HIDDEN

~CHAPTER EIGHT~

ALMOST TWO YEARS LATER

Elle was woken up by a loud knocking on her make-shift wooden door. She dragged herself off of her wooden palette and and pushed it open. Stood outside was the woman from next door. What did she want?

"Happy Birthday!" 

"It's my birthday? Oh yeah. Gosh, I can't believe I'm eighteen already!" Elle had completely forgotten. The woman handed her an apple. Apples were rare among the factionless. 

"Hey, thanks," Elle waded through the piles of duvets and clothes everywhere. "Come in."

The woman walked in and sat on the nearest, comfiest looking pile of duvets.

"Elle, I've been watching you on your rounds..." Because of the high illness rate, Elle had joined the doctors service. Every other day she went to see her designated people to make sure they were okay, or needed anything.

Elle didn't know what to say.

Sarah next door had been watching her?

"And, I need to tell you a story."

"Urm, go ahead." Elle gestured.

"Almost fourteen years ago, I was woken up in the night. It was cold. I heard footsteps. When I looked around, I couldn't see my four year old daughter Ellie anywhere. Two of her friends had left too, along with a young woman who hadn't been with us long. It was all very suspicious. We searched and searched, but could not find anything. Not a trace. My husband died of alcohol poisoning not long after. I was alone for years. Just when I thought things might get worse again, just when I thought of sending myself to my grave, you turned up.

"I was cleaning my windows the day that you came, walking slowly, looking for a place to stay. Something about your chestnut hair, your blue eyes, your slightly pointed nose, made me think of that night. The night she left and-"

"And I'm Ellie." Elle whispered, covering her mouth as silent tears ran down her cheeks.

"Yes. I believe you are." Sarah gasped. She got up and wrapped her arms around Elle, holding her closely, just like they had fourteen years before.

"Elle, I was Erudite too." Said Sarah after a while of silence. "Erudite born. I was in a class with Jeanine Matthews. Every chance she had, she humilated me. Made everyone hate me. Made everyone believe I was there to ruin their education. It was terrible, so I left. But not to where I wanted to go. On the day of the choosing, I was about to let my blood drip into Candor's bowl of glass when Jeanine coughed. She'd found out in Chemistry how much I hated unexpected coughing as it used to make me think of sick. So she let out a loud cough, which made me gasp, turn around, and drop my blood onto the sizzling hot coals of Dauntless."

"Right then, I knew my life was over, so I did badly in Dauntless. I was with a boy called Max, who was kind but always topped the leaderboard. When I eventually got thrown out, I came here. And I had you..." They were both quiet for a few minutes. "So what's your story?"

Elle told her everything. She made sure to whisper because of what had happened when she'd told all of this to Caleb. Caleb. He seemed so long ago. She tried not to think about him. But it was hard.