|But do you feel like a young god? You know the two of us are just young gods

|Song: Young god, Halsey

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Lisa's P.O.V.

Once I had cleaned Minho his face and got rid of most of the blood, we walked back inside.
I frowned when I noticed Dawn staring at me with a small smirk. Then everything started to make sense. She told Minho to go after me. Of course she did.

'Listen up!' Minho called, making me jump. 'We're leaving now. Don't follow us, you'll be fine. Follow us, you'll be dead. Pretty easy choice don't ya think?'
None of the Cranks answered, not that it mattered. As long as they didn't follow us, they were good. We were good. Several Gladers already walked out of the door and Dawn made her way towards me, still with that smirk on her face.
I raised my eyebrows at her.
'Let's get out of here,' was all she said. Newt walked after her and raised his eyebrows at me, quietly asking me what Dawn was so satisfied about.
I just shrugged, not knowing what to tell him.
Once everyone was outside I looked at Blondie one last time. The knife was still in his foot. No one had made the effort of taking it out for him. He groaned at me, blood all over his hands. I just smiled sweetly at him before making my way outside.
Minho waited there for me. 'Any last words for Blondie?' He asked.
I shook my head. 'He's not worth it.'
A look of pride appeared on his face. 'That's my girl,' he said.
I snickered and rolled my eyes. 'Just because you showed me I can control Wicked in my head, doesn't mean I'm your girl now.'
He opened his mouth to respond but before he could Dawn yelled at us to hurry up. She and the other Gladers had already made their way out of the alley. I took Minho's hand and ran after them. If someone had told me a few weeks ago that I would feel happy in a city full of Cranks, I would have laughed in their faces. But now...Now I was actually happy.
I was reunited with the people I cared most about in the world, and I knew now that I could stay with them. My fear for Wicked no longer controlled me, I knew I could get them out of my head because I would never hurt any of the people here. Never.

We walked through the remaining streets of the city. Jorge and Brenda walked ahead. Brenda seemed to be really grumpy and I felt curious at what happened between her and Thomas, but I wasn't in a mood to figure it out. Minho was still holding my hand and I noticed that I didn't really mind, so we walked on.
Dawn and Newt, who were also walking hand in hand, came walking next to us.
My little sister didn't say a word, just simply stared at our entangled hands.
Minho coughed and quickly let go.
I pushed my out of my face, trying to do something with my hands, if I did nothing the urge to take Minho's hand again would be too big.

The sun had risen to its highest point. It was getting way too hot. And since we left the city behind us there was no more shadow of the buildings to hide from the sun. We were walking on dried earth with the mountains straight ahead.

'We have to find shelter! Or we'll burn to death!' Jorge yelled.
I agreed but there was no shelter, and there was no way I was going back to the city.
'What about that!' Thomas yelled and pointed at a very shabby hut, hidden between a few sandy hills.
Jorge shrugged and made his way towars it. We followed. It was made out of dry wood that seemed like it might crumble to dust any second, but it was big enough to provide shelter for everyone.

We all sat down and tried to make ourselves comfortable. There were no windows but the cracks in the wood were big enough to light the place up. I sat close to the door, the closed space reminded me of the tunnels, which I didn't want to think about ever again.
I looked outside and saw the miserable city of the Cranks. It lay a few miles from here, looking like a ghost town. To the north, the mountains loomed only a day or so away. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. So much had happened and I didn't know how much longer I would be able to keep it all in. Wicked was playing tricks with my mind and I wanted to destroy them for doing so. But what other choice did I have than to go straight towards them and accept their "cure". It could just be another trap, another failure, another disappointment. And I wasn't ready for that.

Suddenly I was taken out of my thoughts by Minho who came to sit next to me. I smiled at him, a feeling of hidden excitment going through me and I couldn't figure out why I felt this way all of a sudden.
It was like, now that we were reunited, he was pulling me in even more than before.
I wanted to know why, but couldn't figure it out, yet.

'So, what happened in those shuck tunnels?' Minho asked, was it just me or was his voice a lot softer when he talked to me.
I ignored it for now. 'We got chased by cranks. Defeated the basterds, it was nasty,' I told him, not wanting to go into the details. 'What happened to you guys?' I asked in return.
Minho shrugged. 'Sneaked around the city like a bunch of criminals and killed some cranks.'
I nodded and stared out of the door again. I didn't want to look at him when I didn't have to, this new feeling that rushed through me every time his eyes landed on mine, scared me.
'Hey did you guys see those signs with Thomas's name on it?' Minho suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
I turned to him and nodded slowly. 'So you saw them too?'
Minho bit his lip, lost in thought.

'Hey listen,' I said, taking his arm. 'This doesn't mean that you should give up your position as leader. You know that right?'

Minho nodded but his thoughts were clearly somewhere else. It wasn't until now that I realised how much his leader position meant to him. It was a burden of course, but it was also an honor. We all trusted him with our lives and he tried the best he could to live up to that expectation. And now some signs on walls told him the role wasn't meant for him.

'Look at me Minho,' I said, sternly. Slowly he turned to me. 'You have a shucking tattoo in your shucking neck saying that you're our shucking leader.' A little smirk played on his lips. 'That tattoo isn't there for no reason.' He opened his mouth to protest but I didn't let him. 'It doesn't matter what game Wicked is playing. We decided to trust that tattoo and make you our leader. We could just as easily have given the position to Thomas. But we didn't and with reason. You're our leader. And that doesn't change by some stupid signs on a few walls.'

Minho stared at me for a couple of seconds. The murmering voices of the other Gladers blurred to the background. Then he smiled. 'Never thought you would able to give such a speech. That's more a Dawn thing.'

I shrugged and smirked. 'I learned from the best.'
Minho let out a low chuckle and nodded then. 'Right, well, chick, good talk,' he mumbled before standing up and walking towards Leon and Aris.
I watched him with a small smile playing on my lips.

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Hi guys!

I'm so sorry I didn't update wednesday, but I was too busy staring at the Niagara Falls! Canada is such a beautiful country and I'm honestly thinking about moving here when I'm older.

All "Canada talk" aside, I hope you're all still enjoying this book! This chapter was really fun to write, just a cute little talk between Minho and Lisa. More action is coming though because soon they'll meet the lovely and very friendly Group B. :)

Don't hesitate to let me know your opinion! And please leave a vote, it means a lot to me.

xXx
UYM