Chapter Twenty Two – A new faction
Even though I kind of liked our train car I'm glad we didn't really get to unpack stuff. It would have made all of these changes much harder. So the next morning when, we're all awake, we have breakfast together and then I and Is take our bags and leave the train car to not come back again.
"Evelyn should be waiting for you at the factionless centre." Kate says as we wait for a train. "She's always there."
"We shall do as you say. Thank you for everything guys." Is says, hugging Owen.
"Getting emotional there?" Kate says, pushing her shoulder, but then taking her on a hug too. She lets go of Is and then hugs me. "Why are you always running every time I think I finally have you back?" She asks, as she lets go of our hug.
Looking at her sad expression I don't really know what to say; so I stick to the truth.
"I think this time's for real." I say and we both look at Is for some reason.
"Unfortunately, I agree." She says. "Goodbye Emmett."
I shake my head, confused.
"You guys are not coming with us on the train?"
She bites her lip and shakes her head. "I have a holiday today, so I guess I'll just stay by the train car. The one you happily left for me and Owen."
I'm about to complain when I hear the train coming. Is takes my hand and looks at me and Kate, wondering if we should go or not.
"Behave yourselves!" I say. And then start running.
It takes us quite a while to find what Kate referred to as the "factionless centre". I was expecting to find this huge building like the Centre, but in fact it's just some old buildings where the factionless people sleep. Another thing I was hoping for was to find Evelyn waiting for us, but she's nowhere to be seen.
I exchange a look with Is, making sure this is what she really wants, and after getting and affirmative answer we walk inside the unknown buildings.
The lack of people at this time of the day makes the place look a little morbid to me. I decide to keep this thought to myself, though.
As we keep going through corridors we finally find living soul. Well, actually too many living souls. Apparently they have a communitarian bathroom where the factionless are showering at this exact moment. As we approach the door of the foggy room, I notice a girl with only a towel covering up her body and I look away, thanking god it's the ladies' room and not the men's room – there are some things I would rather that Is didn't see and one of them is definitely guys showering.
I pull by Is's hand so we can move faster. She doesn't seem to notice – I wonder what goes in her mind – so I pull more insistently until she notices me. Once she does, we almost run down the hall, ending up by crashing into two tall guys.
After we all take a couple of steps back so we can look at each others, they both raise their eyebrows to us.
"We're looking for Evelyn." I say. "Do you know where she is?"
The guy that's standing on the left – a dirty brown haired guy with brown eyes – takes his time before he answers.
"What would you want with Evelyn?" His voice is not nice so I instinctively drive my hand to my gun and push Is backwards. The guys notice my gun and the one who'd talked before raises his arms.
"Fine. I'll take you to her office." He says, exchanging some words with the other guy and then turning around. "Follow me."
I shove the gun back into my belt and start walking through confusing halls once more. After what seems to be a too long walk, we stop in front of a slightly opened door.
"Wait here." The brown haired guy says, without waiting for an answer. He enters the room. We don't have to wait much though before he's back outside. He nods to the door, allowing us inside.
"Thank you." I rush to him, before entering the room he just got out from.
By looking around I can tell that not even the factionless leader has rights of luxury. The "office" actually only has a big table on the centre of the room – no chairs – and some full occupied book shelves.
Evelyn hides what she was doing on the table before focusing her attention on us.
"I see you've made a choice. And you wouldn't probably make all your way here just to refuse my offer would you?" Although her so wise choice of words, the factionless leader doesn't seem to be sure of herself.
Against my will, I leave it to Is to decide what happens from now on.
"We're here to accept your offer - under certain conditions." Is says.
Evelyn presses her lips together, obviously not enjoying the way our conversation is leading, but she nods.
After two hours of explanations from both Is and Evelyn sides, and a lot of patience from my side, everything seems to be set for us to join our new faction tonight.
"But first of all, I think we all deserve a good lunch." Evelyn says, as she locks the door behind her.
In less than five minutes we've joined a group of factionless that are passing bowls with food around. Evelyn takes one, sips from it, and then passes it to us.
After a moment of hesitation, Is takes the bowl and drinks from the soup as well. When she lends it to me, I dry swallow as I think of what I'm about to do, but take the soup anyways.
After the soup it gets easier to eat from what's on the other bowls. When we're satisfied with our lunch, Evelyn takes us away from the group once more. All the time we were there everyone was very quiet, but once we leave they start talking and laughing. My thinking? It wasn't because of me and Is – it was because of Evelyn. I wonder how this woman got to be their leader, and further than that, how does she keep everything so organised...
"I'm arranging a meeting with Marcus Eaton – one of the representatives of the Abnegation faction – at this exact moment. He'll know I'm the one who's sending you, but you're the ones who'll have to show him your... situation. Just say what we agreed and everything should work out fine."
She pauses to make sure we're keeping up with her. As the moment approaches I get more and more nervous. In a couple of hours we'll be joining what will be our home for a few time, or, who knows, for the rest of our lives. I'm not sure if I'd be happy working for such an untrustable woman.
"Now, before we head there, there are some rules you need to learn about the Abnegation faction. As you know, selfless is what they care the most about. As long as you act selfless, no one will bother you. But in order to do that, you'll have to abdicate from some things from your past life."
"What do you mean by abdicate?" I ask.
"Well, you see, Abnegation members don't see affection as an important thing in life. And I've seen how you two seem to be very close. That'll have to end, if..."
"You want us to break up just because of whatever you're doing?!" I almost shout to her. "No way!"
"Emmett calm down!" Is says, but I can see that she's freaking out inside too. Her eyes are too opened. She puts her hand on my arm to keep me calm, but turns to Evelyn. "Emmett's right. We're staying together, no matter what."
Evelyn doesn't seem to have an answer for us.
"Very well." She ends up saying. "I'll make sure to try to keep you two together. But all I can assure you is that you'll be able to live in the same house. You'll have to work it out if you want to work together. But remember. All your – love demonstrations – should be kept to yourselves, inside your house."
I open my mouth to complain, but Is stops me.
"We will try. After all we're the ones signing up for it." I stare at her in disbelief, but she ignores me. "Anything else?"
"Well, I've noticed you have tattoos. You'll have to hide those as well. All the rest was discussed earlier today."
Is nods. "If that is all..."
"It is. I'm going to get your clothes now. If you want to get a shower and clean yourselves up, I can show you our bathrooms." Evelyn offers.
"We're good. We'd just like some time alone."
Once again, Evelyn nods.
"I'll be meeting you here within half an hour then." I wait for her to become a shadow in the horizon before I turn to Is.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! I should have never agreed with doing this!" I shout to her.
She looks at me with her eyes starting to tear, and I force myself to calm down.
"Why, Is? Why do you want this so hard?" I put my hands in my face and close my eyes, trying my best to understand her.
"Because it's the best place to hide." Her voice is low and tin, as though she's about to cry. I look up and find her staring right at me, worried.
"Hide?" I shake my head, confused.
And all of a sudden, she breaks.
"I'm scared, Emmett. Can't you see that? After Maeve, I just... I've been so afraid of what we are. And the thought that we can't simply change, we can't become normal, it consumes me! I just thought that if we moved to the Abnegation faction, we'd be safer there. We'd have a reason to stay away from the Erudite. But the only way we could ever do that was through..."
"Evelyn." I say, finally understanding her.
I pull her closer to me, shoving the tears out of her face as I feel her curly hair tickling me. Her greenish brown eyes are shining, but her expression is sad. How could I have missed that? I kiss her forehead, but no more than that – from now on, we're Abnegation members.
"It'll be fine." I say. "We're going to be fine."
An hour later we're reaching the Abnegation faction, with our brand new Abnegation clothes already on. I can see their grey houses less than a mile away. I've always wondered if they could distinguish their own house from distance, as they all look the same.
Evelyn gave us some instructions to meet Marcus Eaton at his house. As we walk I can see some teenagers playing with each other as they walk back home. They seem to be heading the same street as us. Four teenagers that will soon be picking their lives – I wonder if any of them will have to go through the same as we will.
I watch the teenagers split in two groups; a boy and a girl for each side. We follow what must be a brother and a sister, except they're nothing alike. The girl is blonde and short, while the boy has dark hair, straighter than mine, and it's much taller than the girl. Although they're both thin. They talk every once in a while, but most of their way is made in silence.
"Emmett, did you hear me?" Is wakes me up to reality.
"I'm sorry, what?" I look at her and her expression seems concerned.
"I was saying that Marcus's house must be somewhere around here. Look at the numbers."
My eyes look in the direction her thin finger is pointing to and see that she's right. A few houses down we find the number we're looking for. This is it. There's no turning back once we walk in that door.
Together, we walk into the porch and knock on the door. Not two minutes later a man opens it for us. Marcus Eaton is a strong man, not as tall as me, but still quite tall. I could swear his eyes were the exact same tone of blue as Four's – odd isn't it? But it's still funny that we move to one faction to the other, just to find the same dark blue eyes to boss us around.
"Evelyn sent you?" He asks. Not very Abnegation of him to not invite us in first, I've got to say.
"Actually no." Is says. I immediately look at her, surprised. This is not what Evelyn told us to do. "Tobias sent us." She continues, firmly.
I do my best to hide my confusion, obviously failing. Where did that come from?
"He did?" Marcus asks, in disbelief.
"Yes. He said you'd protect us if we told you he sent us."
Marcus checks us out for a brief moment before he fully opens his door to us, letting us in. The room we enter is pretty simple – the Abnegation members are known for only having what is strictly necessary.
He gestures for us to sit on his couch and we do as he says. He takes a chair and gently starts speaking.
"Well, you probably know that these are not usual circumstances and that's why I can't simple tell you to join our simple faction." He makes a pause, as though giving us time to let his works sink in. "So, if you don't mind, I'd have to ask you why you aren't on a faction at the moment?"
Once more, Is immediately takes the lead. She looks down, pretending to be ashamed, and I have to admit that I never thought she was this good of an actress. Maybe she'll be the one to keep us safe.
"We missed the Choosing Ceremony." She says, keeping her eyes locked with the ground.
This time, Marcus is the one who needs to take a moment to let Is's words sink in. I bet this isn't something he hears every day.
"You missed it?" We both nod quietly to him. He nods too, closing his eyes, just to open them right after. "And may I know why?"
"I was in hospital." Is says, calmly. Even I couldn't tell she was lying. "And Emmett- he- we're dating." She says, as though she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. "And I asked him to stay with me. I thought I was going to die." Her voice slowly starts breaking as she's about to cry, but I know her eyes are dry.
Marcus lets out a deep breath as he thinks about our situation.
"And you know Tobias?"
"Yes. He said you'd understand our situation and help us." I didn't know exactly what she was doing there, but Abnegates can't deny helping us can they?
After a few minutes of silence – that let's just state seemed like hour to me – Marcus stands up and offers us his hand.
"Welcome to your second home." His voice is still kind and his smile seems to be genuine, although it doesn't reach his eyes. So when I shake his hand and smile, I'm thinking: If only you knew...
A/N: Once more, I have to say I'm sorry, because I said I was going to post this earlier, but I didn't get to. But here it is anyways. I think this one got a little better than the ones I've been posting lately but still not that good. Although, it's really YOUR opinion that counts, so please review (:
Best, Is.