Inextricable: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Three) ©

Chapter 22

A less than gentle shake was what brought me to consciousness, and without even pausing to think, I threw a hand out to push the person off of me.

"Go away," I muttered, my entire body aching as if I'd been steamrolled by a series of tanks. When the hands returned, roughly pulling me upright and shining a beam of light into my eyes, I groaned and again shoved the arms away. "I said piss off."

There was a pause, which was followed shortly by a single dry laugh. "Well, it appears as if there aren't any speech impediments."

"Banks?" As I blinked and the room around me came into focus, I quickly realized that I was surrounded by a crowd of three; Banks to my left, and Vera and Jade on my right. I was also on the floor. Below me, I could feel that I was resting atop the slightly cushioned mats that lined the center of the training room. "What happened?"

"I was about to ask you just that," he replied, scanning my face with what I thought was an overly analytical expression. His whole body in fact, seemed laced with tension, and in his free hand he tightly gripped a syringe with a mysterious liquid. "Vera came to me in a panic and said you were having some sort of episode."

"Episode?" I repeated, glancing at Vera and noticing that she also seemed to be trying to read me. "I don't remember any of that." Looking around me, I found that though I tried, I couldn't even bring up more than a wisp of what had happened during breakfast. "I have no clue what I'm doing here."

"That seems pretty convenient." Vera replied, her voice almost hostile. At Banks' warning gaze, she sucked in a deep breath and looked to be trying to calm herself down. "What about Iris? Where did she go?"

"I told you already, she left," Jade interrupted before I could answer, rolling her eyes when Vera scowled at her. "Once she knew Banks was on his way, she hightailed it out of here." Her voice completely calm and inflectionless, Jade turned to look at Banks with an expression that clearly said she was tired of repeating herself. "Seriously, how many more times do I have to say it?"

"That just doesn't sound like her," Vera shot back, also looking to Banks for some kind of backup. "Why would she leave just like that?"

She had a point. If Iris had truly been with me during this so-called episode, then I found it hard to believe that she'd simply leave me on the ground in order to cover her own hide. She was my friend, and I felt I knew her well. There had to be another reason behind her abandon. Amongst other things, I found it even more odd that she'd brought me to this very training room when she preferred to work with handguns and rifles.

With Banks', Vera's, and even my own questioning gaze on her, Jade let out the longest most exasperated sigh and again looked heavenward as if to ask for an exorbitant amount of patience.

"Listen closely, cause' this is the last time I'm going to repeat myself," she replied wearily. Then, saying each word as if it were its own sentence, she said, "I. Don't. Fucking. Know. I'm not a mind reader. She left, I stayed, end of story."

Aside from the obvious irritation she showed towards Vera, which was something not unusual for Jade to demonstrate as of lately, she appeared to be completely at ease. Her cadence was level, eyes unwavering –if slightly bored– and even her stance held the signs of someone who was completely unperturbed.

Apparently convinced, Banks nodded and then turned back to me, his expression visibly less worried as he asked. "So, you have absolutely no recollection of any of today's events?"

"Not really. I mean, I think I remember a bit of this morning, but it's nothing specific."

"What about your memories? From this last year, I mean," he added, the stiff set of his shoulders relaxing when I shook my head again. "Nothing?" He asked, though it sounded more like he was confirming a theory of his own.