Caleb's POV

I wake up in a cold sweat. The pillowcase I was laying on is completely wet. My hair sticks to my face. I look at my hands. The fingernails are jagged and the nail beds are coated with dried blood. I wonder what went wrong this time. I don't even remember what I dreamt of, I can only see vague shapes, colours and maybe sitting on the roof of a high building with Rhiannon. I think about what I could be dreaming of. I hope it wasn't something inappropriate. Especially if it featured her. It must have morphed into something real horrible or my dream must have changed.

I would die for the chance to hold her hand in real, not something in my dreams. I think about the time I held onto her arm (accidentally, mind you) in the vending machine room.

Oh, did I see the people at the other side of the room smirking at my blush? Anyway, it is too dark for anything less than a glow-in-the-dark sticker to be visible. I hope my face doesn't resemble that.

I hope this information not-a-theft-but-still-a-theft goes well. I am practically at a dead end if Rhiannon doesn't supply the media files to me. I don't have any other means except for maybe whiling away in an office for a decade or two before getting Jeanine's attention. It is useless and Jeanine would certainly succeed in doing the job she has planned.

I am still not sure whether to trust Tristan, Anahita or Rhiannon. Sure, Rhiannon already has brought herself into the game if she gives me those documents but I would have to reveal my true intent. How could she help me in gathering information? I don't think that she is good with computers or technology. She is good with a machine that is for sure. I can see that Tristan and Anahita are really good with computers and programming. The prank with my tab proved that but the Erudite servers would be much harder to crack than a simple tablet. This one ended in a question yet again.

I glance over to my nightstand and see a thick chemistry book kept there. There is a typed note pasted on top of it which says, 'you are to give a test based on this book in the morning, we wish you well.' The note is from Alev and Aster.

Oh schist! (This is my euphemism for a word that you can most likely guess) This is really creepy. Did Alev or Aster come to this dorm at night? If so, I don't want to think about the embarrassing stuff I must have rambled in my sleep. I know I do that because my mom told me so, a couple of months earlier from the Aptitude Test. Another thing I didn't know about myself. It is surprising the amount of information that Abnegation parents keep from their children. I don't even know the exact date of my birthday. You can guess I didn't celebrate it ever.

I want to sneak away, once again. I know, I promised that would be the last time I snuck away the last time I said it. I guess I have a rebellious streak. The room is too stifling. I can say that I went for a midnight walk. These people would think that I have restless legs syndrome or something. Even though it usually happens to middle aged people having a bad case of varicose veins. I grab a hoodie out of the closet and pull the hood over my head and set out.

I can bet on these hypochondriac people. Seriously, I saw an old lady rushing to the tiny hospital located in the building yesterday. The main clinic is hardly a kilometre away. Lazy people. I had thought that before I knew the reason. I saw a doctor rushing out of the room and complaining about the lady having 'a very minor flatulence problem' to his colleague. Oh, that made me laugh me so hard. After that, the people around looked over at me with an 'are you crazy?' expression.

Wandered away from the point, again. Tristan would get a currency point every time I did that and he would be a millionaire in a week. I go into stealth mode and go outside of the door. I make sure that it doesn't look too stealthy for a midnight walk. Again, these people who read into situations too much would think I was organising a military coup or something. After checking the cameras, because proof is important.

The questions of 'why' and the statements of 'do you want to dig your own grave?' don't count right now. I want to exercise my free will. The Erudite dorm corridor, check. The other corridor from where these two corridors branch off, check. I go to the wall where it ends and am barely able to conceal myself. I feel so sorry for being tall. I stupidly bend into the wall, facing toward the wall and I am sure that whoever chooses to glance into the corridor could see half of my butt sticking out. I hurriedly turn my face towards the main hall, so I could get a fair warning if anyone sees.

I glance at the faint solar lights flickering in the main hall. A few people are at the comm desk but they look more like zombies waiting to eat my brains. The zombies are in front of the computer screen. It is a dangerous operation but I decide to undertake that. The riskiest part is sticking to the wall and walking sideways and reaching to the giganticus bookshelf wrapped around and behind the desk. I can see a few big plants around the bookshelf.

This is a suicide attempt but I want to get the effects of eating so much ice cream out of my system. The long list seems to include making me hyperactive to the point of ignoring the basic instinct of self-preservation.

I really shouldn't blame everything on the ice cream.

I am talking to myself so much that I am thinking whether I am two personalities in one, speaking to each other. (Is that even possible?)

I go around the wall by sticking into it so much that it seems I am trying to disappear into the wall. The man sitting there gives me a heart attack by tilting his head up. I am already thinking of "Pro move, Caleb (claps and sarcastic smiles from the audience). Nice way to get caught. Think of your obituary now." I see the man sneezing and give myself a (very very silent) high five.

I stick to the wall and walk sideways like a crazy crab. I pass the comm desk. Phew. Mission accomplished!

What a dumb mission. I don't even know where to go next. The only options are the sim room and the staircase. The staircase is futile as I already saw earlier. The sim room seems like the most logical option. That seems the only place where I can see people discussing 'secret' plans.

I continue the crazy crab walk along the whole wall. The sim room is at the end of the wall and into another corridor.

I contemplate going into the corridor. I would leave myself completely exposed, a.k.a. dead meat for anyone to find. Well, it is not time for all that bull now.

I go into the corridor and the room at the end of it is lighted, as expected. The room isn't locked and I cannot hear any people inside although I know the walls could be soundproofed. The door also doesn't reveal much, it is a wooden one. I hold my breath and turn the knob. I am already searching for excuses and I am relieved to find that it isn't locked. Wow, I don't have to enact the cliché lock- jimmying with a hairpin. Not that I even owned a hairpin.

The door opens into the place of nightmares. The sim room. The sim room. The place after which I got my first nightmare in Erudite. Nothing to be proud of, sure, but I cannot help mentioning the details. I remember it vividly like a memory, not a dream.

The room is really bare. The only hiding place is underneath the bench. (Oh, how I regret being tall) I would be a very tight squeeze and it would make a really loud sound. I look around once more. The real hiding places would be in the second door, where I am too afraid to venture.

The long wooden benches stand in the room ghostly cold and empty. Where we await our fate, powerless, voiceless as the souls who enter the Underworld after crossing the Styx. The fate would be meted out by subjecting the mind to a wide and wild array of fears which manifest into dark, deep nightmares.

I go closer to the door frame and into the sim room. It might be suicide or it could be a chance to get hold of precious information. Emphasis on the 'might'. The sim room resembles its cousin (or twin) because it looks exactly the same as the room outside the door except for the huge pile of equipment on one wall.

Who kept the equipment here?

It could be a trap or plain, old stupidity. Anyone could get in here and wipe it clean off. Data theft would cause much more loss than the theft of the actual computer. Then, we would have to face the sims yet again in order for Alev to get the required data.

I look at the computer carefully. The wall behind it seems to be a bit disjointed from the surrounding wall. It could be an optical illusion but it almost seems like there is a door built into the wall.

I guess that hidden door is the entrance to Hell or Shangri-La. Nothing in between. I mean, who would bother to hide a door in here? Nobody would bother to notice except the most observant people. The people who usually exit this room are emotional wrecks, drowning in sorrow to bother seeing anything around them.

I peek into the doorframe which is welded and camouflaged into the wall. The frame and the door look secretive and are intended for specific pairs of eyes only which obviously don't include mine.

I dig into the pocket of my blue hoodie for a handkerchief. I remember storing one in here. Good to have a runny nose sometimes, isn't it? Oh! Found it. I tie it around my right hand to not leave fingerprints on the painted wooden frame. Fingerprints are hard to extract from rough surfaces but I need to be careful.

I turn the very small handle with some difficulty due to the reduced friction. It is a tight fit between the cables and the door. The room is too dark behind the doorframe. Another strange thing. I am sure that this is the gateway to hell. I disappear into the room.

The dark place inside gives no indication of what might be inside. I am mentally quarrelling with myself whether to keep the door open or to fumble for a light switch. The door has a door spring which means I will lose the thin sliver of light I have right now. I decide to let go of the door.

Finding the switches in the dark is much harder than I make it sound. The switchboard seems to resemble a keyboard more. (Kids, don't try this at home, especially not in a forbidden place where you don't know which blasted switch to press.)

I take a random guess and press a switch. I hope I didn't trigger the alarm system or something. No luck but at least no bad luck. I try another switch and another. On the Jeanine-knows-which try, I get the light switch.

The light is a punch to my retinae. I raise my hands in futile defence. My eyes get un-blinded after a minute. I check around for security cameras. I know the whole city is bugged with cameras stored in dark glass bubbles. No security cameras. The room is full of filing cabinets full to the brim. It must be some sort of archive or a record keeping office. I search the drawer in the desk, careful to place everything in its exact place. An identity card.

Alev White. Designation- Initiation department deputy. Address and all that 'if lost please return' information. A standard two-by-two inch photo of him with an expression that will make you pee your pants. I hope this expression was accidental. The photo shouts, "You will pay for your sins, Caleb Prior." Like a gospel. Albeit by a really angry angel whose halo has been stolen.

I try not to look at that reprimanding grandma of a picture. I look at the drawer; it has a lot of files which look rather important. This is because they don't have a layer of dust unlike the media archives. I think this room is Alev's office. There might be pretty important information here. The drawer contains very recent files but I need files of Norton's period. Working from the start to finish is always a good idea. Jeanine might be linked to this Norton in some way.

I go to the farthest wall which may have files on initiates in Norton's period. The drawer is marked with a label. This one is a year before the one I was finding. I see the cabinet below. Bingo. I open the drawer with the handkerchief-covered hand. There a lot of files which would take weeks to sort out. This includes files on each individual initiate. I grab the common file on all the initiates. My aim is to scan these and store it in my tab.

I grab the files and go out of the door. The sim room is left to handle. I switch the light off and turn the door closed. I avoid the huge mass of cables. I cross the sim room and go into the waiting room.

I turn the knob of the waiting room.

It. Is. Locked.

Oh. Shit.

*A murderer comes behind Caleb with a knife* Ha ha, only joking. Or am I? The previous chapter contained the song 'I'm So Sorry' by Imagine Dragons. This was from their album 'Night Visions' Guess the reference in this chapter. On another note, is FanFiction suffering from a bug? I cannot see any reviews. It has been weeks since my review counter showed 14 reviews. Try to guess the reference in this chapter. Hint- This is a Fall Out Boy Song. (I gave away too much already, didn't I?)

Have an awesome day (mine will be because of all of you),

TheVibrantNight