Aberrant

Thirty-Nine: Dex

"Plato?" I ask, "What do you mean it's no use? What are you doing here?"

There's the sound of laughter in the darkness. Then there's a click and a bright light shines on my face. I immediately close my eyes. 

"Sorry," says the voice apologetically, "you can look now."

I open my eyes and see that the flashlight is focussed on Lyra. Her grey eyes are stained with tears, as if she's been crying recently and her normally flowing long red hair is pinned up in a bun. Plato is sitting beside her. 

"Lyra?" I ask. 

"The one and only," she smiles, "Don't you get it, Dex? We're Divergent."

"Divergent?" I repeat, and then I glance at Plato, "Wait, you're Divergent?"

Lyra laughs again, "Don't you remember when he took that knife for Sam? Amy told me all about it. It was so obvious that he was Divergent. Not that Amy realised, of course. She was just telling me about her day." 

I stare at both of them, "Why didn't you tell me? I've been thinking that I was the only one."

It's Plato turn to speak now. "We couldn't Dex," he says gently, "You would have blurted it out immediately."

I flush, whether with anger or embarrassment I can't tell, then I concede, "True."

There's the sound of an unlocking of the key and Lyra quickly turns off her flashlight, leaving us in utter darkness. 

The door opens and one the guards shouts, "Get in there!" as someone else is thrust into the room. Then the door slams shut again and the key is turned. 

There's silence for a moment and then we hear the muffled sound of sobs. Lyra clicks on the flashlight. 

"Who's there?" the voice demands, roughly. 

Lyra drops the flashlight in shock, "Cal? Is that you?"

"Lyra?" asks the voice, as she fumbles to pick it up again. Then she shines it on the newcomer, and he shields his eyes away. 

It's a Dauntless-born I vaguely recognise from the zipline-Callum. He's crouched on the floor. His blond hair hangs messily over his forehead and his blue eyes are glistening with tears. 

"Yeah," Lyra says softly, "It's me, Cal." She twists the flashlight so it shines on her face, and then moves it so it shines on me and Plato. 

"How come you have a torch?" Callum asks. I blink. I hadn't even considered that. 

Lyra smiles, "Plato's idea. He knew there were other Divergents so asked Amar to tell one of us to bring a torch and a hairpin in case we got in a situation like this. So, I wore my hair in a bun and stuffed this in one of my pockets." She waves the flashlight, "You know, I didn't realise how deep our pockets are until now."

Plato smiles, "A torch for light. And a hairpin to unlock the door. I couldn't be sure that they'd lock us in a room. But I figured that they wouldn't toss us into the Chasm right away and they'd need somewhere to store us for a few hours."

"Smart," I say. 

Lyra smirks, "You can tell he got Erudite in the Aptitude test."

Plato smiles, "Dauntless, Erudite and Abnegation."

"Show-off," Lyra mutters, "Don't suppose anyone else got three factions did they?" Me and Callum shake our heads. 

"What did you get?" Callum asks her. He seems happier now. 

"Dauntless and Abnegation," she says proudly, "I could have transferred to Abnegation, but I didn't because I wanted to stay with my family. And now I'm in this situation because I'm an idiot." She sighs audibly, and then asks, " Anyway, what did you guys get?"