ACT II SCENE I
ALCESTIS

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy,
they first make mad.

EVERYTHING STARTED TO BLUR TOGETHER- her memories, dreams and reality. She couldn't tell them apart anymore and her body shivered uncontrollably as she was locked in a never-ending nightmare of screams and blood and atrophy. Cold empty eyes staring back at her, stained with misery. There was an instant where she could hear Teresa calling out to her, voice tinged with fear, like when Alby stepped away from the circle.

"Cass? Do you hear that?"

She heard the rush of roars and shrieks, the drumming of her heart in her chest as steel bit against steel in a rising crescendo, like a living chorus of malevolence inside her head. The tumultuous screams of boys that she knew- dying, never to see another day or laugh at another joke ever again.

"Cass, wake up! There are people!"

There was a low drone, and she thought she might have opened her eyes. She didn't understand what was happening when her body was pulled from the top bunk and carried away. Teresa called to her frantically, but all she could think of was how Lee had been so close to escaping with them, if only she had been one second quicker.

It felt like she was passing through ice, then there was a bright light above her and she was sat down on a hard chair. Something heavy covered the top of her head a moment later and she felt a prick on her skin. Her dazed, fevered eyes slid to the side and there was a girl she didn't recognise talking to her.

"It's going to be okay," she said. "You'll feel better in the morning."

Then Teresa was yelling in her mind, through the haze that was enveloping her and a pain shot through her skull just as something cold brushed against the insides of her ears.

"They're taking me away! What are they doing to you? Help!"

And then oblivion.

She had grown accustomed to it, the jarring surreal perception of her dreams, like she was looking at herself as an outsider- a ghost. The girl was young, no more than seven years of age and barely on the cusp of life.

There was a boy beside her, around the same age, scribbling on a piece of paper with a green crayon. He was colouring in a dinosaur, poorly, in big circles that went out of the lines. The room was medium in size, filled with playthings and a soft furry carpet that tickled under the feet. Behind them was a glass door that opened out to a beautiful garden with vibrant spring blossoms.

A beautiful woman in a white dress came over, her dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail. There was a beauty mark on her left cheek, her skin glowed a creamy peach and full lips glimmered with pink gloss. Her brown eyes crinkled slightly at the edges as she beamed widely at the two children, looking between the both of them fondly.

"Soyun, do you like it here that much?" she asked, her sweet voice carrying in the warm air.

"Yeah, I'm learning how to cook," the little girl held up a small plastic toast and sunny side up egg.

Her mother laughed, like the sound of tinkling bells. "Do you want to stay here then?"

"I wanna stay here forever!" she grinned, eyes lighting up at the very idea.

"Did you ask if it was okay?"

"It's okay," the boy said nonchalantly. "I'm gonna marry her when we grow up."

"We're gonna own a big house and I'll cook ramen everyday and we'll have a pet dog named Rex!"

The dream faded into twilight and Cassandra felt her heart shuddering with unshed tears.

It was like all the colour had drained out of her life, bleeding away into a dull monotonous grey. She was cocooned in something warm, but her insides were cold. Empty. There was a gaping hole in her chest that kept eroding with each passing minute, and she was sure that she would be nothing more than dust soon. Remnants of a paltry, inconsequential existence whisked away by a vacuous zephyr.

Then someone called to her, a familiar voice that was gently soothing, wrapping around her like a bandage to keep her from falling apart. A warm hand smoothed away the hair from her face, stray tendrils tickling the tip of her nose and she stirred back to life. Her eyes opened a fraction, and there was brightness on the other side. His voice continued to coax her to consciousness, and she followed it like Ariadne's thread through the treacherous shadows.

Cassandra opened her eyes to a burst of colour that was so intense, it made her nerves tingle. Minho smiled back at her, dimples in his cheeks and utter joy in his eyes.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey back," she replied languidly.

Then she heard chatter around her and slowly pushed herself up; all the Gladers had gathered into their room. Newt grinned at her from the side, his brown eyes sparkling light-heartedly under the fluorescent light.

"Mornin', Sleeping Beauty," he greeted. "Bout time ya joined us in the real world."

"What the hell are you all doin' in here?" she asked while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hey, she's speaking again," Thomas said. "Told you, all she needed was some rest."

"Huh?" she scrunched her face and looked at him in confusion.

"Uh..." the three boys exchanged wary glances, then he continued slowly. "You went into shock... after everything that happened yesterday."

"What happened?" she blinked and there were more blank stares. "And where's Teresa?"

As if on cue, there was an audible click from the direction of the bathroom and Thomas quickly started forward in anticipation. The door was pulled wide open but instead of seeing her blue-eyed friend, a strange boy stepped out. He had short dark hair and tanned skin, wearing the same pyjamas that they'd been given the night before. Archie dropped his watch onto the floor opposite her. She stared in shock, as did everyone else, and the world came to a complete stand still.

Then Thomas exploded. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Who am I?" the boy asked indignantly. "Who are you?"

Newt stepped forward to stand beside Thomas. "Don't bloody mess around. There are a lot more of us than there are of you, if you hadn't noticed."

The boy scowled and folded his arms. "Fine. I'm Aris. What else you wanna know?"

"Where was the other girl that was sleeping here last night? And how did you get here?" Thomas demanded.

"What other girl? I was the only one sleeping in this room," Aris shot him a weird look.

"Uh, dude, I've been here the entire time," Cassandra raised her hand from the top bunk.

The boy staggered, taken aback by her presence. "W-what?"

"There's a sign outside that says Teresa Agnes. No mention of any shank named Aris," Thomas jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Now tell us how you got here."

"L-Look man, I have no idea what's going on," he held his hands up and looked at them in bewilderment, all his previous bluster fading away. "I've been sleeping in that bottom bunk and got up to pee like five minutes ago. I've never heard of a Teresa Agnes in my life. Sorry."

Cassandra exchanged glances with Minho beside her, the both of them had their eyebrows raised in question. The mystery boy didn't sound like he was lying, but it didn't make any sense. How and why was he even there in that very room with them? She started to grow worried for Teresa, a million possibilities fighting for dominance in her mind, all of them horrible and unpleasant.

Newt crossed his arms and eyed the boy warily. "Okay, whatever, how did you get here then?"

"I don't even know, man," Aris shook his head like he knew what he was saying sounded ludicrous. "A bunch of people with guns rescued us, told us everything was going to be okay."

"Rescued you from what?" Thomas frowned with a look of concentrated perturbation on his face.

Aris slumped his shoulders and looked at the ground, sadness suddenly overtaking him. The change in his demeanour took them all by surprise, then he lifted his head with a sigh and answered.

"From the Maze, man. From the Maze."

"What... the hell," Cassandra commented from her perch, echoing the sentiments of the rest of the Gladers in the room.

"Same," Minho said.

She reached out with her mind for Teresa, but there was nothing; just more blanks and questions. "Can you feel her?" she asked Thomas, desperate for an answer.

"No... it's like she got disconnected or something," he replied and her heart sank.

"Okay, this is really bloody weird. Maybe we should sit down and talk about this," Newt suggested.

"No!" Thomas looked at him with wide eyes. "We need to find Teresa! There must be another room some-"

"There isn't," Winston cut him off. "We checked the place earlier, there's only our room, the common room and this room. The doors we came from the bus are locked with chains. And there are no other exits."

"But... what about last night?" he asked, flustered. "Where'd the food come from? Isn't there a kitchen? Other rooms, something?"

The Slicer shook his head. "Nothin'."

"Maybe there's a hidden door," Newt shrugged. "We can only do one thing at a time, let's just-"

"No!" Thomas shouted this time, panic evident in his tone. "We need to find her!"

He dashed out of the room before anyone could stop him. Minho turned to Cassandra then with a slight frown on his face, looking at her curiously like he couldn't figure out whether she was tangible or not. She stared back into his warm brown eyes and felt her heart flutter naturally.

"You were with Teresa, you didn't notice her switching places with this weird shank?" he asked gently while taking her hand.

"I..." she started hesitantly. "I don't remember anything."

"What do you mean?" Newt frowned. "Nothing, like when you come up the Box nothing?"

"I remember... a summary," she said, looking down before turning her gaze back to Minho. "I know what happened yesterday, but... I don't know the details. Like I wasn't actually there, that someone just told me what happened."

Her hands started to tremble and he glanced down at them. She closed her fingers tightly over his to stop the tremors, but his frown deepened for the briefest second.

"The last thing I remember clearly was saying good night to Teresa and falling asleep. But not everything before that since we all ran into the Maze."

Minho looked back at her, brows pulled together with worry. She looked back at him with inquisitive eyes, trying to find an answer on his face. There was something strange afoot, but she had no idea what it was; her memory was all fuzzy and for some reason, she felt buoyant- as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"What happened?" she asked in a whisper, her expression almost childlike.

He squeezed her hand and shook his head slowly. "It's better that you don't know."

Cassandra blinked, not expecting his answer. Why would he say that?

"I have no bloody clue what's goin' on here," Newt declared. "But let's just get those buggin' beds down so we can all get comfy, okay?"

Everyone nodded and busied themselves with the task of unhooking the top bunks. Cassandra climbed down hers then helped Minho and a couple of other boys to get the bed down to the ground. They settled themselves, everyone facing each other in a circle and Thomas came back a moment later looking forlorn.

Minho patted the empty spot on his left. "Told ya, dude. Have a seat and let's talk. We waited on you. But close that shuck door first- the smell's worse than Gally's rottin' feet."

The boy did as he was told and Newt started, leaning literally on the edge of his bed. "Okay, let's get to the bloody storytellin' and then to the real problem- findin' somethin' to eat."

"I was okay until you mentioned it," Cassandra grumbled.

"So talk, Aris, tell us what you know," Minho nodded his head in the boy's direction.

"No way," he retorted. "You go first."

"Oh, yeah?" Minho raised an eyebrow. "How 'bout we all take turns beating the living klunk outta your face? Then we'll ask you to talk again."

"Minho," Newt said sternly. "There's no reason-"

"Please, dude. We don't know anythin' about him- he could be one of the Creators, or part of WICKED or whatever, here to spy on us. I'm sick of him acting all snooty when we got twenty guys on one him."

Cassandra cleared her throat.

"Plus Cassie," he added and she smiled.

Newt sighed and closed his eyes. "He's got a point. Just tell us what you meant about coming from the buggin' Maze. That's where we came from and we obviously never met you."

Aris rubbed his eyes tiredly before explaining from the beginning; that he'd been thrown into a Maze with no memory but his name with a big group of girls. It was all eerily familiar to them with only very subtle differences here and there. Apparently, their group had escaped a few days ago and were kept in some kind of gym. Aris was then separated for being the only boy, and the next thing he knew was that he had ended up with them.

Newt started to bombard him with an array of questions. "You lived in a big maze, on a farm, with walls that closed every night? Just you and a few dozen girls? Were there creatures called Grievers? Were you the last one to arrive? And did everything go buggin' nuts when you did? Did you come in a coma? With a note that said you were the last one ever?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Aris' eyes bugged out. "How do you know all this? How..."

"It's the same shuck experiment," Minho leaned back in consternation. "But they had all girls and one boy while we had all boys and one girl."

"Wait," Cassandra spoke up. "There wasn't another boy?"

"No, I was the only one. Why do you have two girls?" Aris asked.

Minho glanced at her with another concerned frown. "She's special. I guess."

She stared with confusion painted all over her face. None of this made any sense, and she started to question her own existence. Everyone had been paired off, it seemed, as if they were mirror images of each another but why break that symmetry with her?

"Did they call you the Trigger?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah."

"And were you... able to speak telepathically with one of the girls there?"

Aris turned to scrutinise him closely with narrowed eyes, then as if she was a radio picking up random airwaves, she heard his voice in her head but it wasn't directed to her. She didn't remember that kind of voodoo ever happening before in the Glade and it made her hair stand on end.

"Can you hear me?"

There was a pause before Aris repeated himself.

"Yes," Thomas finally replied.

"They killed her. They killed my best friend." A chilling wave cascaded down her back and she turned to look at Thomas in alarm. The boy noticed and glanced in her direction, then she heard him speaking to her.

"Cass? Can you hear him too?"

She swallowed, not sure whether she should respond. Aris' eyes turned towards her as well and she couldn't help but stare back dumbly like a deer caught in headlights.

"Wait, she can communicate to the both of us at the same time?"

"Yeah, seems like it magnifies whenever she's around, becomes clearer."

"I can feel the difference. She's not replying though."

"I don't want to," she snapped back and felt the connection break.

"Why are the three of you looking at each other like a freakin' love triangle?" Newt asked, a hint of amusement in his tone.

"Yo, back off, man," Minho wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "Don't talk in her head. Either of you!"

"Great, not another one," Frypan rolled his eyes.

Thomas covered his face incredulously with a hand, then lowered it and turned back to Aris. "Who killed her? What happened?"

"Who killed who?" Minho demanded. "What did they say to you?"

"Aris is like the male version of Teresa," Cassandra pointed. "So who's the female version of Thomas?"

"Her name was Rachel," Aris told them. "They made this girl, Beth... stab... her. She's dead, man. She's dead."

He bent over and buried his face in both hands, like the grief was just too much for him to bear, and his body shuddered briefly. But Newt wasn't done with him yet, continuing to fire questions about the group of girls. The boy looked up, wiping tears from his eyes and she felt a small pang in her heart for him.

"Thirty of us made it out," he told them. "Then they brought us to that gym, fed us, cleaned us up. After that, they brought me here, saying that I should be separate cause I'm a guy. Then you sticks show up."

"Sticks?" Minho grinned crookedly and exchanged an amused glance with Cassandra.

"Hey," Frankie suddenly called out. "What's that on your neck? Something black, right below your collar."

Everyone's eyes swivelled in the direction the boy had pointed to and Cassandra could see what he was talking about. It looked like a string of letters etched onto his skin, snaking from his collarbone to his back.

"Let me have a look," Newt offered and walked over to pull the boy's collar down. He examined it before confirming that it was a tattoo.

"What's it say?" Minho asked curiously.

But Newt didn't answer, he just continued staring at the inked marking. Then Cassandra, Minho and Thomas stood up and went over to take a look for themselves. She couldn't believe her eyes when she scanned the small black print.

It read: Property of WICKED. Group B, Subject B1. The Partner.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Minho asked cautiously.

"What's it say?" Aris asked, frowning as he reached up to touch it. "I swear it wasn't there last night! I've never had a tattoo!"

Newt repeated it to him before pondering. "Property of WICKED? I thought we escaped from 'em. Whatever." He turned back around, clearly irritated, and sat back down.

"And why would it call you the Partner?" Minho put his hands on his hips, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"I don't know," Aris shook his head. "I swear it wasn't there last night. I showered, looked in the mirror. I would've seen it and someone would have noticed in the Maze for sure."

"You telling me they tattooed you in the middle of the night without you noticing?" Minho asked sceptically. "Come on, dude."

"I swear!" the other boy cried, then ran towards the bathroom, presumably to check for himself.

"I don't believe a shuck word he says," Minho said as they returned to their seats. Thomas suddenly cried out loud and pointed at him, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. "M-M-Minho- oh, my- what-"

"What, dude?" Minho looked at him weirdly.

"You have it too! On your neck!" he continued to point in disbelief.

Cassandra turned him around and ripped the collar of his shirt down to look. In the same black capitals, she read out loud. "Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A7. The Leader."

"What the shuck?! Cassie!" it was Minho's turn to cry out loud as he pulled down her own collar. "Subject C. The Tragedy."

They exchanged a knowing look as they tried to decipher its meaning. WICKED must think they're so clever with the references they made.

The other Gladers had gotten up and came over to take a closer look, then there was a frenzy as everyone started to inspect each other. Cassandra's eyes flicked towards Thomas and she reached over, grabbing hold of his shirt and pulling down. All the tattoos were similar; stating their individual numbers and titles, except some of the other boys didn't have a title.

Her face fell when she read Thomas' and he seemed to have noticed. "What? What does mine say?"

She ignored him and went to pull Newt's shirt. "What's mine?" the blonde asked.

"A5. The Glue," she told him.

"The Glue?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe cause you're the glue that holds us all together," Thomas quipped. "Cass, what does mine say?"

She turned away, going back to Minho and pretending to look at his tattoo again but pressed her lips against his neck instead. He held her around the waist, as Thomas' voice grew serious. "What does mine say?"

Newt walked over and pulled his collar down with a finger and his reaction was similar to hers. Thomas repeated himself one more time before the older boy finally told him. "A2. To be killed by Group B."

Then a bell clanged loudly all around them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

And we're bacckkk!

As per usual, please leave a review! I love to hear from you and it makes my day all bright with sunshine and flowers and fuzzy warm feelings xx