Tris POV.
I can't get the idea out of my head that it's one of the initiates watching me.
Ever since I've been getting the feeling of being watched when I'm alone in my apartment, I've been very wary of each of them. They all have something about them that just gives me a feeling of uneasiness… something I can't figure out.
As Tobias and I walk to our apartment, we encounter Elena in the hall. She is leaning against the wall as if she is waiting for me to show up.
When she sees me, she stops leaning on the wall and looks at me, her eyes insistent. "Can I talk to you about something, Six?" she says.
I turn to Tobias. "You go ahead. I'll be right there."
He hesitates. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, it's fine."
He bites his lip. "Alright then." He lets go of my waist and goes on ahead.
"So," Elena says when Tobias is out of earshot. "I had a feeling you two were together. It's just plain obvious."
I cross my arms. "Your point, initiate?"
"I was there when my mom recognized you. I never thought to put the pieces together, since you look so different then you did then. You have a tattoo, your hair's shorter, I never would have suspected you would be Beatrice Prior."
I glance at the security camera on the opposite wall. "Careful," I say under my breath. Tobias told me that the camera's are monitored 24/7, that anyone can just click into the feed and listen in to what we are talking about.
She frowns. "Careful?"
I keep my eyes on the wall, trying to figure out a place that is hidden from the camera's.
An idea comes to mind and I beckon for her to follow. She does after getting a confused look on her face.
I take her somewhere that there are no cameras. No possibility that someone can listen in.
We stop in a dark hallway. Just dark enough that no one will notice us on first glance, but light enough that we can see each other.
"You're not supposed to talk about old Factions here," I say.
"So? Were you Abnegation?"
I don't answer.
"Well?"
"It doesn't matter. This is where I am now. Something you would do well to remember yourself." I put an edge in my voice. I know that my initiates are afraid of me. I can use that to my advantage.
She points at me, recognition sparking in her eyes. "I knew I recognized you," she says. "I've met you before. You're that one girl with the attitude that I saw. I don't remember it very well, but I remember that you had long hair and was wearing gray instead of black."
I roll my eyes, crossing my arms. "Oh, I wonder why."
"I heard about you… you switched to Dauntless and no one knew why."
"Did I ever say that I was this Beatrice lady?" I say. "You really have a delusional Stiff family."
"Oh, you're good. But I know you're lying."
Not working. She doesn't believe me.
I reach into my back pocket and clamp my hand around the knife. She notices and takes a step back, her back pressing into the stone wall. I pull the knife out and hold it out in front of me, balancing it in my palm.
"Now, initiate," I say, and I spin the knife in my palm. "I trust that you won't be giving false information to the rest of my initiates? Because, if so…" I throw the knife and she flinches as it leaves a tiny cut on her cheek and lodges itself into the wall. I walk toward her and grab the handle, leaning my face close to her ear. "It'll be the last thing you do," I hiss.
She sucks in a breath. "It's too late, I already told Cloe, and she's the one that spreads the rumors." She smiles. "Don't you think it would be a problem if you harmed little old me after I already let it spread?"
I pluck the knife out the wall and clench my hand around it. "Then maybe I'll just put it somewhere no one will see," I say.
Her eyes widen. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"
I spin the knife between my fingers then in one fast motion shove her against the wall with my arm and hold the knife up against her throat. She winces as her head hits the wall with a snap.
"You don't know me, initiate," I hiss. "You don't know what I can do to people that don't listen." I press the knife harder against her throat, for a second actually contemplating slicing it open.
I squint my eyes at her, but before I find myself slitting her throat, I am lowering my hand. "No, I wouldn't," I say, answering her question. "I don't attack against someone defenseless, no matter how much I want to kill you right here." I lean in close again, readopting the dangerous tone. "I'll see you in the arena sometime soon."
"What are you talking about, Beatrice?"
Anger flares behind my eyes and I curl the front of her shirt in my fist and pull her down so my face is close to hers. "Don't. Ever. Call me Beatrice. I left that name behind a long time ago," I say into her ear.
Then someone appears at the end of the hallway. "Elena?" they say. I recognize the voice as Percy. "What's going on over here?"
I let her go and brush her shirt back. "Just having a little chat," I say.
I walk away from them, and as I turn a corner, I see out of the corner of my eye Elena use her sleeve to wipe the blood from her cheek as she glares at me.
I go up the Pit and get back to the apartment not long later, and Tobias is already there. When he sees me so agitated, he walks over to me and smooths my hair down. "What happened?"
I take a deep breath. "It's a long story."
When I finish telling him all about it, he doesn't seem too surprised, but he also seems angry.
"So, her mom recognized you and Caleb, told Elena about it, Elena confronted you about it but had already told everyone about It," he sums up.
Sighing, I move one on the chairs from the table so it faces him and sit down, putting my head in my hands.
"Tobias, I don't know what to do," I say.
He kneels down in front of me and takes my face in his hands. "C'mon, Tris," he says. "You'll be fine; so what if people know your real name? That doesn't change a thing about you. Sure, people will know that you're from Abnegation, but I know you can prove to them you left that behind. You've proved it before by passing first in initiation, having only six fears in the landscape, and having an aptitude for three factions."
"Yeah, but nobody knows about that last one."
"But, they still happen to know the first two, and that alone should be enough." He puts his thumbs under my chin and tilts my head up so our foreheads connect, his index fingers sliding behind my ears. "You also don't need to prove yourself for people to know you are amazing."
I find myself smiling. "Thank you."
He grins.
He goes into the other room not long later, and I am alone in the living room. It doesn't bother me, it seems that whatever or whoever has been watching me is only there when Tobias isn't in the apartment entirely.
I shake my head and lean back into the chair. Elena has already told everyone, and that most likely means that people are going to start underestimating me again, just like they did during initiation. Because I'm from Abnegation, and the Abnegation would never hurt anyone, and just the thought of that makes me want to throw up. When I think about people hurting someone in Abnegation, the first person that comes to mind is Marcus. Tobias's abusive father. Just thinking about what he did to Tobias when he was a kid…
A shiver goes down my spine. Tobias has told me about some of the things he did, and I had glimpses of it when I went into his fear landscape. Seeing just those small things terrified me. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be Tobias in those situations.
I never had the experience of being abused by one of my family members, and I hope I never will.
Who am I kidding? I will probably never see either of my parents again. My brother, maybe, but not my mom and dad. They would never visit me after joining Dauntless. My mom did, once, but that was just to warn me to be careful about my Divergence. A warning that I have gotten too many times to comprehend.
"Tris," Tobias says, and I only just realize that he walked back into the room.
"Hm?"
"You okay? You were zoning out there for a moment."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just lost in thought." I cross my arms and rest my head against the wall as I bend my neck to look at him.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Oh, you know… Abnegation I guess." I shrug. "I think talking to Elena made me think about it more."
He walks over to the table and picks up the knife. He holds it much more comfortably than anyone else that I have seen. He spins it in his palm absentmindedly. "I didn't know you still kept this with you," he says.
I shrug. "It's just in case something happens."
His expression turns grim as he examines it. No doubt remembering the reason that I started carrying it in the beginning. When Peter, Drew, and Al attacked me. Peter and Drew are still in Dauntless, Peter guards the fence and so does Drew. I never see them anymore, but the fact that they once tried to do that to me still gets my blood boiling. But it was one of the things that made me fall for Tobias, and I don't regret that in the slightest.
And that's when I hear it: a loud thud, like something falling to the floor, in the kitchen. Tobias immediately tenses, now holding the knife in front of his as if waiting for a chance to use it.
"What was that?" he says. I stand up from the chair and move towards the kitchen with Tobias. I look around the corner and see something on the floor. I go to pick it up. A shoe. I hold it out in front of me. Small. The person it belongs to definitely isn't me or Tobias. It is Dauntless black, obviously. But the inside is worn and the tread is almost ripped to shreds.
I hand it to Tobias so he can take a look, but he just shakes his head.
"Was somebody here?" I say, looking up at him.
"I don't know," he says, "but I think we should search the apartment."
