The Other Prior: Candice Prior || Divergent Fanfiction

Chapter 21: Guilt

736 Reads!!

Chapter 21: Guilt

Standing by the rushing water of the chasm in the early Dauntless morning which is only littered by a few drunk people heading home after overnight parties, it takes me a minute to realize why I feel so much hatred and discomfort in this seemingly calm walkway. But when the realization hits me, I feel the bile rising in my throat.

"Andi..." A zombie-like voice croaks behind me, and I whip around to face the owner. My eyes widen in disbelief when I see Jake, disfigured and bleeding from all part of his body, standing right in front of me.

"Jake." I manage to stutter out, unable to make words form in my brain. I am too shocked, scared, and a little bit hopeful that I did not do what I think I did.

"You killed me." He says accusingly, his voice still remaining unnervingly calm and steady. My mind whirs.

"You're standing right here. I didn't-" I start in a quick voice rushing to get my words out of my mouth before I lose them again, vomiting them all out onto the floor in between me and my former best friend.

"YOU! YOU KILLED ME!" HE shrieks in a high-pitched voice that cannot belong to him. He takes a threatening step forward, and I stumble a few steps back. His eyes start to roll backward till I can only see the whites of his eyes. The blood covered body that used to house Jake starts to shake violently. It's like he's having a seizure.

"Jake! Jake!" I cry, now not bothering to hold back tears. I move forward. "Jake! Calm down!"

"Try? For you? They'll find out who killed me. And when they do, you'll die too." A calm voice states in the background, restating the line I heard last night. Jake's shaking body is replaced with Bea's. She looks up at me with wide eyes.

"You killed him? I thought you were a good person." She states, and I can almost see the disappointment dripping from her eyes. Her blue-grey eyes.

"Bea. I-" I say, going to touch her, to comfort her, to assure her, falsely, that I am not a killer. But I can't. Because I am.

"Don't touch me!" She shrieks at me, pulling away. Her form is replaced by somebody who I've been dreading to face. Mia.

"You what?" She asks, sadness etched all over her features. "I thought you were my friend." She says, moving away from me.

"My best friend." She says again as though she's trying but failing to convince herself that it is true.

"I am!" I scream.

"I trusted you!" She screams, but it is Jake's voice that emanates from her mouth. "I trusted you! And you're one of them! You're one of them. And every one of them has to die." She continues, again in Jake's voice.

"You're a threat to society. You can do that to someone else."

"What about Mia?"

"This is why I can't trust divergents. What would you do if someone killed your parents, Andi?"

Voices echo all around me as Mia approaches me evilly, the warm coat that always covers her eyes shed and replaced by pure loathing. I can hear echoes of the conversation I had with Jake before he died- before I killed him- all around me. All the people I love and car about: My mom, My dad, Lebby, Bea, Shauna, Four, Mia – and Eric – surround me, closing in on me threateningly as my mind echoes with different phrases.

"You're going to die." Mia whispers before plunging her dagger into my stomach. I feel the pain.

+++

I wake up panting with sweat and tears trickling down my skin. My hair is damp from chasm water. It takes me some time to calm down and realize it was all a dream. Jake is still dead at the bottom of the chasm, a fact that still remains beknown to Mia. I look at my watch to see it's 3:30 in the morning, around the time my dream was set. I slowly crawl out of my hole in the wall, hugging the jacket that wraps around me closer to my skin. I wipe my face with my wrist trying to make it look as though I haven't been crying all night.