Chapter 8

Tobias POV

I think I have been standing here for hours after Tris left. Her words still fresh in my head, each one stabbing my heart endlessly. Stay away from me. I can't stay away, not now not ever, she is hurt I saw it, her neck and shoulder were bleeding. God what happened to you Tris?

Something is seriously wrong; I can feel it but how to find out. My mind is spinning going over everything she said. She can't leave, no I can't lose her. I take a look at the beer bottle that is still in my hand and I suddenly can't stand it, I smash it hard against the nearest wall to me. I stay there contemplating my actions. Before I know it Zeke is next to me, saying something i just can't grasp.

"Hey man," he says as I turn to look at him. "What happened?" he says more but that is all I am able to comprehend. I try to speak but I am still wrapped in Tris' words.

"She wants to leave," I choke out, my eyes dig deeper into the ground, I realize now what I feel, I am helpless. "She demanded for me to stay away from her."

I feel Zeke leading me now to what's probably my apartment, perhaps even his. All I know is that I can't let her go. If she goes, I go too. She said she wasn't safe, who would want to hurt her. I will not let anything happen to her, but I need to know more. When I look up I now see we are at Zeke's place, he is opening the door and I have a feeling he won't want to leave me alone tonight.

I walk over to his living room and sit on the couch trying to figure out what I will do, the thing is I am willing to pretty much do anything I order to keep her here, with me and safe. Zeke walks over to the fridge and takes out two beers and hands me one. I don't think I want to drink but I know that this little drink may make me feel better if its even possible.

"So are you going to explain to me what the hell happened with her or am I going to have to get it out of you with alcohol." He says while zipping his drink. He just finished 3 beers moments ago, how can he still keep drinking?

I open the beer and take a long drink before spilling my guts to this guy. "She was hurt, she has a wound in her neck, cuts coming from her back. I noticed it while talking to her and before I went up to her she seemed sore, walking like she was in deep pain" I say realizing that the words coming from my mouth seem to hurt me as well too. "She was disturbed, it seemed like she had been crying a lot. I asked her about it, but she couldn't answer me, more like didn't want to answer me."

"And you said she is leaving? Why? I thought you said she was doing well in training." He says trying to fit the missing pieces of the puzzle as well. "Why does she want you away?"

I keep trying to answer that same thing myself but I apparently don't know nor do I have the slightest clue as to why. "I don't know, she just said that she needed to be in a safer place, somewhere where people aren't trying to hurt her. This doesn't make sense, I mean if she said that people were trying to hurt her she could have very well been talking about Eric, after that stunt he pulled yesterday in training." I say. "Though that doesn't explain who hurt her."

I now realize that Eric might have been the one to do that to Tris, I guess my threat didn't really matter to him, I warned if he ever laid one finger on her again I would kill him. I am boiling up inside by just the thought of someone wanting to hurt her, and if he was the one to do it I will kill him.

Zeke suddenly looks more into thought than I do, "No man, I don't think that's it, I mean yeah Eric can be pretty scary but I don't think he would risk losing everything after you specifically told him to back off, Max even warned him as well." He says and I look to see his expression has changed. "Besides she didn't look like that earlier in the control room."

I snap at what he says, "Wait- what?! How do you know she was in the control room?" I ask demanding. Why is he just bringing this up until now?

"Yeah, she went to the control earlier today, I think she was looking for you." He says and I have the immediate urge to punch him.

"And you are just telling me now!" I yell, he looks ashamed, he better have a good excuse, he could have told me this earlier and this all could have probably been avoided. I try intensely to calm down, let him explain Tobias I repeat in my head.

"I'm sorry man, I kind of forgot." He says shyly, "To be honest I don't even know for sure she was looking for you?"

"What do you mean not even sure? Weren't you there?" I ask bitterly, I realize Zeke is tense and I should probably lay off him, but he still could have told me instead of forgetting something this important.

"I mean yeah I was there, but she got distracted and took off," he explains. "She came in and when I thought she was about to ask for you we both saw a guy in one of the screens, she seemed to know him, she got very tense all of a sudden and she left without saying anything more."

What? Why would Tris be concerned by any of that, it makes no sense. I realize I need to see this with my exact eyes. We need to go over the control room now.

"I see. Come on, let's go." I say headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" he asks

"We are going to the control room; I need to see the footage of Tris after she left there." I say, walking already out to the hallway. "Maybe this way I can see exactly what happened with her." I feel hope in all this, if I can figure out what happened then I can find a way to fix all this. Not to fix her but to help her, Tris is someone strong I know that much and she doesn't need fixing because she isn't broken. Someone that amazingly strong and beautiful can't be broken.

We get there in no time since we were practically running. We walk in to see Justin there, he has tonight's shift.

"Hey what are you guys doing here?" he asks looking from me to Zeke.

"Justin, I need a favor, I need to look into yesterdays footage." I say as I move to the chair beside him.

"Yeah, why don't you go get a snack or something, we'll watch over this anyway." Zeke adds.

Justin looks unconvinced but he decides to get of our way. "Ok, whatever, I'll be back in 20." He walks out grabbing his stuff. I think it's better for just us two to be here anyway.

I scan the footage of yesterday, but I skip to Tris in the infirmary.

"Around what time did you say she came by?" I ask Zeke and he thinks about his answer.

"A while after mid day, I think." He says, and I forward to the footage of her leaving the infirmary with Christina, I follow her from place to place within the footage. I can tell she was in a hurry, I wonder idly if she was indeed looking for me. I see her make her way to the cafeteria, to the pit, the chasm, and then to the training room, I see Christina gave up her search moments after they started searching. I see her talking to Lauren and I can't really hear their conversation but I worry instantly if she mentioned anything to her about my feeling, I sure hope not. Tris eventually makes her way to the control room and we then wait for her to rush out as Zeke said.

"I tell you man, she was about to tell me why she came here, and then she saw an abnegation man on the screen speaking with a guard, when I approached the screen to zoom in she rushed out immediately out of the room, she didn't say anything." He says "She just ran out."

To my surprise Zeke was right, Tris was barely in here a few moments. I see her storm out and head towards the entrance. I follow the footage and I see her about to walk out but she doesn't she just looks around, there is a moment where she must have gone to a place out of the cameras reach since I can't see her anymore anywhere. Panic takes over me, what if she left the compound, that being the case I must delete the footage so she won't get, by any means in trouble for this.

"Where did she go?" Zeke asks but just as I am about to answer, he interrupts me "There, look she is headed to the southern wing,"

I see her being dragged by that man to the restroom, just a few feet away from them. I zoom in but I can't manage to see the man's face. Who the hell is this guy? He definitely knows Tris from abnegation but I can't tell who he is. He kicks the door open and they both walk in. I feel my heart drop to the floor.

Whoever this man is, he hurt her I am sure of it.

"What the hell is going on?" Zeke adds, I can hear annoyance I his voice. "He practically dragged her in there." Fury takes over me as I see how he takes her by the arm, clearly hurting her by her reaction.

Anyone and I mean anyone who lays one finger on her will pay, no one is going to hurt her whether she wants to be with me, hates me or not I will not let anything happen to her. I realize my feelings towards Tris are much stronger than I thought. She has become so, so dear to me on such a short time, I feel as if she is now the most important person in my life. It dawns on me that this isn't just a simply crush or just an attraction anymore, this is much more than any of that.

We wait moment until we finally see the man come out the restroom and quickly make his way out of the compound. I still wasn't able to get a good view of his face.

"Do you know who he is?" Zeke asks, "Did you recognize him from when you were in abnegation?"

Zeke was in my initiate class so he knows I came from abnegation, besides he is my best friends and we often talk about our past, but it's more plain than anything.

"No, I couldn't really see his face." I reply.

We wait to see Tris come out but she doesn't, not after several of hours. She seems off, I realize this is where she was coming from before she passed us. I see her walk and its stiff, everything in her is tense. The footage goes to where I called after her and I pause it.

Silence take over the room as we realize what happened in those moments they were in there. I feel a sharp pain course through my entire body. As if it's just been stabbed in million places.

I get off the table throwing the chair into the other side of the room I feel the sudden need to punch everything I see, anything that's in my way. This can't be happening, Tris was abused by that monster. She was fine before she went in there, before she was shoved in there by that man. What the hell did he do to her!

"Calm down Four, we need to think clearly." He says as he approaches me trying to level my mood. But nothing in this moment can't possibly calm me down. All I want is to do is findTris and hold her tight, reassuring her that everything will be okay.

"Did you not see what just happened?" I yell, "She.. she was just.." I can't even bring myself to say it out loud. This girl, my girl just went through hell and she wants me to stay away from her? How can I possibly leave her alone now?

"Four," he whispers as he sits me down again on a chair. "Look I know everything I pretty screwed up, but right now we shouldn't be talking about this here. We should go." He drags me up and we head out, Justin is walking to us now.

"You guys find what you need?" he asks, I don't even bother looking at him, we nod instead, thank him and we head back to the apartments, both of us analyzing our newly discovered information.

We sit back in Zekes apartment and trying to figure out what to do about Tris.

"Ok, I know this is the last thing you want to do now but this is the only way you can keep her here safe." He says. "You are going to have to do what she asked and keep away." He finishes the last part clearly worried about my reaction.

"You don't understand Zeke," I say, my voice barely above a whisper. "I don't think I have the strength to stay away from her anymore."

He looks at me warily now, I know this took him by surprise. "Look I know you're like in love with this girl or whatever but if you really care about her, you need to give her space and time for her to trust you enough to let you in."

In love? Is that what I am? Is that how I feel? I am taken back by his words, I know Tris is strong but even the strongest need help sometimes. My biggest fear right now is that I won't be able to be there for her when she does.

"So you're telling to just let her be, and not help her or comfort her? That man did god knows what to her in that place and all you want me to do is sit here and do nothing," I say trying to sound as reasonable for him to understand me. "When all I want, when all my heart tells me to do is run to her side and never leave her again? She could be … she could be gone already, do you even realize that?"

I frown at the thought that she may already be gone. The more I stay here the more I realize I should be doing something, anything. Desperation takes over me, I have never felt this useless in my life before, so utterly helpless.

"Okay, say do keep my distance, then what? What good will that do anyone?"

Zeke thinks carefully about his answer and just for a moment I think he doesn't have one. "look, you said she felt scared, overwhelmed by everything that's happened and if you want her to stay you have to show her that this place isn't so bad. But for you to do that you must let her come to you first."

I think about his response for a second, "Yeah well, easier said than done."

He shrugs "It's your best shot."

Deep down I know he is right but I have to hold on to some hope, the slightest faith is what'll keep me up. I leave the apartment and take a walk to assimilate things. I walk over to my place at the chasm and wonder endlessly before I find myself outside the dorms of the initiates. I debate whether to go in or not but I choose to do so. I will just check if Tris is okay and then ill head back.

I enter the dorms and everyone is asleep, why would anyone be awake at this time anyway. I make my way to Tris bed and find her there sleeping. She looks peaceful, more than I've ever seen her. It takes all of my will power to not lean over and hug her to my chest, comforting her after today's events. Instead I just caress her cheek with the back of my fingers; this has to be enough for me to endure the following days. I study her features, her steady breathes seem so fragile. Whatever I feel for her seems to be growing by the second; I find myself unable to leave and liger there longer taking in all her beauty. She is definitely different from other girls, she isn't ordinary. No, she much more than that. The fire in her eyes is massive, strong and far more gorgeous than anything I've ever seen.

She is startled and turns on her side, I back away so I won't wake her. She is now facing the pillow; she tucks her arm under it, and it is then that I see the cuts coming from her back, she has slashes that are coming out on to her shoulder and neck. My whole body tense as I see the marks now covering her back.

I feel sick to my core at the thought of someone hurting her like this. But this will be no more, I will make sure of that, whatever it takes.

I make my way back directly to the training room to let all this fury out. I let each blow hit the bag with all the strength I have in me, the marks on her back have made a permanent mark on my eyes and no matter how hard I try not to think about them they are present on my mind. He hours seem to pass as I unleash my anger out in this room before I know its nearly 4 am when I look at my watch. I have just enough time to head back shower and eat something before we wake the initiates.

My head is pounding and aching in pain since I didn't get not one minute of sleep. I know today is going to be a hard day, one I am not looking forward to. I turn towards the door and I see myself staring back at the reason I've been awake this whole night.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here," Tris says, she looks guarded and I figure if she is here this early it means she is still trying to maintain her spot and therefore not leaving. Relive washes over me. "I'll just come back when its time. I didn't mean to interrupt." She finishes.

Her indifference kills me, but I know, I just know she feels something for me, whether its good or bad anything is better than her indifference.

"It's fine, I was just leaving." I try to sound as careless as possible and walk over to the door not looking her way at all.

"Four…" she says turning to me, "About yesterday, I- I just wanted to apologize, I didn't mean.." she starts to say but I interrupt her before she continues. I know what I have to do.

"Whatever, its forgotten," I say sternly, using my instructor voice sounding as cold as possible.

"I wasn't thinking right and I hope this doesn't affect-" she starts to say and again I interrupt.

"Why would it? It meant nothing." I spit out, and walkout to the hallway without looking at her or giving her a chance to continue explaining. Truth is I wanted her to explain, I wanted to promise her she will never have to feel like that again but first I need to keep her safe and that will only be possible once she is a member, after initiation.

She looked hurt at my response, her eyes gave her away. I lean into the wall trying not to crumble as I realize how hard this is going to be. All I want is to show her how much I care, that out of all the things I feel about her, indifference is not one of them.

Get it together Tobias! I yell at myself, I punch the wall and scold myself for feeling this way. I sit there outside the training room looking for a way to gather enough self control to face this horrible day ahead of me, along with the unwanted weeks that follow. I get up and slowly make my way away from Tris, knowing this is what initiation will be like.

Guys I am terribly sorry I hadn't updated, but here it is and to answer one of the reviews I would very much love to have beta reader on this. Thnks in advance.

Btw I will begin publishing my next story after this one is more than half way done, I've decided to not include the war or at least not have it outbreak the way it did. I will have a summary on the new story in a couple of chapters more and if you guys like it then I'll begin with it! You guys rock so much! Pls R&R as your opinion only motivate me and make me a better writer! (;