Pain seared across Tobias's back as he opened the window to meet Bea for their nightly meeting. He stiffened in fear when the metal squeaked. Why did it squeak? It never squeaked anymore. He had opened it so much that the metal was practically shiny with use. Tobias strained his ears, searching for any sound that would suggest Marcus was still awake. The house was silent aside from the sound of water rushing through the pipes and air blowing through the vents.

He decided it was safe enough to slide his body through the open window. When he began to place his foot into the familiar worn crevice on the wall, he heard a door open faintly. Footsteps followed and grew louder as seconds went by. Tobias froze.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

This was not happening. It couldn't be happening. He was always so cautious.

Fear began to crawl up his throat and nearly choked him as he pulled himself inside the room. It overwhelmed him from the inside out, only growing when Marcus pushed open his door. He stood in the door frame menacingly, glaring.

"What the fuck are you doing Tobias?" One of the scariest looks was on his face. Completely and utterly emotionless.

"G-going out-outside." The terror of Marcus catching him managed to drag the truth out of him. Tobias despised how easily Marcus could do this to him. He was powerless.

Marcus paced towards him slowly, his silence deafening. He slammed the window shut, causing Tobias to jump. Maybe Bea would hear it and take it as a note to leave and hide. The last thing they needed was for her to get in trouble too.

"And why," Marcus said through clenched teeth, "would you be going outside in the middle of the night?"

"I wanted some fresh air." The shock of getting caught had worn off enough for him to scramble together a lie. Maybe Marcus would fall for it out of eagerness to remind Tobias how selfish and stupid he was. "I wanted to walk around Abnegation since I can't during the day so-"

"Shut up boy." Marcus stomped his foot close to Tobias's leg, causing him to jump back into the wall to create more space between them. "Let me get this right. You were going to disobey not only my rules but the rules of Abnegation by going out after curfew?"

Tobias hung his head, acting the part. He felt pathetic, but minimizing his beating was a higher priority than his pride.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir, it-"

"And you expect me to believe that this in no way relates to Andrew's daughter sneaking out at the same time as you and standing outside of her house looking over here?"

Not Bea.

Marcus couldn't find out about them. It didn't matter what it would mean for him, Tobias couldn't let Marcus hurt Bea. Typically, he managed to keep his face clean of all emotion during his beatings, but there was no stopping the sheer panic that flashed across his face.

"What?"

"Drop the act, Tobias." Marcus spat his name as if it were poison. "You and I both know you weren't going on a walk tonight. How stupid do you think I am? Did you really think you could keep your relationship with Beatrice a secret?" Tobias braced himself against the windowsill, clenching onto it for dear life.

"What-What are you talking about?" Maybe he could keep up the playing dumb act enough for Marcus to either fall for it or stop caring enough to get the truth out of him.

"You fucking know what I am talking about, stop lying to me." Pain throbbed in his jaw after Marcus punched him, causing him to fall to the ground. "You're digging yourself a deeper hole, Tobias. Tell me the fucking truth." Another loud stomp. This time near his head. There was no getting back up now. "Now!"

"Okay, okay."

Change of plans. Drop the playing dumb act, make up a lie and run with it.

Anything to protect Bea. The more fault he put on himself, the more believable it would be. Marcus kicked his side and then pushed down on Tobias's chest with his foot

"Explain."

"Well, I-I-" Between the pain and terror filling his body, his mind blanked. Marcus' foot pushed harder into his chest and Tobias had to suppress a groan.

"Stop. Mumbling." Marcus growled, voice seething with frustration. Tobias rapidly nodded.

"One-one day after school I-I met with her walking home." It was hard to breathe. Too much pressure. Not enough air. But it would only be worse if he didn't explain. "We got out at the same time. We talked, I started meeting with her after school because we-we got out at the same time."

"Get on with the explanation boy."

"I suggested we meet up at night to avoid suspicion. I-I forced her to, she didn't want to. I forced her to, by-by threatening her. I told her if she didn't I would-I would tell you. And she would get hurt."

Before he could react, Marcus grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him up then slammed him against the floor again. Spots blurred his vision until it looked like a swarm of flies were darting across the room.

"YOU." Bang. "TOLD." Bang. "HER." Bang. "ABOUT." Bang. "THIS?" Bang.

His head felt as if it had been split open and he was vaguely aware of blood trickling down his neck.

"No," he coughed. He vaguely hoped he wasn't coughing up blood. "No, sir. I told her since you were the leader I would report her for something bad. Her punishment would be harsh because you're the leader of the faction."

Marcus eyed him as if trying to detect his lie.

"Good." The words seemed fuzzy. Probably a concussion, which meant he would fall unconscious any minute. As tempting as it was to give in to unconsciousness, Tobias fought against his drooping eyes. Marcus always got mad if he fell unconscious during the beating, which always made his post-beating worse. "Because if you had, I would have to set her straight and make sure we're on the same side. I'd hate to ruin that pretty face of hers."

Marcus lifted his foot, letting Tobias sit up. He tried to avoid laying down in front of Marcus if ever possible. Laying down led to more pain.

"Let's see." Shivers ran up his spine. "The belt is obviously not teaching you anything. You broke more rules than I can count. You need a new punishment." He glared a Tobias before leaving with an off-hand, "don't move."

Marcus returned with something held in both hands. Between the haze and the blood dripping down his face, Tobias couldn't make out either of them. Regardless, they were sure to be unpleasant and lead to something painful.

"Next time I want you to think about the consequences before you go disobeying me." Tobias took off his shirt instinctively. "This is for your own good, Tobias."

The belt came down, belt buckle and all. It came again and again, and probably again even after Tobias couldn't handle it anymore and gave into unconsciousness. He hoped Bea wouldn't come to visit him anytime soon.

Beatrice was worried for Toby. He had missed their training Tuesday and Thursday, and it seemed like he was going to miss practice Friday as well. She was leaning against the wall of her house, waiting and hoping that he would walk up to her any moment and say he just slept in the past few days. That he hadn't abandoned her, he was just being clumsy and forgot to set an alarm and didn't want to risk Marcus seeing him out in Abnegation during the day.

Marcus

How could she have been so stupid? Marcus must have done something, something bad. Without another thought, Beatrice jogged towards Toby's house. She rushed up his wall, reaching the closed window of his bedroom. She opened the window quietly, thankful that Abnegation didn't believe in locks. She pulled herself into the room and pulled the window back down. The house was deathly silent.

Toby wasn't in his room.

She wracked her brain for where else he could be. Was this a trap? No, Toby wouldn't do that after all they had been through. Where would Marcus put him if not in his room?

He locks me in his closet for days.

The closet. Of course. It's the reason Toby was claustrophobic. He mentioned it to her one night in the training room while they were snuggled together in the blankets, talking about this and that random thing.

Beatrice carefully opened the bedroom door, peaking out. The house was structured identically to her house and every other Abnegation house. A hallway stretched down from Tobias's room, towards another room that was most likely Marcus'. In the middle of the hall, there was the bathroom, which was the bathroom close to Tobias's room, and another door. In Beatrice's house, this door led to a closet filled with linens and loose clothes that were shared between family members.

In Marcus's house, however, she had a suspicion it was meant for something else. A chair was pushed underneath the doorknob, effectively bolting the door closed from the outside. Beatrice tip-toed down the hall, grateful that nothing creaked underneath her weight. Her breath came out in short bursts and she was only half aware of the anxiety creeping up her throat. She couldn't focus on that now.

She removed the chair and opened the door slowly in hopes it would avoid creaking. Tobias was curled up in the corner shirtless, blood and bruises covering his body.

"Toby?" She whispered.

"Bea?" He said. His voice cracked and sounded dry. "Bea? You shouldn't be here. God, if he found out-"

"He won't." She said soothingly, though it didn't relax the noticeable tension in Tobias's shoulders. "God how long have you been in here?"

"I-I'm not sure. What day is it?" He didn't even know what day it was. Tobias scooted into a sitting position, watching her carefully.

"Friday."

"It's only been four days then. Marcus is probably planning on keeping me in here for another week, though." He said, a grimace on his face.

"What got him so mad?" She asked. "He hasn't locked you in here in months." Tobias sighed.

"He found out about us." Beatrice stiffened. No, no, no. This was bad. Shit. "I made up a crazy story about threatening you into meeting me every night. So you should be off the hook, no worries."

"You did what?!" Why did he do that for her? No wonder Marcus was so mad.

"Don't worry-it's exactly what Marcus expects from me. He would've been suspicious if I hadn't told him something like that."

"But, but-"

"But nothing, Bea. I'll be fine. We just have to be more careful from now on. "

"But look what he did to you!" She looked at his arm, noticing a texture that wasn't just blood or welts. "Are those knife marks? Tobias, did he...did he cut you?" Tobias shrugged, trying to brush it off.

"Yeah, but it's numb by now. I'll be fine, I always am. I couldn't let him think you did anything bad. I'll be gone in a year and leaving you with Marcus. He'll come straight after you if he has even the tiniest thing to hold against you. And-" Tobias faltered. "If anything like this were to happen to you because of me, I don't know how I would be able to handle it."

"Hey," she said, kneeling down in front of him. She put her hand on his cheek gently. "Nothing is gonna happen to me. I will be fine. Just focus on yourself for now, okay?" He nodded. "Do you know how he found out about us?"

"He said you were standing outside on Tuesday, waiting for me. I think he just figured it out. Like I said, we just have to be careful."

"Toby..." Beatrice trailed off, worried. "I was late on Tuesday. I hadn't come out until about one-thirty."

"That was long after my beating." Toby glanced down, before flicking his gaze up to Beatrice. "Shit. He knew about us from before. That was just to fool me."

"So he doesn't actually believe your lie..."

"Bea what are we going to do? I can't possibly leave you here with him, knowing he knows about us. He hurts anything close to me. Bea-" His voice fell into whimpers and Bea watched as tears ran down his cheeks. Hyperventilating.

"Toby, hey Toby listen to me." He looked up, "breathe with me, ok? I'll be ok. I can handle myself. We just need to get you out of this hell hole. A year is nothing in the scheme of things."

"He can't touch you, Bea, I won't let him-" Tobias said.

"Let's worry about that when we have to, okay?" Hesitantly, Toby nodded. "Right now we just need to focus on getting you better and through this."

"O-Okay."

"Is there anything I can do to help? I could probably sneak you some food tomorrow or sometime next week."

"What if he catches you?" Tobias asked. Beatrice grimaced.

"He won't. I won't even stay that long if you want."

"Food would be nice." He admitted. "And water?"

"I can do that." Beatrice kissed his forehead. "I love you, Toby."

"I love you too, Bea."

"I'll be back tomorrow night. Stay strong, please. Be brave."

She got up and closed the closet door behind her. Beatrice replaced the chair in the same position it was before and tip-toed back to the window. How was Marcus not consumed with guilt on a daily basis?

They would make it through, though. She knew they could. In just a couple of years, they would be able to live in Dauntless and put all of this behind them.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! Stay strong, stay brave in the words of Bea. You've got this friends.

DFTBA,

thebooktrooper