˚ ༘✶₊˚. ⊹ ˚ . FIRST ACT
❪ TWO ♥︎ ₊˚༢࿐ ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

MAE WAS OFFICIALLY BANNED FROM SUPPLYING DRINKS after all of the boys got so high they passed out in different parts of the Glade. ( Mae didn't know how she ended up in a tree but she wasn't complaining.) And although Nick had told her not to, it didn't stop her from convincing Minho to convince Newt to convince Nick to let them have it at least once a month when a new Greenie arrived—thus beginning a new tradition.

The next day, Mae had carved her name into the wall, or at least she tried to. Minho had to finish it because she kept cutting her fingers but once Mae had been officially on the wall, she was happy to be considered a Glader.

Admittedly, a week after the bonfire, the boys at the Glade had grown to love Mae for her odd ways──but it still took a lot to get used to. She was a little overbearing sometimes, her clueless nature could get annoying and she didn't know the meaning of personal space.

Like yesterday, when Winston was taking a shower in Homestead, Mae just waltzed right in to brush her teeth. He freaked out, and when Mae finally noticed him there, she simply giggled and said quick good morning before hopping out of the room.

Winston hasn't made eye contact with her since without blushing in embarrassment, because Mae had been the first girl to see him like that ever. ( The other Gladers tease him endlessly for it.)

Mae also liked to follow people around when she was bored, and within ten minutes the boys were already shooing her away back to her job.

The only people who didn't seem to care about her closeness was Newt, Minho and surprisingly Gally.

Mae would follow Newt around to ask him questions, which he answered as best as he could. While Minho seemed to match her energy most times, it came to the point where Mae had to walk away from him.

And when it came to Gally, she followed him everywhere──which he quietly preferred. She was sit and talk his head off while he worked and he would built whatever the Glade needed while listening intensely to everything she said, ( even though he pretended he wasn't.) No one ever really tried anything with Mae whenever she was with him. 

The council had gathered one day in regards to Mae. They all noticed how needy the other Gladers were getting around her. Stamping her as their unspoken entertainer, always wanting to get her alone. Mae, of course, was oblivious to it. Nick decided that one of the Keepers were tasked with keeping an eye on her at all times, keep her out of trouble.

"Do you like this?" Mae asked one sunny morning, sitting on the wooden roof on the little home Gally was building.

The boy stopped to look at her, wiping the sweat from his forehead. She was holding out a a bracelet of a sort, which she made from rope strings and flower petal dye, "Sure," He said, giving a small, barely noticeable smile before getting back to work on hammering nails in place.

Mae smiled proudly, and continued braiding her bracelet.

"Mae!" Newt walked up to her, George and Minho beside him as the blonde held onto an empty bucket, "I thought I told you to dig us up some more fertilizer."

She reddens, "I forgot. Sorry, Newt."

"What's that?" George asked.

Mae holds it out with a smile, "I'm making friendship bracelets! Don't you like it?"

George scrunched his nose, "It's─" He froze when he noticed Newt, Minho and Gally looking at him, "It's awesome, Mae." He laughs nervously.

"Great, because I made all of you one!" She smiled, grabbing her bag and pulling out multiple bracelets. The boys groaned, "Oh come on! This shows how close we are here in the Glade."

"This is embarrassing." George mumbled, still allowing Mae to slip the bracelet on his wrist and tightening it.

Newt was also reluctant, but Mae wasn't going to take no for an answer and slipped it into his small wrist.

Minho didn't seem to have a problem, and even commented on how much nicer his looked compared to everyone else's.

"No," Gally said.

Mae frowned, "Why not?"

"I'm not really a bracelet person," He huffs.

Mae sighed, and put it on the wood beside him and pulling a big happy smile, "You don't have to wear it! But I'll leave it here just in case."

Newt taps the bucket again, "Fertilizer." He reminds.

She sliding off the roof, hops over to Newt and grabs the bucket with playful eyes, holding it tight against her chest and running off to the forest.

──────────────────

Mae takes her time walking along the walls of the Glade, pressing her fingers against the stone and moving it along the bumps and curves. In her other hand, was her bucket of fertilizer, and pretty yellow flower placed on top that she planned to give to Newt as a present when she came back.

The girl had wandered back toward the entrance, her eyes straining down the path as far as her sight could reach. Mae shook her head, remembering Nick's words.

Rule number one, Never go outside the Glade, unless you're a Runner.

She gave a huff, and move away from the entrance. Mae was already on thin ice, she didn't want to cause any problems.

But then she heard it, the sound of rumbling from inside the Maze.

A gust of wind blows her toward it as it breezed through her dress, and caused the yellow flower to fly out of the bucket and float with the wind into the Maze.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, dropping the bucket at her foot. Fertilizer mucking up her bare feet as she ran straight into the Maze without thinking. "Oh, come back!"

She bent down to pick it up, but the wind blows it away forcing her deeper into the Maze and away from her friends in the Glade.

She kept trying to reach it, but it was like the wind was playing tricks on her. The flower floating around above her head and in front of her mockingly.

But Mae was surprisingly fast.

She stomps forward, and catches the steam before it blew away again. "Gotcha!"

She gives a triumphant laugh.

But then it hit her.

Mae's eyes snap back to a pathway, then she turns right where another pathway was, she looks left, another.

She had found herself in the middle of a fork in the road──and she had no idea which way she came from.

Her heart clenched with fear. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Her mind raced over and over again.

What was she thinking? Well, the answer was obvious, she wasn't thinking at all.

Mae panics, her feet spinning her in circles as she tried to remember where to go.

Every path looked the same, every wall was filled with vine and every ground was covered in the same cracks and pebbles.

She was trapped.

"NEWT!" Mae screamed, her voice cracking against the wind, "GALLY?! MINHO! ANYONE PLEASE!"

She cried, pressing her back against the wall for safety, sliding down against it and pulling her knees up, resting her forehead against them.

"Anybody?"

The flower falls from between her finger tips as she cried, all optimism fading. Walls crumbling away as she allowed herself to feel something other than fake happiness. It had been the first time she had been alone since she came up. Mae couldn't remember anything other than the Glade, the boys. She hadn't been on her own since.

And now she was alone.

"Where is that girl?" Newt huffed, throwing down a shovel and putting his arms on his hips as he squinted toward the forest.

Zart shrugged, busy planting another line of seeds, "Beats me. Mae never knows when to stand still," He says, laughing at his joke before he voiced it, "Did you see the way she was tripping around this morning? Girl's was too dumb to function."

Newt reached over the bushes to punch him hard in the chest, causing Zart to skid back with a cry.

"Hey," Gally walked over, jerking a nod in acknowledgment, "You seen Mae anywhere?"

Mae had made Gally promise to get her when he finished his project so that she could see it. He didn't questioned why she cared so much──but he secretly loved the praise that came with it.

Newt furrowed his brows, "I assumed she was with you?" He says, doing a quick sweep around his section, "When was the last time you seen her?"

"Seen who?" Nick questioned, walking up to them. Alby and Minho were standing behind him, "Why aren't you klunks working?"

"It's Mae," Gally filled in, his voice just as firm, "I haven't seen her since she went into the forest."

"Yeah," Minho dragged in thought, "Come to think of it, I haven't either."

Nick clenched his jaw, "And none of you thought to tell me about it? That was over an hour ago!"

"I didn't realize," Newt said.

"Well you should've," The leader replied, "I thought we all agreed to keep eyes on her at all times?" He stressed, running a hand through her hair. "Who was on watch last?"

Gally pointed to Newt, who pointed at Minho, who pointed at Gally.

Nick made a strangle noise.

"Relax," Alby put a hand on his shoulder, "It's Mae, I'm sure she's just climbing a tree somewhere, got distracted by a leaf for all we know. I'm sure she's fine."

"NICK!"

A young boy named Stephen, maybe fourteen, shouts from the doors of the Maze. The boys look at each other for a second, before running towards where the Glader shouted.

"What? What happened?" Nick questioned him, insisting him to speak before he even came to a full stop.

The young boy simply pointed to the ground, where a bucket was toppled over, the dirt blowing straight into the entrance of the Maze.

Newt felt sick to his stomach, that was the bucket he gave Mae──and he didn't have the voice it for the boys to know too.

"Minho, get George," Nick said lowly, keeping his calm and his voice to a minimum so the others wouldn't panic, "Tell him, and only him. I want you back here in two minutes."

Minho waste no time turning around and running.

"Alby, take all the boys into the Homestead, I don't care what you tell them, as long as they don't see us when we bring back Mae."

They noticed how Nick said when, instead of if. His was going to bring her back, dead or alive. He just didn't want the others to see Mae in the way he hoped she wasn't.

Alby nods, and turns to rally the Gladers away from the entrance.

"We're coming," Newt says, motioning between him and Gally.

The builders eyes widened. Yeah, Mae was okay, but he wasn't just going to enter the Maze on a chance that she could be alive. Gally felt guilty for thinking so selfishly, but they've only known Mae for a week. He would get over the loss eventually──hopefully.

Nick furrows his brow, "You two are staying here." He says like it's obvious.

"I was a runner—"

"Not anymore," He cuts Newt off, "It's only been a month since your accident. I can't have you slowing us down Newt. It's a quick run in, and a quick run out before the doors close."

Newt clenched his jaw, but said nothing.

"Besides," He continued, looking between them, "If we all go, the others will be concerned, alright? You both help Alby. I don't want to raise suspicion."

"Sounds good to me," said Gally, already making his trek towards Homestead.

Newt reluctantly followed.

After getting over her initial shock, Mae had decided to look on the bright side.

Either way, she was going to be saved.

Mae had faith that the boys would notice she was gone eventually, and venture out to find her and bring her back without a scratch.

And if they didn't, well, Mae could happily say that she had a good run and she opened the boys liked her company.

Was it an odd way of thinking? Of course it was. But Mae believed that everything happened for a reason and if the universe blew her into the Maze then she might as well follow.

She wouldn't dare attempt to be brave and find her own way back. Mae wasn't going to risk getting stuck deeper inside the labyrinth but the least she could do while she waited was keep calm.

So, Mae sat with her back against the ivy wall and hummed to a tune she made up.

A rumble coming from the ground made her stop. Mae's eyes cautiously scanning the maze, listening as the noise travel down the path──it sounded like wheels turning in a machine, the metal clanking and moving so obnoxiously slow as Mae got on her feet and followed it.

The noise stops right in front of a wall, and Mae places her hand on it, pressing her ears against the stone and listening.

And then, almost too fast for her to register it, the wall in front of her slammed down, revealing a new passage way.

Mae falls on her back, her eyes wide. The maze opened for her, just like that.

"Oh, my god."

"MAE!"

It was Minho.

"Mae where are you!"

The girl smiled in relief as three boys turned the corner. Nick, Minho, and George. When they spotted her, they all looked just as relieved──in their own way.

"What were you thinking?!" Nick snapped, "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

Mae's smile didn't waver until she turned back to face the passage, only to find it completely sealed shut. As if it was never there in the first place.

"There was a passage here," She says, putting her hand back on the wall, "It was just here."

"That's the last thing you should be worried about," George says, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her off the ground, "Do you know how late it is? The doors are going to close any minute now—"

"You would've been trapped here, all night," Minho added seriously, "What were you thinking running into the maze like that?"

Just then, Mae remembered the floor, and picked it up from the ground, holding it out for them to see as if that would make them understand her logic.

They didn't.

Nick sighed, running a hand over his face, "Mae," He says carefully, "Did you run into the Maze over. .a flower?"

Mae realized, saying it out loud sounded insane.

She reddened, "The wind blew it in," She adds unhelpfully.

Minho scoffed a disbelieving laugh, "You've got to be kidding me," He turned to them, "We all could've died over a shucking flower."

Nick grabs her shoulders, making him face her, "Mae, look at me." She does, "You are never, ever allowed to come back here. Do you understand? It's dangerous. No matter what, no matter who is in here, you need to promise me that you will never run into the Maze."

Mae looked between the boys with a frown, and then back at the wall behind her.

It was there, she thought, the path was right there.

She swallowed her questions, and reluctantly gave a short nod. It wasn't her place to snoop, she had no reason to. The Glade was her home now, and she wasn't fit to be in the Maze. She was just Mae. And Mae's stay in the Glade at all times.

"I promise."

↳ ❛ NOTES ❜
꒰꒰ If you're annoyed with Mae,
understandable—she's still young
so this is going to make her arc so
much better! also I wonder what
your theories are so far about
Mae's importance before
the Maze—꒱꒱