The Divergent Series Complete Collection

He coughs and makes exaggerated gagging sounds.

Take a person’s memories, and you change who they are.

“Who cares about everyone? What about me?”

I don’t stare back—I refuse to stare back.

I stare back.

His voice is low, rough.

The doors close and as I drop to the earth, just as Marlene did after I decided not to save her, I scream, my hands tearing at my clothes. My throat is raw after just a few seconds, and there are scratches on my arms where I missed the fabric, but I keep screaming.

“Why did you bring me, again?” I say, mirroring him by folding my arms. “Oh yeah—so that I could read the situation for you. Well, I read it, and just because you don’t like what I decided doesn’t mean—”

“I forgot about how your biases cloud your judgment. If I had remembered, I might not have brought you.”

I’m not going to die—but I don’t know that.

Instead of having to shoot that woman, like I used to, I have to watch you die. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“Eric,” he says, “be brave.”

He squeezes the trigger.