Can you Help me Lie?
Chapter One
Dear sister, can you help me lie? I've been along this lonely road
I've told the truth so many years
No one seems to wanna hear that
I'm not someone else inside
Looks like I'm not coming home
But I don't mind, please don't cry
~Dear Sister - The Pretty Reckless~
His eyes followed the child as the little thing moved around the cafeteria, she was a scrawny munchkin that should have been with her mother instead of wondering around yet she would pause every time she saw an empty seat at a table only to be waved away by the nicer of the people and shoved away by others. The girl had a natural little pout to her lips and big brown eyes that didn't seem to stay still, no one talked to her they just waved her off not wanting to bother with the child. He looked at Zeke, who was sitting across the table from him, "what do you think is going on there?"
Zeke sighed lightly, "that's Vesta. She's about four now her family kicked her out because she was born deaf and they didn't notice it until she was about two. No one will take her in… anyone that has tried has been threatened by Max to have their own children taken away so she is turned out again because of her "weakness". It's shit really she's just a kid, she normally has to wait until everyone is done eating before she gets to and well no one knows where she goes at night. Every time she tries to go back to her mother… well lets just say she is lucky she doesn't have any bruises right now."
Four blanched the hair on his arms standing on end giving him gooseflesh for a moment as he thought of his father for a moment. No matter how violent it had gotten he'd never been kicked out, he'd always had a bed, and he'd always known at the very least he wouldn't end up dead. He looked at the little girl wondering still her brunette hair tangled and hanging down her back; she was filthy which was no shock to him considering what Zeke had just told him. He stood up then and moved over to the child and she shrunk back as he offered his hand to her, she was obviously waiting to get hit for not sitting to the side waiting for the non-damaged people to eat.
Vesta looked up at him slowly when his hand didn't lash out not knowing that the room was nearly dead silent since that was the world she lived in to begin with. Her brown eyes went to his hand staring at it for a moment before she looked up at him trying to see what was so different about this male, Four looked away for a split second but as soon as he felt that tiny hand in his he gave her a gentle half smile and let his hand hold hers he led her over to the table he'd been at, helping her into the seat next to his before he sat back down next to Amar only to have both him and Zeke look at him for a moment.
"It's not her fault how she was born… She is a baby; it shouldn't be the way it is. No one will help her because they are afraid to lose their family and I don't have one," he informed them as he put together some food for the little girl before handing her his fork since he didn't have a second one. "What are they going to do kick me out for feeding a little girl?"
"You better hope they don't, Max doesn't like weakness, Four. Everyone sees Vesta as weak; she's had a few scares… Her older brother held her over the chasm, they all but torture the poor girl, and the only thing Max will disallow is killing her. To him she isn't good enough for Dauntless but she could be thrown to another faction when she is sixteen," Amar told him with a shake of his head, he'd been the one to keep Veles from dropping his baby sister into the water and effectively killing her and until he'd told Max why he'd hit the brat it had been a common belief that he would have been kicked out of the faction. It was after that when Max informed all of Dauntless that in order to make her strong enough to pass off to another faction she was not to be killed but other then that she was fair game though no one was supposed to help her, she had to do it all on her own from the age of three. Everyone was surprised she'd lived this long to be honest. Amar was pretty sure the girl knew every hidden spot and dark corner of Dauntless not that he would admit it, but he knew a few of her hiding spots and he often left little things for her in them.
Four shook his head his blue eyes glimmering with anger, "she is a kid no one should keep her from eating at the very least."
The girl was eating quickly though and Four was worried she was going to make herself sick, obviously she hadn't had a hot or probably even just a warm meal in so long that she was afraid he would take it from her. He watched her for a moment how was he going to communicate with her? She wouldn't know how to read and he didn't have a way of talking to her since she couldn't hear him. He continued to take her in though watching her silently, her little hands were soft though they weren't plump like they should have been in a child of her age, she was too skiny he was sure if her shirt lifted up he would be able to count her ribs, and she looked tired as well as dirty now that he saw her up close. The poor thing probably hadn't had a proper nights sleep in a long time worrying that someone would hurt her.
Four made sure she got a piece of cake even knowing the child probably had never had a single piece and as Max stood making a speech Four didn't even notice the little girl slip away from the table going out into the hall and away before she could be stopped. Amar watched her leaving knowing the child was on the way to one of her hiding spots since Max would have seen her at the table. Amar would have to be very careful with it but he would make sure Four didn't get in trouble with this; he'd been through enough in his life just like the little girl he was trying to take care of. The poor child was starving and they all knew it but they were afraid of what Max would do to them and their families if they helped her.
Amar looked at Four, he was a kind heart under it all a true Abnegation if there ever was one. Soon though they were leaving the cafeteria and he told the transfers to explore since training would start the next day. He gave Four a look and moved his head in a 'follow me' motion before walking towards The Pit without checking to make sure the boy was following. "It was admirable what you did for her but Vesta… Max doesn't even like it when people look at her I'll do my best to convince him that it was because you are new here… If you want to help her I'll tell you where she hides at night. I leave her things there, clothes that are big enough for her, food, I've left her a few books but she won't learn to read them until she is old enough to go to the school, I'm going to get her to Amity for it. One of them has a child that was born deaf and she knows how to talk to him with her hands. She'll be able to teach Vesta, if you asked her I'm sure she would teach you too. Just… don't get attached to her, Four. Max isn't going to let her stay, he will make sure her life is hell here so she goes someplace else during her choosing."
"You'll allow it to happen?"
"It's complicated," Amar told him with a sigh as they walked through The Pit, it was mostly empty right now and the sound of their shoes hitting the ground vibrated through the air in a delicate symphony that bounced around and off of the walls. "I don't think its right by any means, what he is doing to her. What he has already done to her and what I know he will continue doing to her but I don't want to end up one of the factionless either. That is why the most I can do for her is leave her things in her hiding spots; it's also why I'm warning you now. I can't protect you if you keep publicly helping her, Four.
Four shook his head and sighed, "I can't not help her, and she is just a kid…"
"And it's too much like what happened to you?" Amar suggested quietly, of course he'd seen his fears he knew who his father was and what had happened in the boy's past. Still Four was only sixteen and he didn't need to take on trying to take care of a four-year-old while going through his initiation, if Max found out he would make sure he failed out no mater how well he did.
Vesta watched them from near the wall in her wide-eyed way standing stock-still, as she'd learned weeks ago helped to make sure they didn't notice her. She often hid in the shadows here watching people and because of it she'd seen many things she shouldn't have seen at all. She was invested in these two right now, they'd both helped her and she knew they had even if she hadn't seen Amar leave the things she'd seen him walking away from her hiding spots, no one else had taken the time to try and find her so she was safe mostly in the night.
"Where does she hide then?" he asked the older male only to have him say that he would bring him there. Amar started to lead him away knowing Vesta was following them despite the fact that she was deaf she walked quietly enough that unless he really tried he couldn't hear her and apparently neither could Four since the boy near jumped out of his skin when the tiny girl reached up wrapping her tiny hand around his fingers. Four knelt down then gently wrapping his arms around the child picking her up surprising the little thing but she did wrap her arms around his neck leaning into him as he carried her following Amar who was trying to ignore the fact that he was doing exactly the opposite of what he'd told him to.
Amar ducked into a hall before sliding a box out of the way near the middle of a thin dark hall revealing an opening with what looked like a nest of old blankets and clothes, all of them were filthy and further down the hall there was a putrid smell, she clearly used some place down the hall as her bathroom. "She can't keep living like this…"