EIGHTEEN.

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Over the next few months, things seemed to fall back into place. We got new Greenies when we were supposed to and had no encounters with anyone similar to Alex. It was like one big exhale had been breathed out by the entire Glade.

The most recent Greenie was a chubby, cute kid with curly hair named Chuck. He was still curled up on himself and crying whenever I saw him, but when I did, I smiled brightly at him. It seemed to make him feel better.

I woke up one morning to someone vigorously shaking me by the shoulders. My eyes sleepily blinked open to reveal the bleary face of Minho above me. Upon seeing him, my eyebrows pinched in confusion.

"Minho?" I asked in a scratchy voice. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he replied excitedly. After blinking a few more times, I noticed he was smiling. "Just get dressed and meet me in the hallway."

He was gone faster than my tired brain could process. I groaned and rolled over, sitting up on the side of my bed and stretching my arms over my head. I yawned and grabbed my brace from where it was partly shoved under my bed. After securing every strap in place and standing, I began rummaging through my drawers for something to wear.

It took me barely five minutes to get ready. All I had to do was change and yank a brush through my hair, then tie it into a ponytail. Even so, Minho was impatiently checking his wristwatch when I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He leaned against the wall across from my door with his feet crossed at the ankles.

"Girls," he scoffed with a roll of his eyes. I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Why did you wake me up at 5 a.m. if there isn't anything wrong?" I asked with a huff. My eyes were sagging from how tired I was; if I had known I was going to wake up early, I would have gone to sleep sooner.

"You'll see." Minho reached into his pocket and took out a strip of fabric. He shook it out, turned me around, and started to lower it over my eyes like a blindfold.

"Can I at least go to the bathroom before this?" I questioned. "I haven't even brushed my teeth yet."

"Fair enough," Minho sighed with a shrug. "Once again, I'll be--"

"Waiting outside, yes," I finished with a grin. He lifted his lips in a smile as well before pretending to shoo me away. I fought not to roll my eyes as I started walking toward the back door with him following behind me. When I stepped outside, I purposely closed the door too soon so it almost smacked him in the nose. "Oops."

He frowned at my innocent grin while rubbing his face. "Ow."

"Oh, please." I actually did roll my eyes that time. "It didn't even hit you."

Another five minutes later and I was ready to go. Almost as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom, I was whisked forward and a pair of lips were on mine. Kissing him had become a more normal occurrence over the months; I had stopped blushing furiously a while ago. When I asked what it was for, he simply shrugged.

Minho insisted on blindfolding me again, tying the fabric underneath my ponytail so I couldn't see a thing. My hands gripped onto his arm tightly as I walked. I strained to hear anything or use any other senses to gauge where we were headed, but it was basically impossible because everywhere in the Glade was the same. My brace dragged through the long grass annoyingly.

And then it scraped on stone, and I froze. "Minho..."

He tugged at my arm. "It's okay, promise."

I trusted him, but I couldn't fight down the fear that was creeping in my chest and filling it with congestion. Each of my steps caused my brace to make a scraping sound against the ground. It echoed around the high walls.

Even if I was blind, I still knew exactly where we were going. A left, then a right, and straight for a bit, another left, left again...

We stopped. Minho let go of my arm and untied the blindfold in one fluid motion. Sunlight poured into my eyes the instant it did, causing me to squint. And once I could see again, I was shocked even if I could picture where we were when my eyes were closed. It had been almost six months since I had been in the Maze, and somehow it seemed to be both different and the same.

The stone walls were still high as ever, weighed down by tendrils of thick ivy. Sparse stones littered the edges of the narrow pathway. Above us, the sun shined with powerful rays that cast shadows all around. I turned in a slow circle to soak it all in.

I couldn't control the mixed emotions swirling inside of me. It was a confusing mix of fear, joy, and relaxation. My heart knew that the Maze was a place I used to love running in, but my brain kept replaying the horrific scene of the Doors closing on me. It brought a prick to my leg that I couldn't help but wince at.

"You okay?" Minho questioned. He was watching me carefully to my left. "I can take you back. Shuck, it was a mistake bringing you here."

He sounded so disappointed with himself that I felt an ache inside of me. I shook my head, taking a step toward him. "No, Minho. I'm fine. It's just been so long..."

As soon as I finished those words, I took out my notebook from my back pocket along with my pencil. The new, crisp pages were soothing as I began sketching a quick outline of him. The ivy was a perfect backdrop. My eyes flickered from the paper to him every so often until he got the hint.

"Are you...drawing me?" Minho sounded both taken aback and excited. There was an edge of happiness in his voice. "I always knew I was your muse."

"And you ruined it," I joked with a sigh, shaking my head as I finished the slope of his shoulder. My memory was almost photographic from having to draw Maps from memory every day, so I didn't need him to stand in the same spot in order to finish it. "But yes, I am drawing you."

"Cool." He grinned widely. "When you're done, I want to put it up on my wall."

"Why?"

"Because I bet I look just as good on paper as I do in real life."

Minho's prideful comments had gotten so abundant that they almost always went in one ear and out the other. I ignored him as I walked to his side and gently eased myself onto the ground. The ivy dug through my shirt as I did so, pressing into my back in a way that wasn't very comfortable. However, I didn't mind much and instead focused on adding details.

The silence was peaceful as I drew and Minho watched over my shoulder. About halfway through my sketch, he realized that neither of us had eaten breakfast, so he pulled two bright red apples out of his pack and handed one to me. I marked my page by putting my pencil in my notebook and set it down to eat.

"Do you remember," Minho began through a bite, "when I lost my first pack in the Maze and you didn't even get mad at me?"

"I was mad at you," I corrected, "I was just too nice to show it."

"Ben was so sure you'd have my head but you smiled at me and told me it was alright." He chuckled and shook his head. "Now you openly glare at me. What a change."

After thinking about it, I began to realize just how much I actually had changed. In the beginning of the mess, when I first came up to the Glade, I let anyone do what they wanted. I was the pushover to end all pushovers. Then, as time passed, I became more rigid. But it was Minho who told me that it was okay to be rough sometimes. He was the reason I broke out of my shell.

When I said this to him, he shook his head with a bewildered expression. "Are you kidding? I didn't do klunk. Like you said, I only told you there was nothing wrong with biting back. Once I did that, you did the rest on your own. You won. You toughened up, buttercup."

My face broke out in a wide smile that immediately caused him to do the same. I leaned over and kissed him gently, though that was it for contact on my part because of the half-eaten apple in my hand. Minho slid a palm to my cheek with an uncharacteristically light touch. He tasted like fruit.

"I'm glad you stopped being embarrassed around me," Minho mumbled, his lips centimeters from mine. "Very glad."

"I am too," I replied as I sat back. "It's nice not feeling like I want to bury myself in the ground every time you're close to me."

Minho laughed, a musical sound that would've made six-months-ago me blush. "Is that really what it felt like?"

"You have no idea."

I went back to my drawing and thought of something: I had told him I never wanted to change into a completely different person. He had kept that promise, occasionally stopping me before I'd cross a line or something. Part of me was the same Nadia who showed up in the Box and let people push her around. But another part of me was different, and in a good way, too.

Maybe my life had turned upside down, but there were still things that turned it right side up again.

-:-

Minho and I came back from the Maze early, as predicted. Apparently the entire Glade was aware of the surprise because nobody questioned where I had been all day. It was strange to head to the Map Room right away; my feet wanted to take me to the Homestead. It was like that part of me - the one that was so used to being a Runner - was starting to slip away.

Along the way, I saw Chuck. He was with the Builders today. That meant Gally was pinning difficult tasks on him just to see him struggle, as he did with every Greenie, but he usually meant no harm. I noticed Theo helping the boy out when he was having trouble. If the Keeper noticed, he didn't say anything.

Minho was pretending to have trouble with his Map just so I'd help him. He'd sometimes ask if a passage went to the left or right even though I knew he remembered the entire Maze by heart at that point in time.

Because I forced Minho to do his work by himself, we ended up staying in there longer than we should have. Ben came back, as did Ken, and some of the other Runners. Soon the Map Room was full of sweaty, smelly boys that were scrawling pictures on paper. I stood back and watched them.

"Hey, Ben, wrong way," I informed the blond as I pointed to a corner he had just drawn. "That one goes to the right."

"Oh, yeah," he muttered sheepishly, quickly redrawing it to accommodate my correction.

Suddenly, a loud banging on the door caused all of us to jump and for Minho's pencil to skid across the page. He sighed in irritation before shouting, "What?"

There was a grunt as the door opened. Orange sunlight trickled in from the setting sun, revealing the outline of a person. There stood Gally, with a layer of sweat on his face and his hands on his hips.

"What the shuck do you want?" Minho snapped in an aggravated tone.

"Nick just called a Gathering," he replied.

"Another one?" I asked, pushing myself off of the wall and pinching my eyebrows in confusion. Nick seemed to be calling Gatherings often lately. "Why?"

"Don't know." Gally shrugged. "Said it was real important. We gotta go now."

Minho and I shared a look before heading outside. We followed behind Gally as he stomped toward the Homestead with his heavy brown boots. I stared down at my brace with dismay; I couldn't cram my black boot into it if I tried.

Most of the Keepers were already in their seats when we arrived. The only ones not present were David and Alby, but the room was still filled and stuffy beyond compare. A flood of conversation met my ears when I walked inside and plopped down in my chair. Minho eased into his seat before resting his elbows on his knees anxiously.

Once David and Alby arrived, Nick hushed everyone immediately. He was shirtless again. His face was littered with stress lines and purple rings lined his usually lively eyes, showing signs of stress and fatigue.

"Alright," he spoke up, "I want everyone to hear me out. Slim it nice and calm until I finish, okay?"

"Nick," Frypan began uneasily. "Why do you sound like you're going to tell us somethin' bad?"

Our leader shook his head. "No, Fry. It ain't bad- I just know most of you won't like it."

The room was tense, which only intensified the thick atmosphere. I felt sweat begin to prick underneath my arms and behind my neck. Everyone wore expressions of worry and anticipation. I felt my stomach begin to churn nervously the longer he paused.

"I thought of another way out of the Maze- down the Box hole."

-----

poor nick my bean you don't know what's coming

sorry for the late update! i lost inspiration for this but i finally forced myself to write!!

there are only a few more chapters (three or four at the most) until this is over :O

-kristyn