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Chapter XIV. Revenge Is a Dish Best Served With the Help of Tobias
FOUR
I open my eyes, waiting for the piercing rocks to puncture me. But I don't see it. I look up and see those haunting dark blue eyes, which looked panicked. Tobias grabs onto my arms desperately. "Tobias," I croak.
He pulls me up and gathers me into his arms. I rest my head on his shoulder. I see Drew moaning in pain on the floor. Peter and Al are nowhere to be found.
"Thank you…" I black out.
-o0o-
I open my eyes to find myself in a room. I hear running water; not from the chasm, but from a sink. I wince as I turn my head slightly to see Tobias washing off his bloody knuckles, turning the sink water pink.
"Your hands,"
"My hands are none of your concern," He rests his knee on the mattress and slips an ice pack underneath my pounding head, leaning over me. I look at him. His lip is crooked.
I reach out to touch his lip lightly, feeling the electricity flow through me, even in this condition.
"Four, I'm all right." He whispers against my fingers. I let them drop.
"Why were you there?"
"I was coming back from the control room and I heard a scream."
"What'd you do to them?"
"I deposited Drew at the infirmary a half hour ago. Peter and Al ran. Drew claimed they were just trying to scare you. At least, I think that's what he was trying to say."
"He's in bad shape?"
"He'll live." His voice suddenly goes bitter cold. "In what condition, I can't say."
"Good." I fend off tears.
"I could report this,"
"No. I don't want them to think I'm weak."
He carefully moves his hand to my cheek. "I figured you would say that."
"You think it would be a bad idea if I sat up?"
"I'll help you." He helps me up, which causes me pain. I am used to pain. This is equivalent to a normal beating.
"I suggest you rely on Christina, Will, and the other Dauntless born you've befriended to protect you from now on."
"I can do it myself. But Al…" I try not to break down crying.
"He wanted you to be the small, quiet girl from Abnegation, not the strong, brave Four. He hurt you because your strength made him feel weak," Tobias is right. I didn't notice it, but Al drifted away from us after I ranked first, and rejected him.
"No other reason. The others won't be as jealous if you show some vulnerability. Even if it isn't real." I have to show weakness?
He stands up and I can't help but stare at the hem of his shirt. "You think I have to pretend to be vulnerable?" I doubt myself. I am nothing but a damaged sixteen-year old girl. But others say that I am the greatest Dauntless prodigy in all of Dauntless.
"Yes, I do. You're going to want to march into breakfast tomorrow and show your attackers that they had no effect on you, but you should let the bruise on your cheek show, and keep your head down." Pretending to be weak makes me feel sick.
"I can manage that, but…" I trail off. I look down to see my shirt ripped in many places. What if they saw my scars?
Tobias looks at me, then my ripped shirt. He grows furious. "That BITCH!" He yells.
"They didn't touch me…In the way you're thinking. But almost." I say. The way he's thinking is probably the way Marcus did...
A single tear runs down my right cheek.
He sighs. "Here." He hands me a large black sweater-probably his-and I gratefully put it on, taking in the smell of manly musk and metal, Tobias. He looks outside the window, and I can tell he's thinking of many violent ways to get revenge at Peter, Drew, and Al.
"What is it?" I ask.
"I don't want to say this, but I feel like I have to. It is more important for you to be safe than right, for the time being. Understand?" I nod.
I smirk. "But please, when I see an opportunity…" I press a hand to his cheek and pull his head down, so he looks straight at me. "Can I ruin them?" I ask with a violent look in my eyes.
He laughs. "You're a little scary, Four." I sigh.
"Do me a favor, and don't call me that."
I just want to hear my real name. Not from just anyone, but I feel like I can trust Tobias. I feel like…I like him.
"What should I call you, then?" He asks.
"Nothing," I remove my hand from his face. "Yet."
-o0o-
I awake to see Tobias walking out from the bathroom fully dressed with his hair slightly wet. He dries it with a towel, and I see a part of his skin above the waistband of his jeans when his shirt lifts up.
I decide to get up. I enter the bathroom slowly, limping in the process. I stand in front of the mirror. My face is bruised and cut, along with my body. But what sticks out to me most is the giant purple and blue bruise on my chin. I tie my hair up in a pony. Tobias walks next to me.
"Hi," I say, my voice strained from screaming.
He lightly touches my bruised cheek gently. "Not bad. How's your head?"
"Fine." I lie. My head is pounding, but I am used to pain.
He drops his hand gently to my side. The electricity jolts in my body.
"And your side?" He says, his voice low and strained.
"Only hurts when I breathe,"
He smiles. "Not much you can do about that."
"Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing," I joke, trying to lighten the mood.
"Well, I would only go if there was cake." He jokes. I laugh, and wince. He gently removes his fingertips from my side, the spark disappearing.
"Let's go to the dining hall. Remember, keep your head down." I groan.
"Fine." I mumble.
We walk to the dining hall for breakfast.
"I'll go in first. See you soon, no name."
No name?
"No name?" I smile.
"Well, you don't want to be called Stiff or Four, so I don't know what to call you." He jokes.
He walks into the hall. I follow shortly. I walk in, keeping my head down like Tobias told me to. I walk to my normal table with Christina, Will, Uriah, and the other Dauntless born. Uriah puts his hand up to wave to me.
Then puts it down.
I sit in the seat between Uriah and Christina. For a moment, everyone at the table just stares at me.
"What happened?!" Marlene says, worriedness clear in her voice.
"Yeah. How'd you get that massive bruise?!" Joey asks.
"And where were you? I didn't see you in the dormitory this morning." Christina adds in.
I sigh.
"I got jumped. Almost tossed into the chasm." At this, Lynn, Marlene, Zalia, Joey, Uriah, Christina, Will, and Gabe allow their jaws to drop and their eyes to widen.
"Who did this?!" Will steams. I smile. It's nice to know you have friends that care.
I do not respond. I just eat my bacon and look down. The door opens to reveal Peter, Drew, and Al.
They are more bruised and bloody than me.
Peter has a black eye, bruises everywhere, and is has a cast on his wrist. Al has two black eyes, a split lip, and his ankle is bandaged. But that's nothing compared to Drew.
He just looks like he went to hell and back; and believe me, I know.
I basically have the devil as a father.
Drew is more purple and blue then flesh-toned, and he wears multiple casts. I look at Tobias, who I wearing a large, satisfied grin. I mouth to him a table away from us; 'I thought they ran away.' They, referring to Peter and Al. He shrugs.
Peter, Al, and Drew wince as they sit with Molly, who is as surprised as my table.
"Did you do that?!" Zalia hisses.
"No. I was saved by someone; I don't know who though." I lie. I try not to bite my lip because according to our Candor lie-detector Christina, it's my 'tell.'
"God. Nice to know those bitches got revenge." Lynn says. We all smile.
"Transfers. We're doing something different today. Follow me." Tobias addresses us.
Uriah creases his eyebrows. "Be careful, Four." Zalia, Marlene, Lynn, Joey, and Gabe nod.
"Don't worry," Will says. "We'll protect her." I smile.
"Thanks for caring guys."
"No problem. You're our friend now!" Marlene smiles. I smile back.
We follow Tobias along the paths that surround the Pit.
Tobias turns around, and walks backward, on a narrow path, with no railing.
Is he crazy?
Nope.
Dauntless.
"Pick up the pace, Drew!" He says. It's a cruel joke, but I can't help but smile at him trudging behind.
We start to get higher and higher, and I feel my blood coursing and my stomach churning. I grab onto Will's arm for support. Tobias eyes his arm around mine, and he scowls.
Is he…jealous?
We begin to get closer and closer to the high glass ceiling, and I gulp. I welcome the sun to my back. Since us Dauntless mainly live underground-parts of the sun still comes down onto the Pit-we haven't seen the entire sky since our Capture the Flag war.
We walk up the metal stairs, revealing the blue sky. We walk across the glass, which is rather now a floor than a ceiling, through a cylindrical room with glass walls. I look around, tightening my grip on Will's arm when I see how high we are. The surrounding buildings are collapsed and probably abandoned. I see the abandoned hundred-foot tall building that Uriah told me they zip-line from.
Thank GOD I didn't go.
We are lead through another door, and I release Will's arm.
"This is a different kind of stimulation known as the fear landscape. On the first day of Stage two, all of you have gone through your own for practice, once. It has been disabled for our purposes, so this isn't what it will be like the next time you see it." Tobias says. I blink my eyes to adjust to the pale blue lighting.
"Through your simulations, we have stored data about your worst fears," I gulp. They might be able to recognize the man with black pits for eyes in my last fear; Marcus.
"The fear landscape accesses that data and presents you with a series of virtual obstacles, as you already know. Some of the obstacles will be fears you previously faced in simulations. Some will be the same as the first time you've done this. Some may be new fears. The difference is that you are aware, in the fear landscape, that it is a simulation, so you will have all your wits about you as you go through it."
So basically, the Divergent can go undetected. I smile.
"The number of fears you have in your landscape varies according to how many you have. In the first time you've done this, we counted how many you had. There may be more, or less. I told you before that the third stage of initiation focuses on mental preparation. That is because it requires you to control both your emotions and your body-to combine the physical abilities you learned in stage one with the emotional misery you learned in stage two. To keep a level head." I gulp.
What if I can't calm down again?
What if I spend hours in there again?
If I get kicked out of Dauntless…I shake my head.
I've gotten first in each stage.
I will not be Factionless.
"Next week you will go through your fear landscape as quickly as possible in front of a panel of Dauntless leaders," I am NOT comfortable with having them see my fears. Marcus, heights, any of them.
"That will be your final test, which determines your ranking for stage three. Just as stage two of initiation is weighed more heavily than stage one, stage three is weighed heaviest of all. Understood?" Tobias scans the crowd, and meets my gaze for a few seconds before looking away.
"You can get past each obstacle in one of two ways. Either you find a way to calm down enough that the simulation registers a normal, steady heartbeat, or you find a way to face your fear, which can force the simulation to continue on. One way to face a fear of drowning is to swim deeper, for example. So I suggest that you take the next week to consider your fears and develop strategies to face them."
Hmm. I think I'll be safer with option one; to calm down. Like when Tobias found out I was Divergent, it was because I fought Marcus back and manipulated the simulation.
"That doesn't sound fair," I am brought out of my strategic thoughts by Peter. I suppress a snicker. "What if one person only has four fears,"
Way to be secretive Peter. "And someone else has twenty? That's not their fault." I scoff.
Pansycake.
Oh no, I'm turning into Uriah.
Tobias stares at him, almost incredulous for a few seconds, then laughs.
"Do you really want to talk to me about what's fair?" He says quietly, dangerously. He walks toward Peter slowly, and we clear a path for him.
"I understand you're worried, Peter. The events of last night certainly proved that you are a miserable, jealous, coward." I recall last night. I smile thinking of how Tobias is serving Peter some vengeance.
Peter stares back at him, expressionless.
"So know we all know," Tobias continues on quietly, "That you are afraid of a short, skinny girl from Abnegation, who is more Dauntless than you will ever be, you coward." Tobias smiles. My heart flutters at the comment he gave me.
Will puts his arm around me, and Christina smiles.
I find a smile in myself too.
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~TrissyPoo