Gally's POV

"Stay here." I told Valerie, pushing my hammer in her hands to hopefully bent time and not make her see whatever the hell was going on.

Then I rushed away to the screams, soon finding Ben pinned down to the ground by Newt, with a blood-covered shovel next to them. Ben was struggling, but talking. Sweaty, his eyes dark, veins dark too, and blood coming from the side of his head.

My first worry was her. Ben was her best friend. He got stung, and I knew he would be banished. Same thing that happened to her brother. One of the main reasons she tried to— well.

"Lift his shirt!" Alby commanded. They did as he told them to and indeed, a horrible infection was growing on Ben's stomach. Purple, a deep hole, with even more visible veins around it. Drops of black blood came out of the wound, and I nearly had to avert my eyes.

Shivers went down my spine. This was not about me, I should not have been reminded by my own story, yet I was. I never really noticed Clint and Jeff taking Ben away from us, and everyone started to wander off.

By this time, I did notice her standing a few feet away from us, staring at the Med-jacks and Ben, though their backs were turned to us. And somewhere I hoped she didn't recognize her friend.

I cupped her face, forcing her to look at me instead of the others. "Gally!" Panic was in her eyes. "Who is that? What happened? Why-."

"Valerie." I warned. "Please stay calm, alright?"

"What happened?" She continued to ask as I pulled her over to a log, sitting both of us down.

"I need you to stay calm." I repeated. Because I didn't want her to hurt herself. I wouldn't enjoy it if she started crying in front of me, or if she got angry. "Got that?"

She nodded. Her eyes were still wide, face confused.

I breathed in. "It's Ben." A pause. "He got stung."

I waited and waited and waited, watching her face for some kind of reaction. But all she did was blink a million times.

So slowly, because she deserved to know, I continued. "He will be banished."

Then she bursted out. "HE-."

"Val." My hands on her shoulders. She stared at me, and I could see the happy twinkle in her eyes slowly fading away, replaced by pain and sadness.

"What?" She stammered, as if she wanted to hear a different answer. "No."

"I'm sorry."

She was shaking her head. Long. "No."

I didn't know what to do. "Look-."

"No." She whispered. I didn't know if the realization was still hitting her or if she was just trying to contain herself. "No, no, n-."

"I-."

The pain in her eyes was too much. "I don't want to lose anyone else." She was still whispering. "Can't we— can't we do something? The serum. D-do we have the serum?"

"It's too late. He's past the Gone too far." I replied, talking quietly too.

She blinked a few more times. It costed me a while to realize what she was doing; holding back tears. Always for a reason I didn't understand. She was free to cry, even though it hurt me.

"Okay." She swallowed. Tucked her red, beautiful hair behind her ear. "Okay."

She or the situation was anything but okay. "Val-."

"How long until the Doors close?"

I sighed quietly. "Not so long. In now and half an hour."

"Okay." She said again. "I'll go... feed Josephine." Then she left.

And I didn't follow. I did want to do that, but didn't. She needed alone time, and I didn't have to interfere every single minute.

~

At the banishing itself, I only listened to Alby telling us to held up our poles. Minho brought Ben to the middle, cut the ropes off his hands, and grabbed his own pole.

Ben slowly stood up, begging them to stop. Crying, sobbing, and looking as if he threw up. I did not know what to do, only feel bad. Because in the corner of my eye I saw the redhead watching. Watching me kill one of her best friends. Watching her best friend disappear.

And the Doors closed with a boom, only half of the things that had happened getting through my mind. Alby said something again, but Valerie had disappeared, and that caught my attention.

The lake, was my first thought.

So there I went, hoping I wouldn't bother her too much. I would leave if she wanted me to. But girls—or maybe just the one I loved—were quite hard to handle when they were sad, because all I ever did when Valerie cried was hold her. Maybe that was good, maybe not. I didn't know.

I was right. She was close to the lake, the chicken next to her. Valerie looked as if she wanted to throw a rock at it—sorry, her—and wanted to cuddle her at once.

But she didn't hold the chicken. She stared at her reflection in the water, close to lifeless. Sometimes I wished I could know what was going on in her mind. What kind of maze was in there. But sometimes I realized I wouldn't even been able to handle to know what pain she was in.

Then she got up, her jaw sharp and tiny hands clenched into fists. She was angry. And I didn't blame her. She did have tears in her eyes and then—

Ouch.

She punched the shuck tree.

My eyes widened. I was alert again, stopped watching her, and jumped in action before she even had time to swung her already bleeding fist another time. My arms wrapped around her, pulled her away from the tree, and put both of us down on the ground. She didn't resist. Instead, buried herself in my arms, nearly disappearing in them, seeing our height difference.

Then her shoulders did start to shake.

And again, I held her close to my body, rubbing her back. No words were needed. I was mostly glad she let me comfort her, and didn't bottle up her emotions. But she was crying hard. Sobbing loudly, tears streaming down her face, and body shaking along with her shoulders.

It broke my heart. Not that I wasn't sad about Ben, but he hadn't been as important to me as he had been to Val. I didn't let people get important to me, because this were the consequences. If I lost them, it would hurt. But I did allow Valerie to take that one place. And I would do anything to protect her in that way.

Sometimes I was confused, though. She never got very angry or blamed me for anything, though I was sure I wasn't always the most perfect boy. I told her not to go somewhere with that potato-dressed-in-clothes boy alone, because I didn't trust him, for example.

Not because I was jealous.

Definitely not.

Cough.

"Sorry." She apologized, out of a sudden. I was about to ask 'for what', until, "I ruined your shirt."

All she did was wet it with some tears and leaked some blood from her hand on it. Seriously?

"Shall we fix your hand?" I asked, honestly not knowing what else to do after she sobbed in my arms until her voice got hoarse and no more tears were left.

But it seemed to have been the perfect suggestion. She nodded. "Yeah."

We started making our way to the Med Hut. She didn't talk like usual. I didn't expect her to, though. But she stared into the distance, her eyes unfocused. Then she grabbed my hand with the one she didn't hurt, giving me a sign she would hopefully be okay.

"It'll be fine." She said, voice cracking a little. What will be fine, I was about to ask, but she continued. "I'll be fine." Lie.

Only half of the time when I noticed she was lying I told her I knew. I was sure I always noticed when she was lying, by the way she moved and talked, but this wasn't the time to tell her.

"Gally?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you bring me my notebook as I'm letting my hand get treated?" Valerie wondered. She talked super soft and quiet, barely hearable for me.

"Of course."

"You won't go through it, right?" She added hesitantly. "Sorry. I just-."

"I won't go through it." I promised. "Just get your hand treated."

"Thank you." She smiled poorly and walked into the Med Hut as I went to get the black notebook. And as I promised, I didn't open it.