Alex, a girl tortured to the brink of death suddenly lands up in the Divergent Book. Faced with the pressing matters of what she knows are about to happen along with her own dark past, will she make it out alive? Eric and Four can't seem to figure her out. What is it with this strange girl, bearing strange scars, that could infuriate and intrigue them both to the point of madness.
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the Divergent trilogy.
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I've always wanted my death to be quick. Painless. Oblivious.
I was supposed to exist the one moment and then just disappear in the next. I was supposed to be engulfed by a white light. I was supposed to be just dead.
Not like this. Not like this never ending limbo between consciousness and death. Stuck between pain and numbness. Trapped between fear and just not giving a shit anymore. I must have drifted into consciousness again since I could feel the numbness slowly disappearing.
My head lolled to the one side, top-heavy and exhausted. My eyes were shut. I thought I've opened them? My wrists chafe against a crude rope. A coppery taste lingers in my mouth. I swallow and the metal tang stuck in my throat making me want to vomit. Why am I tasting blood? Why is my body burning? I try opening my eyes again, but my lids are too heavy. I sigh and the sound almost comes out as a sob. Am I crying? Maybe, my cheeks are wet.
My heart thumps. The strokes are uneven. It sounds weary. I'm weary. The numbness is gone now and my skin feels raw. Every inch of it. The rope digs into my wrists. Its eating my wrists. My shoulder is hot. My body is burning.
"Get up"
Someone is talking. He sounds annoyed. Is he annoyed at me? Why is he annoyed at me? Why am I crying? Why is my body burning? Why am I tasting blood? I try opening my eyes again. I cringe at the sharp blueish-tinted light. The light makes my head hurt. No, it makes my head hurt worse. Besides my wet cheeks I can feel the stickiness of sweat and perhaps blood matting my face. My head hurts. I want to close my eyes again, but a shadow appears in front of me. A dark silhouette of a man. The shadow is fuzzy. Everything is fuzzy. Except the light. The light is too bright. I wince again.
"I said get up"
The fuzzy-shadow kicks me in the shoulder and I erupt in flames. My body is searing. It is throbbing, stinging, blazing like a thousand hot knives slowly slicing every inch of my flesh. But my shoulder is pure agony. It is hot and cold, numb and harsh, biting, raw and it feels like it has its own heartbeat. A heartbeat of a heart that is about to fall out. The room tilts and my already shitty vision blurs even more. Bile rise up in my throat, but it does not enter my mouth. It just sits there, burning my throat. Why is he doing this?
"Stop"
Was that me? My voice is hardly audible. Its scratchy. My tongue stick.
The dark silhouette-man laugh. He sounds like a maniac.
"You want me to stop? Then tell me where he is!" his voice is harsh, like grating metal. It makes my ears hurt. It makes my heart jump. "If you tell me, I'll give you a quick death"
Death. Death will be blessing. It would be a cure against the pain. Against the fear. I want that quick death he offers. I need that quick death he offers me. I'm too weak to last. But why am I not accepting it? Why don't I tell him where the man he's looking for is? My heart squeeze, because I know why. I will not betray my father.
I remember now. Why I'm crying, tasting blood and burning. Why this man bound me, kicked me, hit me, stabbed me, even shot me. I'm protecting my father from this mad man. This lunatic. This monster. That's why.
My eyes involuntarily flick towards to bookcase-door. I wonder if he can hear? Hear the mad man? Hear me? Hear my screams? Wil he come out and save me?
"No" I answer myself out loud. Father was never able to hear anything when he was behind that safe door in his lab. His stupid secret lab that I was not allowed to enter. Ever. Dad did not even know I am visiting him today. He is not expecting me. He is not looking for me. He does not know. He is not going to save me. My heart sinks.
"No?" the man echoes my response, thinking that I've answered him. He sighs, almost like he is also weary of this torturing.
"Fine. I will just find him myself. He is bound to show up sooner or later" he snaps and grabs my arm, yanking me halfway to my feet. I stumble. He does not care. He drags me outside to the balcony.
The wind is warm. It is summer. I never liked summer. The heat does not help my already burning body. My eyes are stinging. I try to focus. I can see the slide-door from my father's apartment. My father's apartment is on the 12th floor. The last floor.
I suddenly feel the cold metal of the railings press against my back. Digging into my beaten body. The man – slightly in focus – grabs me by my throat. His watery blue eyes challenging me to give in. His black hair whips in the warm air. His face is cruel. A pink scar marks his cheek. He eyes never leaves mine. He's thinking, but he is out of ideas. I can see it. There is nothing more he can do. I will not talk. I'm stubborn. Weak, but stubborn. The corner of my mouth twitches up in a half smile. Mocking. It's over. My pain will soon end. His eyes harden. He lifts me up, holds me for a little while and then he push.
I'm falling.
Falling
Falling
Falling
Weightlessness surrounds my body. It clings to it. It soothes me. I'm free. The warm wind is cooling down.
I'm going down…down…down.
The air is turning even colder. My skin is turning colder. I like it.
I'm still falling. Straight down. I'm not spinning or twisting around in the air. I'm like a rock. A rock with arms and legs, slightly dangling above me. I see blood on them.
The coldness is numbing. It's taking away my pain. The blood is making streaks down my pale skin. Long red ribbons, but I don't feel anything. The gunshot wound to my shoulder is dead. It's not throbbing anymore. My shoulder is dead. Its own little heart must have stopped or fallen out. Is this death? Will my heart stop before I crash to the ground?
I open my eyes. Its white all around me. I smile. It's over. The pain is gone. I will be gone.
But I'm still falling.
Falling
Falling
Slowly the weightlessness is starting to seep away. It no longer clings to my limbs. It is replaced by something else. A feeling? Pain?
No, thankfully not pain. No, the feeling is…. gravity? A lump form in my stomach. That same lump, mixed with fear, excitement and adrenaline when one bungee-jumps. My weightlessness is gone now. Along with my pain.
I look at my arms. The red ribbons are also gone. I frown. I've been falling for quite some time now.
I look above me. The whiteness is turning into a blue sky. A beautiful, cloudless sky. Oh no. Death is not near. I'm probably gaining consciousness again. I'm probably going to feel the impact of the concrete below me. I'm going to feel pain again.
Suddenly walls appear next to me and the blue sky is quickly turning into a small circle above me. A small blue circle surrounded by a black roof. My body drops and lands into something soft and comforting. It sinks down with my bodyweight and bounces back up a little bit. Slowly swinging up-and-down. Up-and-down.
What the….? This was not what I was expecting.
I turn my head to the side and see that I'm hanging in a giant net; strung across a wide area and fastened with ropes against long metal poles.
What the….?
A flicker of something dark catches my eye and I look back up to the circle of blue sky above me. A dark from is falling towards me.
Shit.
Is that the Mad Man following me? Fear grips me and I try scrambling away. But it is difficult to move on the net. I manage to get on my hands and knees. Someone yells.
"Get out of the way, Initiate!"
I look to the side again and see a guy standing slightly below the net. Initiate?
I try to move again, but the falling body has made his full decent and lands slightly on top of me. His boots kicking my back. I panic. I will not let this man torture me again. I take full advantage of my still pain-free state and wiggle from underneath the body. As I scramble out I kick him. Hard.
"What the fuck!" the man with me on the net exclaims. It does not sound like the scraping metal voice of the Mad Man, but I don't turn around to see if I'm right or wrong. I move quickly on all fours over the net to the guy still standing beside it. His face looks a little startled.
He narrows his eyes and then holds out a hand to me. I grab it and he pulls me off the net and balance me on my feet. I quickly turn my head back to face the man on the net and feel my heart jump with relief as I take in his appearance. It is indeed not the Mad Man following me.
No, this man has short light hair, clean and precisely styled. Like the lunatic, he is also wearing black, but the clothes look vastly different. A neat militaristic style jacket with silver zippers, paired off with the same shade black pants and boots. Something glints just above his right eye. A piercing. My eyes catch his and I flinch when I see the steel in them. The man, not much older than me by the looks of him, flex his jaw and raise a hand to it. I must have kicked him in the face. His silver eyes are drilling into mine. I look away.
"Name?"
I turn to the guy that helped me from the net. "What?" I ask stupidly. Everything is just happening too fast. I was…I was being tortured just a few minutes ago. I lift my arms and look for the slashes made by the knife, but there are no wounds. Only faint light marks. Healed scars. I look down towards my shoulder. My white shirt is clean and fresh. No hole, no blood, no gunshot wound. I move the fabric away to expose my skin and see an ugly, roundish scar sitting where my wound is supposed to be.
What the fuck?
"What is your name" the guy clarifies. His voice is deep, and it rumbles. I face him again and see he is looking at my exposed shoulder. At my wound. I see curiosity reflect in his eyes.
"Alex" I answer and he meets my gaze. He gives a brief smile, but it does not reach his dark blue eyes.
"Last jumper – Alex!" he exclaims loudly to someone behind me. I turn and notice a group of people materialize from between the dark shadows. A few of them cheer while others laugh. Some just stood there looking bored.
"Welcome to Dauntless, Alex" the guy says and push me towards a group of people standing awkwardly to the one side.
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Thanks for reading!
English is not my first language and I would love to have a Beta volunteer for this story!
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