Chapter 14
Face sat on the table in the cafeteria. She had asked Thomas and Newt to leave her alone for a while, even though she was clearly still in a lot of pain.
The Manor was still dark, with only the dim floor lights to illuminate the place. And she had switched on a few lights near the wall before she sat down. The kitchen staff was busy in the kitchen preparing the day's breakfast and snack packs.
Face stared at the wall of names, as she had done before, with the marker in her hand.
"She should still be in bed." Newt complained.
Thomas glanced at her and saw that she was trying to stretch out but seemed too stiff.
"She'll be okay." Thomas hoped. "She knows what she's doing."
Thomas turned and stared at the large map on the wall. It had been changed again from the last time he looked at it.
"It looks like the maze." Thomas mumbled. The entire city was a slightly rounded triangle, like a guitar pic. But it seemed like it was built in sections of twelve, like a clock. The Manor was on the one corner at 5 o'clock, the glass hotel on the other corner, one o'clock, with the ocean on that end and then the golden hall on the third corner at nine o'clock. All the buildings between them seemed to move at intervals, and some actually broke over time.
"The park is in the middle. And everything around it moves." Thomas mumbled to himself as he stepped closer to the wall.
Face snapped her head towards him and watched him move as she waited for him to elaborate on his theory. The clock was ticking in her head and she realized that he was on to something.
"It looks like there's a certain sequence in which it moves." Thomas tried to demonstrate with his hands.
Face looked at the map and her face went blank.
"Seven. Four. Ten. Eight. Three. Twelve. Six. Two. Eleven." Face mumbled as she stared at the map. She jumped off the table and drew a triangle on the wall and writing 5, 9 and 1 at the corners. Then she drew a circle inside the triangle and added the other numbers inside the circle.
"I know where this is." She stated as she stepped back. "When the doors open, we have to go to the park."
"What's there?" Newt asked and walked closer to her, placing a hand on her back and treating her as if she could break.
"This symbol... thing."
"What does it do?" Thomas asked.
"I don't know." Face looked at them. "It has to be something important."
Face turned into Newt's arms and placed her head against his chest with a deep sigh. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair.
"You want to go sleep?" Newt asked into her hair.
"I don't want to be alone. Stay with me?" she looked at Thomas. A shock went through him as her eyes connected with him. He wondered for a second if she had actually heard his little confession earlier.
"Let's go back to the hospital room." Newt stated, unaware of the look between Thomas and Face.
"Yeah." Face stepped away from him.
"We'll see what the symbol is in the morning." Thomas added.
"I have to tell them about Patrick." She sighed. "It will be chaos. And it's all my fault."
Face dropped the pen she was still holding and walked away from the wall, pulling both Newt and Thomas with her.