Jeanine Matthews

Family

I pass Dakota a syringe full of memory serum, then I fill my own syringe and grip it tightly in my hand. My hands tremble in anticipation as I approach the door that belongs to the representative of erudite, George Matthews.

"Take this one." I say to Andrew, pointing at the apartment to the left of mine. "There's a man that lives there. He's a widower and would love to have the company." I say.

Honestly, I do feel sorry for the man, but I only picked him because his apartment is close to mine.

He smiles solemnly and kisses me. Slowly, I can feel the warmth of his lips against mine and I smile against the pressure.

Then he turns and knocks on the door. After a few seconds a man in a blue shirt and jeans opens the door.

"Hello, I'm Andrew." Dakota introduces himself. The man looks from Dakota to me, confused.

"I'm Joseph prior" the man says slowly, reaching his hand out- indicating for the man to take it.

Dakota, I mean Andrew, takes the man's hand. I thought only the dauntless shook hands. I see ink peeking from the hem of his shirt. A dauntless born erudite.

While still gripping Joseph's hand, Andrew jabs the needle into the man's wrist. He does it with such grace that it almost looks painless, but the man still winces with pain.

His eyes open wide, blank. Then he looks around the hall in confusion. "Hi dad." Andrew says quietly. The he leads him back into the apartment and locks him in his bedroom.

Andrew comes back out into the hallway and smiles at me. I hand him a syringe of memory serum , then I fill another and set it on the ground. Three syringes if memory serum. Three members of my new family.

When I knock on the door I. Expect for George to answer because his wife, Helen, is a school teacher and it is noon on a Wednesday, and their ten year old son Gabriel would also be there.

I knock confidently on the door. Almost immediately a man with perfectly styled hair hurries out with a briefcase in one hand and a latte in the other.

He looks down at me and says, "yes?" He glares down at his watch. "I'm Jeanine, is your wife or sin home?"

He shakes his head as he starts back pedaling down the hall. "If you need something, come back in an hour." He says as he turns to quickly walk down the hall.

I look back to Andrew and he shrugs. I jog down the hall to catch up with him, and before he realizes what's happening, I stick the needle into the vein on his neck and push down the plunger.

He immediately stops walking and turns to face me, the he just falls. I drop to my knees and check his pulse, he just fainted. I've never seen this happen as a result of memory serum.

Andrew and I each grab a leg and drag him into my new apartment. We drag him into what seems to be the master bedroom, but we can't lift him onto the bed.

I let out a sigh of exhaustion and drop onto the bed. Andrew sits down beside me and laces his fingers with mine.

"We could live here forever. Our own life. Where no one knows whose damaged or pure and no one tries to find out." He says, gleaming.

"Sounds too good to be true." I say. His smile doesn't fade, he just leans in and kisses me.