Disclaimer: please see the beginning of the prologue :)
CHAPTER THREE / TOBIAS POV
I lean slightly on the net as Lauren leans back against the wall. We are waiting for the initiates to take their first leap into the Dauntless compound.
"Who do you think will jump first?" Lauren asks. I shrug.
"I'm not sure. Maybe the Abnegation transfer." I think of Arabella's 12 year old face. I wonder how she looks now, three years later.
"A Stiff? Well, maybe since Tris jumped first last year, but my money's on one of the Dauntless born. Some of them usually sneak in here and take a peak before initiation starts." Lauren replies.
Suddenly I hear a whooshing sound and see a figure drop into the net. I didn't even hear them falI, they didn't even scream or shout. I stride over to the bottom, where I help the initiates down. I see a flash of dark grey, and my heart skips a beat. Is that her? Could it be? Is it really my little sister?
I offer the person my hand, and they grab it and swing themselves over the side of the net, and I grip just underneath their shoulders and place their feet on the ground. I see now that it is a girl.
She turns towards me, and I look directly into her eyes, directly into her soul.
It is her.
Her beautiful green eyes are wide with wonder and strands of her brown hair have escaped the tight bun that was tied at the back of her head. Her cheeks are flushed, her whole body tense and alert. She's grown up, but she'll always be little to me.
Her eyes widen at the sight of me, and I suddenly realize that we shouldn't look like we know each other. That will give our identities away.
"What's your name?" I ask.
"Ella," she replies, her voice sharp and determined. I like that nickname. It suits her. Gentle and rebellious and kind and brave, all rolled into one, with many other beautiful qualities that I love about my sister.
"First jumper, Ella!" I call out, and the other Dauntless members that are waiting at the bottom of the net cheer loudly and I can see her blush a little. I set my hand on her back just as another initiate comes whooshing down, yelping, and lands into the net. Lauren stretches her hand out and helps the initiate, just as I did.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see flashes of red and yellow. Amity, I think. I've never had an Amity transfer before.
I push her lightly towards the Dauntless crowd. "Welcome to Dauntless," I lean down and whisper in her ear.
I can almost feel her smiling.
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Once the final initiate has jumped off the roof and is safely plucked from the net, Lauren and I lead them over to a spot in the room where we intend to split them up.
"Dauntless borns, you'll be with Lauren. Transfers, you'll be with me. Go," I address the group and I watch as a clump of black makes their way over to Lauren and follow her down a hallway.
"Most of the time I work in the control room, but during the next few months, I will be you instructor. My name is Four." I can see some of the Candor initiates look at one another because of my name, but nobody has the nerve to make a remark. Good.
"Follow me. I'll give you a brief tour of the place." I gesture for them to follow me, and they do. After showing them the dining hall and the Pit, I lead them over to the dorm.
"This is where you will be sleeping until initiation is over." I walk back over towards the entrance to the room.
"Boys or girls?" an Erudite boy asks.
"Both," I reply. I see Ella's eyes widen. She won't like these arrangements.
"Get changed and meet in the dining hall for dinner," I command.
While everyone is choosing their beds, I beckon for her to walk over here. She strides over and looks at me expectantly.
"There's a bathroom down the hallway. You can take your clothes in there and change," I whisper.
She smiles a shy smile. "Thank you," she murmurs. I smile a tad in response, but I can't show emotion in front of the other initiates.
Talk later? she mouths. I nod slightly, and she smiles, grabs her clothes, and walks out the door. I turn and walk out after her.
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After dinner is over, Ella follows me back to my apartment. I unlock the door and together we slip inside, careful that nobody notices that she is with me.
"Can I get you anything? Water?" I ask, closing the door soundlessly behind us.
"No, I'm okay for now. But thank you," she replies. Ella slips her new black shoes off and places them by the front door. We walk into my bedroom and sit on the edge of the bed.
I take her hand in mine. I stare at her, and she stares at me, and for a moment we just look at each other, wondering how we survived without the other for three long years.
Suddenly she flings herself at me and wraps her arms around me. She buries her face into my shoulder and lets out a small sob.
"I've missed you," she cries. Not tears, just noises of joy. "Oh, God, I've missed you. So much." I pull her closer to me, so close that she is sitting in my lap, her legs draped over mine perpendicularly.
"I missed you too, Ella." I kiss her head, softly. She gazes up at me with her forest green eyes, almost hazel, just like our mother's eyes. Ella swings her legs off mine and says, "Okay, fill me in on everything that I've missed. You go first, and then I'll do the same to you."
"Okay," I say. "Well, my new name is Four, if you haven't noticed."
"I've noticed," she smirks, "But why? I mean, obviously you don't want to be known as Tobias, but why Four?"
"In the third stage of training, you go through something called a fear landscape. It's where you are placed in a simulation that gives you a visual of all of your fears, and you have to conquer them in some way to end the simulation." She shudders a little, and I hug her. "Don't worry. I'm your instructor, and besides, you'll be fine. You're brave. If you can survive him, then you can easily get through your fear landscape." I see her crack a smile. Oh, how I've missed that grin.
"I set a record - I only have four fears. My instructor came up with that nickname for me." I finish. She smirks again.
"Of course you set a record. You overachiever." I smack her playfully on the arm, and she laughs, her new black clothing standing out against her skin. She looks good in black.
"Can I still call you Tobias when it's just you and me?"
"Of course. I'd like that, actually." She looks happy to hear that.
"Okay, your turn. I'm not going to ask you about your new name, because I gave you that name, didn't I?" She nods. "So, I'll ask you about what happened after I left. Did he still beat you? No, let me rephrase that - of course he still hurt you. Did he beat you more? Harder?"
A moment ago she was bright and full of light. Now, it is almost like something came and sucked the brightness out of her. Her eyes grow wider and wider.
"Tobias…" she whispers. Ella looks down at her lap. I nudge my hand under her chin and lift it up. I feel bad for making her mind bring back bad memories and images, but I have to know. I have to know what he did to her.
"Please," I speak softly, gently, pleadingly. "Just this once."
Ella bites her lip, and turns away from me. For a split second I think that she is going to leave, but then she reaches for the hem of her shirt.
"It's easier for me to show you. It's harder for me to talk, you know?"
"Of course I know." I cover her hands with my calloused ones and together we lift the fabric over her back and I gasp.
She has scars before, lots of them. But I have never seen this many. I don't even think I have this many marks on my back. I can feel my hatred boiling in a cauldron that rests at the pit of my stomach, threatening to spill over.
Her back is a pattern of jagged lines, cutting into her skin. Some of the marks are red, indicating that she received a beating not long ago. I run my hand over her back, feeling the ridges and bumps.
Ella shifts, and I realize that she is uncomfortable. Even though I'm her brother, she is still extremely wary of physical touch and contact. I help her cover her back with her shirt and she turns around to face me, and I am shocked to see tears in her eyes. Ella almost never shows pain, and when she does show it, it's only ever to me.
I pull her into my chest and she sighs, resting her face against me.
"When did he do this to you?" I ask.
"Last night," Ella replies. "Barebacked," she adds in a low voice.
"Barebacked?" I exclaim in shock. I know the things that Marcus is capable of, but I never dreamed that he would hurt my sister that badly. She's basically still a kid. Who would do that?
"Yeah," she admits. "He also gave me this." Ella pulls away from me and lifts up her shirt so that her pale stomach is exposed. There is a whip mark there, plain as the day, shining bright like a rusted jewel.
"What? He hit you on the stomach?"
"Yeah. It winded me. It hurt to breathe for a little." I hug her again.
"I'm gonna kill him," I say.
"No. Don't." She looks alert now, after what I said. Alarmed. "He doesn't deserve to die. Nobody does." I laugh a little at her statement.
"Not even the person who beat us raw? Who's been beating you since you were two?"
"No."
"Ella, sometimes you're a little too nice."
"I don't want you to have to live with the grief. When you kill a person, it leaves a mark that can never be erased. I don't want that to happen to you."
She embraces me again, and once more I am overcome with a sense of warmth. I really missed my sister. I really did. Then she speaks again.
"So, now it's your turn. What-"
Suddenly the door swings open and Tris walks in. Her eyes widen a little when she sees me with Ella, but she recovers and walks towards us a little. I can feel Ella tense in my arms.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were in here. Hi Ella, remember me?" Tris says.
"Yeah, I know you. You ran my aptitude test." Ella stands up. "But how do you know… Four?"
"Ella, um, this is my girlfriend. Beatrice Prior," Tobias bites his lip and I stare.
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All I can do is stare. My brother has a girlfriend?
"Beatrice Prior. You're from Abnegation."
"Yeah. I remember you." Tris walks over to my brother and Tobias stands up. They lace their fingers together, and they look at eachother like there's nobody else in the room.
Except there is.
"Ella, it's okay. She knows," Tobias says.
"You told her about Marcus?" I ask.
"Yes," he says. "So, if you are ever going to date someone, or befriend someone, you can choose one person to tell, because I chose one person to tell. But only one, and you have to trust them with your life. This is a big secret." I nod.
"Do you call him Tobias?" I ask Tris.
"Yeah, I do. But only when we're alone. Otherwise, I call him Four." Tris replies.
My emotions are all jumbled, kind of like someone threw them in a blender and made a gross smoothie.
"Ella, is this okay? Is it okay that we're dating?" Tobias and Tris look at me expectantly.
"Yeah," I reply, and the look on my brother's face is all worth it. He looks so relieved.
"Is this the part where you tell me that if I break his heart then you'll kill me?" Tris asks jokingly.
I laugh and say, "No, because I know that you won't break his heart. You love him."
Tris blushes, and Tobias slings an arm across her narrow shoulders.
"You love me?" he says, faking disbelief.
"Shut up," Tris says. She punches him lightly in the arm in response. I laugh again.
"I hate to break this up, but I should probably go back to the dorm," I say.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Tobias yanks me into another hug and I squeeze him so hard that it hurts.
"See you tomorrow," I wave at Tris and she waves back.
"Goodnight, Ella," she says, and I slip out the door and shut it behind me.
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As I lay in one of the beds in the dorm that night, I think about Tobias, and about Tris. They make each other happy, and honestly, they didn't even need to ask me if they could keep dating. I would've said yes anyway, although I am glad that they did ask.
I wonder if I'll ever date anyone. I wonder if I'll ever make any friends. I wonder what my relationship with Tris will evolve into.
I roll over and face the wall, as I picked the bed that was wedged in the corner. I breathe in the scent of Dauntless, musky and damp and stale, but yet energetic and fun and carefree.
If I want to have a good first day of training tomorrow, then I'd better get some sleep, I think to myself. I shut my eyes, and for the first time in over three years, sleep comes naturally.
A/N: Sorry if this is messy or if there are any errors, I just finished writing this and felt like I had to share, because this story got it's first review the other day! Thank you, guest reviewer, you know who you are. I really appreciate the gesture.
Ooh also, there is a POV change somewhere in the story and it goes from Tobias to Ella, so if you missed that and were confused then that's why.
Please keep reviewing, favoriting, and following!
Thank you for reading! Ily all!
~ Faith :)