Chapter 24: Discussion
Pov Gregory:
Me, Albe, Carlos, Henry, Felix, Mark, and Kyle were all in the meeting house. Albe stood in the corner looking at the rest of us, the five perpetrators as I like to call them sitting across from me. I had my spear by my side as I stared at them.
"I've heard you five tried to banish Alex earlier today…"
They all stared at me with contempt, the 11-year-old boy with only a right ear.
"What do you know? You are a kid!"
"The kid who has gone into the maze every day, risking his life trying to find an exit to save all of your sorry asses."
"Well, no one asked you to."
"What? Were you going to do it? No, of course not. And I'm the only person in this glade who knows the exact paths of the maze, that's what I know. Listen, I just want to know why you guys wanted to banish Alex, I'm sure there is a good reason."
"It's because he's been stealing food."
Henry said that, obvious signs of lying. His foot unconsciously tapped on the ground, he doesn't usually do that. I look at Carlos, everyone knows that he is good at telling lies, that's why I have been specifically avoiding telling any.
"He's telling the truth."
'Carlos is doubling down, they don't want to disclose their actual reason, and the food excuse is a perfect shield, although I'm angry I can't do much right now. Well… I could kill all of them, but I would just lose favor with everyone in the glade. Also, my precious GP will be lost, and I don't want to kill anyone anyway.'
'But I've learned that they are specifically against me and Albe, along with Alex. At least I've gained something from this.'
"Well ok, but I'm going to let Alex out of his cell, he's already suffered enough from this experience wouldn't agree."
Carlos narrowed his eyes at me.
"No I don't agree, he should be locked up."
I stand up using my spear as support.
"Carlos… you've already overstepped your boundaries today, So I recommend you back… off… before things get messy."
Although I can't kill them that doesn't mean I'm going to concede to them and let them get whatever they want. Them trying to banish Alex was a clear sign of provocation toward me, I've already labeled them as my enemy.
I started walking out of the meeting house, but the five of them quickly got up and blocked me from the exit.
The aura around me became menacing, very similar to earlier, a red glow appeared in my eye, though mightily dim, I gripped the spear in my hand and looked Carlos and the others directly into their eyes, a kind smile appeared on my face, but it was anything but kind.
They all stood above me in height looking down at me, sweat ran down the side of their heads, as they looked at my wooden spear to my side nervously, but they didn't back down.
*Fwoosh* The spear in my hand, spun around in a blink of an eye, swiftly traveling to Carlos's neck. It looked like it was going to pierce his neck but stopped right before.
"AHHH"
Carlos screamed as he fell on his butt. He looked up at me in fear as he crawled away. The others backed away, letting me walk out of the door.
Albe, who has been silent throughout the entire conversation, was surprised at what just happened. But he didn't let it show, but calmly walked out with me.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Alex hugged me as he cried, I had just let him out of his cell. I'm figuring out that he is quite emotional.
"Let go of me!"
I squirmed as I tried to get out of Alex's Grip. He didn't let go of me and I just had to resign to my fate. When he eventually stopped I was flushed with embarrassment. I'd like to say this was just a part of my childish act, but it wasn't.
*Sigh*"Anyway we three need to talk. So how about we meet up later."
"Why not right now?"
"Hmm, I guess right now is fine."
"So what do you want to talk about?"
"First of all, Alex, did you steal any food?"
"No of course not, I would never!"
"When I checked up after your shift some of the food was gone."
Albe Interjected.
"Then how about you tell me everything that happened during the night you guarded?"
"Well, The greenhorn woke me up and I counted the food, nothing was missing. After that, I started guarding."
"Did anything happen while we were guarding?"
"Hmm, ya there was one thing, I heard a strange noise coming from outside, so I went to check on it, and it turned out it was nothing. Nothing else happened."
"Wait, you said that you heard something from outside, and went to check on it… if we are assuming that you aren't lying about stealing the food, then the only possible outcome would be that someone else stole the food."
"And if you said nothing else happened, then the only possible window for someone to steal food was when you went to check on the weird noise, assuming that you aren't lying about that either, which I don't. Then someone stole the food while you were checking out the weird noise. That is the only other conclusion if you didn't steal the food."
"Then how did the food end up underneath Alex's bed?"
"The person that stole it just planted it underneath the bed, framing Alex."
"Then it must have been one of those five bastards, I'm going to confront them right now!"
Alex said while gritting his teeth, he was about to storm off but I stopped him.
"Whoa, their tiger, easy, even if it was them we have no proof, if you are looking at this from an outside perspective, then it is much easier to say that you're lying than the frankly outlandish story of someone distracting you than stealing the food. So settle down, there isn't anything we can do."
I prevented the disaster of Alex storming off and getting into a fight with Carlos. Alex was still pissed though. The sky was dark, and it was about bedtime, the next person was already taking their shift guarding the food, and many people were going to bed.
"Is there anything else you want to talk about? I'm tired and today has been a stressful day, so I want to go to bed."
"No Alex, there is nothing else you can go to bed."
"Ok goodnight, see you tomorrow."
Alex walked away to the bedrooms leaving me and Albe, we were still at the prisons. Albe started walking away.
"Wait, Albe there is one thing."
Albe stopped in his tracks and turned to me.
"Is it about what happened back at the meeting house?"
"No, but I will say that I did what I had to do back there."
He nodded his head in response.
"Why didn't you keep Alex here?"
"Although I trust him, what I'm about to say is very important, it's better to be safe than sorry. Do you remember the Newbie Able?"
"You mean the one that came after me?"
"Ya, he's still alive…"
The shock was evident on Albe's face, his mouth agape eyes dilated, and he quivered in his boots.
"You're lying, you have to be, there is no way someone can survive that long in there!"
"I'm not lying, I saw him on one of my trips in the maze, at first I thought it was a ghost, but no it was him."
"…What does this mean?"
"This means that he is the one that has been stealing our food, he has snuck in, stole some, and gone back into the maze to wherever he is hiding."
"But then why hasn't he come back? Why has he resorted to stealing when he can just come and ask us?"
"Simple, any sane man would do what you have described, but the newbie is no sane man he has been stuck in the maze with monsters, if he found his way back to the glade before he went insane he would've done what you described, but the newbie had to survive in the maze alone, for months, until he eventually went insane."
—Later that night—
Pov Griev:
"The plan didn't work Griev"
'Of fucking course it didn't Carlos, the entire point of this is to divide the glade up in conflict, actually, the plan went well considering that is exactly what happened, but you wouldn't know this Carlos, you're just a puppet. A puppet that is frighteningly good at telling lies how do I respond without it being a lie.'
"I say lay low for a while, it seems Gregory is on edge. It will be hard to do anything when he has his guard up, let us wait until he slips and then we strike, hehehehehe."
"For now I need to get a constant stream of food and water without having to steal it, so figure something out, I'll come to this spot every week to collect the food and water."
"Ok… What will we do in the meantime?"
"Nothing, like I said, lay low until he brings his guard down."
(Carlos? Power? Carlos? Stone? Carlos? Power? Carlos? Stone? Carlos? Power? Carlos? Stone? Carlos? Power? Carlos? Stone? And maybe a review:)
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone