Chapter 17:
A/N: Here is the first chapter to make up for my lateness. The second one will be out on Friday. Enjoy!
You are sitting on one of the benches near the Box, you sit there for a few minutes, hoping that the Gathering wouldn't take too long. After sitting there for only about three minutes, you get bored; all the Gladers have gone back to business as usual and you can't dredge up any memories of the girl, or anything, for that matter. You decide to visit the girl to see if that would help unplug your brain.
Walking up the stairs of the Homestead, you see Clint standing outside one of the doors, you walk up to him,
"Hey, Clint. How's it going?"
"Oh, hey, Y/N. I guess it's good, it's been very busy these days."
"Sorry to hear that, but do you think you have time to check my wrist for me? I'm dying to take this thing off," Clint looks down at the wrist brace on your left wrist.
"Sure, sure. Come on," he motions for you to follow him and he takes you into an empty room. He undoes the brace and takes it off. He gingerly examines your arm and asks you if you feel any pain. After he's satisfied that you're okay, he says,
"Alright, seems you're good to go."
"Thanks," you stand up to leave but turn back to Clint, "hey, would it be alright if I could see the comatose girl?"
Clint looks at you strangely, "I guess. Why? She won't be able to tell you anything."
"Alby thinks that we're connected and he thought that she might help me remember something."
"I guess you can try it. I'll show you where she's at."
He stands up, leads you out the door, and takes you to a room a bit down the hall from where you were.
"She's in there, just let me know if you need anything or if she does anything."
"Sure," you open the door and as you step inside, you hear a commotion coming from the next room over.
You turn to Clint, "What's going on in there?"
Clint looks toward the door with a worried expression and says, "Just some kid who got stung by a Griever. They can get aggressive during the Changing."
You want to ask him more questions, like: Who's in there?, What's the Changing? But Clint says, "Jeff is in there and I think he may need some help," he hurries into the other room.
You stand there for a bit, staring at the door that Clint just disappeared behind, wondering what was going on and why Clint left so suddenly. What's the Changing? you wonder, I'll just ask Newt next time I see him, you decide. You walk into the girl's room.
She is lying on a bed, the only furniture in the room aside from a small nightstand and a chair pulled up to the bedside. She looks as if Clint and Jeff had just placed her on the bed, barely bothering to straighten her out. You walk over and try to make her at least look as if she's more comfortable. You then sit down on the chair and look at her.
Focusing, closing your eyes, you try to remember something, anything. You visualize the imaginary wall keeping your memories away. Opening your eyes again, you look at the girl, the only sign that she's alive is her chest slowly rising and falling with steady breaths.
Suddenly, a memory erupts inside your mind.
You're sitting at a table in what looks like a huge cafeteria. You aren't the only one there, the room is filled with at least two hundred kids, girls and boys alike. Looking around you see Thomas, Minho, Newt, Alby, Gally, and Chuck sitting together at a nearby table looking like they're just hanging out as friends. Someone sits down next to you,
"Hey, Y/N!"
You turn and see that it's the comatose girl, you did know her before. You were friends. You smile and say, "Hey, Teresa. What's up."
"Nothing much. Thomas and I just did some more work."
"Oh?" you nudge her playfully and she blushes. You continue, "More of that secret work that WICKED has you doing?"
"Yeah."
"I wish you could tell me."
"You know I can't," she pauses, "but Chancellor Paige told me she was looking for someone for some other job."
"Really? Do you know what it is?"
"No, it's as secret as the thing Thomas and I are doing."
"It's too secret for even you to know?"
"Yeah. If you're interested, I could put in a good word."
"That'd be great, thanks. This everyday routine is the worst, something different please."
You both laugh, and the memory cuts off. The girl, Teresa, you correct yourself, is just lying on the bed, same as before. You almost think you might be hallucinating and that wasn't a memory. But it felt so real, you think. You decide to go see if the Gathering is over and tell Newt and Alby about the dream-memory thing. As you stand up, you hear noise from the next room over, a crash. There's another crash and you hear someone scream. You run out of the room in time to see Clint rush out of the other room.
"What happened?" you ask.
Clint, out of breath, replies, "I need to get Alby, Jeff got hurt, go help him."
He runs past you and down the stairs before you can say anything.
You go into the other room and see Jeff sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with a hand to his head.
"Jeff! Are you okay? What happened."
"I don't know, he just jumped up and attacked me."
"Who?"
You wait for him to say more but he stops talking, stands up, and lays on the bed. He closes his eyes and you suddenly remember something. With no time to question your strange memory loss, you run over to Jeff and shake him, call his name until he opens his eyes.
"Jeff! Jeff, no. Don't go to sleep."
You see a big gash along his forehead and realise that he might have a concussion.
"Jeff, stay awake. Alright? Stay awake for me."
You go to the window, keeping an eye on Jeff the whole time. You open the window and call out,
"Can anyone come help me! Please! Hurry."
Some boys look up when they hear you and one of them comes running toward the building.
You go back to Jeff's side until you hear the boy coming up the stairs, "In here."
He comes in and sees the mess of the room. He crouches down next to you,
"Hey, I'm Claude. What happened?"
"I don't know yet. I'm going to find out and get Clint. Keep Jeff awake!"
You stand up and run out the door.
You hurry down the stairs and bump into someone outside of the Homestead. You look up him and breathe a sigh of relief when you see who it is.
"Newt! Oh, thank goodness."
"Y/N, what's wrong? Clint burst into our Gathering saying Ben attacked them and ran out, screaming something about Thomas."
"Thomas? Why? And who's Ben?"
"Ben's the kid that got stung by a Griever a while back. Looks like the Changing pushed him too far."
"What do you mean?"
"He took some Shank's knife and ran into the woods saying he was gonna kill Thomas."
A/N: Thank you guys for reading, especially those who are reviewing and following. The next chapter will be out on Friday.