Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent.

One thing the transfers like me didn't count on was the second stage of initiation beginning not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Specifically, the frightened whimpers that emit from the closed room at the end of the grim hallway. This morning we obediently trailed Amar as he led us through Dauntless headquarters, past the dormitory and the training room. As soon as we arrived, he told us to wait outside, then he disappeared inside the mysterious room.

He didn't come out for about ten minutes. Then he suddenly opened the door and waved one of the transfers forth. The unlucky initiate was Amy. Now we can do nothing but listen as she makes her terror known to the world. We hear her squawks of desperation slip out into the narrow corridor, despite the door staying in its place.

I suppose that for us, part of the challenge is not being privy to the events unfolding behind that door. It's akin to psychological torture. What could Amar be doing in that room? Is he plunging the end of a butter knife into Amy's eyeball? Prying her fingernails from their beds one by one?

I thank God that whatever happened, it was neither of those. Amy slowly emerges into the hallway a minute after going silent. Amar's behind her, helping to steady her. Her face is paler than usual, but her whole body's intact. She takes a seat on the floor without talking.

"Abnegation. You're next," says Amar. I know better than to argue. I just go ahead and follow Amar into the room at the end of the hallway. It's not well lit, but I still recognize the chair and computer sitting in the center. These instruments were in the room where the aptitude tests were taken.

"A simulation?" I look at Amar questioningly.

"The less you know, the better," he says vaguely. "Just sit down."

I do as he commands. While he's busy getting the equipment ready, I check my watch and try to imagine what Shauna's doing. She'll be fighting that girl any minute now. It's taking the Dauntless-borns longer to get through the first phase of initiation, since there are more of them.

"And now…" Amar's done preparing the equipment, and he's looking at me. "A preview of what's to come. You're going to see something incredibly scary. It'll be in your head, but it'll feel real. We're going to see how quickly you can calm yourself down. Pretty simple, but a lot harder than it seems."

I swallow hard and nod. Then all of a sudden, there's a shooting pain in the side of my neck. Amar just stuck it with a needle. My body flinches.

"Be brave, Tobias," Amar says quietly.

I sit back in the reclining chair and wait, then I'm pulled under by the simulation.

I stand on a platform in the middle of a railway station. Passengers of various ages and colors stroll by, and I'm shocked at how mismatched all their clothes are. None of them are dressed according to their faction's custom. Next to me is a lady in a black blazer, yellow top, and gray slacks. Dauntless, Amity, and Abnegation colors. Right behind her is a man wearing a faded denim jacket, worn black pants, and a pair of work boots. Is he supposed to be Erudite, Dauntless, or Amity? His jacket's the Erudite shade of blue, but only the Amity would wear boots like those. Then again, the Amity would never wear those Dauntless pants.

I can't distinguish the faction of origin of anyone on the platform. Perhaps this is a society that was formed without factions. Maybe a foreign country, though we learned that all other countries were wiped out in the war.

The train appears. It decelerates as it approaches, meaning it's gonna stop to let the passengers on. Yep, I'm not in Chicago anymore. I feel a giggle form in my throat. Why should I be afraid when I'm getting a free ride on a luxury train? I can see through the windows that there are actual seats in the car, and they look real comfortable.

With an exhale of steam, the train comes to a complete stop. The doors all open simultaneously. I enter the closest car and look for a seat that's available. Sadly, there's no empty seat that isn't right next to another loud passenger, whether that's a guy blabbing on the phone or two people chatting. There's a door at the very back that must open up into the next car, so I try it.

It's locked. I sigh. This isn't scaring me, but it is annoying.

Giving up, I select an aisle seat in the back row. The backpack I was carrying thumps on the adjacent seat as I put it down. My eyes close for a second, I'm so tired. Whatever I was doing before, I was hard at work doing it.

Across the aisle, two rows in front of me, these two girls are talking. The seats are arranged so that they're facing me. One has an olive green jacket on, while the other wears a peach-colored blouse. Peach is slouching a little in her seat. She seems to be dominating the conversation, while Olive Green just looks at her and listens. They both have a very strange accent, some of their vowels a little too rounded and the beginnings of some words stretched out too long.

Their chatter bores me, and I let my eyes roam elsewhere. Two rows directly in front of me, right across from the two girls, is a man in a suit and tie. He's speaking to someone on his cell phone. I just watch him for a while, then his gaze suddenly meets mine.

Awkward. My eyes dart to the side just in time.

For the next couple of minutes, I pretend to be interested in the view from the window. But what I'm really doing is looking at my own face reflected in the glass and waiting, somewhat restlessly, for the scares to begin.

Wait, what just happened?

I wasn't even aware I did it, but my head turned back to look in the direction of the man and the two girls. They're gone, all three of them. When did they get up and exit the car? I think I would've heard them stomp out. Speaking of noise, the car is now totally silent. Did all the other passengers leave as well?

Did they somehow… pop out of existence? A shudder runs through my body. I stretch my neck a little to check out the interior of the car. These seats are so tall, they obstruct my line of sight. Wait, there's one passenger still on board. A man, sitting ten or so rows away but facing me, with skin as dark as mine. I can't discern the finer details of his face. Is he wearing sunglasses, or are those deep shadows over his eyes?

Do I want to know? His eyes look kinda… off.

I feel uncomfortable staring at him. I shift, so my head's no longer sticking out into the aisle. Now I can't see the man over the rows of seats in front of me. Yet my curiosity remains. I have to find out what the deal is with his eyes. I crane my neck for a second time, looking into the aisle where I know I'll see him.

There he is, still facing me. Is it safe to keep looking at him?

His head suddenly juts forward, like he's a striking crocodile. I jump back in my seat.

My heart's gonna take a while to settle down. Still, the mysterious man has yet to make a single sound. Silence reigns in the car, encouraging me to check him out again. I feel I should keep one eye on him at all times. My neck stretches once more, and my head inches its way into the aisle, where I see…

Whoa! My head retracts like it just met a blow from a hammer. In a span of just a few seconds, the man got up and stood in the aisle, and when I dared to look in his direction, he quickly dipped into a crouch and bared his teeth, like he was about to sprint at me.

I thank God that he didn't. But I've lost sight of him, and I still can't hear anything from him. I could try to run, but the locked door behind me would force me to go toward him. I've no other choice but to look in the aisle again. I gather all my courage and lean to the side. I brace myself to lay eyes on a truly terrifying sight.

Eventually I see… nothing. The aisle's completely empty.

That's not good at all. The man's gone into hiding, but where? As I duck behind the seat in front of me, I have a thought that's spine-tingling. The man bears an uncanny resemblance to Marcus. Same height, same build, same skin tone. Same Abnegation clothing. Same domineering aura that only a council member would have.

My body shakes from head to toe. The simulation combined two of my worst fears, confinement and Marcus. I'm an easy target at the very back of the car, and I'll eventually run into my childhood abuser. To hold him off for as long as possible, I keep searching for him. I peek through the small gaps in between the seats.

Oh there he is. I can just barely glimpse part of his face, but after years with him, he's easily identifiable. He's now less than four rows away. And then I see him pull his lips back and stretch his mouth wide in a leer. It's as though he's grinning, grinning in a terrible predatory way.

The fear I'm feeling intensifies to a point where I literally can't feel anything else. Like a marionette that got its strings cut, I fall limply against the back of my seat.

Finally, I hear it. A faint footfall, frighteningly close to where I'm sitting. I don't know if Marcus is two rows away or just one, but either way, I've got only seconds to plan my escape.

And then, as if orchestrated by God Himself, which I know it was, a lightbulb clicks on in my head. This is just a simulation. It's not real. You can fight it, you can alter it. You just gotta focus!

I do. I concentrate. I have to call on God to take the wheel, because I'm so drained from feeling fear. But at some point I gain the strength to get up and run. In my head I'm praying harder than I can ever remember doing. I'm screaming silently for Jesus to come and save me.

I lurch for the door that'll open up into the next car. It's not locked this time, it opens without resistance.

Fresh air fills my lungs. I could pause to breathe it in, but I don't, I just go on running. Thank you, Jesus, is the next thought I have, because without Him, there's no way I would've made it.

One blink later, I'm back in the reclining chair.

I gasp like a fish that's been plucked out of water. My body keeps twitching involuntarily and nothing I do will make it stop. I probably won't calm down till long after I leave this room. But I need Amar to tell me how I did.

I think of how my prayer was answered, and my breaths finally start to slow. I look over at Amar. He's sitting in front of the computer, studying the results. But then he turns and stares at me.

"What?" I ask.

"You were in there for five minutes," is all he says.

Nervousness starts to creep in. "Is that bad?"

"No." Amar frowns. "It's very good, actually." But there's no pleasure on his face, only anxiety. He doesn't even clear up why it's there.

I place both feet on the floor and hold my head in my hands. I might not have panicked visibly in the simulation, but now my heart rate's threatening to shoot up once again. I look up, and Amar seems done with whatever he was doing. "Come on, walk it off," he says to me. He walks up and tries to take one of my arms. "I'll help you back to the dorm."

I shake my head. "I don't need…"

"It wasn't a request," Amar cuts in. The look on his face is hard as concrete, and that tells me I should comply. He moves to the side and opens a door nearby, a different door than the one we entered through. I follow him down a short, dark hallway and through a series of corridors that lead back to the transfer dorm.

Suddenly, my instructor ceases walking. He puts his hands on my shoulders. "Can I ask you something?" I cringe, but it turns out he's not asking about Marcus. "How'd you get out of that car?"

"I opened the door," I say plainly.

"Wasn't it locked at first?"

I nod, lost as to where this is going.

Amar's usually friendly face is now deadly serious. He tightens his grip on my shoulders. "So you made that door open with just the power of your mind?"

How is that even an issue? "Yeah," I say. "I mean, I can do anything in a simulation." Leave it to me to have to remind a Dauntless that simulations can be manipulated.

Amar doesn't lighten up. "Strange," he responds. "Most people, when they take this test, they don't know it's a simulation. The program's designed that way, so they can't cheat the system."

I feel my pulse in my throat. I didn't know that this particular simulation would be like the one in the aptitude test. I thought everyone would be aware like me. Okay, so I spoke too soon. Amar isn't incompetent, I am. I didn't even realize I'd broken a rule.

"Well," I say slowly and carefully, "it was like this during my aptitude test. I figured it was just a fluke. But I really couldn't help it."

"I'm not blaming you," says Amar. "Once," and he lowers his voice to a whisper, "I was like you. I took this same test, and I was aware the whole time."

My eyes go wide and my mouth falls open. At least Amar isn't gonna rat me out. But if it's somehow dangerous like he suggests, he ought to keep his secrets to himself. That's the thing though, the Dauntless don't care that much about secrets, unlike the Abnegation.

Amar goes on. "It's not something you should brag about," he confirms to me. "Like everyone else, the Dauntless are all about conformity. So you should keep it under wraps."

"Fine," I say hurriedly. "I'll keep it a secret."

"Right." He doesn't sound convinced. "Next time, try not to do something impossible. Face your fear like anyone else would, so they won't think you're cheating."

I tell him okay. He seems reassured, and he claps me on the shoulder good-naturedly before sending me on my way. But as I start toward the dormitory, my ears pick up a sound coming from the other end of the hallway. It sounds like quiet, shuffling footsteps, moving in the opposite direction.

I shudder. Right after doing that, I want to scold myself. It was just my imagination, nothing more. Why am I being such a coward?

Eric didn't mean to eavesdrop. He just wanted to know what was going on with Tobias. When Tobias and Amar disappeared for a time, the other initiates began to get skittish. Eric's nerves got overworked and he volunteered to follow Amar and Tobias, wherever it was they went.

Now Eric retreats, his steps small and light so his presence will go unnoticed. The hallways here aren't well lit, so Amar seeing him won't be a problem. Tobias, however, is more vigilant than most. What are the odds Tobias saw Eric's outline in the darkness, or heard the echo of his shoes against the floor?

It better not have happened. Eric doesn't want a misunderstanding.

He walks back to his place against the wall, in the middle of the line of transfers. When Amar comes out to call his name, it's like he never budged from there.

Shauna runs up to me in the cafeteria at dinner and socks me hard in the arm. Her smile's so big it actually looks scary. There's a swollen fold of skin beneath her right eye, sure to become a black eye later.

"Ow!" I cry. "Shauna, what…"

"I won!" Shauna bursts out. "I got her right in the jaw within sixty seconds. Threw her off her game. She still hit me in the eye once, but after that I dominated. It was awesome."

I grin. This may be the proudest I've ever felt in my life. Not of myself for teaching Shauna, but of Shauna because she did what she thought was impossible. Slowly, my excitement takes shape in my throat. It exits as a frenzied, "Oh wow, you did it!"

"I wouldn't have, if not for you," says Shauna. Her smile changes, so she looks sweeter, less like a maniac. She stands in front of me, her lips briefly touching my cheek. "Thank you."

Oh, man, I might never wash my face again.

I stare dumbly at her as she pulls away. She just laughs and tugs me toward the table where her friends sit. I'm a little reluctant, actually. My problem isn't that I'm from Abnegation, it's that I don't know what these gestures of affection mean to the Dauntless. If Shauna were from Abnegation, I'd ask to go to her house and have dinner with her family. I'd find out what volunteering project she's passionate about, then I'd figure out how to get involved. In Dauntless, I don't know how to start this process.

I decide not to let it bring my confidence down. I go join Shauna and Zeke at their table.

The Dauntless-borns are all so much louder than I am. "Let's eat, y'all," someone shouts, and everyone does. All of Shauna's friends congratulate her on her win, and they point at the girl whose ass she kicked. She's sitting at one of the other tables, her face blown up to twice its normal size.

"Oh, yeah," one of the girls taunts. "Look at her. Can't even look Shaun in the eye."

"She won't be lookin' at nothin' for a few days," someone else comments, and all the initiates at the table trip over themselves laughing. It takes only seconds for me to join in. I have to, because these people deserve to have their energy matched.

At the end of the meal, when I'm poking at a piece of chocolate cake with my fork, Shauna comes up to me and hugs me tight. She thanks me again for helping her win against that girl. I can't tell her "you're welcome" because all of a sudden, my throat's closing up and my voice is failing me.

It's official, I've gone crazy for Shauna.

We should be in our beds at this late hour, but if there are any guards on patrol, they must not care. It's nice to be able to sit above a deserted Pit. The wet plop we hear when our shoes make contact with the stone is magnified due to the absence of a crowd. So is the echoing clang that rings out every time we forcefully lean back against the railing.

Even the river seems to be settling down for the night. The lapping of the water against the rocks seems almost gentle, like a loving touch. It's this strange peace that makes it easier for me to confess everything to Eric. "That's how I know," I'm saying to him. "I've fallen head over heels, man." I point out Shauna in the picture that we took. She's at the very front of the group of grinning Dauntless-borns. I stick out, and not in a good way, with my smile looking too forced.

Eric's mouth turns up as he inspects the image. "Damn, and she looks good, too," he says. "You really wanna have it all. Seems my Abnegation friend isn't Abnegation anymore."

"Haven't been for a long time. Didn't you ask around?" I'm still not used to tooting my own horn, but I can't help but be proud of myself. "They know me as 'the kid with perfect aim who teaches martial arts.'"

Now I'm smiling naturally. I'm riding a tidal wave of euphoric memories, especially the one of Shauna kissing me on the cheek. Yet all of this has taken Eric differently. The next glance I sneak in his direction, I see his mouth return to its usual frowning position, and he looks half thoughtful, half like he's stewing on something. Am I right in guessing that he's jealous?

But he's still with Mia, and they're getting along nicely, so he couldn't be. I easily dismiss the notion, opting instead to cherish this time with my brother from another mother.

I'm at breakfast, stabbing at a large chunk of sausage with my fork, when someone familiar yet unexpected shows her face in the dining hall. Jeanine Matthews is one of two Erudite women. The other's younger, with less status. But that makes little difference to the Dauntless, most of whom are teenagers. They go as quiet as I've ever seen a group of Dauntless get.

Even then, there are still mutters everywhere, like the distant sound of running footsteps. But gradually, as the two ladies sit down near Max, conversations start to pick up again. I don't participate. I keep stabbing the sausage and eggs on my plate, watching Max and the Erudite women to see what they'll do.

After some time, Max rises and approaches Amar, who's in the middle of eating his breakfast. They have what looks like a tense conversation. Then, all of a sudden, they're both striding in my direction.

"Hey. Abnegation." Amar's voice sounds strained, and it's so unlike him that I'm taken aback. He beckons to me with one hand. I get up, leaving my almost-empty tray behind.

"What's up?" I ask.

"You and I, we've been called in for an evaluation," replies Amar. His usually smiling mouth is a flat line, his voice monotone. His demeanor is a lot like it was when he warned me to hide my simulation results.

"Huh?" I attempt to stall by acting clueless in front of Max. But he sees through my game.

"Your simulation results were abnormal," Max clarifies in his no-nonsense way. "Therefore, we've got to investigate immediately. We don't want any program errors."

I just keep staring at him. "Well, what am I supposed to…"

"You'll come with the two of us," I hear Jeanine say. She gets up and makes her way over to Max, and the two of them flank me like they're pack hunters and I'm the prey. "We'll observe another simulation to ensure it's working as intended. Amar, you'll come, too."

Oh, man. I'm toast unless I think fast. Even if I convince Jeanine and Max I was falsely accused, they might still talk to the right people, damaging my reputation in Dauntless forever. I say a little prayer under my breath.

The intelligent thing to do would be to play along, let them watch me as I face my fears. I just have to pretend I'm unaware it's a simulation. We walk to the simulation room without speaking. When we reach the door, Amar opens it and lets the rest of us file in. He leaves to get some extra equipment, so Max, Jeanine, and Jeanine's assistant can observe.

Jeanine paces around the room, her expression pensive. I don't really trust her, neither would most who grew up in Abnegation. We've all been taught to oppose Erudite values. But what I was told might not be wholly correct. Eric's nothing like that, and neither was Katherine. Jeanine made a pretty good impression on me when she jumped into action to save Eric in the hospital. Could she show kindness to someone like me?

"You were logged into the system as 'Thomas,'" she says to me. "Why do you not go by 'Tobias' here?"

It's such a random question, it startles me. She knows everything about me, doesn't she? After all, she knows Eric. Her clear, almost watery eyes touch mine, and I have to drop my gaze.

"Um…" I think about my answer. "I wanted a clean slate."

She nods. "I can respect that. Especially given what you've gone through."

She sounds almost… motherly. I bristle at her tone, immediately feeling a pinch of guilt. It may well be that she has good intentions. But she's Max's accomplice, and I don't think he's trustworthy.

"I'm fine now," I tell her.

She smiles. "Of course you are."

Amar reenters the room with a cart. On it is an assortment of wires, electrodes, and computer parts. I know what I'm supposed to do. I sit in the chair and wait for the others to put on their headgear. When they're done, I see Amar brandish a needle. I feel it pinch my neck.

Then I close my eyes and the simulation takes me under.

Falling. Landing. Right into the path of an oncoming bus. Getting run over. The pain!

When I'm pulled back into reality, I realize I can still feel myself getting crushed beneath those wheels. The pain's singing in every part of my body. I'm also still screaming, tears springing from my eyes. I know that, under most circumstances, no Dauntless would act this way and not feel shame. But I'm secretly glad. That's got to convince Jeanine that I'm not a cheater. I'm just a reckless initiate who thought he could make it across a pedestrian bridge without a solid foundation, and failed.

"Interesting," I hear Jeanine say, though I can barely hear her over my heavy breathing. "I never tire of seeing inside another person's mind. Every detail suggests so much."

Okay, so I might still be recovering. But at this moment, I feel the urge to get up, walk over to Jeanine, and slap her. I swing my shaking legs over the edge of the chair and plant my feet on the ground.

"You did really good," Amar praises me. "Your balancing skills are maybe a little wanting, but you got out of the simulation quick, just like last time."

He grins at me. I must've succeeded at pretending to be normal, because he doesn't look that concerned for me anymore. I just nod.

"Well," Jeanine says, "we can conclude that the abnormal result was due to a program error. We'll have to do some investigating to find the flaw." She stands and walks over to me, and then she says something that both surprises and pleases me. "As for you, my dear, I can now say my colleagues judged you too hastily. They were suggesting that the methods you used to escape the simulation were unfair. If ever you hear anyone accuse you of such a thing again, you tell me and I'll punish them accordingly. Alright?"

"Oh… okay," I manage to say.

Wow. The Erudite just keep getting more confusing every time.

"Toby?" Eric enters the bathroom and finds his friend standing in front of the sink. He can't help but notice Tobias' thousand-yard stare. "What'd they do to you?"

Tobias closes his eyes, as if not wanting to relive what he saw. "Made me go through another sim," he finally says. "It was terrifying, man. I thought I was on this pedestrian bridge that could collapse at any moment, and beneath it was this highway full of speeding cars. I had to try to get across, and halfway there, I slipped and fell."

He turns on the tap, soaks one of the hand towels, and rubs his forehead with it. Eric's eyes narrow a little. "You didn't know it wasn't real?"

"Course I didn't," Tobias says simply. "That's the worst part."

Eric considers demanding the truth. He remembers the conversation he overheard yesterday, and he doesn't get why his friend's keeping secrets like this. Did somebody call out his unfair advantage, encouraging him to bury it even deeper? Is it that, plus the fact that lately, he's been drifting away from his childhood best friend?

Eric doesn't like either possibility. He makes a mental note to always keep one eye on Tobias, in case he lets his newfound abilities get to his head. Otherwise, when things go bad, there's a high chance that Tobias will simply save himself, and leave his own "best friend" behind.

We're still on the second stage of initiation. Still forced to experience our literal worst nightmares, while not getting any sort of psychiatric help. I won't lie, I've had to rethink what it means to be brave. It's easy to be brave when all you're doing is jumping off a moving train. Not so much when the thing you're jumping off is a ledge a thousand feet above the ground, and you know you'll feel the pain when you hit the bottom.

All we can do is brace ourselves, clench our teeth, and pray the program will let us out quick. That won't do much to save our collective sanity. When night falls and the initiates go to bed, that's when I see and hear the leftover traces of the day's simulations. Whimpers from one initiate's bunk. A second initiate kneeling before the wall, not sleeping. Another initiate's sheets ripped to shreds.

We deserve another vacation. Lucky for us, Max decided to give us one, not out of the kindness of his heart, but because he and Jeanine need a day to fix the flaw in the program.

The nonexistent flaw. I laugh, and Shauna laughs with me.

"Shh!" Mia whisper-shouts. "Don't let them hear us." But when I look at her, I see she can't help grinning. This is a special outing. We're going on a double date, Mia, Shauna, Eric, and me.

There's a good reason no one can know. We'll be going outside the Dauntless compound without supervision. Not a smart idea, but as Dauntless as they come. Shauna's friends with Zeke, and Zeke's friends with a few people who work in the control room, because of his mom. Shauna talked to one of the control room employees for us.

I see her in the hallway up ahead. Lora, that's her name. She's got orange hair and big glasses. "Oh, hey," she says lightly. "The four of you looking for trouble?"

Eric replies first. "Yeah, sort of," he says sheepishly.

Lora waves the four of us forward, and we join her in the control room. "Remember, you made a promise," she says. "One night only." She returns to her computer and types up several commands, calling up a screen that shows the status of the cameras outside the compound. With a few keystrokes, the screen changes. The red lettering now reads that the cameras are disabled.

"Behave yourselves, now," says Lora.

"Lora, please," Shauna cuts in. "We're not little kids." But she's giggling like an idiot.

"You're sure acting like kids!" Lora retorts, echoing my thoughts. Yet she's smiling when she waves us off. We leave the control room, marching side by side down the hall. We soon reach the glass doors that serve as the street-level entrance to the Dauntless compound. The doors swing wide open and Shauna, Eric, Mia, and I run through.

The air is thick and heavy and the clouds above are a pale gray. We walk quickly through the Abnegation sector, which is deserted. I know that on this day, everyone who's important in Abnegation will be supervising the initiates while they volunteer. This lowers the chance of us getting caught, and me having to face Marcus.

Besides, Mia's suggestion was one we couldn't refuse. She proposed that we all explore the factionless side of town. Take turns sneaking into the crumbling buildings, see what we can steal, stuff like that.

In no time at all, we've made it to the factionless sector. The bare bones of old buildings stand out against the slate-gray sky. We notice the signs of ruin, the big cracks in the pavement, old sandwich wrappers and crushed soup cans lying out in the open, the stink of unwashed bodies and human waste emanating from the windows. In one alleyway someone installed mosquito netting, and it's clear why. The tenants living on the top floor need to learn what a trash can is.

Though the girls are revolted by the smell, we're all anticipating exploring the area further. Mia dares Eric to go inside a creepy-looking warehouse and stay there for a few minutes, then she'll join him in there. Eric asks if she isn't too scared to follow him into the warehouse on the first try. At last, it's decided that all four of us will walk in together.

Part of me thinks the door might be locked. But then I try pushing on it and it actually moves inward. Mia squeals happily. Yet fear starts to set in, because from what I see, the only thing on the other side is an empty, noiseless darkness.

Eric, Mia, Shauna, and I look at each other. Our decision's unanimous. The second I step into the warehouse, I hear them come in after me. We all stop and regroup somewhere in the space, my hand clasping Shauna's, and Eric's holding Mia's. Eric digs out his flashlight and clicks it on, casting a pale glow over the space.

We see what we expected, peeling paint on the walls, red and brown rust creeping over forgotten metal pipes, an industrial fan shoved into a back corner. Typical of most factionless spaces. "Damn, it's filthy in here," I hear Eric say under his breath. I have to agree.

"Check it out," I say. I point in his general direction. "Spiders on the walls, spiders on the ceiling…"

"Shit, what?" Eric flinches away from the wall. I see him inspect his arms and chest, making sure there are no bugs there. Hilariously, he hallucinates some. His hand twitches as he tries to bat the invisible spiders off.

"I'm just joking," I tell him. "Those are dust bunnies."

Both Shauna and Mia laugh like crazy when they realize what I did. I'm laughing too, so much so that I can't get away in time when Eric jumps me. "Toby, you piece of…" He saves the foul words for later. I feel the flashlight hit my head with a thwack. Stars dance before my field of vision.

I'm about to stop with the jokes, say sorry to Eric. But Mia beats me to it. She takes his arm and pulls him to her side, her voice low. "Less talk, more action," she says. She tops that off with a full-on-the-mouth kiss.

"She's got the right idea," I hear Shauna murmur. Before I can think about what I'm doing, my face is pressed up against Shauna's, my mouth trying to match the passion of hers. I'm trying to follow her lead, because in spite of my rising status in Dauntless, I still don't have much experience.

"Come on," I hear Mia whisper. Vaguely, I glimpse her outline in a pool of shadows. The beam from the flashlight wiggles up and down as she and Eric move elsewhere.

They're going behind a movable section of wall that serves as a sort of partition. I smirk. Well, they did Shauna and me a favor. We all have privacy now.

I do what I believe feels right. I don't let my anxiety show, because that would turn Shauna off. At some point her hands slide under my shirt. They travel to my stomach, then the upper part of my chest, then my shoulder blades. Oh man, they feel so soft and warm on my rough skin. Like they can somehow heal the wounds Marcus left.

Even when I hear Mia make a high-pitched sound, I don't let it distract me. Shauna and I continue to rock in each other's arms. Then her hand moves to unzip my jeans, and I stop. She stares wide-eyed at me. I try to find the right thing to say, to explain to her that I'm not ready. Long ago I can remember making a promise to God, and I don't care who I'm with, the Lord comes first in my life. My future spouse will have to accept that.

But before I get a word out, I hear a loud bang as the door to the warehouse slams shut.

All thoughts of romantic interaction are forgotten. Did we just get uninvited guests? I think. I hurry to stand and throw my Dauntless jacket on. That's when I remember, we're the ones who weren't invited. Whoever just came probably claims the warehouse as their home.

Shauna breathes real hard as she stands and adjusts her clothes. I lean over and elbow her. "Shh," I whisper. Eric and Mia must've gone silent, too, because my ears can't pick them up from here.

"You see anyone?" Shauna asks in a whisper.

She sounds a little scared, and she should be. I hear our mystery guest walking around inside the space, then I realize they've chosen to come toward me and Shauna. Great. Now we need to pick a new hiding spot, but can we move without attracting attention?

The beam from Eric's flashlight suddenly reappears. Probably from Eric or Mia picking it up, and the ray of light moving from where it was previously covered. The weak yellow glow surrounds the mystery figure standing in the middle of the space.

Yeah, I know it's a lame and overused trope. But when Mia, Shauna, Eric, and I figure out the new person's seen us, we simultaneously let out identical screams.

The lone factionless woman looks back at us, and we all keep looking at her. She just stands there, completely nude, not even trying to cover the parts of her body dangling in the air. Her arms and legs are stick thin, her elbows and knees looking almost swollen in comparison. Her torso's so skeletal, it seems like her papery skin is stretched over nothing but bone. I can count the ribs that protrude from the center of her chest.

That's not all. If the surface of her body were a piece of land, it would be marred by hundreds of fault lines, each of them oozing sticky brown blood. In between the long slash marks, there's the uprooted soil of her lacerated flesh. The torn pink edges wiggle in place with every movement, making me feel queasy.

Finally, the woman lifts her head high, her ratty hair falling away from her eyes. She stretches her jaws wide and screams at an obscene volume. I leap back, my mind spinning dizzily.

Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me. I was wrong to leave the compound unsupervised.

Eric, Mia, and Shauna must share this thought, because we all turn and run at the same time. I urge my feet to move even faster, else I might end up dead.

Ahead of me, Eric shoves the door open and runs out. Mia's right behind him. I lunge for the door and give Shauna an aggressive push, so she'll be in front of me. We burst out of the warehouse and into the fading sunlight. Eric and Mia continue to run, and so do Shauna and I.

We've almost reached the end of the block when I decide to turn around, just to confirm that the monster's given up. Will I have to keep running at full speed, or can I slow down now? I squint at the figure in the distance. What I see nearly makes my heart stop, but not for the reason you'd think.

The creature's still at the entrance to the warehouse. It's struggling to hold the heavy door open, so it can chase us down. It almost makes it out, but then it stumbles on something, and it crumples.

I stare at it, mostly out of pity. How can such a scary-looking monster be so pathetic now?

"Come on, let's go back to the compound," Shauna's saying. "We can't let that thing get us."

The other two are nodding and agreeing. But then my mouth opens before I can stop myself. "You go," I spit out. "I'm going back to the warehouse. I think that thing, I mean, that woman, she could use some help."

Eric, Mia, and Shauna look at me like I'm possessed.

"What?" I defend myself. "I know you all got scared, but we need to look beyond the surface. We walked into that lady's house without asking, now we're about to leave when she needs help. I mean look at her, it's been a minute and she hasn't gotten up." Sure enough, in the distance, the factionless woman's gone totally still.

"Toby, just go back with us," Eric hisses under his breath.

"No," I say, making up my mind. "I'm heading back to the warehouse. Go on back to the compound if you want. I'm checking up on that woman."

Shauna suddenly takes hold of my arm. "Don't," she practically pleads with me. Her fingers squeeze tight. "If you go back there, you'll get yourself killed."

I smile thinly. "No, I won't." I pry her fingers from my arm and keep walking.

"Come back!" Shauna calls, sounding desperate, but I block out the sound of her voice. I just feel like I need to go check on that woman. Maybe it's because I'm ashamed that I thought of her as some kind of creature, when she's a person just like me. Besides, she can't hurt me now, not after taking a nasty fall.

I focus on her distant figure. She has yet to move from her prone position. When I get close enough, I stick out a foot and nudge her bony arm, trying to be gentle. Not a blip of a response. A chill overtakes my heart. Did we kill her?

I'm praying to God that we didn't. I get down on my knees and put my ear next to her mouth. I'm listening hard, feeling for the smallest puff of breath, when she suddenly opens her eyes and lets out an animal snarl.

Fear explodes inside my chest. I scuttle backwards on all fours, like a scattering cockroach.

My eyes close tight and I wait to feel a knife at my throat. But when a few excruciating seconds go by and the deathblow isn't dealt, I open my eyes. What's going on? The factionless woman is completely calm now. She's just sitting there, not trying to start a fight. She almost looks like a civilized person.

"Look at you, little boy," she rasps. Her vocal cords must've been damaged somehow, because it takes effort for her to speak. She grins at me. "I see a shiver running down your spine. I can hear your teeth chattering. Are you scared of me?"

I just look at her. I am scared, but I don't want to insinuate that.

The woman's not happy with my response. "Come now, little boy," she says mockingly. "Give me a 'yes' or a 'no.' I promise I won't bite." A second later, she adds, "Hard, that is." She chuckles at her own joke.

At long last, I'm given my voice back. "No," I lie. "I'm not scared of you."

The woman eyes me for a moment, then she releases a sickening, phlegmy laugh. "Ha," she snorts. "Ha, ha, ha. You, not scared of me? Just a moment ago, you wouldn't touch these old bones with anything but the bottom of your shoe. I can feel you shaking in your boots, that's how scared you are."

My cheeks get hot. "No," I repeat, louder this time. "I'm not scared." And it's the truth. I'm no longer afraid, just pissed off.

This has no effect on the woman. She scoots forward, so she's in my immediate proximity. "If you're not scared at all," she challenges, "then prove it. Come and sit with me. Show me how Dauntless you are." She pats the spot directly adjacent to her mangled body, a spot close enough to her that, if I were sitting there, I'd be forced to touch her.

I'm utterly disgusted. But she's right when she says I'm Dauntless. I'm not going to refuse her dare.

My teeth so tightly gritted that I fear they'll break apart, I move and settle into the spot the woman pointed out. I try to ignore the awful feeling of her bloody, sticky skin against my own. "What's the point of all this, huh?" I ask. "Why screw with me like this? Why not just talk to me, like a normal person would?"

The woman's eyes glitter mischievously. She laughs once again, and a spray of phlegm shoots from her mouth. "Ha!" she shouts boisterously. "Ha, ha, ha! I'd do just that, if you would do me the same courtesy." She pokes me with a bloody fingernail. "Don't show up uninvited in my house. Tell your gun-toting friends to leave us alone. Let your old pal Max come here and let me sic my attack dogs on him." After the last bit, she cackles loudly. She seems to like laughing at her own jokes.

I'm completely bewildered looking at her. She surprised me so many times, I actually forgot why I came back here in the first place. "Look," I say, "I don't get why you're behaving like this. But you need medical attention. I could drop you off at the nearest hospital, or…"

"Save it," the woman suddenly snaps. I stare at her. Now she looks enraged.

I try again. "Come on, just let me help. I can talk to the hospital staff and…"

"Save it," the woman repeats, with even more acidity. I grow frustrated with her attitude.

"You're injured, you got a ton of stab wounds everywhere, they could get infected," I point out. "You could end up with blood poisoning. Don't be so immature, just come with…"

"Save it!" the woman screams. A giant drop of phlegm lands with a splat on my cheek. That shuts me up, but the woman's only just begun. "You're a real pain in the butt, you know that, kid?" she hisses. "You're like an invasive species that won't go away. Well, just so you know, I can cull this infestation with a blow to your throat."

Her hands squeeze my neck, and it's all I can do not to grimace or squeal. I try to appease her. I force out a fake laugh. "Okay, okay, I get it," I say to the woman. "I'm not gonna try to help. If you wanna die of infection, I'll just sit back and let you."

Much to my relief, the woman lets go of my neck. "That's more like it!" she says with a grin. "You're learning, kid. It's sad that your compatriots in black never will."

"My… what? Oh, you mean the Dauntless," I say, sputtering a little. I need time to recover from the woman putting her hands on me. "Don't worry about the initiates, they aren't that bad. We're not even really Dauntless yet. I'm originally from Abnegation."

I expect the woman to soften when I say this. Dauntless doesn't have a good reputation among the factionless, but I think Abnegation does. They've always provided the factionless with charity. Yet when I reveal where I'm really from, the woman's eyes narrow and she directs a glare at me.

"Oh, you're one of those bleeding hearts!" she exclaims. "Don't tell me you're still fond of them. They're nothing but a bunch of snakes, and venomous snakes at that." She spits on the ground.

I'm backing up as she talks. Dang, so much vitriol reserved for the most generous faction in the city. Why, I want to ask, but I can't risk provoking the woman's anger. So I just nod and smile. "Yeah, they're not the best," I say, playing along. "There's a reason I decided to leave. Their leader's a complete dick."

"Oh, yes," the woman cheers me on. "Marcus Eaton. What a hypocrite. Not the selfless public servant he claims to be, but a vulture that worships at his own altar. His fellow council members, too. More useless to this city than a bulldozer in a china shop. If they were all exiled tomorrow, I wouldn't give a damn."

I feel my heart rate going up. Initially I agreed with the woman, now I'm having my doubts. Of course Marcus deserves to be hated. I just didn't think anyone would have a reason to say that about the other members of the council. Not all the Abnegation are as hypocritical as Marcus. Are they?

"I just wanna know," I venture to ask the woman, "why do you hate the council so much? I mean, it seems like you hate them more than the Dauntless. Why?"

The woman utters a low growl. On all fours, she slithers over to the door and, with great effort, forces it open. "Do you truly want to know?" she asks. I nod, and she smiles a toothless smile and opens the warehouse door for me. We walk into the woman's "house."

She still has some difficulty walking, but I know she'll turn down any attempts at helping. I let her limp over to the spot where the industrial fan sits. There's a messy pile of old books there, something none of us initially noticed. Next to the old books is a collection of rudimentary weapons. Knives, spears, arrows, and a poorly constructed bow. Dauntless paintball guns, too, that are being repurposed.

"What are those for?" I ask the woman, pointing to the weapons.

She smiles proudly. "Those are our little secret. Our big secret, actually. We're making plans for a factionless revolution."

I can only stare, my eyes bugging out. "So you plan on usurping the council, huh? Why?" My voice rises. "What's your problem with Abnegation? I can testify that Marcus at least is a shitty person. But the others? I'm willing to bet you'd have starved to death if not for the volunteers handing out food and water. Why the lack of gratitude, huh?"

The woman's seething when she looks at me next. I bet she wishes she could throw blades from her eyes, given the hateful glare on her face. "You idiot," she hisses. "You have no idea what it's like to be one of us. You ought to come join us for a day and gain a new perspective."

"And you ought to be a little grateful to the volunteers who work hard to feed you every day," I shoot back. "You didn't even take advantage of their kindness, because you're walking around without clothes and dripping blood all over the place. How about you stop being arrogant and accept the help that you need?"

I'm ranting, and maybe I'm going too far, but I can't put up with disrespect. Still, I'm not getting through to the woman. She gets even more riled up. "Shut up!" she spits. "You lecture like an Erudite, but you don't have a brain. Have you never asked yourself why we need your charity just to survive? Why, no matter how many soup cans you give us, we're still defecating in the streets and starving? Can't you figure it out, you stupid kid?"

I shrink back a little where I'm standing. I know what she's trying to refer to. Still, I don't want her to condemn my former faction like that. "Just chill out," I tell her. "I'll admit, you're right about the factionless not getting enough of the city's resources. But what's the council supposed to do when resources are already scarce, and most of it's going to people in factions? Ever think about that?"

A scowl is the only response I get from the woman. I'm thinking I won the argument, when she speaks up again. "I'm shocked that you never considered the possibility of just getting rid of those factions," she says. "That way, things would finally be equal. No more segregation, no more unfair distribution of resources, no more pointless tests, no more banishing kids from their homes. We'd be free!"

During this rant, her focus slowly shifts from me to some invisible audience in the sky. She holds her bony arms high above her head, a radiant light in her eyes. Is she so delusional that she thinks she's spreading God's word? Well, I can't really fault her for that. Turning to God is something I do all the time.

I just shake my head at her. "Yeah, yeah, okay. So you say the council shouldn't be in charge. But you don't just want that, you want to get rid of factions altogether. You wanna get rid of communities, people's reason for living. You wanna go to war with the people. Why? Just take your concerns to the council, then things could be resolved peacefully."

"No," snaps the woman. "We don't care about keeping the peace."

"Well, you're even less worthy of sympathy than I thought," I reply. "You think you're doing the right thing, but you're not on the side of peace."

The woman lowers her arms and lets her eyes go to the ground. What she mutters next, she says in such a low voice that I could've missed it. "True peace is not merely the absence of tension," she says. "It is the presence of justice."

If she really believed what she just said, she would've said it in her usual snarky way. But her voice seems to have been drained of energy. She was concentrating more on each syllable flowing from her open mouth, like she was trying to remember the words.

Like she was quoting someone else.

So I just roll my eyes at her. "Where'd you steal that from, a comic strip? A fortune cookie?"

The woman doesn't take the bait. She turns her attention back to the pile of books. She riffles through it, surfacing with one book in particular. How many centuries have passed since its publication? Two? Three? The spine's almost broken down completely and the dusty yellow pages are one touch away from turning to powder.

I can still make out the title, though. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The woman smiles at me. "This is the book that gave us our revolutionary ideas," she tells me, her excitement barely contained. "The book that opened our eyes to new possibilities and new perspectives. You really would benefit from reading it." She then holds the aging copy of the book out to me.

I pluck the book from her hand. I'm pretending to not care, so she'll know I still don't support her "revolution." But I gotta admit, I'm curious. I'll bet that the author of the book was writing about a time before the factions. Before Abnegation, before Dauntless, before Erudite, and before there were tensions between them.

At least I know who the author was. Some little-known writer named Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Never even heard of this person before," I say with exaggerated boredom.

It's the woman's turn to roll her eyes at me. "You'll learn once you start reading his work," she says. "Go now. Take the book home with you. Keep it, actually. I don't want it back if no one else will read it."

This sudden turn in the conversation leaves me wanting more from the woman. But she's not going to elaborate. When I hesitate to move toward the door, she shouts, "Go!"

I don't need to get screamed at again. Holding the book carelessly in one hand, I run away from the warehouse for a second time. I note how dark it's gotten outside since I decided to go back to help the woman. I'm not sure I'll be able to recognize my path through the factionless and Abnegation sectors without light, but I won't have much of a choice.

Man, choosing to be selfless sometimes backfires on you.

"What'd Amar say?"

Eric looks expectantly at Mia and Shauna as they walk in. They're all gathered in the transfer dorm, where Jason, Sean, and Amy are quietly dozing. Eric couldn't decide whether to go to Amar with news of the factionless woman. Their little adventure in the factionless sector was supposed to stay a secret. They would've never discussed it again, but what if the city's safety is about to be compromised by those savages?

In the end, the girls made the decision to go tell Amar. It's why Eric is completely dumbfounded when they reply, "He doesn't know."

Eric stares at them in silence.

"You think we can afford to say something?" Mia argues. "They'll know we snuck out of the compound. That's a major offense." One glance at Shauna's face makes it clear she agrees with Mia.

Eric finally speaks. "But…"

"Would you like to be factionless?" Mia takes a step toward him, like she's gonna threaten him into staying quiet. There won't be any need for such threats, though. She already asked the most important question.

"No," Eric replies, and the debate's over. Shauna tells Eric and Mia good night, then she leaves the dorm. Thirty minutes later, when Mia's already asleep, Eric hears Tobias slip into the dorm from outside. He doesn't reveal much about what happened with the factionless woman. But that look on his face is a telltale sign that whatever he did, he won't be doing it again.

AN: Any quote in this chapter attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. does NOT belong to me.