tattooed on my bones
"Still think I'm rusty?" Nico grins, sword to the guy's throat and hand in his hair, tipping his head back, threatening to break his neck.
Jude can't help but grin back. "Still slower than me." Before Nico can laugh and shake his head, like Jude knows he's going to, Blondie releases a small choking noise, and Jude looks down at him, briefly realising she'd nearly forgotten about him.
Before she can react, the other boy speaks up, indignant and rageful, and Jude quickly decides she wouldn't mind putting her sword through him.
"Hey, what the shuck-" Nico rolls his eyes, yanking his head further back, making the boy grunt and glare up at the sun.
A fresh wave of shouts makes Jude roll her eyes, annoyance washing over her.
The deep, authoritative voice from before yells from above, sounding annoyed. "Hey, greenies! Slim it, alright! You-"
Blondie shakes his head, calling out to him and cutting him off. "It's alright, Alby, I got this!" Jude narrows her eyes, pressing her sword slightly harder, but not enough to hurt. Yet.
Blondie speaks up, brown eyes on her, his voice sounding strained, like its hard to get the words out. "Hey, I understand, alright? I promise, we mean no harm. We've all been there. Just let me explain."
She presses her knee harder into his stomach. "Explain."
His breath stutters, undoubtedly from the pressure on his chest. "Look, I know how it feels, alright? Unfamiliar place, people-"
Nico cuts him off. "Get to the fucking point before I take this guy's head off."
Blondie's eyes widen, darting to Nico, and the press of his blade against Eyebrows' throat.
"Right. I know you can't remember anything, but it's alright, we've all been in the same predicament as you. Come up in the box, no memories, nothing. You're in the Glade. I'm Newt."
"The Glade." Jude really might just impale this guy. "How helpful."
An apologetic smile stutters on his face. "Sorry, love. It's just. . . kind of hard to explain, you get me? How about you come on up? I'll show you around, yeah? You'll get what I mean."
She narrows her eyes, considering. She looks up at Nico, and clenches her jaw. Nico beats her to it, voice loud and harsh. "Any sudden movements and we won't hesitate to kill you. All of you."
Newt swallows but nods. Jude narrows her eyes before standing and offering him a hand. He takes it. What a fool.
She yanks him to his feet, and without a second of hesitation, shoves him around and twists his arm behind his back. She presses her sword to the back of his neck, making sure he can feel the bite of the blade. He stills, inhaling sharply. Jude nearly breaks his hand entirely when he huffs out a laugh. "Alright, I should've seen that one coming."
"Oi Newt! Wrap up the chitchat and bring em up here, would ya'?" The voice gets on Jude's nerves, and she grits her teeth.
He looks up, an apologetic smile on his face, his free hand reaching up to rub the bruise on his jaw. "Right, sorry, mate. We'll be up in a second."
A grunt to her left has Jude's gaze snapping to Nico. He's pulled Eyebrows to his feet, sword still at his throat.
"Move." She shoves Newt forward, stooping to pick up the rope of vines dropped at her feet before tossing it over his shoulder.
He does, gathering the rope up in his hands and throwing it up over the edge, and someone above must be holding it steady, because when he tugs slightly, it holds.
Newt glances over his shoulder, before turning back and planting his feet on the wall, clenching the rope tight in his hands and climbing up with relative ease. When he's up, he turns and crouches. "Your turn, love."
She ignores him, turning to Nico. He nods and shoves Eyebrows forward. "Climb." The boy glares at the two of them, stubbornly staying in place. At a clench of Jude's sword and a raised eyebrow, however, he steps forward and gathers the rope in his hands, his clenched jaw and glaring eyes telling Jude he's not happy about it.
She really couldn't give less of a fuck.
When he climbs up and disappears over the edge, Jude meets Nico's eyes. His lips are pressed into a thin line, tension in every line of his face.
He steps back, into the shadows behind a crate so Newt, who's still perched on the edge above them, can't see, and grips his sword tight, letting it transform back into a ring. Jude mirrors him, flexing her hand when the comforting weight of the blade leaves her palm.
She meets Nico's gaze before she grits her and takes the rope in her hands, pulling herself up over the edge. Newt's hand is ready and waiting, but she swats him away before planting her feet onto the ground -solid earth and green grass, she notes- before sweeping her gaze across her line of vision, distantly aware of Nico pulling himself up behind her.
The sight nearly makes her keel over right there on the grass.
A horde of boys surround her, various expressions on their faces. If she had to guess, she'd say maybe forty or fifty guys surround her.
And not one girl.
Really, all she sees are guys. Not one girl.
This is, however, not what makes her want to draw her sword and fall on it.
The huge, huge walls surrounding her on all four sides, draped in vines, ivy, and shrubbery so thick she nearly can't make out the stone under it is what really does it for her.
Briefly, she registers Nico having climbed up and standing at her side, soaking in the fucking sight.
The horde of guys around them don't say a word, all of their eyes latched onto the newcomers. Jude holds herself back from slaughtering them all for even looking at her and Nico. It makes her skin crawl.
A dark skinned boy with darker hair close cropped to his scalp steps forward, authority dripping from his every movement. He turns to the mob and raises his voice so it carries over the slow rising murmurs of the crowd. "Slim it, all of you! Dinner's almost on, yeah? Go on, shuck off to the mess hall! Or maybe you'd prefer toilet duty for a month?" He raises his eyebrows, and Jude doesn't need three guesses to know he's the leader of this place, whatever it is.
The crowd grumbles, but slowly, they clear out, moving away, casting throwaway glances at them over their shoulders. The crowd thins out rather quickly, until there is none, and it's just Jude, Nico, Newt, and the leader guy.
When the crowd melts away, Jude can finally see what's around her. A large plain grass field meets her gaze. She registers a large rickety wooden building towards her right, in the corner of the walls. Opposite the building, behind them, sits a large patch of what looks like gardens and growing patches. To their left is a big forest, large trees clustered together in a corner. Behind her, opposite the forest, her eyes fall to what look like animal pens. Even from the distance, she can make out the cows, sheep, goats, and cattle herded in separate pens.
Her gaze shifts back to Newt and the other boy, who have been surveying the two without a word. The leader places his hands on his hips when he sees that both Jude and Nico have settled eyes on him. "Welcome to the Glade, greenies. I'm Alby, leader of the place. Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, because there ain't no ticket back."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Nico demands, hands curling at his sides.
Alby shrugs and Nico's expression only hardens further. Jude, who shares a braincell with him, knows he's resisting the urge to punch the boy in front of them.
Newt steps forward, arm stretched out to his side in front of Alby's chest. "Let me handle it, mate. You're not the best at this, yeah?" Alby seems to have no problem with this, judging from his shrug. "Make it quick, alright? Box was late today. The Doors'll be closing soon. Minho and the others'll have gotten back by now."
Newt nods and looks at the two, lips pursed. "I know you two don't remember anything right now, and that's normal so don't panic. We've all been through it. Coming up in the box, no memories, unfamiliar place, whatnot. This place," He waves a hand, gesturing to their surroundings. "Is the Glade. It's where we eat, where we sleep, where we live. We call ourselves the Gladers."
"Why are we here? How did we get here?" Jude demands, questions shooting through her harried mind.
Newt doesn't seem surprised by the question, like he'd anticipated it. He shrugs. "Dunno. None of us do. We just call them the Creators. We know just as much you do, believe it or not. It's alright. We've all been through First Day. You two'll be alright here. Fit right in."
Jude is just about to tell him she couldn't give less of a fuck whether they'll fit in with this place when Nico's hand grips her wrist, tight and frantic, nails digging and holding onto her.
She glances at him, keeping her expression as neutral as she can. He's not looking at her. She tracks his gaze to the one of the walls on their left, and quickly zeroes in on whatever's got his attention.
Right in the middle of the wall is an opening. It's not huge, nothing impressive. Just a little opening. She bites her lip, considering. She really doesn't have to, seeing as she knows they're doing it already.
She grits her teeth, meeting Nico's gaze.
Newt seems to catch on, then. He follows her line of vision, eyes widening when he sees what they're looking at. He steps a little closer, a frown pulling his eyebrows together.
"Hey, wait-"
They don't bother letting him finish before they're sprinting.
Distantly, Jude registers the shouts of alarm and panic from Alby and Newt, and a glance over her shoulder tells her both of them are chasing after them, right at their heels.
She doesnt really care, because Nico is sprinting right beside her, and this is the best she's felt since waking up in the metal box, and she knows, knows they're going to make it past the walls.
They're closer now, and the Gladers behind them are too far back to catch up, and they're running as fast as humanly possible, feet pounding and legs throbbing, but they're going to make it.
Jude has no idea what's beyond the imposing walls, but really, she's not fussy. Anything will do, really.
Suddenly, she realises with a start that the sun is a lot lower in the sky than it was twenty minutes ago. Unnaturally so. Shaking the thought out of her head, she picks up the pace when her eyes fall back on the towering stone walls.
They're halfway across the distance before Jude's heart nearly leaps out of her throat and drops to her feet, because the stone walls start moving. A heavy, grating noise fills the entire Glade, like the scrape of knives against stone, ringing through her ears and forcing both her and Nico to a jerking halt.
The huge stone walls slowly slide shut harshly, moving towards each other and picking up pace the closer they get.
Jude lets loose a string of curses and choice expletives before she's forcing her feet to fucking move. She hasn't taken five steps when she realises Nico isn't at her side, so she stops, spinning around to see her twin brother still frozen in place, hands twitching at his sides and mouth open in shock and horror. The Gladers are still on their heels, Alby and Newt now just mere feet behind Nico.
"Gods of Olympus, Nico, move!" Her words seem to snap him back to reality, his mouth snapping shut. He pulls himself out of his daze, and then he's running again, just behind Jude. She pushes herself to sprint, eyes locked onto the rapidly closing doors, just mere feet away from the walls.
She reaches the doors with less than half a foot of open space between the moving doors and throws herself through it, narrowly squeezing through the doors, not even registering what's beyond them before she's spinning around to Nico.
And her heart fucking drops.
Because through the narrow space, she can still see that Nico is not at the doors. He's less than a foot away, and he never makes it any farther because Alby fucking tackles him, shoving him to the ground and pushing him down while Nico fights back, snarling and writhing on the ground.
Fuck this.
Jude is not leaving without Nico. He knows it, and so does she, and in her opinion, so should every person on the planet. "Nico!" Her scream resounds through the stone, desperate and pained. She throws herself at the doors, just inches apart now, and she knows, knows she's not getting past again, but well. Jude isn't leaving her brother, her best friend, her everything in this hellhole, is she?
And when the stone doors slam shut, the last she sees and hears of her twin brother is his outstretched arm, reaching but not quite touching, and the sound of her name tearing past his lips.
####
Nico knows, even then, that he will never forget the sight of his twin sister screaming his name behind the wall of stone that separates them. It will etch itelf onto the back of his eyelids, will live under his fingernails, will crawl into the marrow of his bones, will come alive in his worst nightmares. There, writhing and fighting under the weight of more than just the dark skinned boy holding him down, Nico feels the memory burrow itself in his chest, feels it settle in the corner of his brain that houses Jude. Selfishly, sickeningly, he wants it.
It is the last time Nico will ever see his sister, his best friend, his everything, and he wants it.
He snarls and knees Alby square in the gut, and with a grunt, Alby finally shifts off him, rolling onto his side on the grass. Nico doesn't spare him another thought before he's shooting up to slam both fists on the stone walls, ignoring both the shooting pains running up his arms and the tears brimming in the his eyes, blinking them away harshly.
He whirls around suddenly when he feels the weight of a hand settle on his shoulder, throwing a wild punch towards the boy, not seeing, not hearing, not feeling.
Newt narrowly ducks, eyes widening in alarm. "Woah, sorry mate-" Nico cuts him off, relieved to hear his voice steady and low, devoid of anything but calm, cold rage. "What's behind those walls? Tell me before I rip your head from your neck and send you down to my father."
Something in the back of his head tells him he really shouldn't have said that last part, but Nico can't really bring himself to listen, can't really bring himself to care.
If Newt notices, he doesn't show it. His voice is resigned and quiet. "It's a maze. A bloody maze, filled with Grievers, these horrible, disgusting monsters."
Fear grips Nico's heart like a vice, grabbing and squeezing and drawing blood.
"A maze? What monsters? Explain, Newt." His hands curl into fists, tightening at his sides.
"It's a maze. They- the Doors open during the day, and close during the night. During the day, it's easier, and the Grievers don't attack. During the night . . . well, it's why no one's allowed past the doors past curfew."
"Grievers. What are they?"
Newt purses his lips, looking away. The skin around his eyes is tight, stress pulling his face into a frown. "Monsters. These disgusting, huge, horrible monsters, part-machine, part-god-knows-what. They'll kill her."
The last string of reason holding Nico back from calling for his sword and slaughtering every person in sight nearly fucking snaps.
His eyes flare, fists clenched so tight his knuckles are turning white. "Say that again and I'll fucking kill you."
Alby speaks up from behind him, seeming to have recovered from Nico's attacks. "There ain't no way around it shank. She's as good as dead out there. Ain't nobody's survived a night out in the Maze."
Nico fiercely wishes he had gutted him in the throat instead of the stomach.
"Shut the fuck up. You don't know her, alright? You don't know Jude. She'll live. She'll get through it."
"Look . . . What's your name, shank? What'd she call you again?" Alby puts his hands up on his hips, eyebrows raised.
"Nico." His voice is stiff and harsh, even to him.
"Look, Nico. I'm sorry, shank, really. But you gotta let it go. The maze changes every night, and between that, them shucking Grievers, and the fact she ain't got no weapons, that girl, Jude, your . . . what, sister, yeah?" His tirade ends with a question.
Nico nods stiffly, not bothering to tell him that Jude does have a weapon. And the fact that she's fucking lethal with it.
"Right, well, your sister's as good as dead."
Nico ignores him, turning to the walls and dropping down onto the grass and sits down, pulling out chunks of grass by his knees.
"I'll prove you wrong. She'll prove you wrong. Just watch." His voice is low and calm when he speaks, steel in his tone.
Alby pauses for a second before he sighs softly, seemingly giving up before soft footfalls tell Nico he's walked away.
Newt however, hesitates for a second and then drops down on the ground a fair distance away from him. His voice is soft when he speaks up, british accent cutting through the still tension in the air. "All the others'll be in the mess hall. You should come along, greenbean. A plate of Frypan's food'll have you feeling better."
When Nico ignores him, continuing his onslaught on the grass at his feet, staring down the walls like he can will them open with his eyes, Newt speaks again, voice low. "I'll just wait with you then."
Nico takes no notice, eyes set on the stone in front of him, waiting for the rise of the sun and the return of his sister.