ALL THE WRONGS • DIVERGENT ERIC FANFICTION

chapter 67 | the twisted truth

VENUS

"STEP FORWARD, Venus." A dark-skinned man says. "My name is Niles, and I will be your questioner."

I sit up, leaving Aria's side. Standing in front of Niles, I move the hair that has grown visibly longer over the years to the side as he cleans the surrounding area with an antiseptic wipe.

I brace myself for the needle, shuddering as it plunges into my skin. All the thoughts that were previously buzzing around my mind - what to say, chants upon chants of telling myself to 'lie, lie, lie', but that all was suddenly wiped from my mind. It felt like I had forgotten something important. I had. I had.

"I will ask you a simple series of questions that you will answer truthfully as the serum takes affect." Niles explains. "First off, what is your name?"

A name is a name. It isn't a secret. It isn't something to lie about.

"Venus." I say. "Venus Eaton."

A few gasps sound from around the clearing. I thought everyone knew I was related to Tobias, but now it seems a lot of people didn't. My eyes find Tobias's in the crowd, he is still recovering from the serum, having being interrogated just previously. He didn't have to say about me. My relationship to him. They didn't ask, so he didn't say.

But now everyone knows.

"So it is true that you are related to Tobias."

What else don't people know about me?

"Yes."

"Which means your previously faction was Abnegation, yet you transferred to Dauntless. There must be a reason. What is that reason?"

Like Tobias before me, a sweat builds on my forehead. It feels like walls are pressing against my brain, my heart, my nerves on fire. The serum wants me to say, 'Because my father used to beat me'. But my mind wants me to say that I wanted something more than grey monotone, a basic, boring life.

"It is impossible to fight against truth serum. So tell me, Venus Eaton, why did you defect from your original faction?"

As different things to say, things other from the truth enter my head, I feel like I'm beating the serum, letting out a breath of relief.

But as I open my mouth to say it was purely because of my aptitude results, something completely different leaves my mouth.

"Because my own father used to beat the shit out of me." I spit it out. My hands shake, falling to my sides. I don't even feel my tongue move as I speak again. The serum is speaking for me. "I couldn't take it anymore."

I don't want to find the eyes of the people around me, but I do. Some eyes hold sympathy, sadness. But others hold boredom, and they look at me like I'm pathetic.

A wet tear slides down my cheek, and I swallow back a weak, pathetic whimper.

I am so pathetic.

"If I am right, Evelyn should be your mother."

"You're right." I mutter.

"And if I'm also right, she is also dead from blood loss after giving birth to you." Niles tilts his head. "Correct?"

I feel the sweat taking over again. My face feels wet. My hands start shaking again, tremors pulsing through my body. I will not speak the truth. I will control myself. I will control myself.

No one needs to know.

No one needs the truth.

There is a silence, a silence as harsh and sharp as the blows to my forehead, shoving the truth out of me.