DIVERGENT: Tobias (Watty Award Winner 2013)

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

I can’t see anything. I can’t feel anything. In this moment, I am completely helpless. My limbs feel like they are glued to the ground and my eyelids feel too heavy to lift. I feel paralyzed. The only thing that’s free is my mind. It races as it tries to make sense of what I’m feeling. It feels like hours are passing, maybe even days, as I lie here, limp, in the black of the nothingness.

But, slowly, I can feel the strength and control return to my body once more. Reason doesn’t return to my mind, though. I am still confused. What is going on? Then, suddenly, I hear a voice… a female voice. And I’m struck with the idea that I should know who this voice belongs to, but I can’t place it. Frustrated with myself, I listen to what she says hoping that I’ll be able to identify who she is.

“Let him up,” She says, her tone coarse and scratchy. As she finishes speaking, I feel a weight lifted off of my back and I open my eyes. For a strange reason, I am on the floor. Puzzled, I stand and take in my surroundings.

My eyes scan the room, which seems to be some kind of office. Standing a few feet away, appears to be the woman who was speaking. She does look familiar. But my mind finds no name to match her face. Her face with beady eyes that seem to be…. Observing me? No. Why would she be observing me?

My eyes also pass over a man, dressed in black and armed, only standing about a foot away from me. But he doesn’t look familiar at all. Nothing makes sense. What the hell am I doing here? Or better how did I get here? I try my hardest to rack my brain of any possible answer. I find nothing. I remember nothing.

“Tobias, Tobias!” A female voice screams from behind me, different from the first. This feels familiar too…But this familiarity is different. This one makes me… angry. An unrecognizable feeling flows through me and one word flashes into my mind… kill.

“He doesn’t know you,” the first female says, look past me, probably at the other girl. Curiosity becomes me and I look over my shoulder…

I am not prepared for the emotions that flow through me as I glance at the girl’s face. Hatred. Rage. My eyes narrow focusing only on her. A redness tints my vision as I fill with the desire to kill. The desire to kill her. The overwhelming urge propels me forward, my gaze still locked on her, hunter to prey. My hand acts on its on as it curls itself around her throat and squeezes, forcing the air from her… the life from her. The first female speaks again, but I am too focused to concentrate on her words.

As the girl’s face starts turning a promising shade of purple, I feel hands on me, pulling me away from her…stopping me from killing her…killing it. Both of the men hold me back as I struggle against them to finish what I started. My eyes never leave her. The blood lust never leaves me. And I’m not listening to anything that’s going on around me. All that matters is her death right now. But before I get another chance to end her, I’m hauled out of the room by the men that were holding me back.

And as soon as the girl is no longer in my line of sight, I forget her. My muscles relax, my mind is clear, and I am calm. The guards release their hold on me. One of the guards stands in front of me, guiding me, while the other follows behind me.

I follow the guard wordlessly as he leads me out of the building and into the fresh air. The light blinds me momentarily and I blink several times, trying to get a clear view of my surroundings.

All around me are guards dressed in black, much like the ones with me. They don’t hold my attention for long. The guard in front of me continues walking, not hesitating in the slightest. For a second, I am tempted to ask him where we are going… that is, before I realize that I already know where we are going. I already know what I have to do. I already know why I have to do it. It’s funny, though, I don’t remember anyone ever telling me any of it…