I follow Christina down a corridor, Peter behind me and we didn't have to go far until we find what Christina was on about. Four looked like you could drop him in some wood and the entire city will catch a light. I've never seen him so angry before.
But What frightened me even more was who he was angry with. Sam was pinned against the wall with a knife pressed to his neck. Yet he still kept a smug grin. I froze, I had no idea what to do. Four clearly knows something, but I don't want it to come out, not like this. I feel my stomach begin to do backflips as Sam's dark eyes find mine. He can sense my fear and he lives off it.
I do the only thing that seems logical;
Act like nothing's happened.
"Hey Four! Stop, get off him!" I dash between them, roughly shoving Four backwards into the wall. I hold my arms up parallel to my body, a palm facing both of them like a human barrier.
"Why are you defending him, you should be the one who wants him dead out of anyone?!" Four yells at me, fury evident in his face.
"What the hell are you on about?!" I know exactly what he's on about. Four freezes, his mouth agape.
"Yeah Four, what have you been blabbing on about?" Sam speaks up, pretending to be shell shocked. "Taura, if you hadn't had jumped in when you did, I don't think I would be alive right now. Thank you. So much." If this man had any talent, it would be acting. He stays behind me, rubbing his neck exaggeratingly.
"Why were you two having a scrap anyway?" Peter pipes up from the side of me.
"That's a good question Peter, I was just making my way down the corridors and Four just came out of nowhere and started attacking me. He was accusing me of hurting you." Sam rattles on, pointing at me. It felt like my heart drop to my stomach. "I mean, he accused me of raping you!" I gulped maybe a little too loud.
"What?" Peter moves closer to me, as if he was guarding me from Sam.
"Oh, don't act so surprised, it's not as if it's unheard of from him!" Four barks at Peter while still keeping his eyes locked on Sam. He's done this before?
"Four, I really don't have a clue what you're on about." Sam half laughs almost menacingly. "I haven't even touched her, right Taura?" He gives me a pointed look, raising his eyebrow as if to warn me of the consequences if I don't agree with him. I pause for a while, debating on what path to take. If I tell the truth, I could get rid of Sam, but I know he will have something lined up for me and things would get weird between me and Peter. Or I could go along with it, play Sam's little game, and everything stays the same.
"He's right. Four I think you're going crazy, the only time he's touched me is to shake my hand, and that was 2 days ago." I choose the latter. Fours jaw drops, and his eyebrows contort together.
"But... But the CCTV... it was him!" He stammers, pointing the knife in Sam's direction.
"Well clearly you got the wrong guy."
"Your lying." Four tells me.
"I'm ex-candor and I can tell you she's not lying." Peter snaps from behind me, placing a hand tightly on my shoulder. I gave him a weak smile which he returned but I had to turn away. Four sighs loudly.
"Just drop the knife and call it a day." I tell him firmly. The knife drops to the floor with a crash and Four throws his hands to the side in defeat.
"Hey, no hard feelings. It was just a misunderstanding, right?" Sam said with a smug look on his face. Four responds with a scoff before storming off. Sam began to chuckle lightly, eyeing me up and down. My heart pounds inside my chest. Even though Peter and Christina were there, I still felt vulnerable.
"Well, I will see you all around. Thanks again, Taura." I give him a light nod, not to act suspicious in front of Peter, I can tell he already suspects something is up so I need to do my best to rid him of those suspicions.
Sam stalks off down the corridor, humming a tune and grinning profoundly.
"I didn't realise you were so bossy, Taura." Christina days from behind me and Peter. To be honest in all the commotion I forgot she was here.
"There's many things you don't know about me, hun." I flash her a smile and put my arm around Peters waist to show her I never listened to her or Tris in the first place.
"Do you want to come grab a few drinks with me?" She smiles, moving in front of me. I'm not exactly sure why she's being so nice to me, I did beat up her best friend after all.
"I don't really feel like drinking right now." I'm not even sure if I want to look at alcohol again.
"Okay, you can have a bottle of water and I can have a bottle of tequila, does that sound good?" She smirks, and it pulls a small chuckle out of me.
"I don't know..." I stammer, glancing back at Peter. I was pretty sure he would have liked me to stay with him after all this.
"No, you go have fun Apples, I won't get too lonely I promise!" He winks at me and presses his hand against my back.
This took me back a little, "oh are you sure?"
"Yeah, course." He grins, and I give him a light smile, still rather confused.
"Okay then." I sigh before being dragged away by Christina. Peter didn't even hang around, I watched him march off in the opposite direction at speed. I hope he's not up to anything.
"Okay, I have to ask because I'm really curious, what did you mean when you said you don't fit in with amity stereotypes?" Me and Christina have been hanging out for the past 2 hours, and I have to say I'm rather enjoying it. It's nice to take a break from the craziness of my life and actually have a little fun. The pit is fairly quiet as it is only around midday, so we pretty much have it to ourselves (and all the drinks).
Today I've been smart and avoided the alcohol. I don't want a repeat of anything that's happened over this week. This decision was made easier by Christina going easier on tequila, I guess I'm a victim of passive drinking.
"Well, I never got on there. Ya know, I was always breaking the rules, doing risky stuff. I was kicked out of mainstream school because I kicked off at a teacher, otherwise a lot of people would probably recognise me." I had never been very good with authority when I was younger, and I'm still not now, so I wasn't particularly the ideal student.
"Wait, no I think I remember you." Christina chirps with a grin.
"Really?"
"Yeah, you sat in front of me in math. You stole Mr. Ireland's phone because he told you off for having your skirt to high."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I actually found some disturbing texts between him and Miss Gadsby which I screenshotted and sent to his wife. I heard they divorced like a month later." I smiled, rethinking my short but entertaining school days.
"Wow I'll have to learn not to get on your bad side. So, what happened after you got expelled?"
"Well, seen as I had a very bad reputation in Amity already they put me into a reformative school on the compound."
"I didn't know they existed. What was it like?" She quizzes.
"Well, it was like they took all the education out of school and replaced it with a book about a man who walked on water."
Christina began laughing, "wait what?"
"Yeah, it's part of our religion, his names Jesus and a virgin gave birth to him in a barn. That's all you need to know." I explain. Amity is actually a very religious faction, it's what they base the foundations on. As a child your conditioned into the religion through Sunday school and church services so when your older they don't have problems with rebellions. Of course, I was the exception to the rule. I never for one minute believe in any of the religious crap, after all the things I've witnessed and experienced, it's hard to trust that God exists.
"I don't think we had anything like that in Candor."
"I kind of wish I was candor-born." It's true, if I wasn't amity I would have been Candor. It always seemed a lot more relaxed than amity. No religion. Rules but better rules.
"Really?" She raises a dark brow at me.
"Yeah, you had ice cream, we had bread." I pout jokingly.
"I suppose that was a perk." She laughs.
"But all jokes aside, there would be no secrets or lies, I would have known Peter, we could have been friends, I probably would have done better in school."
"So, if you hated Amity so much, why did you choose to stay?" This isn't really something I've spoken about before, but I don't have much to lose.
"Well, I actually planned on moving to dauntless with Raul, it wasn't until last minute I changed my mind. A couple weeks before, my younger sister became rather ill. Things were already tense in my family for numerous reasons and this kind of added to it. I don't really know why I stayed, but I know if I left at that time I would have spent my whole time here feeling like a coward."
"Your sisters okay, now right?"
"She passed away about a week ago. It was leukemia, so everyone knew it was going to happen." There was a silence that fell over us. Me and my sister had always been close, after Mum died I basically raised her like my own. I had no choice; my father was barely suitable and wasn't around. I took her to all her hospital appointments and cared for her at home, with the help of Raul. She was 6 years younger than me, so was 12 when she passed. I could see her going to Erudite when it came to choosing day. "I actually snook out of dauntless to go see her when she died so it's not like I didn't get to say goodbye..."
"You're okay, though right?"
"Yeah I'm fine. It's just been a long week ya know? But I have other things to worry about, so I've moved on as fast as I could." I shrug.
"That's very brave of you, Taura." She smiles warmly, placing a hand on my shoulder. I've never had the chance to talk to anyone about that, not even Raul knows that my sister passed, and I have to say it feels good to get it off my chest.
Peter's POV
I'm usually don't feel any remorse for doing things behind people's backs, in fact it's kind of what I'm known for. But this time it feels very wrong. I'm about to betray Taura, again. And I'm pretty sure it's going to get me in a shit ton of trouble if she finds out I'm a part of any of this. However, I'm doing this because I'm keeping her safe and protected and there's no harm in that. Right?
I walk through the basement to the CCTV room. There aren't a lot of people who are allowed in here, and it's only open at certain hours. Hence why it's in the basement. There's CCTV everywhere, every room, every alley even in apartments. Of course, nobody knows about the apartments, it would cause an uproar and only those investigating crimes are allowed to access that footage. I suppose you could say I was investigating a crime, right?
I switch on one of the big fancy computers which lit up like a Christmas tree. I was the only one in here and I had to keep it that way, so I made sure the computer was the only light on in the room.
I tap around on the screen for a while to find the correct footage;
22.08 - 23.08
22:00- 02:00
North Wing
Level 4
Corridor 2
Dauntless must of payed Erudite a tonne for this security system. The CCTV lets you view any footage from as much as 10 years ago from any crack in the compound – and beyond – just at the tap of a button I can find out anyone's identity which is how I worked out Taura was lying. I don't blame her, Sam did put her right on the spot and I know for a fact he wouldn't have let Taura get away with spilling the tea.
I scroll through at least an hour of footage until I finally find something interesting, Sam and Taura both appear onto the screen. Sam had Taura, who was clearly drunk as a skunk, pressed against his chest as he forces her down the corridor. His hands were way too low on her waist for my liking and I could feel a burning inside my stomach (and not the good kind).
I decided to turn the sound on, so I could hear what was being said between them and zoom in slightly.
"Maybe you can put on that show you promised me?"
"Show? I have to warn you I'm not very good at dancing."
"No, but I've heard your good at other things." I have to clench every muscle in my body when I see his lips move along her neck. Only I'm allowed to do that. I saw Taura try to move out of his grip but clearly her drunken state was making it difficult. They've pretty much reached Sam's door by this point and I could feel my heart rate rise significantly.
"Actually, I want to find Peter. Take me to Peter." My eyes began to sting with tears, they were hot with anger.
"Peter's still stuck at the office, he will probably be a while. But don't worry, I will take very good care of you." No, I wasn't, I was sat in my apartment continuously ringing her phone.
Sam forcefully pushes Taura through his door. For the first time in my life, I actually stop myself from making a mistake. I daren't change the camera and watch what happens next.
Why did she not come to me?
How could she not come to me?
Muffled screaming came through the speakers of the computer and the tears started to fall from my eyes. I'm not cry because I'm sad or upset. Well, I am upset but that's not why I'm crying. I'm angry. I'm so fucking angry. At Sam and myself.
I knew this could have happened, especially after our conversation I had with him where he taunted me about Taura. I let him talk to her.
Why? Why didn't I do anything?
How could I have let this happen?! I should of fucking done something!
"FUCK!" I scream, smashing my fists into the desk. I could still here Taura's screaming in the background of mine. I'm seeing red.
Old Peter is back.
And Sam isn't going to like it.
~~~
A/N: I was planning to publish this earlier but my laptop went all funky lmao.
reviews and comments are appreciated! I enjoy reading your opinions on the things that happen in the chapters :)