After Dark • Peter Hayes

You're hurt

Piper's POV;

There was no one in the world I wanted to walk through that door, no one I wanted to talk to. It was dark, I could see from the windows gleam but I didn't want to look.

"Hey..." I knew that voice. Of course it was him. Why was it always him.

"Go away" I didn't look I just kept my eyes on my knees that were bent up as I sat back to the wall. I heard the door close. Hoping he'd left but he hadn't. "Please, leave" I didn't plead. Not with him. For now, I'd do whatever it took to be alone.

"I'm not going, not when you need me"

I audibly laughed at that. He said nothing. Just stood there at my side.

"You think I need you? Why would I ever need you" I spat vengefully. He was the last person I needed. I didn't need anyone but certainly not Peter Hayes.

"You're hurt"

"All you do is lie and manipulate people, get out" I turned my head to the opposite side of where he'd stood. There was silence again. I closed my eyes and pretended he wasn't there. It stayed like that for a moment until I felt him sit down beside me. He didn't talk. He just stayed there. I'd given up trying to force him out. All I could do now was not answer him. Or at least try.

I turned back to look at my knees. I could see him say the same way as I was, knees tucked up, feet on the floor. His hands hang over his knees.

I didn't speak. Neither did he.

The silence was nice for a moment, until my brain caught up with me.

Al was still dead.

Tris was still divergent.

I had killed him. He was dead because of me. I yelled at him. I told him he was a horrible person. What he did was awful but god he didn't deserve to die.

I did this.

I reached up to cover my face with my hands that were before wrapped around my legs holding my knees close to my chest.

My brain like a broken record kept repeating the same thing.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

You killed him.

"Piper, hey" I heard him talk again snapping me out of my thoughts for all but a second. "Talk to me"

No.

I refuse.

I looked to my right again, to avoid his presence at any and all cost.

I felt his hand on my arm. I ignored it. Didn't push it away. Only ignored him. He was as horrible a person as Al. He played with my feelings. Feelings I hadn't even realised I had. I felt his thumb begin to move. To calm me of sorts, it wouldn't work, nothing could calm me right now.

"Look at me, please"

I couldn't. I wouldn't.

My head stayed where it was. I hated him. I hated Al too. God, I hated his guts for what he'd done to Tris, his best friend. I couldn't stand to look at him, I didn't want to see him again but I far from wanted him dead. My mind was eating away at me. Telling me this was on me. What would I have said if Peter hadn't shown up and told Al to leave. Would I have made it even worse than I already had.