Epilogue
"What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of shit
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here"
"Hurt" -Nine Inch Nails
"Wait, I have a request," Eric said, knowing that he was going to die today, but wanting to die his way.
He had had been caught; there were people surrounding him. Familiar faces, all of them. Mina, Jenner, Carson, Xander. They all watched, they all had hatred burning in their eyes for Harper, for what Eric had let happen to Harper. They all blamed him, and he blamed himself.
One of the women, Tori, spoke up, "We don't take requests from criminals."
Eric paid her no mind. "I am the leader of Dauntless, and all I want is for Four to be the one who fires that bullet."
"Why?" Tobias asked.
"So you can live with the guilt," Eric taunted. "Of knowing that you usurped me and then shot me in the head."
Tobias hadn't wanted it to come to this; something inside of him both wanted to pull the trigger and another part of him just wanted to pick at Eric's brain. They were in Candor and so many had died since Harper. The image of her body on that monitor falling to the ground would haunt him for the rest of his days, but not as bad as it haunted Eric. He had seen it in the flesh, he watched the bullet penetrate her body, a single bullet brought her to her death. If things could have been different, maybe he would have been in her situation, dead.
But it didn't matter now, because Eric knew he was going to die today.
"There won't be any guilt," Tobias said.
"Then you'll have no problem doing it." Eric smiled at him. Deep down, Eric wanted to be dead. He had lost every ounce of what could have been good the day Harper died, and he no longer wanted to live every day hating himself for it. Cruel jests about Tris slid from his tongue with ease, he truly did not like her, and he truly hated Tobias, perhaps if it hadn't been them who had stopped the simulation, Harper would be alive today. And yet he still took full blame for what happened to her.
Tobias grabbed a bullet to put into the chamber.
"Tell me," Eric started, "because I've always wondered. Is it your daddy who shows up in every fear landscape you've ever gone through?"
Tobias loaded the single shot into the gun.
"You didn't like that question? What, afraid the Dauntless are going to change their minds about you? Realize that even though you've only got four fears, you're still a coward?" He taunted Tobias further, he wanted him to pull that trigger; he even sat upright, proud and brave.
Tobias rose the gun to Eric's forehead, looking him dead in the eyes.
"Eric, be brave."
Eric would finally be released from this prison of guilt. The seconds loomed on as he wanted to die so badly, but never could do it himself. Since Harper died, he snapped from sanity; he killed children without hesitation, he slaughtered anyone he could, he sought out people to put bullets in their skull. He wanted to be in these situations with the hope that someone might actually do the job, to finish it. And today, Tobias was going to fulfill that wish.
He pulled the trigger, for Harper.