Killing The Cliche

Rated T/M (Violence and language)

Chapter 14 (Tris' POV)

-oo0oo-

"Scared yet?" My 'mother' asks with a smirk, just after my supposed father shot down the cameras.

How did they know? How did they find out? We must have been betrayed by somebody who knew all of the plans, somebody on the inside. If they have a connection to an officer somehow, if could explain the fact that they have never been caught. Their officer friend could be destroying evidence, covering up their tracks..

"Tris, what's going on in there? The cameras have been shot down! We need to get you out of there right now, but we cannot get into contact with any of the officers surrounding the area," Captain Anderson says, frantically, over my ear piece. "Tris, answer me!"

"I'm sorry," I say, my voice shaking. "But this is between me and them... I have to do this alone. Tell Tobias that I'm sorry, and that I didn't want to leave him."

As the last word leaves my mouth, I rip the ear piece away from my ear and throw it to the ground, crushing it under my sneaker until it's in pieces. I look up and straight at my 'parents', who are watching on, with slight surprise plastered on their faces.

"You happy now? It's just us, no cops, no watchers, nothing." I spit.

"That's the dumbest thing you could've done. Now you have nothing. Are you really that desperate to die?"

"Before you talk about dying," I say. "How about you tell me everything? I need to know."

"Well, I'm sure you know most of it, because I have no doubts that you raked the internet for information about that night in Chicago," my 'mother' says. "But you really want to know the details?"

"Yes, I want to know. You owe me that much, don't you think?"

"Very well," she sneers. "We we're watching your house in Chicago for months on end, watching everything you did - what times your real mother and father left for work, what time you and your brother came home. We mapped out your day to the minute. And then one night, we finally struck. We killed them all.. all of them but you, obviously. We knocked you out with a stab wound and a fist to the head and brought you back to our hometown. The knock to your head proved to be much more severe than intended, but catered to our advantage. You barely remembered a thing. Which is why we were able to trick you in to believing that we were your real parents, and you had lived with us your whole life. We weren't caught because we were smart enough not to leave a trace, not to mention our connections to a few individuals on the force who were able to cover up any tracks we had unintentionally left behind."

"Who are you really?" I ask, curiously. I watch them hesitate and roll my eyes. "Come on, you and I both know that I'm not getting out of here alive, right? So what's the harm in telling me?"

"My name's Jeanine Matthews, and my husband is Edward Matthews. Happy?" She eventually spits out.

"So, what now? You'll kill me? And then what? The police already have your image on their computers, it won't be hard to work out your real identity. They can put up posters, ask around. Do you realise just how screwed you are?" I accuse.

"We'll find a way around it, we always do." Edward counters, narrowing his eyes at me defensively. But I can tell he's considering what I just said. If I try to keep them talking for long enough for the police to arrive, maybe I'll actually get out of this, still breathing, that is.

"But now they have your picture. They know who you are. They know what your voice sounds like," I protest. "It's different for you now. Why don't you just give up? You did a bad thing, don't you think you should just own up to it?"

"Yeah, and then maybe we could make friendship bracelets with all the other psychos and murderers we got locked up with?" Jeanine flings back, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Enough of the talk," Edward growls, before I can respond. "We need to deal with you quickly so we can get out of here before your cop friends come and ruin it all."

I back up away from them, slowly, my hands shaking at my sides. Is this it? Is this how I'm going to die? After everything I've been through to prevent this from happening, it's all proved to be useless.

I wish I'd said a proper goodbye to Tobias, that I'd really took the time to hug him for - what I know now to be - the last time. But at least I told him that I loved him. At least, when I go, he'll know how I really felt about him.

But, thinking about it now, saying that and then never coming back to him would hurt him even more than just leaving out feelings unsaid. But he's strong, stronger than me, despite what he's always insisted. He's dealt with his mother's death, his father's abuse... he can deal with this too. I know he can.

I watch Edward's hand, the one of which holds the gun. The heavy metal weapon, the same weapon that threatens my very existence. I wonder if it'll hurt? I hope he shoots me someplace to make it quick. I don't want to prolong it, but I know that's probably exactly what they want; to watch me bleed out, to watch the light leave my eyes, slowly but surely.

I secretly hope that they will show me enough mercy to let me go quickly, to make sure that it isn't painful, so that it's quicker than falling asleep. But I already know that it's wishful thinking. These aren't nice people, and they are going to make sure my death is as painful as possible, after all the grief I've caused them the last few weeks.

So this is it, I guess.

"Please, think about this," I say, attempting to talk him out of what he's about to do. "Do you want more blood on your hands? Maybe if you go to them now you'll get a shorter sentence?"

"A shorter sentence?" He scoffs. "We're already eligible for about fifty life sentences, what's one more going to do, huh? And besides, if we end up escaping successfully, we can't have you giving them our identies. It'd ruin everything. But your curiosity has cost you your life, little girl. I hope you are pleased with yourself."

I'm at a dead end, I have no other plans. I could try to run, but that would be moronic. They'd shoot me before I could even reach the door. There's nothing I could use to defend myself either, just a few old rotting wooden crates nearby. I could continue to try and keep them talking, but I don't think that'd last very long - they're getting more and more impatient as the minutes go by. So I do the only thing that I can think of.

Dashing forward, I use all my weight and crash into Edward, somehow managing to knock him down to the floor. His gun skids a good ways away from us, and I kick it further away so that there's no chance in him grabbing it quickly.

Jeanine runs at me, her hands grabbing for me, but I duck and roll out of the way, allowing her to trip over her husband and fall face first against the concrete floor. Taking advantage of their positions, I run over to where I kicked the gun and grab it, clutching it tightly in my right hand. I spin around to see them climb off the floor, watching me warily. I have the upper hand now. I just have to make the most of it.

"Careful now, Tris," Edward says. "You don't want to do anything you'll regret."

"This is what's going to happen; the cops are going to show up real soon, and then they're going to bang you up for the rest of your life." I say, my voice cold and unfeeling, (trying to mimic Tobias's tone when he's angry, pretty much).

"Why don't you just kill us now?" Jeanine asks, almost mocking me, it seems. An evil-looking smirk is playing at her lips, like she finds the idea of her death amusing. "Don't you want to see some real justice here? An eye for an eye, as they say. We killed your family, took away your life... don't you want to get some revenge, Tris?"

I know exactly what she's trying to do - she's trying to psych me out. But I won't let her. I have to stay true to myself, and I know that I'd never do something like that. I'm no monster. I have to wait this out until the authorities arive to take care of this properly. I shall not hurt either one of them unless neccesary, unless my life is in danger. And right now, it is not.

So I need to keep my composure and just remain calm. I'm better than them, I remind myself, but it's hard to remember that when I have a strange feeling, a feeling that is telling me to pull the trigger.

"I can't reverse what you did, and killing you wouldn't do any good," I say, fighting to keep my voice somewhat steady. "No one else needs to die, as far as I'm concerned. I won't give you an easy way out. You're going to rot in a jail cell, and you will hate every second of it. I'll make sure of that."

"You act like you don't have the same urges as we do, Tris, but you aren't that good of an actress, let me tell you." Edward laughs, humourlessly, so cold and empty that it echoes around the open warehouse.

"I can see it in your eyes," Jeanine adds, watching me closely, as if she is intrigued by what she sees. "You want us dead. You're mouth tells us one thing, but the rest of you tells us another. You want to see us suffer, just like they did. You want to punish us in a more severe, long-term way, to give us a taste of our own medicine, to show us that you are just as capable of taking a life as we are. You -"

"SHUT UP!" I yell, my fingers clenching around the cool metal of the handgun. I can't take their mind games any longer. They're trying to lure me into a trap.

In a split second, Edward is sprinting towards me, his face set into a mean, nasty scowl, and he looks deadly. Bloodthirsty, even. Without thinking, I raise the gun and pull the trigger. He yells out as he falls to the ground, clutching at his shoulder where the bullet lodged itself into his skin.

Jeanine runs to his side and I back up a little, keeping my distance as much as possible. But before she can touch her husband I raise the gun to aim at her head, startling her. "Get back, don't touch him." I growl, narrowing my eyes at the woman before me. Surprisingly, she does as she is told, though looks desperately at her husband who is howling in pain.

He has sunken to his knees, his head hanging as he sobs. I hate myself for relishing in the sight. The man who is so determined to get rid of me, kneeling and crying before me. Eventually, he raises his head to look at me, his eyes stilling on mine. Scarlet liquid has stained his shirt, seeping all the way down his sleeve and trickling along his arm.

He'll bleed out before the cops arrive, I'm sure of it. He's a terrible man, the worst kind of person out there, and he deserves the most painful end. But I can't bring myself to keep him alive like this. I'd want them to do the same for me, and although I know they wouldn't.. I have to be the bigger person about this.

I raise the gun to aim at the middle of his head, and his shoulders sag in relief. He wants his death as much as I do.

"I can live with the blood on my hands, but can you?" He asks, his voice strained.

I let my eyes close and my finger finds the trigger. I hear the shot, and it rings around me loudly, making my ears buzz. And when I reopen my eyes, he's slumped on the floor, not moving, not breathing.

He's gone. I killed him.

My hand shakes so hard that I almost drop the gun, and I stare down at the man I used to call my father, lying in a pool of his own blood. How did it come to this? Almost a month ago I was a normal girl with a normal family. Now I'm a girl with the blood of his father on her hands.

It's hard to believe that I did this. That I'm going to be held responsible for this. But it was in self defence. I only shot him in the first place because he charged at me. It was me or him. And I had to choose. It may not have been with bad intentions, but it still makes me a murderer, doesn't it?

I'm only brought back to my senses when a foot kicks me in my side, knocking me to the floor and winding me. I gasp for air, trying to breathe again, but in the time that it's taken me to regain my composure, Jeanine has already grabbed my gun and is stood above me, pointing it straight at my head, right between my eyebrows.

This really is the end now. I'm going to die at the hands of my supposed mother. And I never even got to live my life. I never got to attend college, get married, have kids, grow old... What have I got to show for the seventeen years I've been here?

Just as I hear the bullet click into the chamber, the large metal door to the warehouse skids open and there's lots of yelling.

The police. Finally.

"Put the gun down!" Someone yells. But as soon as the words have been uttered she pulls the trigger. I scream and roll out of the way, but I don't stop screaming after that.

An excruciating amount of pain stabs at my stomach, and I can't breathe, I can't think, I can't move. But my eyes remain on my shooter long enough to watch her raise the gun to her temple and pull the trigger, killing herself.

"Tris! Tris I need you to stay awake, you need to stay with me, ok?" Somebody is saying, and I feel hands on my shoulders, keeping me from writhing around in pain. The person keeps talking to me, trying to get me to stay awake. I'm not sure who it is, as my vision is blurry, and it's a struggle to keep my eyes open.

My body is getting heavy and every fibre of my being wills for the seemingly neverending pain to just stop. But the one thing that keeps me conscious in this moment is the approaching sound of somebody screaming my name, so desperately that their voice crack and I can hear them sobbing as they kneel next to me.

A hand slips into mine and another cradles my cheek. "Tris," they plead. "Don't leave me, baby. C'mon, you need to fight now, harder than you ever have before. Please, you can't leave me too. I need you here. I need you, Tris."

A sense of relief washes over me, because I'd know that voice anywhere.

Tobias.

I want to open my eyes again, I want to assure him that I'm here and that I'm awake, but I can feel myself slipping into the unknown. I fight to stay awake, to stay conscious, but voices are fading and blurring into one colossal amount of white noise.

And then there's nothing. Just darkness and silence. No sirens, no gunshots, no shouting, no crying... just silence. Am I done yet? Is this it? I don't know if I can be forgiven for all that I've done up to this point. I don't know; I don't know; I don't know.

I want to be with Tobias, I want that new life we were talking about. I want the opportunities to have kids and get married and grow old. But as much as I fight and yell and scream in my head, nothing changes.

This really is the end. And what a tragic one it was.

-oo0oo-

Authors Note:

AGH! The drama! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I worked super hard on it, and I hope it satisfied all of your expectations! This isn't the last chapter, there are still around two left, so stay tuned!

Leave a review and let me know what you think!

- GuiltyMind