CHAPTER 33

TRIS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's a couple hours after the party and me and Tobias are currently arguing about what we should do about getting into Marcus's house.

"I am not letting Will or anyone know what has happened. I want my life to my life. Not other's people's gossip." I say.

"I get it Tris, I really do," Tobias says taking my hands in his, "but we have no choice. We can't climb the tree over right now. Since we broke those branches, we can't climb on them. They are too weak and small. We can get Will to do it and he won't ask questions. We can just say that you need something from your room and that the tree branches broke, blah blah blah." Tobias says.

"Butttt....." I begin to argue.

"That's it. Mom!" Tobias yells.

"What!" She says a moment later walking into the room.

"Tris won't let Will help us opening the door. And that is like the only way." Tobias says with sass.

"And that is like the only way." I mimic him in my high pitched voice.

"Well, I believe that if Beatrice doesn't want to, then Will shouldn't be able to come, but Tobias has a point. Will would know how to break the lock. It's up to you." Mom says.

"Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!" Tobias whines.

"Fine. But we make up the story." I say agitated.

I flop down in the bed and flick on the TV. The news channel is on and showing a massive pileup on whatever highway dad uses to get home from work, which is right about now.

"Oh my go---" I get cut off by Tobias.

"What! What happened!"

I say nothing just point at the screen.

Tobias slowly follows my arm and stares shocked at the screen.

"MOM!" He screams.

She comes running up the stairs so fast that I bet she could beat an Olympic runner.

"What!" She screams frightened.

"TV!" Tobias says not taking his eyes off of it.

"Oh no! No! No, no, no! Andrew!" Mom screams looking for the phone.

She quickly dials the number and he answers in the last ring.

Mom puts it on speaker and I can hear dads voice.

"Natalie. I need help. They can't see me." Dad says slowly into the phone.

"Are you okay, though!" Mom asks urgently.

"I'm fine. Just my leg. I can't move it and I am trapped inside my car. Here someone is coming."

Mom lets out a sob and covers her mouth with a hand.

"Sir! Hello. Good thing we saw you. Can you get out of the car?" We hear a man say.

"I think I would have already if I could." Dad says.

"Oh. Hey Tim! We have a survivor back here!"

"Okay just hold on one second sir. We will have you out safely in a minute and taken to the hospital. Everything will be alright." We hear another man say.

All of a sudden, the line goes dead.

Tobias puts his head in his hands as mom continues to sob.

"At least he is alright and alive." I say trying to be reassuring.

Nobody answers me, so I try again.

"We know that he is going to the hospital, so we can meet him there." I say.

"It's all your fault! Ever since you came here, we have been getting worse and worse luck!" Mom screams at me.

This brings even more tears into my eyes.

"I didn't mean to--" I begin.

"You never mean to do anything! You never meant to make us practically bankrupt when you had to stay at the hospital! You didn't mean to come see Tobias that first night of school! You sucked us in to all this!" Mom lunges at me.

Her hand quickly finds its away to my face and I feel a hard sting.

"Mom!" Tobias yells trying to pull her off of me.

"It is all her fault!" Mom screams.

"Please stop!" I scream tears falling down my cheeks like a waterfall.

Mom almost expertly kicks Tobias in his man spot and he goes down.

Her fingers quickly find my throat and she squeezes.

"Mom!" I breathe.

She continues squeezing and her face begins to swim in my eyes. Tobias enters my view and pushes mom who doesn't even let go or loosen her fingers at all.

Black begins to seep into the corners of my eyes and I feel myself losing consciences.

I am almost gone when I see mom look around confused and as she realizes what she is doing, she quickly lets go.

I breathe a huge breath of air and fade into the darkness.

TOBIAS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom is strangling Tris. I am trying to pull her off when she kicks me down there.

I roll around in pain for a few seconds until I realize that Tris will die if mom doesn't let go.

I ram into mom full force and she falls to her side bringing Tris with her. She doesn't loosen her grip in the slightest and Tris's eyes begin to close as her face turns into a very dark shade of purple.

A miracle happens, though. Mom all of a sudden looks around at what she is doing and quickly let's go with a scream.

I see Tris gulp down a huge amount of air and fall unconscious.

"Tris!" I yell and go to where she is hanging off the bed.

I carefully place her head on my pillow and turn to mom who is holding her head on the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"What were you thinking!" I yell at her.

"I don't know! I don't even remember what happened. I took a pill to help my headache and then I woke up here..... hurting my baby!" Mom breaks down in tears.

I shake my head and go sit next to Tris. Her face is beginning to go back to its normal color and she is breathing fine.

Her neck, however, is not. It has giant fingerprint marks and is red and swollen. She probably won't even be able to talk for a day or two.

I quickly run downstairs grabbing waters and the pill bottle that mom must've had.

I give a water to mom, myself, and put one on the bedside table next to Tris.

"Are these the pills?" I ask.

"Yes."

"How many did you take?" I ask.

"One. It's a new person who created them. Jeneane Matthews, I think."

"The principle? You can't trust her!" I practically yell.

"Why not?" She asks.

"Because she is evil, cruel,---"

I get cut off by movement.

Tris is freaking out touching her neck with tears flying down her cheeks.

"Shhhh....... Relax.......... Just breathe for a second." I say soothingly as Tris looks at me with frightened eyes.

Mom walks over and Tris flinches backwards, scared of her.

"No, sweetie, I am so sorry. I took a pill and it took over my mind. It was made by Jeneane Matthews and Tobias told me she is very, very cruel. I was being controlled!" Mom pleads.

Tris opens her mouth to talk but I put a finger to her lips.

"No talking. Very, very swollen." I whisper with a glare at mom.

"Beatrice! I promise I didn't mean to hurt you! I just woke up here! Oh what have I done!" Mom sobs.

Tris sits up and walks over to my mirror. She has to stand on her tippy toes to look into it, but when she does, well her reaction will explain everything.

At first she just stares there feeling the areas around the fingerprint marks and wincing, and then her eyes turn wide with disbelief.

She looks at mom and then to me and runs out of the room.

"Tris!" I yell as I race after her.

I run downstairs and see nothing. I am about to begin looking outside when I hear muffled sobs coming from the bathroom.

"Tris." I whisper gently. "Please open up. I can help you."

A few seconds later the door opens and Tris wraps her arms around me, crying into my shirt.

"Why?" Tris rasps barely audible.

"Tris. Please don't talk. You will only make it worse." I say stroking her hair.

Tris nods and I continue.

"She took a pill to help her headache and it was created by Jeneane Matthews. Obviously, something was put in there to control or take over the mind. Mom had no idea what she was doing. She would never intentionally hurt you. Ever."

Tris nods again I lead her out of the bathroom and into the living room to sit in the couch.

"We should probably call Colby. Get a brace or something on your neck." I suggest.

Tris quickly shakes her head, no.

"Why not?" I ask handing her a white board and expo marker.

'Too many questions.' Tris writes.

"We need to get that looked at." I say.

'No.' Tris writes.

"We need to get a brace on it and that is final." I say taking my stand.

Tris looks at me and eventually nods losing the fight.

She leans back on the couch wincing when anything comes in contact with her neck.

"Here, let me help you." I say rushing over to the couch.

I quickly take a soft pillow and place it under Tris's head and neck. She then extends her legs and sighs.

"I'll call him right now." I say dialing his number.

He picks up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hi. Are you busy right now?" I ask.

"No. We just finished up with a patient. Why?"

"Do you think you can come over here for just like 20 minutes?"

"Yeah why?" Colby says confusion seeping into his voice.

"Because mom took a pill created by Jeneane Matthews to help her headache and she said it took control over her mind, like she started strangling Tris. She said it was as if she were in a dream. Like sleepwalking. She woke up when she was hurting Tris and she started freaking out." I finish.

The line stays quiet for a second. "Mom was hurting Tris?

"Yeah, she had all these crazy reflexes, too. She expertly kicked me and everything. It was crazy."

"Is Tris okay now?" Colby asks with concern.

I glance over at Tris, who is currently trying to reach for the remote.

"Yeah she's okay right now, breathing fine, but her neck doesn't look like it." I say handing Tris the remote.

"Okay I'll be there in 5." Colby says and the line goes dead.

I sit over by Tris and watch as she flips through all the channels in satisfied with what's on.

She finally finds one, Dance Moms, as mom comes barreling down the stairs.

"Beatrice! Please forgive me! I didn't know what I was doing!" Mom wails.

Tris looks long and hard at mom and finally nods extending her arms out to hug her.

Their hug gets interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"I'll get it." I say running towards the door.

Colby stands there with his medical bag and a small present.

I look up confused and he grins at me shrugging.

"She's over there." I say pointing to the couch where mom is kneeling by.

"Mom! Back away from Bea!" Colby yells with authority.

Mom jumps back and stands far away with her arms in the air as if this is a cop show.

Colby quickly takes out a light from his bag and looks into moms eyes with it.

"The medicine you took for your head is out of your system. We are all clear." Colby states.

Mom nods and breathes a side of relief.

Colby walks over to Tris and kneels down next to her. He begins softly touching Tris's neck watching for signs of pain or discomfort.

"I am going to push the tiniest bit harder okay? Tell me if not hurts." Colby says gently.

Colby pushes everywhere around the neck as Tris winces pretty much every time. This is bad.

"Okay. I'm done. That's it. No more pushing. I suggest you don't talk for at least till tomorrow morning at noon. What time is it now? 2:43. Yeah. Tomorrow at noon you can test it out, but for right now rest."

Tris nods and Colby takes out things from his medical bag. A brace. A bottle of pills, not made by Jeneane Matthews. A syringe and a liquid.

"Okay. This," Colby says holding up the pills, "is for the pain. Take it every four hours."

Tris nods and Colby continues.

"This brace is to keep you neck still, so you don't move it around and agitate it anymore. You will where this today to until tomorrow at noon when you will see me again."

Colby picks up the syringe and liquid.

"This is so you can start talking, doing everything faster. It numbs the pain for at least 24 hours and it makes the swelling go down about 92% faster. Proven fact."

Tris nods and Colby enters the serum into the syringe.

"You might experiment at least one hallucination after about a minute of this entering your system. What you have to do is either overcome the fear or slow your heartbeat. Once you do that, you will be done and just a little sleepy." Colby says watching Tris's facial expression.

"Wait. She has to face a fear for that thing to work?" I ask outraged.

"Yeah."

"What happens if you can't overcome the fear or slow you heartbeat?" I ask.

"Well. Eventually you find a way. Normally, a persons first time with this type of medicine having to go through a fear, it takes about 20 minutes. Unless....... We'll never mind." Colby says.

"Unless what?" I ask irritated.

"Unless the person is divergent. They can alter the system and create something that isn't possible or isn't there. They are aware that the simulation isn't real. But those are very rare."

"So if she is divergent....." I begin not knowing how to finish the sentence.

"Then we have a huge secret in our hands. People, especially, Jeneane Matthews find Divergent's threatening and wants to take them out. But enough of this talk. Let's start. Bea you ready?" Colby asks.

Tris nods bravely and Colby pushes the needle in her neck and sends the serum to go do whatever it does.

Tris whimpers in pain and Colby take out the needle.

I walk over to her side and kneel down. "The serum will take place in about sixty seconds. Remember it isn't real." Colby says.

Tris's eyes begin to close and I whisper one last thing. "Be brave Tris."

TRIS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last thing I hear is 'be brave Tris.'

I close my eyes and when I open them, I am in my old home in New York. That's weird.

I begin to walk around and see nothing unusual, just Marcus standing there unmoving, smiling a genuine smile at.... me?

I glance behind me, but no one is there.

"Beatrice. I am so sorry for ever hurting you! I will never ever do it again." Marcus says walking towards me reaching out his hand.

I back away not believing a word he says.

"Come on Beatrice. We can live a happy life, somewhere else. Far away." Marcus says continually coming towards me.

"No." I say.

I quickly look down and touch my own neck. It is all better. I can talk.

"Beatrice please! We can start over." Marcus pleads.

"No. I will never ever go anywhere with you ever again. You lying, cheating, mean, old man that you are." I sneer.

"Fine. You got me." Marcus says with his evil laugh pulling out his belt.

He holds it like a baseball bat and swings it across my face. I scream and tears begin falling down my cheeks.

I quickly turn and run towards the stairs, but Marcus grabs my hair twirling me around.

He whips me again, again, again, and again as I continually scream and try to rip away from his steel type grip.

All of a sudden, the belt turns into slithering cobra snake.

It lunges at me and I quickly back away it flying through the air towards me.

Snakes can't fly. Snake can't fly!

"This isn't real." I say looking at my reflection in the window's glass.

Suddenly, the window, that used to have this huge code on it opens and I jump through landing on the plush blanket of grass.

~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes open wide and I breathe in, flinging myself upwards into a sitting position.

Colby grips my left shoulder as Tobias grabs my right shoulder. I quickly hit them off thinking that they are that snake coming back to get me.

Tears streak my cheeks and Tobias quickly kneels in front of me, brushing the hair out of my eyes.

"Tris. It's okay. It's over. It's okay now." Tobias whispers looking straight into my eyes.

I nod and wipe away my tears and open my mouth to say something.

"No talking." Colby says and I glance down and see my big, puffy neck.

Tobias pushes me back down, so I am laying again and I cover my face with my hands.

I hate simulations.

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