In the morning, I am awoken by a bright light. My eyes flutter open, and for a moment I think that I am back at home, with Tobias sleeping soundly by my side. After my eyes adjust to the light, the weight of reality crashes down on me. A man stands in the doorway to the small room that I am in, clad in a blue science coat.
"Good morning, Beatrice." he says, his voice too familiar. Caleb.
I squint at him, to make sure I'm seeing this right. Caleb wouldn't betray me. He wouldn't deliver me to my death. Would he?
My heart drops. It is him.
"What-" my voice cracks. "W-what are you doing here?"
"I thought I should let you know what I've been doing while you were at school."
"You have got to be kidding me," I growl. "You've been working alongside Jeanine Matthews? Are you insane? You know how Dad feels about her, heck, you know how Dad feels about this whole facility!" I shout. "And now you've come to experiment on your sister? And execute her?"
"Beatrice," he says. "You're the one who came."
"They threatened to kill Mom and Dad! And Tobias! I couldn't live knowing I was responsible for their deaths!"
His face softens slightly.
"Did you know that?" I ask. "Did you know they threatened to kill our parents?"
"Yes." he says, not meeting my eyes.
"You have got to be-"
"Get her." Caleb growls.
Two men emerge from the door, and grab each of my arms. I thrash against them. "CALEB!" I shout, as tears cloud my vision. He does not look back at me. I watch as his figure slowly disappears down one of the long hallways. The men pull me in the opposite direction. An animalistic scream erupts from my throat.
I am dragged into another room. In it is a metal table, a few machines I have never seen before, and Jeanine Matthews herself, holding a syringe with a gray liquid inside.
"Tris," she says, with a look that is almost humorous. "glad to see you could make it." I scoff.
The two men lift me onto the metal table and pull straps across me, making it impossible for me to get up. I scowl. The metal is cold, and seems to seep into my bones. I shiver.
"This," Jeanine taps the syringe with her fingernail. "is part of our first simulation." An evil laugh escapes from her throat. Whatever that serum does, it can't be good.
"But before I inject you, I thought I would let you see all of the memories I erased." She points a small remote at a plane white wall. The wall becomes a glowing screen.
"When we injected you and Tobias with the memory serum, all of the memories we took were stored on this hard drive." She reaches into the pocket of her blue coat, and pulls out a small piece of something that looks like it belongs inside a computer. "We have no reason to keep these memories really, but we were testing to see if the memories were able to be fully transferred onto the hard drive. It was successful." A proud smile forms on her thin lips. "So we might as well show them to you."
She plugs the hard drive into the remote. An image of young Tobias pops up on the screen, and my heart skips a beat. Tobias on the screen starts laughing, at something I said apparently.
"Marcus might be here any minute." he says. The "camera" bobs up and down. I must of nodded. It's strange, to see memories played back as a video. It's almost as if my eyes are the camera. I didn't know we had the technology to do that.
The focus leaves from young Tobias, and looks around. It is in the Chicago airport. A man marches toward us, a furious scowl plastered on his face. Marcus.
"How did you get here?" Marcus growls at Tobias. I back up slightly. "I, uh." Tobias stutters. His face contorts in fear.
Marcus grabs Tobias's wrist and starts to drag him away.
"Stop!" My voice when I was 11, shouts, with as much strength as I could at 11.
Young Tobias's eyes soften.
"Who's this?" Marcus looks at Tobias, his eyebrows drawn together in anger.
"My friend." Tobias says defensively.
"Your friend?" A malicious laugh comes from inside Marcus's throat and he grabs my wrist too. The screen goes black.
The screen boots up again after a moment, and this time Tobias and I are in a room, much like the one I am staying in now, with nothing but a small cot. We must be here, in Erudite.
"Tobias," I cry. "They are going to experiment on us, and erase our memories." I can tell by the tone of my voice that I've been crying.
Tobias sniffs and wraps me in his embrace.
"I don't want to forget you." I murmur into his shirt.
"We'll find each other again. I promise." he says softly.
The screen fades to black once more.
The sight of Tobias brings tears to my eyes, and I quickly blink them away.
Jeanine smiles in mock sympathy. "Aw."
I growl. "Well anyway," Jeanine says, lining her fingers up on the syringe.
All of a sudden, red lights start to flash and a siren blares. "Code red." A robotic voice says over the speaker. "Code red." It repeats.
My eyes widen, and I thrash against my restraints. Jeanine places a finger on her ear piece, and shouts, "You have got to be kidding me!" She turns to look at me. "Your boyfriend is here in a desperate attempt to save the day."
A warm feeling fills my chest. He came.
There is a vicious pounding on the lab door. Someone is trying to break it down. The pounding continues, and someone on the other side lets out a frustrated yell. With that, the door falls to the ground, and Tobias stands, with a shotgun in hand, right before me. His eyes soften and he rushes toward the metal table I am laying on. He leans his forehead against mine, and releases a sigh. "Tris." He brings his hand up to stroke my hair.
"Tobias," I whisper. "you came."
He leans out only slightly and smiles at me. "Of course I did." He brings my head toward him and places a gentle kiss on my forehead.
After a quick moment, he leans out and points his shotgun at Jeanine. "Where is the memory serum?" he asks, his voice almost a growl.
"Put the gun down." Jeanine says.
"Where's the serum?" Tobias asks again, his voice becoming louder. Jeanine does not answer.
Tobias's fingers get in position on the trigger. Even with the loud sirens blaring, and the red lights flashing, the room seems to have a moment of silence. Tobias finally pulls the trigger, and the bullet goes straight through Jeanine's head. I quickly look away.
Her body falls to the floor with a loud thump, and sends a metal cart of test tubes full of serums toppling over. The glass tubes shatter, and a rainbow of colored liquids cover the floor. Tobias whips out a pocket knife and begins to cut the thick straps pinning me to the table.
"What do you think you're doing?" a voice from behind us says.
Tobias turns in the direction of the voice, and scowl crosses his face. "Caleb," he snarls. "What the hell?"
I can't see Caleb's reaction because of the restraints and the direction the table is facing, but he is silent.
"What you're doing is illegal. You just wait till I turn all of you into the police." Tobias says, and continues to frantically cut away at the straps.
Caleb laughs. "Wait till I turn you in."
Tobias shakes his head. One of the straps breaks. "You have nothing to turn me in for."
"You killed Jeanine!" he shouts.
"She was about experiment on and kill my girlfriend!" he bites his lip, as if fending off tears. My heart wrenches.
Tobias manages to cut all of the straps pinning me down, and lifts me carefully off the table into his arms. He places a soft kiss on my temple. "Let's get out of here. I'll take care of this later." he nods his head in the direction of Caleb.
Tobias places me on the floor softly and says, "Get on my back." I do just that. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his iPhone, and dials 911.
"Hi. Yes. There's an emergency down at the Erudite Center of Experimental Sciences. Illegal serums and simulations were in use by the leader, Jeanine Matthews, and she's been trying to kill my girlfriend." Tobias says. He pauses for a moment listening to the voice on the other end. "Yeah," he says. "I'm getting myself and my loved ones out of the building." And with that, we rush out the doors toward safety.
Blue and red lights flash before me, and sirens blare. Tobias sets me down onto the the cement outside the building gently. A police officer walks toward us, a clip board in his hand. He looks to us, then back to the clipboard.
"Please, Ms. Prior and Mr. Eaton, come with me." The officer says, leading us toward his car. He opens up the door to the back seat, and I tense, wondering if they are going to frame us as criminals.
The officer chuckles softly. "You aren't in trouble." He places a hand in between my shoulder blades to escort me into the car. I crawl across the seats, and Tobias gets in after me. I buckle the seat belt, and so does he.
The officer gets into the front seat, and puts his keys in the ignition. "I'm going to take you two back to the station, so we can ask you a few questions." He looks at me through the mirror that hangs from the roof of his car. I nod.
Tobias grabs my hand that lays curled in my lap, and begins to rub soothing circles on the surface of my palm. I look at him. His eyebrows are drawn together in concern and and a smile that is almost sad plays on his lips. The twinkle in his eyes tells me that we are going to have a long conversation about this whole thing later. The words that he is not speaking hang in the air between us. In this moment, I want to tell him how much I love him, but know it is too intimate for the back of a police car. He risked his life for me.
The police officer turns on the radio, and a song by Imagine Dragons starts to play.
I know I took the path that you would never want for me
I know I let you down, didn't I?
I meet Tobias's eyes, the words in the song speaking so I don't have to.
So many sleepless nights where you were waiting up on me
Well I'm just a slave unto the night
Now remember when I told you that's the last you'll see of me
Remember when I broke you down to tears
Tobias's eyes darken, with an unreadable emotion.
I know I took the path that you would never want for me
I gave you hell through all the years
So I
I bet my life
I offer Tobias a small smile.
I bet my life
I bet my life
On you...
I
I bet my life
I bet my life
I bet my life
On you...
I place my other hand, that he is not holding, on the car seat between us and lean forward. He leans forward too, and our lips meet.
I've been around the world
And never in my wildest dreams
Would I come running home to you
I pull away before the cop can see us.
I've told a million lies but now I tell a single truth
I run my hand along his cheek and look into his deep blue eyes.
There's you in everything I do