ACT I SCENE XIV
HECUBA

   JEFF LOOKED up as Cassandra entered the room. He was keeping an eye on the new girl while Clint was tending to Ben in the next room. Cassandra took a seat next to the bed and gently brushed away the tendrils of hair covering the girl's face. Maybe if she sat there long enough, something would come to her.

"You know that's not gonna work, right?" Jeff asked. She looked at him with raised brows. "She's not gonna wake up no matter how long you stare at her."

"Weirder things have happened," she muttered.

"Yeah, no kidding." He laughed humourlessly. "So how's it feel not being the only girl anymore? Maybe she'll be your new best friend."

She smiled at him. "Kinda hard considering she's in a coma."

Clint suddenly barged into the room, looking around at them with terrified eyes. Cassandra immediately stood up from her seat, knowing that something had gone horribly wrong yet again before he even opened his mouth to speak. Just when she thought things couldn't possibly get anymore worse, it does.

"Ben's gone!" he cried.

Jeff swore out loud behind her. She dashed past Clint through the doorway and bounded down the stairs two at a time. The only thing going through her head was shuck, shuck, shuck, shuck, shuck.

In her panicked state, she had run across the Glade towards the Gardens before stopping to catch her breath. Alby spotted her first. He usually ignored whatever she did but Cassandra guessed all his senses must be on high alert now. It didn't matter though; she needed all the help she could get to track Ben down. She was most afraid of the boy having run back into the Maze. If he did that, he was an absolute goner. There was no way they would be able to go in there, find him and bring him back before the Doors closed.

She glanced down at her watch. There was only about three hours left. Alby ran back towards the Homestead after she told him what happened, which annoyed her. Surely he didn't think the crazed sick Runner would be hiding in the cracks of the floorboards. She then looked for Newt to tell him the bad news.

"Where's Tommy?" he immediately asked.

"I am the last person to ask that," she replied. "Isn't he with Chuck?"

"I saw him run into the Deadheads," Zart said, walking up to them. "He chased after a beetle blade."

"Cass." Newt turned to her with slight panic on his face. "Get that idiot outta there. I'll tell the others about Ben."

"What—"

"Cass," he said pleadingly.

She grunted in frustration before making her way towards the copse of trees on the far side of the Glade while cursing Thomas in her mind. The Deadheads was still the one place she loathed going into. She hadn't been in there ever since they buried Nick.

Cassandra clicked her tongue in irritation and swatted at a low hanging branch that was in her way. She couldn't find any footprints to indicate Thomas had run this way of the grove so the logical assumption would be that he managed to find the graveyard. Of course he would.

Changing her course, she stumbled over a few roots on her way there. The stream soon came into view and she could hear a scuffle from up ahead. Then Ben's voice was ringing shrilly throughout the grove. A wave of trepidation washed over her as she sprinted in the direction of the sounds.

She spotted him up ahead, holding a long knife in his hand as he struggled with another boy on the ground. Thomas thrashed his body frantically, crying out for help as he held Ben's arm away. Cassandra stared in horror for a second before she ran forwards and hurled herself into Ben's side.

She gripped the knife in her hand and felt the blade sink into her flesh before twisting it quickly out of the boy's grip. Thomas scrambled forwards to kick Ben hard in the stomach and she yelled at him to stop. "Hey, what the shuck?!"

"He'll kill the both of us!" he shouted at her.

"No, he won't!" she snapped. "Ben? Are you okay? You need to go back to bed, you're not—"

Ben pushed himself off the ground and throttled Cassandra back down. She fell onto a pile of muddy leaves with a loud grunt and lashed out in defence. His skin was full of sickness, dark green veins pulsating along his arms and neck; telltale signs of the Changing process.

This was a boy she had often talked to in the Map Room, discussing patterns, drinking and eating together. There wasn't a friendship stronger in the Glade than the one the Runners shared with each other. They were a little family tucked within that concrete structure full of musty maps and the smell of copper. Once, he had chased away a couple of boys that had been taunting her.

Now he was trying to strangle her.

Thomas grabbed the knife from the ground and smashed the butt against the side of Ben's head hard enough to throw the boy off balance. She quickly scrambled back to a stand just as Alby tore through the thicket. He had a bow stretched with an arrow in his hands and Cassandra realised that was the reason he had ran back to the Homestead instead.

"He'll wanna take us home!" Ben shouted frenziedly. "He'll wanna get us out of the Maze. Better we all jumped off the Cliff! Better we all tore each other's guts out!"

"What is he talking—" Thomas started.

"Shut your face!" Ben screamed at him.

Cassandra had never seen anyone act that way before. To be honest, the only person who had ever acted this hysterical in her time in the Glade was herself. She didn't like that distinction. Did she look like that whenever she started spouting lunacy too?

"Ben..." she called out to him desperately. "Ben, please stop. You need to go back to bed. You're not well."

"He's bad, Cass, you know that too, right?" The boy turned to her with wild eyes. "You know what I'm talking about, right?! We need to kill him!"

"Ben," Alby said calmly. "I'm gonna count to three. Back off."

"Ben, please, just come over here." She held her hand out to him. "We'll take you back to the Homestead. You'll feel better in a couple of days. Just—"

"He's bad, he's bad, he's bad..." he started chanting underneath his breath and fidgeted his hands. "Bad, bad, bad, bad..."

He wasn't listening to anyone. Cassandra took a deep shuddering breath and stepped closer while Alby started counting down. Ben lifted his head and smiled with bared teeth. Cassandra could feel her heartbeat skyrocket as she inched her way forwards.

"Ben..." Thomas said. "I'm not—I don't even know what..."

The boy screamed a mad strangled sound that didn't sound quite human. He lunged forwards at Thomas once more and at the same time, Cassandra felt something swoosh past her face. Alby had shot his arrow and it hit its mark through Ben's cheek. The other Runner's head snapped to the side from the impact and landed on his front a couple of feet away.

Cassandra let out an ear-splitting scream and ran towards him, dropping to her knees next to the boy's body. Blood was slowly starting to pool around his head and she gasped from shock. Disbelief filled her to the brim as she looked down at him, then she turned around towards Alby furiously. Accusingly.

"You shot him! How could you? Alby, how could you?!" she yelled.

"There ain't nothin' we can do for Ben anymore," he told her.

"Shut up!"

"Come on," Alby said detachedly. "Baggers'll take care of him."

"B-but..." Thomas looked back and forth between them.

"Leave!" Cassandra snarled at them. "Get lost! Get out of my sight!"

Thomas stared at her like he was incapable of comprehending what had just happened and Alby was already walking away. Cassandra screamed some more until Thomas finally left then she turned back to Ben and broke out into anguished sobs. Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. They might have been able to hear her wailing from all the way across the Glade to the Homestead. She didn't care. Ben was dead.

#BenDeservedBetter