Eavesdropping
The night sky was glittering above you but the edges of you vision were blocked by the maze walls. Each time the hammock rocked the stone walls entered your peripheral vision marring the beauty of the stars. The slight breeze that was swinging you stopped and the stillness felt eerie and your ears strained for any sounds to penetrate the growing silence.
A shift of your head and a glance at the other sleeping gladers told you that no one else seemed to be bothered by this unearthly quiet. Turning you face upwards again you sat up and got out of the lightly woven hammock removing the thin, but warm blanket from your body.
Your bare feet hitting the cool ground sent shivers racing down your spine and shooting goosebumps along your arms. You started to tip toe towards towards the distant embers that had been that nights bonfire but quickly stepped back again to grab your blanket, the air was just at that uncomfortable temperature.
Approaching the fire your ears started to pick up the occasional crackle and pop. The noise somehow comforted you. It was familiar. Safe. You selected your favourite log and sat down wrapping yourself in the cloth, staring into the dying fire. The night had been loud and bright. The boys had partied long into the night, drinking mugs upon mugs of light alcohol, the amount had far from paled in comparison of how much of Frypan’s broth had been consumed.
Absentmindedly your fingers searched the nearby ground to find a twig or two before tossing them gently into the warmth. Your eyes lit up as the twigs caught and burned brightly for a few seconds before crumpling into ashes. Spurred by the light you stood and tossed a larger plank onto the fire to help the fire stay alive.
After sitting back down again you rolled sideways to lie on your side facing the fire, flickering shadows danced and the heat was pleasant. Your eyelids did what anyone else’s would have done, they started to droop, before finally closing. You lay there. Surrounded in your brown blanket listening to the fire chuckle away slowly eating the wood.
Before long you heard foot steps, so you cracked an eye open and watched as Newt and Minho rounded the log pile on the other side of fire and slumped down to the ground, both leaning against a tree trunk.
“Eighteen days Minho, eighteen days.” Newt let his head role back so his face was lit by the stars and his chin and neck ghosted by the light of the flames. Minho shuffled one leg out to be straight in front of him before replying,
“Are we still talking about how long it’s been since we got a decent meal out of the kitchens,” he grinned sliding his eyes towards Newt. “ or something else?” It was then you realised that they hadn’t noticed that you were laying on the other side of the flames listening to them but you were a curious person so you stayed still and listened.
“No, I mean her. Since she came up in the box. I don’t know what to do with her.” He brought his head back down to watch the flames, running his fingers through his silky blonde waves. “She seems to be good at everything. Except for cutting down trees. I just don’t know where to put her.”
“She has the speed and smarts for a runner and we need more runners. Why don’t you put her there? She can run with me until she’s learnt enough to go out there on her own.”
“But she makes amazing food, I don’t know if I can pass that up,” Newt and Minho chuckled, “seriously though, being a runner is dangerous. It’s hard and she could get hurt. I’m not sure if I could watch the happen to her. What if she didn’t make it back before the doors closed.” Newt looked at Minho and away again before sighing and muttering, “I think I’m getting fond of the lass, shuck me.”
“Not wanting someone to die in the maze doesn’t mean that you like them you know.” Minho picked up a stick lying next to him and pocked the embers, creating a trail of little star-like ashes floating into the sky. Newt hunched his shoulders and said,
“No, I think I like her more then that, more then what I feel for all you shuck faces, like I think I could really really like her.” Before straightening up again and grabbing the stick from Minho and roughly thrusting it into the fire. The explosion of sparks was sudden and unexpected and would have disguised your gasp if a couple of the floating ashes had not landed on your blanket and started blossoming into a full flame.
You yelped and tossed your blanket away from you and all three of us watched as it began to glow and burn. Newts wide eyes turned to you. And he said something. “What,” you said distractedly still staring in awe and disbelief at your rug.
“How much of that did you hear?”
“All of it.” You smirked stepping closer to him. Newt gulped, his throat bobbing as he look down at you.
“Any chance you could erase that from your mind?”
“Nope!” You said popping the ‘P’ before turning on your heel and heading to the storage shack to get a new blanket.
Comment and message me. Let me know if you guys think this is okay and what your thoughts are. Tell me if you want a part two or if I should just stick to being an artist haha.
Open to corrections as well.
Xx J
