Shatter Me

After Adam escorts Juliette to her room, he disables all the cameras. She now thinks that she has mistaken Adam for another person: a boy from her elementary school who sat three rows in front of her. She once saw the boy’s abusive father push him out of a car, screaming and calling him “a worthless piece of shit” (144). Since then, she couldn’t forget this scene. When Juliette is alone in the room with Adam, with no cameras, she tells him that he has always known who she was. Juliette realizes that all his questions were just a part of a performance.

Adam assures Juliette that he believes that her killing that little boy was an accident. He tells her that this happened on the same day he was going to talk to her and that he was sure she had forgotten him. But Juliette remembers him very well—the only boy who “stood up for [her], […] the closest thing to a friend [she] ever had” (146). When they both realize this, their emotional intimacy shifts into physical intimacy. Juliette is surprised that she can touch Adam without hurting him. But as Adam is about to kiss Juliette, they hear three loud screeches. Through the intercom, a man’s voice asks Adam why the cameras have been disabled. He explains that this was a direct order from Warner. After the man hangs up, both Juliette and Adam sigh with relief. Adam hugs Juliette and tells her that they need to find a way out.

Juliette remembers that in her school days, Adam was always kind and was always there to protect her. Back then, she believed that maybe his attention meant that she was “not as horrible as everyone said [she] was” (150). However, after accidentally killing the boy with her touch, she spent the next three years of her life in hospitals and juvenile detention centers until they locked her up in the psychiatric institution. Juliette tried to forget about Adam, but as soon as he appeared in her cell, she recognized him.

Now, her thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door. Adam opens the door and talks to someone named Kenji. The man, another soldier, begs Adam to let him look at Juliette, but Adam snaps that “she’s not a goddamn spectacle” and shuts the door (153).

Juliette is standing by the window when Adam approaches her and puts his hands around her waist. He pulls her close and asks if she is serious about leaving. Adam tells her that the troops are preparing for a final attack against the rebels, so the two of them need to leave when the soldiers are ready to deploy. He thinks that they will have time to run away before anyone notices. Juliette is surprised that he is willing to risk so much for her, but Adam assures her that “there’s very little [he] wouldn’t do for [her]” (155). He tells her of all the instances in school when she showed exceptional kindness to someone, yet no one ever thanked her. All these situations prove to him that Juliette is “the only good thing left in this world” (158). He tells her that they have a maximum of three weeks to prepare their escape.

It has been two weeks since Juliette and Adam talked about leaving, and Warner has kept Juliette by his side at all times. Juliette learns that Warner’s father, who is at the capital, put him in charge of Sector 45. Although Warner loves the power, he hates his father.

Adam and Juliette only have a little time together during the night. Adam tells Juliette how obsessed Warner is with her and how long he has been talking about her. He reveals that Warner had spent months collecting her medical records and personal histories even before she was put in the psychiatric institution. Back then all soldiers were talking about her, “a girl who’d killed a little boy in a grocery store” (160). Hearing Warner talk about Juliette, Adam volunteered to get her. Adam also tells Juliette that Warner, despite being ruthless, is “starting to crack” because he is so desperate to have her (161).

One day, during their usual breakfast together, Warner gives Juliette “a tiny tank top and tinier shorts” to wear (163). Even though Juliette hates the outfit because she feels almost naked, she forces herself to put it on and to follow him. Warner takes her to the basement and locks the door behind her. Juliette sees metal spikes appearing everywhere and realizes that she is in a torture chamber. Juliette hears Warner asking if she is ready to hold up her end of the bargain. When she responds that she won’t touch him, he says that he is sending his replacement. Juliette then sees a terrified, blindfolded toddler being pushed into the room. She hears Warner say that if she is not going to save the child from the spikes, they will not save him either. But the only way for her to save the child is to grab him, which might kill him.

Juliette takes the boy in her arms, and he begins to scream from the pain. She manages to grab him by his diaper and holds him up in the palm of her hand. It becomes difficult to hold him like this, but she hears the spikes disappearing back into the ground. When they are all gone, she puts the child on the ground. She desperately wants “to hug him close” (169), but she realizes that she can only stand and watch him cry.

After Warner makes Juliette relive the accident that she tried to forget for three years, she feels rage rising in her. All she can think of is how much she wants Warner “to experience the same terror he just inflicted upon a child” (169). Surprising even herself, Juliette breaks through the concrete walls. Within seconds she reaches Warner and slams him into the floor. Dozens of his soldiers are pointing their guns at her, but Warner commands them not to shoot. Juliette looks at Warner angrily and tells him she should kill him. Warner, under the impression that she has just “broke through concrete with [her] bare hands” (169), cannot take his eyes off of her in fascination. Juliette looks him in the eye and says that if he ever does something like this to her again, she will kill him.