him sullenly.

There was another awkward pause as they stared at each other.

"I apologise."

Thomas opened his mouth then closed it again. Cassandra continued glowering at him, she didn't give a damn care in the world with the way she was acting. To her, it was justifiable. She knew the boy and what he did, even if he had seemingly forgotten. Maybe she could try beating it out of him. That would be great.

"Who are you?" he finally asked. "And what's your problem with me?"

She inhaled sharply, which made him withdraw instinctively, and pointed a finger at him before letting her hand drop back to her lap. Then she raised it again.

"You..." she started but she couldn't get the words out.

She had suddenly found herself tongue-tied and her temper flared up once again as she realised what was happening. They didn't want Thomas to know what had happened between the two of them in the past. The Creators, they probably did something to her so she wouldn't be able to say anything.

She growled angrily before storming out of the room and leaving the boy on his own. Her furious footsteps thudded heavily against the floorboards as she descended the stairs to find Newt waiting for her at the bottom. He looked at her and sighed.

"Minho and Gally filled me in," he told her. "But seriously, Cass? You do know that one of our rules is never to harm another Glader, right?"

"Are you going to punish me?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Nah," he shook his head. "If we punished every shank who made a scuffle, we wouldn't have enough Slammers to keep 'em all. But Thomas is a Glader now. He's one of us."

"Not for a shucking second," she hissed. "I'm not going to- especially when- he's one of them!"

"But they sent him here," he said. "That means they don't want him anymore."

"What if it's a trick?" she questioned. "Maybe they sent him here to get us killed or something?"

"Cass, ya knocked him out with a bloody punch," he raised his eyebrows at her. "I think it's more likely that you're gonna kill him before he even decides to murder any of us in our sleep."

She paused and cocked her head slightly to the side, mouth twitching in agreement. He did have a point, she felt kind of good about that.

"I'm still keeping my eye on him," she said before heading outside.

Ben let out an agonising shriek from upstairs and she stopped to look back. Worry took hold of her and creased her face with deep lines. She looked up the stairs only to find Thomas on his way down. His eyes were wide with terror and he froze in place when he saw her. Cassandra tsked and turned back around to get away. She couldn't handle seeing his shuck face for another second.

Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed a glass to fill with water and drank it angrily. She'd been aching to drink the entire time she was waiting for that stupid boy to wake up. Thomas hadn't been out that long after she punched him, probably not more than thirty minutes. She started to stalk around the kitchen counters while fuming. That was how Minho found her after he spotted her and followed her inside.

"Cassie!" he went straight towards her and took hold of her arm. "Hey! You okay there?"

"No!" she cried out almost hysterically. "I am not okay! This is not okay!"

"Cassie, Cassie," he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her small frame. "Calm... down..."

She allowed herself to relax into his chest and listen to his heartbeat through the thin layer of cotton while taking in a deep breath. Once she had calmed down somewhat, Minho let her go and she leaned against the counter.

Her behaviour was probably irrational but she couldn't help it. All the memories and feelings from what little she remembered came flooding to the forefront of her mind whenever she looked at Thomas, and she remembered being so angry. Cassandra crossed her arms and looked at Minho.

"You think I'm overreacting too, don't you?" she asked accusatorially.

"I would never," he said with a mock gasp. "But come on, Cassie, look at the fella. He's almost as harmless as Chuck. I say almost only cause he's bigger."

She cracked a smile at that. Thomas did seem defenceless and completely confused out of his mind. Despite that, she didn't feel bad for what she did but maybe Minho and Newt were right. For the moment, with his memory wiped, he was one of them now. She hated the thought of that; she didn't want to have anything to do with him.

"Though I gotta admit, that throw was pretty shucking sweet," he grinned mischievously. "Always been telling them shanks not to mess with my Cassie."

She laughed and felt a warmth rise up to her cheeks. His Cassie. She liked the sound of that a lot.

"C'mon, let's get some rest," Minho cocked his head to the side. "Early morning worm and all that."

"Minho..." she called him as he made a move towards the door. "I'm going to stay in the Glade."

"Cassie..." he looked at her sternly.

"Just until I'm sure he's not planting bombs in the Homestead," she said quickly.

He sighed, knowing that it was futile to change her mind on the subject, then waved his hand for her to come along. She took that as permission enough and followed him outside. Thomas was nowhere to be seen out on the grass or the hammocks that night and she thought Chuck probably brought him to hide out at the back. She lied down next to Minho and closed her eyes as she tried to stop thinking. That ominous feeling she had when Gally was stung returned in full force.

Things were going to change.


The next day had started off normally. She had her morning shower, then breakfast with Minho and Newt before seeing Minho off to tell him not to have too much fun without her.

Cassandra felt another pang of loss as she counted their numbers. She headed in the direction of the Gardens, spying Alby bringing Thomas out of the kitchen for The Tour. Gally waved at her from his stack of supply boxes and she went over curiously.

She could guess what he had to say though. He patted the spot next to him on the box and she took a seat. Just as she was settling down, she spotted something at the bottom of the crate and leaned down to pick it up. It was Nick's glasses. Gally glanced at her as she stared at it, dumbfounded.

"Nice souvenir," he commented.

"Well, it's mine now," she said. "Always wanted one."

He grunted in reply. She remembered hating these glasses so much that she wanted to break them into little pieces. Cassandra didn't think she would ever be a sentimental person but this was the only proof that Nick had been a living breathing person that she used to know.

"It's him, isn't it? I recognise him," Gally told her. "He's bad news."

She had overheard the other boys talking about Gally greeting Thomas the day before. He claimed he was the real leader around here and to call him Captain Gally. He'd been on Thomas' case ever since he laid eyes on the shank. She hadn't seen Gally act that way before. Maybe it was because Nick had kept things in line, she wasn't sure, but things had certainly gotten stranger around the Glade.

"I'm certainly not ecstatic at seeing him," she replied.

"Hmph. Me neither," he responded. "What d'yu think is goin' on?"

"I think we're gonna get shucked pretty soon."

She stared off into the distance and as if on cue, the alarm for the Box started ringing. The sound startled everyone in the Glade and they looked around nervously. Cassandra was on her feet in a heartbeat and raced towards the Box hole. She had the worst feeling ever, it almost made her sick. Alby, Newt and the others met up with her half a moment later. She looked at Newt and exchanged a worried glance with him.

"This is bad, guys," she said. "This is really bad."

"Maybe they forgot to send something up," Winston said hopefully.

"Yeah, doubt that," Newt replied.

They waited around for the lift to arrive, then Thomas and Chuck made their way over to them to check out the commotion as well. After what almost felt like an eternity, there was a loud bang as the lift reached the end of the shaft. Alby and Newt threw open the metal grates, and Cassandra walked forwards to peer inside with them.

"Holy..." Newt said then looked at her with wide eyes.

She gave him the exact same look before turning their attention back to the Box. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. It was another girl.

She was skinny and pale, with long dark hair that fanned around her as she lied completely still at the bottom. Cassandra couldn't tell if she was even breathing. Someone yelled for an explanation and Alby stood up.

"Two Newbies in two days," he muttered distractedly. "Now this. Two years, nothing different except for this shank and now this."

Then he turned to Thomas and demanded to know what was happening. She looked at the boy as well and Thomas merely stared back, his face a portrait of confusion. Cassandra could feel her own heart jump to her throat at what Alby was saying. She was sure now. Bad things were going to happen.

"Why don't you just tell us what the shuck is down there?!" Gally yelled.

"You shanks shut up!" Alby yelled back. "Tell 'em, Newt."

Newt took a moment to compose himself before turning to face the crowd of boys. His face was grave before he gave the announcement. "It's another girl."

All at once, the Gladers erupted into fervent chatter. Some of them yelled stupid things like calling dibs on the girl and it made Cassandra feel disgusted. Did their heads hold anything of value at all? Newt shushed them before they got even rowdier.

"That's not all of it, though," he said. "I think she's dead."

A hush settled over them for a moment before Alby started barking out orders again. They made a rope to pull the girl out of the Box and Cassandra went down on her knees to help them hoist her over the edge of the hole to lie on the ground. She certainly looked very dead.

The more curious thing was that Cassandra didn't recognise her. At all. She had no memory of the girl, no recollection or even a hint of familiarity. Nothing. Looking up at the others with undeniably frightened eyes, she shook her head. "Who is she?"

Then Alby turned to Thomas and started questioning him again. She suspected Thomas must have had some connection with the girl as well. It wasn't a coincidence that she came up right after he did.

Cassandra was just about to open her mouth to speak when the girl in front of her gasped and shot up to grab hold of her. She screamed in a blind fright just as Newt and Alby jumped back swearing loudly. The girl's eyes flew open to reveal bright blue irises that were dazed and out of focus. She blinked and looked up at Cassandra, mumbling something indecipherable under her breath. Then she spoke in a clear voice.

"Everything is going to change."

Her hand slid down Cassandra's arm as she collapsed back to the ground and a piece of paper fell out of it onto the ground. She leaned forwards to pick it up and unfolded the message.

"What is that?" Newt asked and she looked up at him with dread plastered across her face.

He took it from her and spread it across the ground so the others could see as well. Only five words were written in thick blocky letters.

"She's the last one. Ever."