"You're both tired."
Cal's head snaps up, her eyes lidded as she tries to will herself to not let them fall. Her brother, who sat quietly by her side, almost let his head slip into the food on his plate. It was obvious they were both falling asleep at the table, and Ben's brows were knitted in the center of his forehead whilst his eyes were filled with obvious worry.
Syn gave his friend a sheepish smile, throwing a long arm over Cal's shoulders and lightly shaking her back and forth, "We're fine, Ben. Aren't we, C?"
Cal lifts up her hand, giving Ben a smile and thumbs up.
The three jump when someone slams themselves down at their table.
"You guys look like shit."
The twins drag their gaze over to Caine as he settles himself at their table. He bites into his food, a smug look crossing his face as he slowly chews.
"Is there something you want?" Syn doesn't hide the distaste lacing his tone, "There's an open table on the opposite side of the room - where you're probably still not wanted - but at least it's away from me."
Caine ignores this, his smug smirk never falling from his lips as he looks between the twins. He looks at Syn, the twin who's shoulders are always squared and hands always balled into fists sits. Caine then slides his gaze over to Cal, the fragile looking twin. He's found her interesting from the start. She wasn't the biggest of girls but she had one of the meanest elbows he's had the horrible fate of meeting. She was like crypt he couldn't decipher and it bothered Caine that he couldn't.
They both bothered Caine, more than anyone he's ever met. They both had faction and blood, they had each other in their faction of choice and not only that but they were meant to be in Dauntless together. The idea of the twins, who both cared about each other and protected each other with such ferocity that it disgusted him. He wanted to break them, separate them, and watch as they withered and failed without their other half.
FAIL.
"How's stage two going for you?" Caine asks, looking between the twins, "You two take your sweet time against your fears, you having problems?"
Syn visibly stiffens, but Cal doesn't flinch at his tone.
"Why are you so concerned with how we are?" She sets her elbows on the table and leans forward, "Why don't you worry about your own fears, unless, sitting here with us is you attempting to face one."
Caine twitches, and Cal smiles. It seems genuine, the tug of her lips and the tilt of her head make her smile seem almost innocent.
"You afraid of us, Caine?" She asks, "Are Syn and I the bump in the night, the tick under your - "
Caine's hands slam against the table, rattling the plates and food that sit on top, "You know what -"
"Cal, Syn, with us."
The twins turned their heads simultaneously.
"Eric."
TWO DAYS.
Cal had avoided Eric for two days after he entered her fears.
For two days she ducked under him, turned down a different hallway, and made sure she went to sleep when the room was full of other people. She was ashamed of her fears, ashamed she had let a Dauntless leader see them.
Afraid Eric had seen them.
AFRAID.
ASHAMED.
"Four?"
Confused, Syn glanced between the two Dauntless leaders. His shoulders squared and he leaned his body towards his sisters.
"Something wrong?"
"No," Eric spoke up.
Four stayed silent, but Cal noticed the difference in him. Although she couldn't read eyes, and read people's emotions well - she could read body language. Something Candor had made sure to instill into her mind. It was how she knew to relax herself when telling a lie.
Four was tense, his shoulders up in a similar manner to her brothers. His eyes dart between her brother and Eric, and she can see that both of the males are nervous.
"Follow me."
She wanted to protest, to ask more questions, but all she does is quietly spare a glance at Ben and then stand alongside her brother. They followed quietly behind Four and Eric, and Cal had a frown on her lips the entire way - up until the moment they stopped in front of a dark stone door.
Four turned to face them but Eric kept his back to the two.
"This is the final testing area, Max and a few other Dauntless leaders are inside."
Four's voice was tight, his hands were pushed against his side and his terse state only caused Cal to stiffen with nerves.
"You two will be taking the final test early," Four explains, "There's been a... complication with Dauntless leadership. Max wants one of you to fill the empty spot."
Eric decides as he opens the door that it'll be a good time to speak, "Time to see what you're both afraid of."
WHAT YOU'RE AFRAID OF.
AFRAID OF.
AFRAID OF.
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
"What are you afraid of?"
Cal tilts her head back, her eyes looking up at the stone ceiling as she contemplates her answer. She sits between Syn and Ben, their feet dangling off of a random ledge in the Pit.
"Everything and nothing."
Syn speaks up, "I'm not afraid of anything."
Cal rolls her eyes, but Ben speaks up before she could reply to her brother. His voice is quiet but a small smirk tugs at his lips as he speaks, his eyes trained down to look at his hands, "That's why you take the longest with Four?"
Syn snaps his head over to Ben, a boyish grin forming on his lips, "Well, looks like Ben finally grew a pair."
Cal shoves her brother, a soft smile on her lips, "Don't be so mean."
Syn smiles, turning his head back to look at the floor of the pit. He's silent for a minute before he speaks up again, "Really, Cal. What do you see? Ben said he had 9 fears, I have 11. You haven't said how many you had."
Cal shifts, moving her hands behind her and leaning back, she kicks her legs back and forth as she counts in her head.
One. Heights.
Two. Helplessness.
Three. Betrayal.
Four. Rats.
Five. Killing a friend.
Six. Absolute darkness.
Seven. Honesty.
Eight. Drowning.
Nine. Being tortured.
And -
"TEN."
It's dark, damp, and cold. Cal's body aches and it feels as though she's carrying a thousand pounds on her shoulders. She still bleeds from the torture she had endured, her body shakes from both the cold and her fear. She knows this is it, her final fear.
Her body drags as she tries to keep herself sitting up. But she feels weighted down by the sweat and blood that cakes her skin, hair and clothes.
She climbed despite her fear of heights.
She fought against her helplessness.
She stopped Syn from his betrayal.
She ran from the rats.
She pulled the trigger against her suffering friends temple.
She felt her way past the dark.
She told the truth.
She kicked and bucked against the weights holding her underwater.
She endured and broke through her torture.
Now, Cal was left to face her last fear.
"It's been a long road, huh, C?"
She can hear blood, water, and sweat fall to the stone floor. Pooling in front of her and around her feet.
"We've fought long and hard, haven't we?"
Syn's voice soothes her, and she focuses on the tone of his voice rather than her heartbeat. She can't bring herself to respond, but she can feel her eyes water and her throat burn with the intense need to cry. Cold steel touches her temple, and she chokes on a sob.
Saliva and blood fly from her lips, caking her chin and jaw.
The steel against her temple shakes and she can see Syn through her tears. He has tears of his own running down his face, his body shakes as he holds the gun against her skin.
Unlike betrayal, this fear isn't the act of Syn killing her. Within this fear, Syn's intentions aren't formed from malice or ill feelings. He shakes with a fear she's never seen before, and his voice shakes with a sadness she never knew he was capable of.
DEATH.
Was it cold? Warm? Empty? Suffocating?
Cal imagined death to be everything and nothing, but above all she imagined it to the scariest thing she's ever imagined. There was no way to beat or cheat death, when it was your time it was your time. Cal knew it was irrational to be afraid of something you could never avoid, weather she died young or old - quickly or painfully... It terrified her.
She tried to imagine death personified, but it was too lonely to be a person or a thing. Death was an empty hole in her heart and she was so terrified because a life after death meant a life with her brother.
Her brother didn't say anything else, but she heard him click the bullet into place and pull the trigger soon after.
AUTHORS NOTE
I know it has been forever since I updated and the rush in the twins taking their test might seem weird but this is actually important and will be explained.
I just came back from a trip, I was in Mexico so it might take me a bit to keep on writing!
In the next chapter or in the next few chapters there will be a point of view from Syn, though. So, there's that to look forward too.
Thank you for reading!