A Hard Life

A Hard Life: Ch. 24

Jasmin's POV:

Kenzie's gone! She's gone! One of the only people who are nice to me and that I like, is gone! Where is she? Maybe, maybe she just went out for a bit? I don't know! I've got no idea!

Kane convinced Johanna to let us look at the security footage of our room last night. We fast forward it a little through the night until finally, the door opens, and...

"Scourge! I should've known!" Kane says in frustration. He walks in and clamps a hand over her mouth. She starts thrashing around but is tied up, duck tapped, blindfolded, and carried out of the room.

"Where do you think he took her?" Elizabeth questions when it's over.

"Either to Erudite or Dauntless."

I speak up, "Why do you think Erudite?"

"Because Jeanine is there. Sometimes, I heard those two talking and they mentioned Divergent at least once or twice." Kane turns off the moniters, and runs to where he put his gun in a box. "We're going to go find her."

"Yeah, one small problem," Natalie says.

Kane moans, "What?"

I answer, "We left our guns on the train."

"Seriously?!"

"They're probably still on the train, we can just get them!" Elizabeth says in defense.

Kane fires back by almost shouting, "The Factionless probably took them!" He runs his fingers through his hair. "Nevermind. We'll just sneak into Dauntless and get some more guns."

We all nod. "When are we leaving?"

"We're going to need a plan, so we should probably leave in a few days," I suggest.

"Ok then," Kane sighs. "We'll talk later." We once again nod and leave, I wonder what's happening to Kenzie.

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5 days later Kenzie's POV:

I get dragged down another hall, I never realized how big the Erudite place really was. I think I've been here for five or seven days, I'm totally clueless. I've been starved and dehydrated, pricked with needles, and beaten when I tried to escape.

The guards push me into a lab where Scourge and Johanna are waiting. I so badly want to claw their eyeballs out, but I can tell I'm too weak to even walk. I mean, I can hardly stand for Pete's sake! Wait, who's Pete? Oh great, I'm going crazy now!

"Can I please know why I'm here?" my voice comes out scratchy.

Jeanine steps forward, "I just want to try something out." Scourge comes over, and places me on the chair that looks similar to the one from my Aptitude test. I still remember that day.

"Stay still and you won't get punched," Scourge says harshly. I do so and Jeanine inserts a needle into my neck.

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I find myself in a field filled with flowers and the sun shines brightly over my head. I hear a familiar voice singing and I look at my dad.

I recognize everything about him. His scratchy beard, dirty blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and his smile. I loom up and see mockingbirds flying up above, three of them fly down towards me then become the tattoos I had there.

I hear a gun shot and whip my head around to see my dad crumple to the ground. I scream and see dark, shadowy figures coming towards me. Someone picks me up and runs away from them. It's Kane! What's he doing here?! Another gun shot and Kane trips, I see he got shot in the back.

"Run Kenzie!"

"But-"

"Run!" he shouts at me, then he's shot again in the head. No, no he can't be dead! It's true. He isn't dead. Kane isn't dead because he is safe in Amity HQ. This is not real, wake up!

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"Why doesn't it work!" Jeanine yells angrily. She walks over and grips the collar of my shirt. "What is it about you?! How do you do that?! No matter how much I torture you, you don't give me any information!"

I grit my teeth and speak. "You can't get anything out of me, because you don't control me! I'm not a puppet for you to master over!" I push her to make her let go and gather all my strength to stand up. "You will never break me! You can't, and won't, be able to do it!"

"Get her out of my sight." With that, Scourge picks me up and places me in my prison room.

"You just couldn't follow directions could you?" He pulls out a knife, "It's time, I teach you a lesson."

After a few hours of me screaming, and Scourge stabbing, kicking, and punching me, he leaves and I'm left alone. The room swims around me, then it all goes black. Just like the first day I was here, in this death trap.