Nothing Without You | Eric Coulter [2]

five

    "We removed this from the body of the suicidal-"

"Marlene," Lynn cuts my mother off and I wince when I hear her name, "Her name was Marlene."

It's hard to keep up with what's happening. My mind feels like a jumbled mess and my chest feels like it's been cut open, exposing my heart and leaving me vulnerable to the dangers of the world.

I've cried for so long and hard that it feels like my tear ducts have dried up. It was the oddest feeling. It was like I was crippled with pain but numbed all at the same time.

"I'm sorry," Evelyn continues, being sure to correct herself. "Marlene."

She holds a small device up with a pair of tweezers, "It's a very sophisticated sim serum injector. It also has a radio transmitter in its head."

"How do we get them out?" Someone asks from the crowd.

"I don't know," She replies with a sigh, "This tech was built to defend itself. This tendril wraps around the nearest major artery. If you try to remove them...it kills the host." She explains as gasps fill the room.

"Kills the host?" Lynn questions, "So, what do we do?"

"We must find a way to neutralise the disk before we do anything else," Tobias says.

"Or we can do the logical thing; we hand them over." Edgar, one of the Factionless, and from the looks of it, my mother suggested as he points a finger at Tris and then me.

The Factionless cheers in agreement, but I can't find it in myself to care much about what's going on around me.

"You are not touching her," My eyes snap up to see Uriah stepping protectively in front of me and frown.

How does he not hate me?

"Nobody knows about this alliance, we have to protect that advantage," Edgar argues, glaring at Uriah in challenge and my friend takes a step closer to him, meeting him head-on. "If we hand them over now, it might buy some time."

"I think it's a good idea," Tobias speaks up, making my heart drop. But then he steps between Uriah and Edgar, speaking in a threatening low voice. "Except, you'll have to go through me first."

"And me," Lynn agrees, prompting the Dauntless members to cheer in support.

It feels as if a weight has been lifted off my chest knowing that they didn't hold it against me. Still, guilt threatens to eat me alive knowing I was responsible for the fall that led to her death.

My gaze falls on Uriah, Lynn and lastly, Tobias. I knew what I had to do.

Tobias meets my eyes and a wrinkle forms between his brows and I wonder for a minute if he could tell what I was thinking.

I raise from my seat and hear my brother's voice call after me, but I had already made up my mind.

No one else was going to die because of me.

✧

ERIC

Sleep has evaded me once again, and I stare up blankly at the ceiling as I lay in bed, trying my best to ignore the huge void I've been constantly feeling in my head recently.

Every time I close my eyes I just hear a voice in my head- a voice I feel like I should know.

Until a few days ago, I couldn't put a finger on who it belonged to.

Then, I heard her voice and the way she muttered my name like we meant something to each other. Instantly, it was like there was something in my mind that was waiting to be set free and all it needed was a little nudge.

My memories are still a little hazy. I get flashes of it every once in a while, but it's not enough.

I wouldn't even have known her name if it wasn't for Jeanine's obsession with her.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I make one last attempt to fall asleep. But not even a minute in, the insistent, and frankly, fucking annoying alarm goes off.

It goes on, stopping at regular intervals to announce that this was an 'intruder alert'.

With a sigh, I throw my covers off of me and pull on a shirt, changing my sweats out for a pair of cargo pants before making my way out of my room and down the hall.

"What is it this time?" I grumble out to no one in particular.

Still, I get a response from one of the on-duty guards that lined the hallway.

"There was a security breach, sir." He says and I turn to shoot him a flat look.

"I figured, with the fucking intruder alert." I snap, "Who is it?"

"We...we don't know, sir." The same guard that had answered me before answers again.

I stopped in my tracks, turning to face the guard with a glare. The guy- who didn't even look old enough to choose yet- visibly pales.

"You don't know?" I asked, "Then, what the fuck are you standing around for? Go fucking find out!"

"Y-Yes, sir." He stutters, "I'm on it, sir." Then, he scrambled down the hall, looking like he was about to shit his pants.

Morons, I rolled my eyes, I'm working with fucking morons.

"Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?" I yell.

Someone scurries over with a tablet in hand, "Here, sir. One of the cameras got a clear shot of her face. I ran it through facial recognition and got a match."

I peer down at the screen that was handed to me, recognising the face that flashes across it in an instant.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath, slamming the tablet into the guard's chest with more strength than was probably necessary.

This was the moment I realised that I would probably know those eyes anywhere because they were the same ones that haunted my dreams.

That was how I knew that Vanessa Eaton was telling me the truth when she'd told me that she knew me- that she loves me. And for some reason, I was sure that I loved her too.

Now, I just had to figure out how to fall in love with her again.