Hello valued readers! I hope I have not caused controversy by using Ben's movie job, instead of his original builder's position. As I said before, I won't usually have chapters this fast; I don't plan on releasing the fourth chapter until Thursday. –Can'tHandleIt
As we walked, I observed my surroundings more. The trees I saw before, were very tightly knit together, it would be an amazing place to just be alone with my thoughts, think this whole weird thing through. I sigh quietly; it probably would not be the best idea to be left alone with my thoughts.
We reached the shower house. I followed Louisa inside and looked around here as well, there were five shower stalls and seven toilets, or should I say, buckets with pipes leading out of them, I rolled my eyes, a mixture of disgust and challenging in my mind.
"Ok, I assume you know how to operate a shower?" Louisa turned to face me, looking at me questioningly.
"Of course, I think of myself as a very tech savvy kinda gal." I smile and hold both thumbs up.
"Ok good, cause I'm gonna pee, so if you want to start a shower I can make sure nobody comes in." she says.
"Okey dokey." I smile again.
She walks towards the toilets as soon as I reply, obviously having a hard time holding it.
I walk to the biggest looking shower stall and step in. There are three shelves. The bottom one holds a towel, the second holds a bar of soap, the third, empty, I assume for clothes. I strip off my clothes and fold them onto the top shelf; I look down at the handles under the showerhead. I twist the right handle left and water pours out of the faucet. At first, it's really cold, but it gradually warms. I take the bar of soap off the shelf and scrub myself down, from my split ends, to my toenails. I then rinse myself off and attempt to untangle my hair, I don't make much a difference, besides the fact that I pulled out plenty of hair trying to unknot it. Once I'm content that I'm as clean as I'm going to get, I twist the right handle back down and stop the water. I wrap the towel around myself and just stand there for a minute. Then, I take off the towel and wrap my hair in it, a special twist that I don't remember learning. I slip in my clothes, putting on my shirt last, because I had to take off the towel. I bring the towel out of the stall with me, and hang it on a rack I hadn't noticed before. I see Louisa's figure standing outside the door protectively; well at least I know I can trust someone here.
I walk out and greet Louisa.
"Okay, now it's you turn to watch the area." she says.
"Great, just what I need, time for the questions to slowly fill my tiny brain." I say sarcastically.
"I'm sure you don't have a tiny brain. It seems to me that most people here have pretty big brains, so even if they did make a mistake sending my miniature mind up here, that doesn't mean you have a tiny brain." she says smiling.
She walks inside. I look up into the sky; it's still very early by the looks of it. Most people probably haven't even woken up yet, at least, I hope not. I happen to enjoy my solitude.
Instead of thinking, I try to count my fingers precisely 84 times. Louisa is faster than I expected, and I only make it to 52. She comes out, her vibrant blonde hair, now a wet dull light brown. As I look at her, I remember that I never found out what I looked like.
"Is there any mirrors around here?" I ask Louisa as we walk back towards the homely building.
"There is one, but its cracked," she says dismissively.
"Can you show me?" I ask, still wanting to know.
"Um, sure…" she says, slowly.
She keeps walking to the homely building, but as we reach it, she goes inside and walks to the end of the first hall, lifting a trapdoor that I never saw before. I get a feeling that it was never meant to be seen, as we walk down rough stone steps and finally stop at a grey door, that I can barely make out in the dim light. Louisa stuffs her hand into her pocket, and after a few seconds of searching, she pulls out a set of keys. She flips each one around until she spots the right one. She jams it into the keyhole and unlocks the door.
"You can't tell anyone about this place, or that I showed it to you. Cause then Newt would get mad, because he's not supposed to give me the keys, and Abby would get mad at him." Louisa whispers quickly.
I nod my head silently. She swings open the door and reaches her hand out and flails it around until she catches onto something. A light flickers on and I see that she pulled a chain leading up to a dusty light bulb. I scan the room, and see shelves with weapons strewn around on them, ranging from swords to bows. As my eyes sweep the room again, I see what we came for. A square frame lies on the floor, glass shards lying cracked inside. I look into the glass.
Staring back at me is a tall girl, with dark brown hair starting at her roots but fading down into a gold color, then finally to blonde. Her eyes were a bright brown, almost orange when they caught the light. She had light freckles dotted across her pail skin. She has dark circles under her eyes and she's very thin, her hair is a bit of a mess, and her arms and legs look dry and raw. She has pink full lips, and a thin button nose. She's wearing a dark green sweatshirt and light blue shorts, with black-laced boots.
I lift my hand, so does she, I realize that this is my reflection, and vainly think of myself as quite pretty. Why does that matter, I'm not trying to impress anyone, am I? Well, yeah probably, as there's fifty or so guys, who I think at least one of them could be all right. I am shaken out of my thoughts, as my eyes meet Louisa's reflection. I turn to face her.
"Thanks." I say seriously.
"No problem. I of all people, know how it feels to want to just take a glimpse of yourself." she says, emphatically. "This is the weapon room, we have the mirror in here because, the keepers wanted to make sure no one uses the shards as weapons."
I look again around the dark walls. Louisa takes a last look around as well, then heads for the door.
I follow her upstairs and out the door of the homely building. We grab breakfast, thankfully not missing it, and talk more about what it means to live in the glade, as they call it.
Louisa tells me that she's been assigned to give me the tour, she also tells me that this is because they've grudgingly allowed her to pause at her job, she's a runner, and she's only been given the day off to show me around. It's the whole she's a girl I'm a girl thing. We take a walk around the place. It doesn't take long, and we're done by lunch. After we finish eating, I go to one of the pairs of huge stone walls, apparently leading to the maze that keeps us here. I just sit on the ground, just staring ahead of me.
I close my eyes to take in breath of fresh air. When I open them, a large black and blue gooey spider towers over me. I think it seems a bit more like a scorpion as it raises a long stinger above its head and it slowly moves towards me. I stay where I sit, frozen in place, not knowing if running would give me away. The last thing I see is the stinger coming down sharply on the left of my stomach.
•••
(POV switched)
I finally met the new girl. She was as weird as Newt told me she'd be. This morning she just walked right up to Ben and me. Ben started blubbering about how pretty she was and all, it was a pathetic attempt to get both me and her embarrassed. It didn't work for either of us, but it did seem to increase the tension, until she completely sliced it in half, by suddenly laughing her head off. She really was strange though, didn't ask us why we were up so early or why we were going into the maze, didn't even ask our names, we just told her. I think she was as friendly as she told us she'd be, and I wouldn't mind getting to know the girl, when she's done with the shucking changing.
I came out of the west doors when I was finished running, she was lying there writhing and moaning bloody murder, I didn't even think about how she got stung, just picked her up and brought her to Clint. I was given first watch of our new hospital patient; because Newt and Alby only have a few people they can trust to watch an unconscious girl.
That's where I am now. Sitting in a rickety old chair next to her bed, bored out of my mind, I've eaten and I still got plenty of daylight hours, but if I leave no one's watching the girl. Her name is Mare, I mentally scold myself. I sigh, apparently, I now have to keep an eye on her, everyday after dinner until she wakes up, which could be for another couple months.
I look around the tiny room they gave her. It's pretty dull and only about twice the size of a closet. I look down at the girl. She's actually not bad looking; she's got dark hair that transcends into a light blonde. I think she has brown eyes, as I recall our morning conversation. I get a glimpse of the brown orbs again as she jets up looking around wide-eyed.