ACT I SCENE VI
ORESTES

     CASSANDRA HADN'T stepped out of the room for an entire day. The door creaked open around dinner time, just as the sun was setting into its golden hour. She suddenly heard hushed voices arguing outside her door. One of them sounded like Newt. Then a shaggy-haired boy came in bearing a tray of hot food and Cassandra sat up in surprise. He wore a pair of glasses and a lackadaisical smile, his posture was relaxed and sloppy. She recognised him but it was the first time she had seen him in the flesh since she arrived. He set the tray on her lap and sat down on the chair by her bedside.

Nick heaved a sigh at her. Then he said, "You're a mistake."

Cassandra stared back at him blankly. "Excuse—"

"Sorry," he apologised quickly as he checked himself. "Sorry... still pretty bugged out from the Changing..."

She frowned. "What's a Changing?"

"It's when you get stung by a Griever," he told her. His voice was slow and whimsical, as eccentric as the boy himself. "It sucks. A lot. But I saw things. Terrible things that I don't want to remember. It keeps me up at night and I can't sleep."

It showed on his face and the bluish tint underneath his eyes. Whatever he saw, it must have been one hell of an ordeal. Nick leaned in close to her and she peered into his exhausted green eyes. "Would have called you to a Gathering." He rubbed the back of his head uncertainly. "Nah, didn't think it was necessary. The boys can be pretty rowdy... didn't want you to see that."

Cassandra watched him with a piercing gaze. They had a Gathering about her. It made sense but the thought of it still upset her. "Why not?" she questioned.

"Well... not all the boys are so trusting, ya know?" He gave her a significant look and she thought back to Andy with a grim downturn of her lips. "There was some talk about puttin' you in the Slammer... some talk about giving you back to the Creators. I was still pretty bugged out when it happened but when I told them that we had to make you a Runner, I think Clint wanted to inject me with another Grief Serum. They thought I was bonkers."

He paused to laugh as he recounted the events before continuing, "But I managed to persuade them. You're the key, Cassandra, I saw it in the Changing. It's all I ever see now... can't even close my eyes to sleep anymore."

"You wanted me to be a Runner..." she repeated. "That's what Alby meant that day... but didn't you hear? I went crazy and I don't even remember it. How am I gonna be any help in the Maze?"

"You will. I know there's a reason behind your crazy," he said lowly. "And I know that things are just going to get crazier. Not yet though. But when the real crazy happens, then we'll know that it's time for The End."

Cassandra's frown deepened. "What do you mean? What's The End?"

"The End is when they send—"

His hands suddenly flew up to his throat. Cassandra jerked backwards in surprise so hard, that she hit the back of her head against the wall with a loud crack. The tray of food fell off the bed and clattered on the floor, its contents spilling out all over the place. She cried out in pain just as the door slammed open at the sounds of their commotion. Minho and Newt raced towards Nick and managed to pry his hands off of his throat but his body continued to convulse violently.

"I knew this would happen!" Newt shouted.

"You and I both!" Minho grunted back.

Loud thuds resounded around the room as Nick kicked furiously at the wooden floor. It was like he had become a crazed beast that had no control over its own body.

"Cass, when you can, try grabbing his legs," Newt said, voice strained with effort.

She clenched her teeth tightly and threw her entire weight on the boy's lower limbs when she saw the opportunity. It took up all her energy to hold them down in place—he was a lot stronger than he looked. Nick continued choking himself and Minho had to stuff part of the blanket into his mouth to stop him from biting his tongue off. He finally stopped convulsing after a while and the two boys finally lowered him back down to the floor. Cassandra let go of his legs.

Nick's chest heaved up and down with laboured breaths as he rasped, "Thanks...dudes..."

"You shucking shank," Minho seethed. "Every shucking time..."

"Cassandra..." Nick said through pants. "Don't...listen...to...them..."

Then he passed out and Minho made a disgusted sound. He took Cassandra by the arm and helped her up. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Um... what about him?" She pointed at Nick.

"Just leave him. Who cares?"

Newt shrugged in agreement and turned towards the door. They left the room and went out of the Homestead. The grass was still wet from last night's rain and the sky was a flat dusky purple. They walked to an empty part of the Gardens and sat down on a makeshift bench comprised of a long plank lying between two tree stumps. Cassandra perched herself on the edge, as did the two boys, and there was a moment of awkward silence as they tried to figure out what to say to one another.

"The thing about the Changing," Newt was the first to start, "is that it's exactly what it is; it changes you. Nick hasn't been the same since then. It happened just a few days before you arrived in the Glade. He got stung while running back, had us all worried—Alby especially."

"Yeah, that shank's been off the rocker ever since. But at least he still has a shred of sanity left," Minho said.

"What does that mean?" Cassandra frowned.

"Some of the fellas who got stung went mad," Newt explained to her. "Just bonkers, yeah? The Changing was just too much for 'em."

"Do people really get their memories back when they go through the Changing?" she asked.

"They do, but they're either too scared to talk about it or they go mad," Newt told her. "Nick's been harping on about The End ever since. Just when he starts to make an ounce of sense though, he starts strangling himself."

"They don't want him to tell us," she stated. "There must be some truth to it then?"

"Don't waste your time on it." Minho shook his head. "Even if there was, they'll never let us find out from him. They're too fond of watching him have a seizure."

She sighed and went back to staring at the muddy ground. Nick was a dead end as well and she didn't want to set him off anymore than she wanted to meet a Griever up close. Everything frustrated her—herself most of all. Cassandra leaned forward and wrung her hands together. How were they possibly going to get through this?

     The next few days passed without any notable event. Cassandra had gone through the whole rotation of jobs and now waited for Alby to announce who she was going to be assigned to. From what she had heard, Gally made absolutely no interest of having her on his team because she was 'too girly'. She was nowhere near Builder material but she wasn't that useless, the shank. Neither did Jackson, the Keeper of the Baggers, who creeped her out more than Beetle Blades and Grievers combined. She was quite sure that he might end up burying her alive one day.

Clint thought she was a hazard because the day she worked with the Med-jacks, almost all the boys in the Glade mysteriously sustained injuries. The Blood House was fine as she discovered she had a natural talent with knives and killed a pig by herself with no problems. Winston was now her biggest fan but she really didn't want to kill pigs for the rest of her life. They were cute.

The only hope she had was with Frypan and Zart.

"So I heard back from the Keepers and we decided," Alby started. She raised her brows and waited patiently for him to continue. "Minho will start training you tomorrow."

She closed her eyes briefly in disbelief. "I'm sorry but... what?"

He shrugged and averted his gaze, looking anywhere but at her. Cassandra guessed he still wasn't over the incident from the other night. She'd been treading carefully around him ever since as if he was some kind of minefield waiting to explode on her.

Most of the Gladers had started to act normal around her again and the ones who didn't gave her even nastier glares than ever before. Minho's warnings had become a reality. She didn't care if she had to surgically attach herself to them, but she refused to be anywhere without a Keeper in her immediate vicinity anymore. She was pretty terrified of being caught on her own and now it seems that she had another problem dropping onto her lap.

"Nick was determined to make you a Runner and Minho agreed to it." Alby scowled distastefully. "Those shanks. A couple of us protested but the majority were up for it."

"Why?" she almost demanded. Did she not have a say in the matter?

"You're not a shucking idiot that I have to explain it to you, are you?" He glanced at her heatedly. "We don't need you in here and both Runners were extremely vocal about that."

She frowned and glared back at him. It didn't matter what the reason was, she was just irritated that she had absolutely no choice but to listen to them. From what little she knew, being a Runner had always been an arduously drawn-out process that took time and a lot of tests. She couldn't understand the rush for her to go out into the Maze.

Being out there—being a Runner, was something that she had been dreading all along. Cassandra wasn't sure she was ready for something like that.

"You don't wanna be a Runner?" Alby asked after a brief pause.

"Didn't you say that it usually took months for someone to be a Runner?" she asked pointedly. "Newt said only the best become Runners."

"If Minho agrees to it," he told her with a weary sigh, "then you're ready."

She stood up from her seat, a knot starting to wrestle itself in her stomach. "But I've only been here for like a week!"

"You scared?" He tilted his chin up with a hard look on his face.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, blinking hard as she felt her eyes stung with unshed tears, and nodded her head jerkily.

"Good. At least I know you're still human."

"I don't think I can do this," she said with a wavering voice, feeling her bravado starting to dismantle itself.

"It's been decided," he said with finality. Then with another look of distrust, he turned around and left her on her own.

As with everything that had happened to her, Cassandra thought, everything just seemed to get worse and worse. She had an urge to retch. It was like she had just been handed a death sentence.

On the up side, she'll get to spend loads of extra time with Minho. Even though they can't really talk to each other... and she'll be hating life... but um... he has a nice butt??

Each vote and comment is used to buy Minho's hairspray.