Drown [Eric Coulter] Divergent

Part XXXV

XXXV

"One by one we watch them fall

Can't save them all, save them all

One by one they all fall down

Keep losing ground, losing ground

Save yourself"

"Save Yourself" -Claire De Lune

Harper didn't go to Eric's that night, she had too much to think about. 

Eric, alone with his thoughts in his apartment, felt as though he was going to lose Harper no matter what. As leader of the faction and with a dedication to making the factions work the way they did, he had to make sacrifices. They were harder than he ever imagined when he met Harper, he never thought that it would come down to this. Perhaps somewhere in his mind, he imagined that it would be easier to get her to believe in what he believed in. Knowing now that Eliza was Divergent and that Harper was aware of it, he was questioning everything that she had told him. So, alone in his apartment with only the knowledge that tomorrow was going to be a long day, he drank by himself to get any shut eye.

Eliza was still atop the building hours after Harper had left. Though it was her and Harper's place to unwind and to talk, it had become a safe place for her and she found herself up there more often that she would like to admit. Anytime she was able to slip away from Klaus, she would bring herself here, look over the edge of the building and wonder what the world used to be like. Was it better? Was it anything like the way it was now? She would never know, the world would never be liked that again. After Harper's words of advice, she wondered if she would see her again. They had drifted in some ways over the years, both of them busy with their own things to tend to, but it never mattered how many months went by before they spoke, Eliza always felt safe knowing Harper wanted to keep her that way; safe.

"Eliza, babe, what are you doing up here?" Klaus's voice did not sound surprised as his words might suggest, but rather, that he expected her to be here. "I've never seen you up here before."

She had always wondered if he knew that she came here to be alone. Often times she found herself up here after a bad day with Klaus, which was more often than not. It was exactly in that moment, when he revealed that he knew of her place, that she realized she hated him so much. She wanted him gone, to disappear from her life. Knowing that she might be in danger, she stood up from the edge of the open building walked away from the opening. She'd been there for hours, but how long had Klaus known about this place? How many times had he followed her? How much had he heard over the last few years?

Eliza furrowed her brow in complex thought. "I come here all the time... why are you here?"

He cocked his head to the side and half smiled, he raised both of his hands in the universal sign of defeat, though he looked far from defeated. There was a glimmer of wickedness in his eyes even without the moon to illuminate it. He walked closer to Eliza, and she took a countering step back to keep her distance. "Why don't you relax, tell me what's on your mind?"

"I come here to get away from you," she hissed in a moment of bravery, wishing she had even a single weapon on her person. She had developed good marksmanship, but still lacked in hand to hand combat.