Venus Eaton is desperate to escape the abuse of her previous faction although she is unaware and unprepared of the ordeals of Dauntless initiation. She is a stranger to her own brother until he accuses her of murdering their mother, and finds out th...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
VENUS
I ACT before I think - grabbing the barrel of the gun and twisting it to the right. The shot sounds and something smashes, another bullet clicks into the chamber as I struggle to keep my forehead out of the shooting range. Very bad move.
My back hits the wall. I figure he is too strong - I can't keep up. Something smashes near my head and I duck, managing to get a few steps away from him. I scramble toward my own gun but Eric is quicker - kicking it away with his foot.
This will end badly. I know it will. I know it will.
This time, I grab his wrist and harshly twist it to the side. The gun falls, and I stifle a gasp and kick it away with the side of my foot. A sharp pain pulses in my jaw, and I stumble to the side, letting him go. Did he punch me? How did I not see that coming?
I don't have time to flinch or hold my face in agony. Eric is already advancing toward me, although weaponless, this is just as bad. Jeanine, leader of Erudite, is controlling this simulation. The bitch that wants Divergent's dead.
Like Cassidy said - killing two birds with one stone. Three, if you include Tris.
My eyes flick to the gun behind me. I could try to get it. Then I'd have a weapon and he won't. Not like I'd shoot - I can't, I can't shoot. But he grabs me and punches me again, and this time - I feel blood trickle from my nose, hitting my upper lip in a fast flow. A whimper escapes my lips, looking into his grey eyes. They aren't blue anymore. They're just dark, and cruel.
His grip on my shoulders is astringent - I wriggle stupidly, and fall back with a shriek, falling awkwardly. I feel my stitches ripping, and moan in agony. He kicks me when I'm down. I don't see where, I just feel the pain. It's awful. I just want this to be over. I know I can't stop for a breather now - so I roll a couple times until I'm away from Eric's range and scramble to my feet.
Darting around him, I try to reach the gun. Eric grabs my hair and yanks me backward, a small scream leaves my lips as I try to pry my hair free, although he tosses me to the side. I topple into the wall, my head slamming against the concrete.
Everything is black. Everything. I think, for a second, maybe that's the end, but I hear a click of a gun. My whole body aches and I blink until I see what's happening. Eric, loading a gun, pointing it at me.
No, no, no.
I try to crawl away, but he grabs my ankle and drags my backward. Straddling my waist, his eyes flicker for a moment - like a change of programming. It scares me. From everything I've experienced - this is the worst. This is, by far, the worst.
All those beatings that my father gave me - subconsciously, I knew he wouldn't kill me. It was a thought, a thought that was there in the back of my mind.
In the ring, during Dauntless initiation, I knew I would not be killed there. I was just afraid of the pain.
And even when I was trying to fight off Rhett at the chasm, I knew I had a chance. I knew Dauntless patrolled the chasm some nights, I had heard them before, seen them, even. Plus - that night, Rhett was preoccupied with me. He was content to use me for other things than simply throw me from the chasm - it held him up, enough for me to be saved.
But now... Now is the worst. Eric doesn't care who I am. He doesn't know me. I'm a threat to him. I'm his enemy. Shooting me in the head is easy for him because he doesn't care. He doesn't 'care'.
But, instead of feeling the cool of the metal against my head, I feel it against my stomach. This is Jeanine's idea, her doing. This will give the child no chance of surviving. Not a chance at all. My vision swims, and I'm shaking. I'm shaking, and I'm actually sobbing, although all I hear is a strange ringing in my ears...
"I love you," I say, and it's the only thing right now that actually matters. The fact that I love him. That's all Eric needs to know, even if he can't hear me, or doesn't believe me.
Because at least I said it. And hopefully, when he wakes up from this, he would have remembered me saying it. I hope so. I hope so.
A click as the bullet falls into the chamber.
And a change of heart.
What am I doing? Letting this happen? Letting him, my programmed boyfriend, kill our baby?
No chance.
My fingers enclose around the gun, and I tilt it away from my stomach just as the gunshot goes off.
