Reawakening

Chapter Thirty-One

A/N: This chapter skips back in time a bit-- and then forward again to where the previous chapter left off. I just want to make that clear in case the way I notated that in the chapter is at all confusing to anyone-- I had a little trouble figuring out how to do that very gracefully. On another note, we're getting pretty close to the end! Just a few chapters left! So I just want to say thanks, once again, to those who have commented and encouraged me throughout this story-- it means so much to me! xoxo

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Tris - picks up where last Tris POV left off in Chapter 28:

Just as I reach for the lever, wedged under the carpet, a hand covers my mouth and a cloth covers my eyes. I scream into the hand. Not again, I think as I begin to panic. No no no, not again, this can't be happening again. My mind flashes back to that night at the Chasm. I smell Al's lemongrass and sage, I feel Peter's hand slide under my shirt, I hear the roar of white water rushing over rocks, and I see nothing but darkness.

I try to kick, I try to scream, I try. Tobias is nowhere near. He won't be able to save me this time. Who wants my life now? How did they find me?

I manage to kick the car hard just as I am carried away to hopefully get Marlene's attention, though I pray she isn't taken as well. However, I have a feeling that they just want me. They always want me, all of them. My promises to Tobias ring in my ears. I will play this smart, and I will make it out of here alive. I will make it back to him.

--^--^--^--^--^--^--

Someone shifts their grip, and my legs are no longer restrained. I can't see, so I can only hope to actually hit someone when I kick-- and I succeed, based on the satisfying "Oof!" a deep voice grunts out. However, I'm still no closer to getting away. I'm stunned by a hard slap to my face. "If I had known someone this small could be such a little hellion, I would have made you carry her, Charlie," a voice near my head says.

Someone else laughs. "We'll be there soon enough." I don't give up, I keep trying anything I can to get out of their grip, to run, to hide, to get back to Candor and find Tobias... but it's useless. Soon the journey ends, and my hands are tied together with rope. Something pulls my hands upward until I am stretched so I am standing with my whole body, fingertips to feet, in a straight line perpendicular to the ground. My heels don't even touch the floor, though I can put a little weight on the balls of my feet.

Once they are satisfied that I am secure, the blindfold is removed, and then the tape is ripped from my mouth; it stings, and I scream through my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut tightly. When I open them I first glance upward to see that the rope tying my hands goes straight up to the ceiling, which several stories high, to a pulley-- I can see which direction the rope leads from there, but not where it ends.

Now aware of what is holding me in this position, I look around me. I am in some sort of factory-- one where they do something with metal, making machines, perhaps. There is scrap metal everywhere, there are big machines with conveyor belts, and across the giant room a big vat that glows something reddish-orange. It boils and steams and sizzles.

And in front of me is a woman I would have prefered never to see again: Tobias's mother, Evelyn Johnson. I narrow my eyes and scowl at her. She just chuckles. I suppose I'm not very intimidating on a normal day, and even less tied up this way.

I haven't met Evelyn, this time around, so I'll have to pretend not to know her. "Who are you and what do you want with me?" I spit.

"I am the leader of the Factionless," Evelyn informs me, "and you are simply a bargaining chip. I need information, and I will not let you go until I get it." I just glare at her and she pauses, glaring back. "I saw what you did with my son in that movie theater. You certainly aren't the good little Abnegation girl I remember, Beatrice." I gasp. I knew I heard someone in that cinema! Evelyn was watching us... fool around? What a sick freak! Oh, right, I recall. I should be reacting to the fact that I went to this woman's funeral nine years ago, and now she's standing here in front of me.