Pierce

## Biography

In the early portion of Book 3, Pierce was intent on being logical and factual in solving or addressing any problems, although he showed clear anxiety with how the information he came up with was received. This implies that early on that behind his obsession with logic (possibly related to an inferiority complex), his true mind was emotionally broken by the trauma he had suffered through for almost the majority of his life. He has a clear fear of abandonment, stemming from the incident with Samantha. Because of this, he was prone to emotional outbursts, such as when he confronted Samantha for what she did to him as a little kid or when Amelia called him a child.

This directly ties into his and Grace's eventual fallout. His obvious crush on Grace diminishes as he gradually becomes (somewhat reasonably) paranoid about her keeping the truth of him. After his suspicions that Grace was lying came true, Pierce's mental health took a significant fall, as in his mind Grace had "turned" on him just like a denizen would. He then refers to Grace as a void, which is incredibly similar to null as both have concepts to do with nothingness, further proving the connection he saw with Grace and his trauma. This is made clear when he then wanted to wheel Grace, just like what he'd do to a denizen. When Grace saved his life, he at first showed signs of a change of heart, but ultimately could not accept her explanation of "I don't know" as to why she saved him.

These actions suggest Pierce's time on the train caused him to lack basic empathy or sympathy, or the ability to understand other's emotions or actions. At first, this mainly involves denizens, which after the incident with Samantha he has deeply ingrained in his mind the idea that they are not human and will betray or hurt him: this is how he rationalizes his choice to murder Tuba despite her having previously opened up to him. In his interactions with Grace after the fact, it becomes clear this lack of empathy is beginning to extend to humans, or at the very least humans with whom he does not agree. This is shown in how he is willing to invade the boundaries of others, choosing to go into Grace's personal memories and trap her in there for revenge on lying to him, along with invading her personal space physically. Indeed, the "Void" title appears to be his way of rationalizing extending the "Null" philosophy to humans: if they don't agree with his opinions, than in his eyes they deserve to die. When he believes he has killed Grace, he briefly cries at losing his best friend, only to quickly replace his tears with more laughter, having completely devolved into a sociopath.

Even when presented with evidence that he is wrong about the train, its denizens, and why he is onboard, Pierce immaturely rejects them, claiming they are lies or part of a conspiracy, and instead irrationally focuses on his own beliefs. Ultimately, it is this inability to accept changes or new ideas that leads to his downfall: had he (like Grace) accepted the possibility that denizens were actual living beings, had he accepted he was wrong about the train, and most importantly, had he accepted Grace's choice to save him, Pierce may have found himself on the path to getting his number to zero and leaving the train. But his trauma, his lack of empathy, and his inability to accept he was wrong all led him directly into the path of Vance, ironically leading to his death at the hands of the very thing that caused him his original trauma.