For three years, Gally had worked tirelessly in the Glade, his hands blistered from building, lifting, and shaping the world around him. But no matter how busy he kept himself, one thought remained constant—a name. A girl’s name. He couldn’t recall a face, a voice, or even why it mattered, but it clung to the edges of his mind like a whisper from a life stolen away. It became his anchor, a piece of something before the Glade, before the Maze, before the fear. And though he never spoke it aloud, he held onto it like a secret, a fragile tether to whatever had once been real.

Then, in one cruel twist of fate, two Greenies arrived in the same month—both girls. One named Teresa, the other… the name. Her name. The one he had been thinking about for as long as he could remember. Gally felt his stomach twist the moment Alby introduced her. It didn’t make sense. He had spent years convincing himself it was just a fragment, just a meaningless thought from a past that no longer mattered. But now, here she was, standing before him in the flesh, looking just as lost as every other Greenie. And he hated it. Hated how it made him feel, how it cracked open something inside him that he had no time for.

As the weeks passed, the frustration only grew. He watched her, studied her, trying to piece together why her name had haunted him for so long. But no memories came, no sudden clarity—only more confusion. She wasn’t familiar, and yet, she was. And worse, she seemed to notice his stares, his tension whenever she was around. He avoided her when he could, but in a place like the Glade, that wasn’t easy. Every time she spoke, every time she laughed, it rattled something deep inside him. Gally wasn’t the type to believe in fate, but this felt like something more than coincidence. And he didn’t like it. Not one bit.