Chapter 39 - My Little Brother

Tris

"It's out, Mom! It's out!" Caleb yells excitedly.

Tears of happiness are brimming my eyes. "I told you you could do it." I whisper to my mother. She is still breathing heavily from the birth.

Everyone is smiling and yelling things of joy and congratulations to my mother.

I am smiling too, until realization hits me like a train at full force.

It's not breathing.

No,

No,

No!

"It's not breathing! What's wrong?! Why isn't it breathing?!" I scream panicked.

All hell breaks loose on everyone else in the room. Yelling, crying and everything in between. Mom tries to sit up but I put my hand on her shoulder and gently push her back into a laying position. I drag myself over toward my Mom's partially propped up legs; the shackle making a horrible screeching sound as it rubs on the ground.

Just by looking at its extremely small body, I see that it is a boy. His body is probably the size of my hand, and my hands aren't too big.

My little brother.

I use my thumb and pointer finger cautiously because of how fragile and tiny it is and pick up his tiny right arm. It is probably as thick as the fat end of a key or my second and third fingers together.

His small arm is extremely cold, and has no sign of a pulse.

Tears start streaming down my face faster and faster. I start to shake my head.

My little brother.

Dead.

"He's dead." I manage to croak out.

"He's?" My dad asks.

I just nod my head.

"He's a stillborn." I hear the sadness in Cara's voice; almost lifeless.

I look over at my mother. She is just staring at the celing.

"M-Mom?" I croak.

He turns her head and looks at me. Her eyes are all bloodshot and her face is still sweaty from the birth.

She just meets my eye contact and nods, tears start spilling over her bright red cheeks.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry." I sob, my hand, more like thumb now on my little brothers stomach that is still warm from being inside my mother. His head is the biggest part of him; around the size of a baseball. He's just so tiny.

I turn toward my dad whose been strangely quiet.

He's just staring at the grey concrete ground; his face is a mess of dried tears and new tears falling out of his eyes. Like me earlier, he is shaking his head as if he will not allow himself to believe this.

The door slams open to my left revealing David.

If I was stronger, I would totally slap his so hard right now. Not only did he get my mother pregnant, but he didn't even support her or anything. Now she has to go through this suffering.

"Any success?" He asks. The tone of his voice is strange, I wouldn't call it sly, or sarcastic, but it's kind of like when someone's being forced to talk to someone they don't like, or when a mother is forcing her child to say thank you. Like he doesn't really care, but he feels like he should ask anyway.

Everyone except my mother just looks at him. She just turns her head back toward the celing. I hear a small sob escape her lips. I wish I could take her spot right now, and be in her place so she didn't have to be going through this.

David walks toward my mother's cell and gets on his knees. He pulls out a knife from his pocket and cuts the umbilical cord. Then he turns toward me. I hadn't realized how hard I was looking at his hands cutting the cord and making sure that that knife wasn't going into the baby's small body that when I move my eyes toward him, I have to blink a few times.

"Come here." He says.

I drag myself toward him slowly, the shackle scraping on the concrete with a strangled sounding scream again.

He moves the knife toward my left leg and immediately I back away.

"No. Don't do that." He says. His voice sounds like an innocent child who knows they did something but will never admit to it. It scares me.

I look at him but don't move.

"Don't get me angry. Come. Here. Now." He barks.

I drag myself slowly toward him again, my legs behind me this time.

"Your leg?" He asks me once I am close enough to him.

I move my legs toward him cautiously, expecting the worst from the steak knife in his hand.

He pulls my leg moving me closer to him, and causing me to yelp and try to pull back from him.

But that only makes his grip on my calf tighter. I see black dots in my vision, but I still try to back away.

"I'm willing to let everything go between us if you just listen, Beatrice. But right now, your not off to a good start. Now sit still."

I still struggle to get out of his grip. Only if I could move my leg...

"Your making this harder on yourself." He says in a motherly tone.

"Get away from me you bastard." I mumble through gritted teeth.

"What'd you say?" He yells releasing my leg, standing up and fiddling with his keys.

I immediately scoot back to the back of my cell using my right leg to move. I don't have to look to know that he's entering my cell because I hear the click of the key in the slot that unlocks it.

"I'd like to do this right here, right now. But it can wait until tomorrow. But then it will be way worse." He says like he's trying to teach me a lesson.

He takes another key and puts it in a hole I never noticed in the shackle around my left ankle.

He stops mid way to my ankle and looks at me, "You're not going to run, are you." He says.

"If I could, I would." I spit at him.

"Fair enough." He unlocks the shackle.

He takes the knife and I feel all of my muscles tense in my body as he holds it near my leg near the knot that Cara had put in the torn section of the blanket that is wrapped around my ankle. He cuts it, then goes to the next one and cuts the bigger one in my mid calf. For some reason, he doesn't take off the blankets that are stuck on there with dried blood.

"Please no. Please, no. Please. Please no. No, please." The begs just fall right out of my mouth.

I feel my family's eyes all looking at me. It's so quiet, and all that can be heard is their heavy breathing from their crying and my begging and pleading for David to stop.

I look up and see David smirking.

Cara

"Please no. Please no. Please. Please no." I hear Tris beg.

I remember researching something about when people repeat the same few words like that. It's different for everyone though, sometimes it's because their mentally unstable and cannot say anything else, other times it's when they are in so much shock there's nothing else they can say, or sometimes it's when they are panicking and are only able to say those words but not by choice. The list just goes on and on.

"It won't hurt too badly. Just like ripping off a band-aid, Beatrice. Except in your case, maybe much worse. But oh well. You've got to change your bandages you know." David says sarcastically with a smirk.

"What'd she ever do to you?" I hear Caleb say.

"What'd she do to me, Mr. Prior? What'd she do to me?! She killed my new born son! She didn't even try to save him! I'm just trying to teach her the fact of saving other people by helping her change her bandages. That's what she did to me."

He turns toward Tris again and she is trying to move her left leg under her.

"Trying to hide, Beatrice?" He asks a smirk clear in his voice.

His hand wraps around her calf again and she cries out in agony. I can see her leg already start to bleed because of that blanket strip half way off; and his fingernails look like they could be going into her leg.

I can't help but feel guilty for her going through this. If I had just gotten shot like David intended, then none of this would be happening right now.

Tris is squirming under David's grasp. Her face is all red and her eyes are bloodshot, but not from crying. She is in too much pain, I silently wish for her to go unconscious just so maybe she'll have some peace.

But she doesn't.

David moves his grip to one end of the blanket strip glued to her ankle with dried blood. Without warning, he pulls it hard, making a horrible ripping sound and causing Tris to scream.

Worst of all, it's only halfway off.

He takes the other end and yanks again and she screams again.

I turn away, unable to look at Tris. I just feel so much pity and feel like this is all my fault. That's because it is.

I wince as I hear Tris scream again. I'm going to guess that strip is off.

I gain some courage and glance back over to Tris's cell. I immediately wish I hadn't.

Tris is screaming and trembling still under David's grasp which is now on her lower calf above her ankle. Her blood has just about covered his hand and a good section of the floor by her leg.

"Oh come on you wimp. I thought you were Dauntless. And Dauntless don't scream in pain like that." He remarks with emphasis on Dauntless.

"Don't listen to him, Tris!" Caleb yells clearly trying to tip off David.

I was thinking the same thing as Caleb, and I'm greatful that David ignored his comment.

At least for the moment...

"Please no. Please no. Please don't. Please no. Please don't. Please don't." Tris starts trembling and mumbling again.

David grabs the other strip on her mid calf and almost immediately yanks on it really hard.

Tris's scream makes my heart ache and my baby girl inside me start to kick. Hard. No matter how loud it actually is, it melts my heart that I can only sit here and watch. That there's nothing I can do without her jumping in and sacrificing herself for me if I try to support her.

Either way, I'm screwed.

He pulls on the torn blanket again and again, but it won't come off. Tris has her eyes sealed tightly, her teeth clenched, and her face is dripping with sweat as she trembles. Her leg is bleeding erratically all over the ground.

I think this is just as bad as getting shot for her.

My baby inside me won't stop kicking now. She must hear her Aunt's cries of pain.

David pulls again, Tris let's out a strangled cry again. The last strip will not come off.

He goes to the other end and pulls really hard making a horrible ripping sound and I am sure that I lost my hearing from Tris's scream. A tear escapes my eye, followed by another and another until I'm silently crying to myself.

I turn away again unable to look at all of this. My track of vision always find its way back to her no matter how much my mind screams at me to turn around. I have no clue why though.

David stands up still holding onto the blanket strip that's attached to her leg, then he walks a few steps making the blanket strip come off a tiny bit and asking Tris let out a loud whimper. Then he does one last flick of his wrist and the blanket rips off with her leg hitting the ground.

Tris screams, my baby kicks harder, then David walks out with the bloody blanket strips without saying a word.

He turns out the lights as he leaves.

I try to help calm Tris, but she won't let me. I put my hand on top of hers, she moves her hand away. I stroke her head, she tries to shake my hand off.

I have an idea.

"Here, Tris. Feel this." I whisper to her.

Gently I pick up her trembling wrist, and she immediately pulls it back.

"No, Tris. I want you to feel something. Don't worry, I won't hurt you." I reassure her.

I try again and gently pick up her trembling wrist. Then I take my other hand and pull up my shirt over my stomach revealing my pretty large baby bump. I take her hand and put it where she's been kicking since Tris had started screaming. I can tell that Tris is trying to get her hand to stop trembling, but she just can't. She'll stop for a second, then start up again.

I release my hand, and surprisingly Tris keeps her hand there by herself.

But what brings tears to my eyes, is that as soon as Tris's hand went over where she was kicking, she didn't kick as hard. But as soon as Tris pulls her hand away, she starts kicking hard again.

"She already loves you." I whisper to Tris.

All night, we all are kept up by our own sobs, Tris's trembling whimpers of pain when she exhales, and as for me, my baby girl who is upset at her Aunt's pain.

A/N-

Hi humans!

So I now have a four day weekend! We had a snow day on Friday, now I have a snow day today! I may update later, but I still have a small writers block on Tobias POV and everything that's happening on that side of the story.

Pretty intense chapter... What did you guys think?

Sorry that Natalie's baby died. It wasn't part of the story to live. I did shed tears writing this chapter, so if you cried while reading it, you aren't alone!

I have been re reading my story and editing it recently and I've noticed that my favorite POVs are Tris, Tobias, Evelyn and Cara. (Which is funny because they are probably some of my favorite characters in the series) Somethimes I need their POV just by the mood of the story or how it will be best told by, but I'm still wondering; would you guys like it if I mixed around the POVs a little and did some different ones? If so, please comment on who you'd like. Or should I just keep doing what I'm doing?

6.32k reads! <4

Until next time!

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