The Withered Flower That Bloomed In Autumn
CHAPTER 1 | The Greenie: We've got a Runner !
TMR x Seon (OC) fanfic / FTM ⚧︎ / 2,729 word count
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The sudden grinding sound of metal against metal awakened her from a deep sleep. A dry, violent cough tore from deep within her core while her body jolted to the ground, grasping for air.
Tears welled in the corner of her eyes. She felt impossibly weak, dizziness rolling through her head hard enough to make her stomach churn every time the ground shook. Why is the ground shaking ?
That’s when she realized something was off.
She slowly steadied her breath, forcefully, focusing on her surroundings as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. There were many boxes stacked around her in this… cage ? They all had something written on it. One word stamped over and over. WICKED.
What is WICKED ? Where am I ? How did I end up here ? What is happening ?
Wait.
Who am I ?
Before she could think further about these questions that clawed at her inner conflicts, she tried to push herself upright — only for the ground to shake violently again. Her arms gave up on her, nearly making her lose balance.
She jerked to the side before clutching onto a crate with one arm, her other hand slammed down against the metal grid beneath her. Her eyes followed the pressure of her palm, staring down into the void below in pure bewilderment.
She was rising.
An elevator.
The cage ascended at a consistent pace, climbing the tunnel. She wondered how she could recognize what this was — how she understood how machines worked, how words fit together — knowing so well the way the sun sets over the beach, how it feels to have sand smeared beneath her feet. And yet, have no reminiscence of any of those things. She couldn’t even remember something as simple as her own name.
It was as if huge pieces of her life had been ripped out, only hollow gaps where memories should have been.
The simple thought of it was absolutely terrifying. Fear washed over her body, sending her sinking back to the floor. The harsh sounds of chains rang through her ears relentlessly. She clamped her hands over them, pressing them as hard as she could to drown out the sound.
She wanted to scream but she could barely even breathe. So she whispered a prayer — to God, if He even existed — to make whatever this nightmare stop.
In a flash of a second, some harsh beeping blasted through the air repeatedly. She flinched at the sound, head snapping from left and right as she searched for the source.
The rising room started to shake gradually worse, speeding up. Alerted, she looked up. Far above, faint orange spots grew larger the more the cage rose, indicating the end of the tunnel.
The beeping cut out suddenly and her body jolted in the air, slamming back on the floor when the cage halted abruptly; Pain shot through as her coccyx struck the metal too hard, forcing a sharp yelp from her throat.
Without another second to wait, the ceiling split in two following a loud clank, revealing brightness into the cage she was in. She hissed at the brutal exposure of the light blinding her, shielding her eyes with the back of her right hand.
Then, she heard something familiar. Voices. Human voices. She looked up in fear, vision swimming as her pupils struggled to adjust but eventually doing so. For a brief moment, her gaze was fixed on the sky above, impressed by how impossibly blue, clear and cloudless it was. It almost stunned her.
Then her attention went back to the voices above her. Silhouettes of strangers loomed over the opening, leaning in to have a better look at her, whispering and talking amongst each other.
“Greenie’s here !”
“What does the new shank look like ?”
“Looks like a shuck-face to me.”
“How old is he anyway ?”
“Too young I presume.”
“Yeah, I think he’s going to be a Slopper.”
“Welcome to hell, Newbie.”
”Shuck it, you're gonna scare him !”
“I think he’s gonna piss his pants.”
Her eyes darted frantically, not knowing where to rest. She was hit by a wave of anxiety and confusion crawling up her spine. There was just too much noise, too many words she didn’t understand, too many faces. All too much.
They all looked down at her with open curiosity and something more – something foul, as if she was some kind of new creature. Her breath hitched at the overwhelming pressure, eyes flicking towards one face and another. Her instincts were screaming at her. Run.
She jolted to the side when suddenly, a rope was thrown in the cage, falling right next to her with a dull thud. Laughter followed immediately, fingers pointing at her, mocking her for getting scared. How dare these people just laugh at her face ? Was this all just funny to them ?
“Come on up, Greenbean !” A voice yelled at her, sharply shaking the rope once.
The boy holding it was tall and broad, muscles stretching beneath his shirt; His biceps were probably the size of her head. He was definitely good looking — his dark skin glimmered under the sunlight, his stare deep yet detached — as if this was something that happened frequently.
Hesitantly, she stood up, looking back and forth at him and the rope before wrapping it tightly around her palms, hauling herself upward.
The crowd closed in once she reached the surface, eyes scanning her head to toe, some craned their necks out of the crowd to have a better look at the newcomer. All eyes were on her. Every second that passed made her chest tighten further.
She didn’t even have time to think or ask questions. There was literally no space to even breathe — it was all too much. She turned in a slow circle, rapidly drifting her eyes from one face to another, desperately searching for the slightest space between the horde to escape.
”Alright, move, move, now !” The same boy who held the rope barked, stepping towards her. The crowd parted instinctively, making a way to let him through.
There.
That gap.
That was her shot.
In a trice, she ran straight towards the boy without hesitating once. The boy froze, eyes widened in shock, swerved to the side just in time before they could collapse, to which she dashed forward the opening he left behind. She shoved past startled bodies as the crowd slowly broke apart to avoid bumping into her.
She was now running across the vast field, away from the noise. Each step faster, legs pumping as her breath quickened. From a distance, laughter and indistinct shouting trailed behind her but she didn’t bother to look back.
“We’ve got a Runner !” Someone shouted behind her.
She didn’t slow down. Her eyes wandered around, searching for a way out, anywhere but far from these people, somewhere she could disappear — an exit from whatever this new place was.
An exit.
That’s when her eyes caught a dark space between two massive walls far off to the left. That was it. That was exactly her sign to go in. There was no better time than now.
Her heart surged. She took a huge breath before sprinting harder, the wind rushing through her hair, tearing at her clothes. Her arms swiftly drove her forward, accelerating her pace.
The laughter and chattering suddenly died out – panicking noises and screams echoed replacing it. The intense pounding of footsteps thundered after her, eventually reaching her ears.
“Stop ! Stop it, right there !”
She briefly glanced back. They were all running now. Faces tense, fearful. By that time, her breath was steadier, stride smoothing out, going directly to her goal. That was enough of a reason to not stop.
But as she approached what she thought was a simple door leading to an exit, the closer she got, the more she realized something was wrong. Her eyes followed the ivies on the walls all the way up, impossibly high to a point it made her neck ache. It was inhumanely immense. They looked endless.
Her gaze flicked to her sides, scanning her surroundings. She noticed a few wooden buildings from afar, trees, forest and animals roaming around. Everything seemed normal but wherever her eyes landed, those same gray walls were framing all of it. What was this place ?
”You better stop Greenie when we’re warning you !” A boy shouted desperately. “You really don’t wanna go in there !”
Thankfully, the voice pulled her from her thoughts, almost causing her to stumble due to the distraction. The warning was barely registered. The wind spilling from inside those walls called her to come inside, like an enchanting whisper – almost seducing her.
This was her only opportunity; she was so close, so close to reaching the exit. A surge of adrenaline made her rush faster towards the opening. She glanced one last time behind her; the panicked faces and screams never subsided. She let out a short huff mixed with a sigh, a sense of relief washing over her — only for that relief to end in an instant.
Her face bashed onto something thick and solid. She rebounded violently, crashing to the ground miserably. Her head met with the ground with a sharp smack, striking a rock with a sickening crack as she uttered a loud groan, the insufferable pain spreading across her right temple.
A few gasps and winces rippled through the crowd, some letting out a sigh as they all slowed down, relieved to see her finally stop.
She mewled, pressing her right carpal bones against her temple, vision blurring. She tried to sit up, only to fail miserably as she collapsed back onto the ground, rolling on her back now staring up at the sky.
Then she noticed something.
Her eyes squinted trying to see what she was seeing was actually what she thought it was, her blurred eyesight finally focusing on the silhouette above her.
A boy, standing over her, looking down at her with a disgusted look — almost pitying. Asian, like her. Tanned skin. A dirty shirt with rolled sleeves revealing few scars drawing across his veiny forearms. He was covered with sweat streaking down his face all the way down to his neck, cheeks flushed from what she reckoned, hard work.
She tilted her head slightly, brows furrowed, dazed, piecing it together with what just happened. Realization hit her the second she noticed the thick leather material that was covering his broad chest; I ran into him.
Her lips parted in disbelief, trembling a little bit in an attempt to form a sentence. He hadn’t even moved an inch. Was he made of stone ?
Before she could even sit up, three boys knelt down to her sides, brutally pinning her down the ground. More people joined to restrain her legs to calm her down but she was like a trapped animal, thrashing wildly.
Anger rushed through her veins, hot and sudden, her hands clenching into fists despite the grips pinning her in place. Her eyes were still locked on the boy standing above her — and so was he. The intensity of their shared gaze was unmistakable. She didn’t look away.
Neither did he.
She growled in response, fighting back the boys who were twice her size. Her arms desperately shook under their grip, hip lifting from the ground, eventually kicking one of the boys directly in the face, getting a scream of agony out of him, clutching his nose as blood spilled between his fingers. She jerked against the boys holding her, muscles burning, chin lifting in defiance despite the situation.
“Get off me ! Don’t freaking touch me !” She groaned loud enough for her voice to echo in the whole Glade.
The boys were having a hard time holding her down at this point, all panting and grunting in frustration as they all shared a look of mutual confusion. Then, the same dark-skinned boy returned, stopping right in front of her. He stared at her for a moment, studying her closely, his eyes scanning every corner of her face. Her stare hardened.
What are you looking at, dullard ? She wanted to scream at him. To all of them. But she held onto those words, teeth gritted and jaw tightened. Why are they doing this to me ? What did I do to be held down like some dangerous animal ? They must have a good explanation for why they were doing this.
The boy cringed at the sight. ”Put him in the pit until he calms down.” He said with a sigh mixed with a groan before walking away, not even glancing back once. Authority rang in his voice, enough to make her stomach drop.
That’s when it finally hit.
Him.
They kept calling her him.
She had noticed, brushed it aside as panic thinking it must be a misunderstanding, that perhaps she just misheard it. But it was getting too repetitive — it was impossible to ignore. Over and over. Boy. He.
Do they really think she is a boy ?
None of it confused her as much as this. The thought twisted something deep in her chest. Of course she knew who she was — didn’t she ? It isn’t hard for one to tell oneself whether they are a girl or a boy. And yet, in this unknown place with no memories to anchor herself to, there was no certainty anymore. It frightened her — almost as if they could convince her that she could possibly be a boy. But she knew she was not. So why ?
The boys effortlessly lifted her up to her feet, their grips around her arms so painfully tight, that they could break her like a stick. She sucked her teeth, shooting one of the boys a death stare, to which the boy loosened his grip — only slightly. Right before getting dragged away, she looked back at the boy she had collided with.
He was still staring at her.
There was something in the way he stared — not the blank curiosity of the others, not even the authority-driven assessment the rope boy carried. This was sharper. Appraising.
As if he were trying to take her apart piece by piece and decide what she was worth. His mouth was set in a hard line, jaw tense, eyes narrowed with something that wasn’t quite contempt, not quite disbelief.
It infuriated her.
Not just because he wasn’t doing anything about it. Not because he’d stood there while others tackled her into the dirt, hands pressing her face-down, knees in her back. But because he watched. Because even now, as they dragged her backward, her boots scraping uselessly against the ground, he looked like he’d already made up his mind about her.
Her glare sharpened, something wild and unfiltered flashing through her eyes — not fear, not panic, but a raw, furious refusal to submit. That finally seemed to do something.
His brow twitched. Just slightly. A flicker of something like surprise crossed his face before it was swallowed again by irritation. His eyes tracked her movement with an intensity that made her skin prickle, like being studied by something alert, territorial. Dangerous.
For a split second, it felt like standing too close to an open flame — familiar in a way she couldn’t explain, and just as likely to burn. Her anger twisted tighter in her chest. Who does he think he is?
She didn’t know his name. Didn’t know his role. Didn’t care. All she knew was that something about him made the chaos inside her surge higher, louder — like he’d struck a nerve she didn’t know existed. Like he represented everything in this place she already hated: confidence, belonging, the ease of someone who knew where they stood.
His gaze didn’t soften. If anything, it hardened — as if her resistance only confirmed something he’d already suspected.
Stupid Greenie, his eyes seemed to say.
She bared her teeth in response, a silent snarl.
Then the boys yanked her forward again, breaking the moment. The ground shifted beneath her feet as she was dragged away, voices rising around her, the dark-skinned boy’s order cutting through the noise. But even as the distance grew, even as her view of him was partially blocked by bodies and movement, she felt it — that look lingering, following her. Like he wasn’t done with her yet.
And that, more than the pit waiting for her, made her blood boil.
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this was the first chapter of my oc’s story, their arrival in the glade ! if yall want more chapters like this, please let me know ! hope yall liked it ;)