~ flashback ~
I had to get out of here now, even if I come back, I can't be here when Adam gets back. I pick the cover of the duvet off me, it was covered in stains which were unidentifiable. I move to sit on the edge of the bed and it creaked as I did so. Picking up my shorts from off the floor I slipped them over my legs, which were laced with bruises, just as the smell of cannabis and rotten alcohol filled my nose. The red crop top I put on luckily covered most of the bruises on my torso.
I didn't make any money last night. Adam wanted 600 from the guy who was lucky enough to 'have a go'. But it turned out he wasn't interested in making a bid, just in having his way with me. If Adam returns asking for the 600, and I hand him nada, I dread to think what would happen.
So, I did the only thing plausible, I tip toed quietly round to end of the bed as I didn't want to wake a sleeping customer. Picking up his jeans and finding the back pocket, I take his wallet and shove it into my back pocket.
I had to make my escape and fast. The man who was sprawled on the bed started to stir and I begin to frantically find an easy escape.
There's a square window at the far side of the room which I'm sure I could squeeze out of. I run to it on the balls of my feet trying to make sure the floorboards wouldn't creak, or my toes get caught in the gaps and trip me over.
I unlock the hatch to the window and it creaked slightly, waking up my 'customer'. I knew I had to hurry otherwise I could end up dead, or worse.
I grab the curtain rail, which at one point had a full set of red curtains hanging from them, with both hands; picking my body off the ground allowing me to swing my feet into the window with force, shattering the thin pane of glass. If he wasn't awake before, he certainly would be now.
I hold on to the sides of the window Pane for balance as my feet find the roof which slopes downwards.
"Hey!" The masculine voice of the drunken man called scuttering around in the room I'm leaving behind. Immediately, I let go of the panes, letting my body go into a free fall down the roof. Luckily, I had my feet straight out in front of me, allowing them to get caught in the gutter which in turn helped me regain my balance before jumping the remaining distance to the ground. I look over my shoulder briefly to see the man hot on my tail, following the same route I took out the window. Immediately, I break into a sprint heading deep into the amity forest behind the house, brushing past trees and great long vines.
I hoped to outrun the man but figures he was ex-dauntless. The athleticism of this bloke wasn't explainable through being amity born or any other faction for that matter. He was still right behind me at every turn. Once it became evident that there was no way of getting too far from him, I decide it would be a better approach to tire him out. However, the lack of sleep hit me first and my foot carelessly got caught under a fallen tree branch, causing me to fall to the ground.
The man quickly pounces on me, using any dauntless restraint he could squeeze out of his perverted memory.
"Get off of me!" I shout, spitting in his face while scrambling to squeeze out of his grip however this man was roughly twice the size of me and his weight kept me firm on the ground.
"Where's the money?!" He screams, the cannabis evident in his eyes. I thrash around as he starts grabbing me in weird places, clearly looking for his wallet. "Where?!"
"You got what you want! The money's mine!" I shout back. Continuing to thrash about underneath him as one of his hands goes to start groping my lower back and the other goes to his pocket. "Get off me you creep!"
He pulls out a butcher's knife from his pocket and presses it into my torso, not too deep but deep enough to cut through quite a few layers of flesh. I screech in agony as the sensation of the cold metal against my insides turns my blood cold. "Where is it? Or I'll go deeper." He seethes through a clenched jaw, wiggling the knife around in the wound. I couldn't let this carry on, the money was no where near as important as other things in my life. "Back pocket." I groan, and his hand starts rummaging around my shorts, never once removing the knife from my flesh, allowing it to edge deeper.
He pulls the wallet out of my pocket along with the knife out of my flesh, creating the most painful sense of relief.
He backs off of me, the alcohol in his system causing him to stumble. "Wretched whore." He spits at me before stumbling back through the forest towards the main area of the faction.
~end of flashback~
"Wait so just to be clear, you slept with that man for money?" Eric asks with a raised brow.
"Essentially, yes." I say reluctantly with a slight conscience that he will start making insults.
"So, I was right about you being prostitute?" He scoffs. Knew it.
"It wasn't a choice Eric. I didn't choose to become a prostitute." I inform him.
"What so as soon as you started shagging guys, they would just randomly give you money?" He laughs, and I'm tempted to get up and leave.
"Eric this isn't a joke." I spit at him, but he just continues sniggering. "Do you really think a 13-year-old girl just woke up one day and thought 'hey wouldn't it be great to sleep with 50-year olds for cash?'" That seems to put him back in his place, his face dipping ever so slightly.
"13? Wait how old were you when this happened?" He queries.
"13 was when it started, when I married. But the story Im telling you is when I was 16 or 17. I never asked for any of it."
"Hm. I always thought you and Raul had history back in Amity." He murmurs.
"We did. Just because I married doesn't mean I wanted to marry. I was forced into it by my father." Eric looks at me confused.
"So, you didn't actually want to be married and you were sleeping with Raul the entire time?" He asks rather abruptly. But he's not wrong.
"Pretty much." I respond, "I didn't even know Adam until I woke up on my 13th birthday with a wedding dress in front of me and basically told 'your marrying a 23-year-old.'"
"Does Peter know about you and Raul?" He asks. To be honest, it never occurred to me before that he might need to know. Well, he doesn't need to know now.
"No. But he doesn't need to, me and Raul ended it ages ago and besides it was just a fling." I lie, thinking about mine and Raul's conversation earlier. Eric raises an eyebrow at me and looked like he wanted to say something but decides not to. "Now are you going to continue asking questions or let me carry on with my story?"
~ flashback ~
I don't remember blacking out, but I must have done because I definitely wasn't in the forest any longer. I was now on a small bunker bed, with wooden framing and another bunker attached above it. The room was much cleaner than any I've been in, and it leads me to wonder who lived here. I sit up slightly and feel a small aching pain in my abdomen, remembering my wound. Peeling back the blanket, I inspect the site of my injury, which was fortunately now covered in a bandage. Whoever did this certainly wasn't your average Amity.
The door opens and closes as a man enters. I couldn't quite tell if he was older or younger than me but straightaway, I could tell he wasn't an Amity. He wore amity clothes, sure, but his short brown hair and plump muscles told a different story. I still wasn't quite sure what was going on. He didn't really pick up on me until he got closer to the bed, I noticed he was carrying a water bowl and cloth. That's not for me is it?
"Hello." He says with a smile, which I return with half as much enthusiasm. "How are you feeling?" He asks, looking at me with shining green eyes.
"Um okay, I guess. Was this your doing?" I ask, trying to stick with the amity naiveness.
"Oh yeah, sorry. I found you in the back forest passed out and injured so I decides to bring you to the safehouses to care for you." That's odd. The safehouses are only ever used to house someone who is in extreme danger. He's not from this faction.
"What's your name?" I feel it would be better to use psychology to make him talk rather than straight out asking him.
"My name is Four." Definitely not an Amity name and definitely a Dauntless name. "What's yours?"
"Taura Daniels. Do you not have a last name?" I ask with a cheeky grin.
"Not particularly." He responds, "Your very inquisitive for an amity." He giggles, placing a cold wet cloth on my forehead and pulling up a chair to sit on next to the bed.
"You aren't from round, here are you?"
"Well, no." He looks at me like I'm stupid, am I meant to know who he is? "I'm one of the Dauntless that's hiding out here." I look at him puzzled. I had no idea there were any Dauntless on the compound. If I'd known I would have befriended them immediately. I could use this 'Four' to my advantage.
"I thought all the Dauntless were burning Abnegation to a stake."
"Have you been living under a rock?" He asks harshly, and I look at him blankly. "There was a big meeting under that dome thing where all the amity had to vote whether me and my friends could stay or not." Well, that explains it.
"Oh, well I'm not allowed to go to those things so that's probably why." I tell him, moving to sit up in the bed, using my palms to raise my body. I feel his palm go to my back, aiding me.
"Why's that?" He quizzes.
"I don't particularly get along here if I'm honest." I don't know why I told a complete stranger that. He seemed to look at me puzzled.
"Were you Amity born or...?"
"Amity-born." I smile.
"So, if you don't get along here, why did you chose to stay?"
"It would have been cowardly to leave."
"You speak like a dauntless." I want to trust this person, he's Dauntless so he might be able to help me get out of here and into Dauntless but then there's always that fear that he will tell someone in Amity what's going on, and then I could be killed.
"How long are you going to be here for?" I ask.
"Until it's safe to leave, and we know where the rest of the Dauntless are." He replies, seeming to lose himself in thought.
"Well seen as your going to be here for a while... can you help me?"
"We only just met and your asking me for help? A complete stranger?" He questions.
"Well, we don't get many dauntless on the compound."
"Why do you need a Dauntless to help you?" Four chuckles lightly at me. I sit there contemplating what I should say.
"My aptitude test result was Dauntless, and my plan was to transfer to Dauntless, but I was kind of blackmailed into staying here. And now it's getting worse."
"Are you asking me to get you into dauntless?!" He half yells in shock and I nod lightly. "Oh my god. You do realise that's impossible, right?" He says harshly.
"Not entirely. Any faction is permitted to accept a late transfer if there's sufficient evidence of influence or blackmail." He raises a dark brow at me while crossing his arms.
"Yeah, if that evidence is on the level of trafficking then okay maybe!" He shouts sarcastically but he couldn't be closer to what's going on. I just sit there in silence with my mouth slightly agape. Four stares at me for a while and then his brows start to furrow into a knot. "Wait, Taura-"my heart jumped into my throat when the door suddenly and in stumbled my drunk husband.
His greasy brown hair was all messy and tangled and there were beer stains all over his red tank top.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Adam slurred angrily, as he stumbles towards me and four. "Get the fuck out of that bed you slimy little bitch!" He yells and makes a move to grab my arm aggressively but Four moves in front of me, blocking Adam from reaching me.
"Don't touch her." Four demands in Adams face, which definitely isn't going to go down well.
"Don't touch her?! Don't touch my wife?!" He seethes in drunken anger. Four stares at him in confusion, looking at me briefly.
"Your wife? She looks like she's barely finished puberty!" Again, not wrong.
"So that was your motive for a bringing her here? Oh... well I am sorry my good friend, I didn't realise you were one of our clients, hahaha." He slurs, placing a hand on Fours shoulder, which he quickly slaps away. I didn't want it to come out like this. Four looks a mixture of angry confused and well... angry. "To compensate for my rudeness, I'll knock $100 off your price... making it $500?" Four looks back at me in total disbelief while I look at him briefly but turn my focus to the floor in shame.
"No, no no no. While you were off getting slashed with a bottle of vodka, I was taking care of your wife, not fucking her like one of the twisted perverts that pay you for her!"
I cringe at his words, knowing this won't end well for me later. Adam scoffs, swaying on his feet.
"What was she doing to need your care?" Adam spits, before peeling his eyes over fours shoulder at me "you were meant to be working!"
"Working?! She had a stab wound which no doubt you gave her, she should be resting not working!" Four booms and I couldn't stand this any longer. Four was bound to get hurt along with myself, and I couldn't let that happen. I grab Four's wrist in my hand causing him to break his icy glare from my husbands.
"Four, it's okay. I'm okay." I give him a certain look as if to say, 'I need your help, I'm not okay but you need to stop.' His breathing slows and his eyes search mine for something but who knows what.
"Taura, darling." Adam smiles at me menacingly. I guess he's calling me 'darling' as a coy to get me to do what he says. "Let's get you home so you can change out of those nasty bandages and get back to earning some dosh, huh?" I gulp back some anxiety. He didn't say it sweetly, he said it in a creepy drunken voice which filled me with fear. I let go of Fours wrist and stand up slowly, the pain in my abdomen really kicking in now.
"Those bandages need to stay on. I don't think a nasty infection is quite what your 'clients' will be looking for." Four growls lowly much to Adams dislike.
"Something tells me they wouldn't quite care." Adam replies harshly gripping my arm rather to tightly, yanking me towards the door faster than my legs could master right now.
I turn to look back at Four who had a look of panic and anger on his face. He runs his hands over his face and mouths something to me that was inaudible so I just mouth 'thankyou' back to him with a weak smile which he tries to return. But then Adam slams the door shut between us and we could no longer see eachother.
~ end of flashback ~
I sat opposite Eric saying nothing, just staring at my hands while he stared at me analytically. I daren't carry on with my tale because I don't think I want to even re-tell it my self, at least not right now.
"Taura." Eric says quietly, almost anxiously. "When I said those things to you before about... you know-"
"Being a prostitute?" I cut him off.
"Yeah that. And the rest of it. When I said that shit... I didn't understand." For the first time, I saw a look of guilt and shame in Eric's face, something I don't think anyone's had the pleasure of seeing.
"It's okay, it was just one of them things you know." I shrug off the situation
"No, it's not! What he did to you and what he is doing to you is wrong." I feel a tear roll down my cheek. "You can't let him – them – get a way with how they treated you. You can't let Sam get away with how he's treating you. It's sick. It's inappropriate. It is wrong." Eric lectures me, I don't know whether I needed to hear that or not. I didn't want to, but I suppose he's not wrong. I feel a knot in my chest and more tears trickle down my face which I wipe away.
"Even if I did, the evidence stacks against me, they would throw me in confinement instead."
"No, they wouldn't. There's no excuse for what their doing Taura. It's abuse."
"But that's how the law works, Eric." I try to smile. "Even if it is unfair." Eric seems at a loss for words just staring at me blankly with that emotionless expression he usually wears.
"I can't let this carry on Taura, I won't let this carry on. I'm not letting some lowlife prick who has no morals, drive someone with so so much potential into darkness." Eric sounds angry. Almost like this scandal is a wound re-opened or a new one driving a wedge in him because he knows this place is changing. "Not to you." I gulp back a lump in my throat.
"You have to. Anything you do will make it worse. There's nothing anyone can do. We both need to come to terms with that." I sigh, slightly frustrated and slightly too saddened to be frustrated. I think Eric had ran out of things to say to persuade me, he just sat there in an awkward silence.
"Im going to restart your training as of Monday. I think you've proved yourself in terms of hand to hand combat and knife throwing. Even if I don't want to admit it. You know the drill, don't be late."
A/N: Very speedy chapter update lol! I thought this would be a lot more difficult to write, however I managed to get into the flow of it quite quickly. :)
Anyway, we finally get to see a bit of what Taura's past was like and how she met Four. There are going to be quite a few chapters like this in the future, revealing her story bit by bit.
As always, Votes and comments are always appreciated, I love the feedback! :D