"She should be banished for stabbing Elias"
"Shut up, shank. You don't know the full story."
"No-one does! No-one saw what happened that night."
"Well, what I saw was Elias shuckin' bleeding out from his stomach!"
A week had passed since the box had come up. Lyla was given the injection shots from her labeled box and her fever eventually dropped. Her body had recovered but her mind was still racing.
She now sat at the back wall of the homestead with the boys sitting around the steps in front of her. It was past dinnertime. They had waited for the runners to return and for the day to be over so that everyone could attend her trial.
She sat silent, warily looking at the keepers standing between her and the others sitting down.
"Well greenie? You have anything to say? Or do we chuck you out tonight?" A boy she only knew by face gnarled at her from the far corner.
"I'd watch it if I were you, Eric," growled Minho who was standing a few feet away.
"Shut it now. This is a trial!" Alby said loudly from the middle. He had bags under his stern eyes.
He turned to Lyla and continued, "Lyla. Tell us everything that happened. Be clear and try not to leave anything out."
Lyla swallowed and began. She did the best she could to be honest. She told them about how she had the knife with her since when she first helped out in the kitchen just incase; how she hoped to go down with the box; how Elias had found her and attacked her.
At this point she heard her voice wavering but carried on.
"I never meant to.. to-"
"to shuckin' stab his guts?" interrupted a voice from the crowd of boys.
Lyla continued, "I panicked, he was holding me down and-"
"so you got out the knife you just happened to have?" said another voice.
She took a deep breath and replied calmly, "I told you, I had the knife from the first week, just in case I-"
"needed to stab someone with it?"
"WILL YOU SHUT IT"
She snapped her head to the loud voice. It was Nick. He looked furious.
His outburst must have surprised some of the boys. There was a low murmur going around. Nick was usually not the one to shout. He was referred to as a voice of reason since he kept steady in most situations.
"Alright, let her finish," Alby said calmly, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Lyla began again, softly, "I- I wouldn't have done it if he didn't- He was touching me- I did what I had t-"
"so you killed him for touching you, bitch?"
There was an outburst of struggle. Minho had bolted towards Eric, who had just spoken, but was immediately held back by Ben who sprung up from his seat nearby. Minho was muttering threats through gritted teeth. Gally quickly joined Ben as they kept him from reaching Eric.
"Come on. Let's settle! We don't have time for this!" Alby said warningly, clearly holding back his frustration.
"Everything has been weird since she arrived!" Eric shouted, eyeing Minho who had just barely come to his senses; he was glaring back towards Eric, trying to compose himself after roughly pulling away from the two other boys. Ben took his seat again.
Eric continued, "we didn't get another new greenie this month! She was the last one. Maybe she's the last one ever! Anyone realize what that means?"
There was a silence.
"Well, let's just say Elias may have been going in the right direction," he ended off snidely with a low chuckle.
"That's enough," it was Alby again.
The boy beside Eric chimed in, "if anything, she should be punished for killing h-"
"She didn't kill him! He was recovering just fine until he went and took all that medication," Jeff spoke up from the sidelines.
He was leaning against one of the many thin wooden pillars that held up the shabby roof. "Elias had been at it for a while. He would come and ask me for meds for no reason even before then. I didn't think he would go to that extent..."
"He's also asked me to steal some painkillers and stuff for him when I cleaned out the med-hut..." another boy added from the very back. "He got mad when I said I didn't know which ones they were," Lyla caught a glimpse of the speaker's face and recognized him to be one of the sloppers, though they had never been able to exchange much talk.
"He hasn't been good the last few bonfire nights either," Newt said, sitting not too far away from where Minho stood, "Don't you remember he got drunk and tried to set the forest on fire a few months ago when Ray came up as the greenie?"
At this, Eric stood up, demanding, "Are you saying he was crazy? That what happened to him was his fault when that bitch-"
"Eric!" Alby's voice boomed. It was the first time Eric looked slightly unnerved.
The atmosphere suddenly grew very tense with Alby. He looked at him with blazing eyes and his voice was dangerously low and threatening despite the next words he spoke, "we know he was your friend but it'd be best for you right now to sit down and calm yourself."
They all fell silent again.
Lyla had noticed a couple of times before but something about Alby always projected authority. He didn't raise his voice often but when he did, he could silence the whole glade. Perhaps it was because he was the eldest or the one who experienced the glade before anyone else. But whatever it was, it was clear that the boys genuinely respected him.
"Lyla, you admit to stealing that knife from the kitchens?" He turned towards her.
"Yes," she answered quietly.
"Why?"
"It... just made me feel safer."
He looked at her intently before asking her the next question.
"And you weren't planning to use it on anyone?"
"No! I wasn't planning on doing anything with it! It was just self-defense," she said to him desperately.
"You still hurt another glader. You know it's against the rules," Gally uttered for the first time.
"He tried to hurt me too..." she said softly.
"Didn't just shuckin' try. He scratched her up pretty good and evidently choked her in the neck. I'm sure Lyla still has a few marks left if you need proof," Newt said, bitterly.
Alby gave a small sigh as he rubbed a patch underneath one of his eyes.
"Alright." He turned to address the boys sitting around. "She spent her time in the slammer straight after it happened even though it's clear Elias wasn't the only victim."
"So are we just gonna believe that she-" Eric started.
"I'm not done." Alby stopped him, "Elias took his own life. We have evidence and witnesses. Lyla was being held here in the homestead by Nick and Newt well before and after he was found dead. Jeff says he was alive and recovering from his wounds before then. And Lyla's admitted to hurting him, but only in her defense. No-one can prove this but it will be accounted for."
Alby looked back at her and added, "Lyla, if something similar happens again next time, proof won't be needed for punishment."
She nodded and looked down.
He continued, "the only thing we need to note is the knife stolen from the kitchen."
"We should vote! To punish her for it or not," one of the earlier unfriendly voices suggested.
"Then we should vote on whether or not any of you shanks should be punished for all the stupid stunts that were pulled when you first came up in the box," seethed Minho.
There was another silence which was finally broken by Nick.
"He's right. We all did things that were punishable when we were greenies but we let them pass. Lyla shouldn't be treated any different. She needed time gaining our trust and it's not like many of you shanks tried to make it easier."
After a short while of murmuring, Alby spoke again.
"Unless anyone has anything else to say..." Alby said, looking around. When no-one said anything, he continued firmly. "This trial is over. Lyla's not guilty and she will be treated accordingly. That's it, let's go to bed."
The boys slowly filed out of the homestead. The glade was already dark. Lyla and a few keepers were part of the last group to step out.
The fresh breeze of the night blew through her hair as she closed her eyes a moment and exhaled the tension she had held in her body. She was exhausted; not knowing how to feel about what just happened.
A month in the glade and she felt so defeated. At first, she was focussed on every and any way to escape this place. But after getting attacked by Elias and his death, she realized just how much she didn't stand a chance against her current reality.
She couldn't get out on her own. What was she thinking? She couldn't just run out into the maze and find her way around those walls while dodging past grievers. Heck, she couldn't even fight off one boy who cornered her in a metal box that was too deep for her to jump out of.
At the same time, she was baffled by the support some of the boys had given her over and over again for no particular reason. She had given them nothing to trust, yet they sided with her and fought for her.
When she was useless with a fever, they stood by her, spending nights awake and keeping her fed and hydrated. They stood up for her against their own when she had literally stabbed one of their friends. She felt undeserving of their care from the very beginning but now she felt guilty for wanting to dismiss it.
"Greenie."
She was lagging behind everyone, deep in thought, as they were reaching the hammocks when someone spoke right behind her. She turned to see the boy, Eric.
He had the side of his mouth curled into a crooked grin as he sneered, "Congrats."
She looked at him suspiciously, not saying anything.
"You know, I meant what I said back there... about why they haven't sent up a new greenie."
She narrowed her eyes in response.
"Just saying... it makes sense, you know. You're the only female here. Think about it."
"Thought we were done for tonight, Eric?" Nick stepped in between them before she could answer.
Eric moved aside from him to look back at her. Nick cocked his head, still not taking his eyes off him. Eric began backing away, shrugging lightly, "sure, we can be done... for tonight."
After he was gone Nick turned to look at her for a moment and asked rather dryly, "you okay?"
She nodded and made her way to her hammock. He followed behind her.
She stayed silent and lay down at her place. She could tell Nick wanted to say something else to her but pretended not to notice. He hung around nearby, saying goodnight to others passing by until Minho arrived to his hammock next to hers and caught him in a hushed conversation.
She closed her eyes in the soft orange blur of the dimly lit night torches.
And she fell asleep soon after.