At the far end of the cafeteria, at least two large tables had been put together to let the entirety of Group A sit together. They were chatting among themselves. No threats to their lives, or newfound worries for the time being.
As if per instinct, William directed himself towards Newt, who was sitting between Chuck and Thomas. Mae gave him a weird look, but said nothing and took her own tray of food to walk towards Flor, who had saved her a spot next to the hooded kid.
Chuck locked eyes with William for half a second, then scooted closer to Frypan, leaving a space between Newt and him. The little boy's grin made William doubt his intentions, though he soon shook his head, reprimanding himself. What could a kid no older than thirteen be planning? His thoughts were absurd, and he knew it.
"Is this seat taken?" He asked Newt and Chuck as a joke.
Newt glanced up at him, smiled, and looked back at the empty seat. "I don't know. The invisible man could be here." He waved his hand in the air, then turned, locking eyes with William. "No, not here. You're good."
The momentary interruption was disregarded as Thomas kept asking questions to two boys that William could not recognise. His attention was on the food for the most part, but he couldn't help to overhear when Newt intervened and asked a couple of questions himself.
"Oh, William, this is Aris." Flor, sitting across from him, pointed at the hooded boy beside her.
Curiosity was greater than his sense of reason, and it soon proved to be dangerous as well. His eyes locked with the hooded boy, Aris, making a memory flash before his eyes. Per usual, they were quick to appear, just like they were quick to disappear. Although, the headache that grew after them was, in William's opinion, ten times easier to ignore.
His eyes. That was all William could think as he stared at the boy with the same intensity as Aris was looking at him.
Aris had the shadow's eyes. The bright blue colour that had stopped haunting him for a couple of weeks. He had to be the shadow. There weren't any noticeable characteristics, but his eyes carried an odd, familiar feeling.
"I sneaked out." the shadow's voice appeared inside his head.
"I never asked you to do that," he said.
There was something strange. His voice wasn't high-pitched, nor did it sound like a young teenager's. William was positive that it was a recent memory.
"William? You OK?" Flor's concerned tone drove him back to reality.
He blinked twice, forcing his attention back to Flor and Aris instead of his memories. He remembered Chancellor Paige's words. Aris remembered everything except him, or at least should, since even Teresa had been robbed of some of her memories.
"Nice to meet you, Aris."
"You, too, William."
Grasping his fork, William focused his eyes back on his plate. He was sure now. The voice was the same. Aris was the shadow. He was the one who had been trying to apologise to him for a reason William didn't know yet.
"Yeah, we have to find out what really happens to those called," he heard Henry mutter.
Forcing himself to take his eyes off his food, William glanced to his left. Henry and George were chatting freely with Thomas about the installations. The other two boys that were sitting before were gone. He knew they were supposed to point out the strange occurrences in the 'Sanctuary', but his friends were clearly taking it two steps too far.
"What are you even planning now?" William questioned, scooting closer towards Newt to hear their voices better. "You wouldn't be giving Thomas ideas, would you?"
George bent forward slightly, so only those around him could hear his whisper. "William, they fu—" he saw the way Mae and Newt were looking at him and decided to change his words. "darn pointed a gun at you because they thought you had a knife on you. I don't trust them."
"They did what?" Henry whispered loudly.
"I'll explain later," George promised. "The important thing is, we need to be sure if these guys are good or not."
William groaned and buried his head in his hands. If he could choose, he would go back to his room until Thomas found everything out, and they could leave. He didn't want to move or try to act like every little detail surprised him.
Newt, however, placed a hand on his back. Following slow circular motions, he tried to comfort William, which worked. William took his head out of his hands to look up at him, their lips curving into a smile without them even realising.
"Yeah, I know, they're bloody idiots," said Newt.
"This feels like my little brothers are trying to get another kid to play with them by scaring that same kid about the others." William took a hand to his forehead, rubbing it tiredly. "I'm not a father, nor an older brother, so you three calm down this instant."
Henry laughed softly, resting his head on his hand with a mocking grin. "But, mum, I don't want to. Playing with Tommy is fun."
"Oh, now I'm the mother?" William let go of his forehead to look at Henry, who was stifling a laugh.
"No," corrected George. "You're a mother. Newt's their mother." He pointed at Thomas, then at Minho. "And he's their father."
Mae chuckled at George's words, turning to them with a glass of water in her hand. "What about our father? If Minho's their father, Newt's their mother, and William's our mother. Who's our father?"
There was a silent consensus between not only Henry and George, but the rest of Group S as well. Rowan laughed loudly alongside Bea and Leen, while George and Henry could only raise their eyebrows at Mae. Finally, it was Flor who, patting Mae's arm, voiced their thoughts.
"It's you, Mae. You're the dad." She then glanced at the two boys. "But, I don't agree with William being the mum, though. He's like a younger brother to me."
"Yeah, our bad. You're the mum, Flor."
"This is one messed up family," William mumbled. "Can we . . . I don't know. Can we talk about something that doesn't make me want to dig a hole in the ground and bury myself in it?"
Henry glanced at him, amused. "I mean, we could. But where's the fun in that?"
Time passed, and soon, their group was the last to stay behind in the cafeteria. The guard at the entrance walked up to them, making Thomas get up from his seat defensively. Not wanting any trouble, Mae got up as well, raising a hand towards Thomas to distract him.
"Hey, they're just trying to show you to your new rooms," she said. "Calm it. Alright, Birdie?"
"My name's Thomas," Thomas replied tiredly.
Mae softened her tone while relaxing her position. "Name's Mae."
"Look, Thomas, you really think we would let our friends leave our side after what we went through if we didn't know it's safe?" Flor pointed out, raising her eyebrows at Thomas.
William got up, not minding the stares. "So you girls are with Aris and Henry, or did they try to separate by gender?"
"They couldn't. We were horribly stubborn about that," Bea scoffed. "We're all together. Aris is our new Birdie. You should welcome him to the family."
"Poor boy went from being in whatever WICKED put him through to being our new Birdie?" William walked over to stand next to Bea and Leen, using the opportunity to rest his arm on Bea's shoulder. "That's a bit much, don't you think? Let the guy breathe." His eyes travelled from Leen to Rowan and George, who were still in their seats. "Come on, let's go. I want to go to bed."
Minho got up from his seat, chuckling sarcastically at how quickly the three S's had followed William's orders. "Forgot about us, shank? We're coming with you, aren't we?"
The guards, remaining as passive as ever, nodded. No words were uttered, nor did it seem like it was necessary. Mae and Flor wished everyone goodnight and pulled Bea and Henry out of the room. Aris simply walked next to them, sneaking glances at William as they got further away from the cafeteria.
"Alright." Newt got up, standing next to William. "Let's get movin'."
The hallways were grey and white. Nothing except some numbered doors could give any information about where they were going exactly. At one intersection, the guards stopped and turned around, then called names.
Group A was being divided. No one knew why, but the guard with half of the group walked away with them, making the boys look back at their leaders, Minho and Newt, to know what to do. Not knowing what to do themselves, the leaders motioned them to move along, hoping for the best, and followed their own guard to another room.
"Lucky, you four stayed together," whispered Chuck to William and George.
Both teens glanced at the boy, holding back the urge to pick up a fight with the guards for dividing the poor boys, and patted Chuck's back. Rowan and Leen trailed behind to be with them, staring at the A's in front of them with pity.
"Well, you'll see them tomorrow for breakfast or dinner. They won't disappear." William did his best to cheer the boy up.
Chuck shrugged it off and changed the subject quickly. From how things were before they met, or what the maze was, and how they escaped it. Most of it surprised William, who hadn't heard any of that before, and didn't really know anything about what the boys had been through in the maze.
"Wait, the Grievers were what!" William raised his voice involuntarily, attracting everyone's attention, even the guard that had halted next to a metallic door. "Sorry."
"Chuck, what are you telling him?" Newt asked in a reprimanding tone.
"About the maze," Chuck answered simply.
"You guys fought machines? That's incredible," William said, which, for some reason, made Newt scratch the back of his head nervously.
The guard slid a card into the panel, and the door opened before everyone's eyes. Like the rest of the Sanctuary, the room was grey and spacious. The beds were the same as the others. And most importantly, there was a bathroom with a mirror.
No questions asked, the boys ran to it, trying to catch glimpses of their faces. William and George stayed behind with Leen and Rowan. They understood how the boys had to feel, as they had gone through the same. Now that they were so used to seeing their faces, they couldn't say it impressed them anymore.
A click on the other side of the door, announcing it was closed, made all four of them turn around to make sure no guard was in there with them. No one was there, just the A's and them.
"You're not curious?" asked Chuck, who was still beside them.
"We've only been deprived of seeing our beauty for a few months. Some of them have been years. We can wait," William answered cockily, which made Rowan smile proudly at him.
William walked over to a bottom bunk bed around the middle of the room, where he sat and patted the space next to him to get any of the four to sit with him. Rowan plumped down on the other side, letting Chuck take a seat between them.
"What about you? You're not curious about finally seeing your face?" Leen questioned, trying to divert the attention from themselves.
She leaned on the ladder, but gave up and sat on the floor after George. Not needing to ask, she rested her head on his shoulder and watched Chuck have a glimpse of the bathroom, still crowded by the many other boys.
"I can wait for those shanks to be done," Chuck said.
As if they had heard him, those around in the bathroom slowly became less. Exhaustion was kicking in, and everyone was searching almost desperately for a top bunk.
"I got top bunk," Frypan declared, but was beaten to it by Minho, who jumped and climbed to the bed.
"Too slow," said Minho.
Everyone else settled in, picking their beds. Most kept fighting for the few top bunks left, while William simply decided to sleep on the bottom bunk he was sitting on with Chuck. Nevertheless, the little boy preferred to go search for a top bunk.
With his nightmarish dreams, William knew that sleeping high up would not be a good idea. So far, he was afraid of remembering anything else. It was all too confusing to him. There were nice memories, like the little girl threatening to tell her brother about who knew what he was doing. But there were also horrible ones, like Two's death, whose name William didn't even know, or his fight with a doctor after Newt had apparently tried to commit suicide.
His eyes instinctively searched for Newt, finding him walking over to him. His limp wasn't very noticeable when he was walking normally, but it was hard to miss when William's eyes could only focus on him as if the rest of the world had disappeared.
And, in fact, his friends had disappeared. He had expected George to climb to the top bunk over his own, but his friend had gone to another one right next to him. The girls, just like him, were looking for a bunk bed for themselves, not too far away from either of them.
He watched them suspiciously. Why would they let the top bunk over his bed free? George had declared them 'bunk buddies' many times before, so why was he leaving that spot free?
"I could get used to this," Winston said, while lying in a bottom bunk to William's right.
"Yeah, it's not bad," Newt added, stopping beside William's bed.
From what William picked up from everyone's reactions, apparently, he just hadn't realised that Newt had claimed that specific top bunk. And, for an unknown reason, no one had dared to go against him. Not even George, Rowan, or Leen.
"Hey, what do you think those guys want with Teresa?" Thomas asked, making Chuck groan; something that William and George copied.
"Now, if there's one thing I know about that girl, she can take care of herself," Newt answered, then turned to the ladder to his top bunk. "Don't worry about it."
"You were literally the same as me when Wil—" Thomas began to complain, but was shortly cut by Newt's voice.
"I said, don't worry about it. Go to sleep, Tommy."