Chapter 50 pt. 2
Penelope POV
Behind the orphanage I grew up in there was a small stream. It wasn't anything really, only about forty paces wide with large rocks jutting out of the water and every once in a while we would see a fish flopping on the bank. On the edge of the bank was one tree, gnarled and rough. The tire swing had been there since I can remember, a frayed rope knotted to a limb with a round tire swinging from the bottom. I was seven years old when I first got on the tire and the girl who slept on the bunk below me pushed me out over the stream. All I can remember was her telling me to hold on, hold on as tight as I can. I nodded my little head of ginger curls and wrapped my fingers tightly to the rope and crossed my ankles beneath the tire.
It might have been one of those fishes or maybe one of the squirrels that ran around the tree that distracted me.
Honestly, I am not sure I remember what made me let go. The fall isn't what hurt, it was the impact. The feeling of air being sucked from my lips, struggling to take in a breath. Desperate to take the weight sitting on my ribs, it felt like forever for me to regain my breathing. I felt like I was dying.
That was nothing compared to how I feel right now.
The soft murmuring between the people surrounding me makes me feel like the walls are growing larger while I shrink to the size of a pin. My eyes stay trained on the edge of my shoes, how the white laces fade to grey. Tobias is the first to speak between the low words passed between everyone. "Scarlett, what is going on?"
"Don't, don't call me that, please." I run my thumb over the small scar around my thumb. "There are some things I need to tell you, all of you. I only ask that you don't ask any questions until the end."
Tobias groans, "why?"
"Just," I shut my eyes, "no questions until the end. So if you can't keep your mouth shut while I am talking then leave, okay?" No one says a word. "Thank you. Let's start from the beginning then. My name is not Scarlett. My real full name is Penelope Georgette Day. Penn for short. I am twenty-four years old. My parents were killed when I was small, when the Minneapolis project ended. Roughly about six years before the Chicago project began to have...complications. I was raised with other orphans and was selected as a gifted student when I was twelve. I was trained and taught by the Bureau."
"The Bureau?" I don't look up to see who said that, but based on the airy sound it had it was Tris or Nikki.
"Shut it. I said no questions until the end. The head of the entire Bureau system is..." I grimace at the faded blood on my shirt, "was, a man who I will simply call Braxton. He was older and sicker and searching for his replacement. He was looking for the next head of the Bureau, the face to lead us into the Dawn of Perfection. I applied the day I turned twenty-one. To make a long story short, I was selected." I hear the angry murmurs and some grunts of disapproval but I plow ahead as if I heard nothing at all. "I was given my first assignment after we allowed Nikki to save Uriah. I have watched all of you since the day you left Chicago. We knew when to interject ourselves into your lives. Tris, you were the key to everything. The key to redevloping the serum to make us genetically invinicible. It was imperitave that I gain your trust. I was sent in to become Scarlett, the child of Evelyn Johnson. We staged everything, set up the entire meeting between Tris and I in the bathroom, the qualities you were raised with in the faction system. In this case, curiousity and the bravery to act on it. By using your genes to manipulate you we got you to my apartment. There my associate and I acted out the scene needed to blend me into your family without having to be questioned or studied. Your pity for me and my circumstances would be enough to assimilate me into your lives easily."
Nikki blinks back tears. She is a child masquerading as an adult, unaware of how treacharous this world is. I only wish I could spare her from this. She wipes under her eyes, "assimilate?"
"Yes, I was to become a part of your family seamlessly." The tip of my lip curves down as I see the hurt in Tobias eyes. "Once I was in your family it was simple to gain your trust, however with your trust came mine, also. There is no way to be in a close enviroment and not get attached, it is impossible. Recently, I received my second assignment. It was to terminate one of you and get three into custody of the Bureau. If I had followed the protocol I was given this conversation would be very different." Perhas I shouldn't say who I was meant to kill, that will add more to an already complicated web of lies.
"But you didn't follow protocol?" Tobias asks, he crosses his arms and chews at his lip. "Why didn't you?"
"I was compromised. So I decided not to complete my assignment. However, the action I did take will still have negative repercussions for you...When I said Braxton was dead, I wasn't forthcoming with the details of his death. And I won't be. What happened will remain between me and his corpse. Just know that he is of no threat to you anymore. I am now legally the head of th Bureau." I am not sure what I expected when I told them that, maybe some yelling, perhaps some screaming. I think deep down I was expecting one of them to wrap their hands around my neck and steal the breath from me. Instead I get silence. Long, unbelievably uncomfortable silence. "You don't have to fear me. I am telling you this because I need your help."
Now they start yelling. How dare I ask for their help? How could I lie to them like this? Why should they believe any of this? More hurtful things are said but I remain blank, emotionless untilt hey can all calm down. I need their help and they will help me. I will find a way to convince them. I search through the group of people who were once my friends and family who now treat me like a pariah to find one lone girl who is calm despite the chaos surroudning her. "Nikki?" I call her name a few times before she actually hears me.
She frowns and sits in the chair beside me, "I don't want to talk about any of what you said. Okay? I just want to know what I can help you do?"
"I want to bring down the Bureau."
For the first time since I have told everyone of my past does someone smile at me. "I'm in."
"Really?" I search the blue eyes in front of me, "you want to help me despite all this."
Nikki nods, "someone I used to know told me that people make mistakes."
"Nicola, that woman isn't there anymore. She was never there she wasn't real. Scarlett was just a cover. None of that was real."
"See, I just can't accept that."
"Why not?" I stare at the scar on my thumb again, the delicate skin that has reappeared. A warm hand covers mine and I look up to Nikki.
Nikki frowns sadly, "I may be young, but I know this. Scarlett Johnson is somewhere inside of you. She may not like the same things or look the same wa, but her love, her trust, her emotions are there. I don't need Aunt Scarlett, but I do need you."
It's not until after she walks away that I realize I'm crying.
