OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN MEANING TO POST THIS LIKE FIVE DAYS AGO TO COMPENSATE FOR MY LATE UPDATING OF DÉJÀ VU BUT I'VE FORGOTTEN TO DO IT ARGH

Anyway, I know this is a really random one-shot, totally out of the blue. When I was writing chapter 27 for Déjà Vu, I actually planned to add in some character death at the part where they get caught. After all, it'd be more realistic to have characters die. But you guys have suffered so many favourite-character-deaths from the actual book itself, I couldn't bear to put it as part of the story.

Yet I felt the urgent need to write it, so that was a problem. Well, problem's solved now, thanks to the invention of one-shots.

So enjoy(maybe not so much) this alternate scene for The Punishment(do people even read my chapter titles? O.o)!

Do I own Divergent, Uriah?

Uri: No, Divergent belongs to Veronica Roth, THE LADY WHO KILLED ME, MY MARLENE, LYNN, AND THE BELOVED TRIS. I HATE HER SO MUCH WHY WOULD SHE MAKE THESE AMAZING CHARACTERS DIE.

Oh God. You're gonna hate me after this one-shot, Uri.

Uri: Why?

*shows story*

Uri: ...

Well... It's not part of the actual story, so technically it isn't canon, and—

Uri: *leaves*

... Oh. Um... Okay then... *looks down guiltily*

WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH AND LOTS OF ANGST. GORE, A BIT GRAPHIC.


"Only if the leader reveals who he or she is. If he or she doesn't, I'll hurt her. And I'm not just talking about Lynn." He grins a crooked grin and looks at Shauna, who is shivering in fear.

Stuck up, uncaring piece of shit. Scumbags like him deserve to go to hell.

"Count of five," he announces. "Five, four, three—"

They all look at me expectantly. I... I can't give myself up to the Erudite. If I do, this whole plan would fail and Tris will have to suffer.

"Two—"

Zeke looks extremely panicky now. He mouths one word towards me; please.

I pretend I did not notice that.

Eric pauses for a while, expecting one of us to have stepped out by now. We're all still. None of us are doing anything. We're all waiting... Waiting for me to make a move. I am the leader, after all.

An extremely selfish leader, at that.

No, I'm not being selfish if I'm doing this for Tris' sake.

"One."

I blink many times. Each time I blink, I see Lynn's clothes getting even more soaked in blood, and Shauna's pants starting to get dyed the same colour. The only things that I can hear are the gunshots from the Erudite and the blood-curdling screams from the sisters. As the seconds go by, the screams get more and more strangled, until they are completely suppressed.

Suppressed by death.

I look at their dead bodies. Their shirts have several bullet holes in them and Shauna's eyes are wide open. They are empty, like their bodies. Just hollow shells that used to house their souls.

Lynn's fatal shot seems to be in her neck. It must have been shot through her throat since there is a small hole at the front with another hole in the same position, but at her nape. Shauna's is through the forehead. There is a dark red dot just below her hairline, with blood still trickling past her eyebrow.

Everyone stares at their bodies in shocked silence. Marlene breaks it with a heavy sob. She drops to her knees and covers her mouth as she cries. Uriah follows suit, except he doesn't cry. He wraps an arm around her comfortingly and she cries into his shoulder. Eric snorts at the sight unfolding in front of him.

"Such a shame that I'm not into necrophilia. Wasted chances, if you know what I mean," he winks at Zeke while stroking Shauna's arm. Sick.

Zeke clenches his fist so hard that I see blood drip down his fingers. Eric notices that too, and he smirks. He is smart, he knows which are the places to hit hard. Shauna is one of them. Well, was.

"No! Don't go!" Marlene exclaims as she grabs Lynn's hand. "We've so many more years to live, Lynn!"

Eric raises an eyebrow in amusement. Amusement. This is all just entertaining for him to watch. It satisfies the sadistic part of him, which would be all of him. "Oh well. Nobody still wants to own up? In that case, we'll hold you here for further questioning."

I may not be Erudite, but I do know what that means. He'll probably put us in cells or somewhere with high security until I tell them that it is I who is the leader. If I had revealed myself earlier, the result would be the same. We would not be able to achieve our ultimate objective, which is to rescue Tris.

Yet I feel something is stuck in my throat; if I try to speak, something will prevent the sounds from coming out. Or I'll choke as soon as I open my mouth, as if I'm submerged in water.

Are these feelings... Guilt?

That's impossible. How do I get that feeling from doing nothing wrong, or even anything at all? In order for success, sacrifices have to be made. We cannot accomplish anything without taking risks.

Getting caught and thrown into a cell is one of the risks.

The door slides shut with a resounding bang. Marlene slumps against the wall with Uriah following suit. Zeke sits in a corner and stares at the wall, while Will and Christina are hugging each other tightly. Tori looks indifferent.

Even though they are doing different things, they have one thing in common: They are staying away from me.

I know what happened there was a huge shock, but is there really a need to avoid me like the plague?

Deciding that we should not waste any more time than we already have, I clear my throat and say, "Since we are going to be stuck here in Erudite, we might as well make use of our time here to find and rescue Tris, which is the main reason why we're here."

"No," Marlene mumbles, her head hung. Her voice is small and it trembles. Still looking down, she continues, "The main reason why we're here is because someone refused to hand himself over."

"Marlene," Uriah says in a warning tone that doesn't really seem that disapproving of her words. "Calm down."

"Calm down?" Her voice is even more shaky. "Calm down? How the fuck am I supposed to calm down when my best friend and her older sister died literally ten minutes ago?"

He presses his lips into a tight line. I can't tell if he's angry or sad or whatever feeling he's feeling.

Tori looks in my direction. I feel a bit of relief since someone finally decided to stop avoiding me completely. Knowing her, she'd want to continue this mission.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

The look she sends me is cold, and it fills me with dread. "You know, for someone who got Abnegation as a result in your Aptitude Test," she comments, "you are incredibly selfish."

Zeke laughs bitterly, "So I finally know your result was Abnegation. What happened to you, man? Did you get so drunk one night that your whole personality changed? You turned from an honourable, selfless young man to a petty teenager who would let his friends die just for the sake of his girlfriend. I bet you, she's already dead, what would be the point of coming to her aid?"

My body reacts before my mind can. My fist aims for his jaw, but he's quick to block. The next thing I know, I'm on the ground. I didn't see his leg heading for mine. I didn't see anything at all.

His foot rests on my stomach, pressing it in every few seconds. "I told you, you're a petty teenager. You're in denial, so you feel that you should resort to violence."

"Get your foot off your best friend, Zeke," I groan. He raises an eyebrow, completely unamused before lifting his leg up and moving away from me.

"First off, you're not my best friend. Even if it was a one sided friendship, one kind of person would want to punch his buddy?"

"Ever heard of playing?"

"Secondly," he grabs the collar of my shirt and jerks my face close to his. "My best friend would not have left my lover to die when he could have prevented it from happening."

He lets go of me but just before he does that, I notice his eyes are glossy.

Christina sighs, "I used to think you were the less cruel instructor. I might be wrong. Now that I've seen your true self, the both of you are equally as bad." She shoots me a glare and resumes her conversation with Will. They talk in whispers, but I hear Will say, "I can't believe I used to look up to him."

There are so many things happening right now. So many people, so many conversations, so many emotions. Although, I think the one thing they mainly feel would be resentment toward me.

Marlene suddenly lunges at me with a shard of glass from earlier on in her hand. She pushes me into a corner and throws her hand forward. Thankfully I'm strong enough to stop the glass from going anywhere near me. An animalistic scream makes its way out of her mouth, and she shakes and moves her arm around wildly in a crazed frenzy. "Marlene! Stop it! This isn't you!" I exclaim.

She looks up at me with thick tear streaks all over her cheeks. Her face is contorted with anger. "I'LL KILL YOU!" She yells. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!" Her arm slips out of my grasp, making a deep cut in my arm. I grit my teeth, enduring the pain. If I focus more on my new wound than on Marlene who isn't thinking clearly, I'll definitely get hurt. In fact, she might be the one who would get hurt instead.

Uriah wraps his arms around her and holds her back before she can do any more damage. "Shhh, Marlene," he murmurs in her ear before pulling her into his arms. She full on sobs, her anger dissolving, but not completely. She turns toward me and says, "I hope the glass cut a major artery and you bleed to death, just like Lynn and Shauna did."

As Uriah leads her away back to their own corner, I realise.

It is true that in order to get success, you must take risks and sacrifice certain things. If you want good grades, you need to use up the time you would spend hanging out with your friends for studying. Sure you might suffer now, but the result will be worth it, but only if you make the right sacrifice.

I should have been the sacrifice to be made.


That was hella dark. And here I am, sitting in a library, listening to a song called "Candyland" while writing about people dying. Ah yes, the life of an unofficial writer is great.

Ugh, my butt is numb. I'm starving. Time to go eat some food at McDonalds, YAY! :D

Leave a review and stuff, I really wanna see what you guys think. I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate reviews, hehe! But don't worry, this is the non-canon chapter. The real story has a happy ending. :)

Or does it?

Nyaning in the Fear Landscape

~~Divergent Kitty (=^ω^=)