Effulgent

Chapter 5

TRIS POV

I'm getting everything ready in the intererrogating room for Eric's and Max's trial. I know for sure that Eric going to get executed but I'm not so sure about Max. He said he had some explaining to do. I wonder what has he got. Yesterday, when we arrived in Candor, Jack arranged for us to stay in here. I was so tired that I fell asleep the minute my head touched the pillow. Now, here I am. I'm kinda nervous but I've no idea why. Maybe it's the atmosphere or what's about to happen. I've no idea. I sigh. I'm starled by a deep voice calling my name from behind. I turn to see Tobias with a smile on his face.

"Hey beautiful." He greets. I scoff.

"I'm not beautiful." I tell him.

"Of course you are. Now, why do you look do nervous?You look as if you're the one who's about to be interrogated." He tells me.

"I've no idea." I tell him. He starts tugging on my arm.

"If that's the case, then let's go out for a while. We have half an hour to spare." He says.

"That's sounds good." I say and follow him outside.

"So what we talk about now has to be nothing related to the interrogation, okay?" He asks.

"Okay." I say. I know he's trying to make me feel better and I'm grateful for it. I really need it right now.

"What kind of jobs are you going to pick when we go back,Tris? I know it's supposed to be today but since you have to be here, I talked to Harrison and postponed it." He tells me.

"Okay, but wait, who's Harrison?"I ask him.

"He's another leader of Dauntless. There's supposed to be five leaders but Eric never really cared about that. All he cared about is himself." He tells me."Don't worry, Harrison is a good guy. He's an exemplary leader. I've always admired him for his leadership skills."

I nod and take a look at my watch. I don't know how but half an hour has already passed.

"Tobias, I hate to say this but we have to go. The interrogation might be starting." I tell him. He nods. 

"Let's go."He says and takes my arm. When we enter the room, I see that they are preparing to interrogate Eric. The room is filled with people. We make our way through the crowd and sit next to Jack. He sees us and gives us a warm smile. I return the smile back.Eric is injected with the truth serum and the trial starts. A man comes and sits in  front of Eric.

"Now, Mr Eric, I'm Niles. I'll ask you a series of questions and you'll answer them truthfully." He asks. 

Eric nods. I notice that he's glaring murderously at Niles.

"You are accused of plotting a war against Abnegation along with the Erudite leader, Jeanine Matthews. Is that correct?" Niles asks.

"Yes." Eric blurts out. It's only now that I remember Jeanine's involment in this. I wonder if they had captured her with sucess.

"Do you know that you could have caused hundreds of innocent people's death?" Niles asks.

"I am well aware of that." Eric replies.

"Then what is the motive of this plot?" Niles asks. 

"To overthrow all those stiffs. I agree with the fact that Erudite should be the governing faction and not Abnegation. So I worked with Jeanine for months, everything was fine until those two," He says pointing to both Tobias and myself."They ruined everything." He glaring at us, viciously. Tobias slightly moves in front of me. I hold on to his shoulder.

"So you wanted to kill people for the sake of Erudite becoming the governing faction?" Niles asks.

"Yes." Eric replies.

"That will be all. Thank you for your honesty." Niles finishes.

Eric is led out of the room while Max is brought into the room.

"Hello, Mr Max. I assume you are aware of the reason for your presence." Niles asks.

"Yes, I'm completely aware." Max replies.

"You are accused of assisting with the plot to overthrow Abnegation. Am I correct?" Niles asks.

"You're right." Max replies.

"Now the question will be, why?" Niles asks.

"I only assisted beause of monetary offers, otherwise,there's nothing in this for me." He says.

"So you didn't really play an important role in this?" Niles asks.

"Yes." Max replies.

"Thank you for your honesty." Niles finishes. Max is led out of the room. Niles stands up and faces us.

"That will be the end of the Dauntless leaders' trial. The crowd is dismissed." He concludes. We stand up and walk towards the exit. Tobias looks angry. I rub his arm and most of the anger fades away from his face. He turns to me.

"I can't believe what I just heard." Tobias says."I can't believe they were going to murder innocent people for Erudite. Think about it Tris, they mainly focused on killing the leaders and your father is one of them."

"I know, but can we not talk about this now? You really need to calm down, Tobias." I say and he nods. That's when Jack Kang approaches us.

"You see we decided to hold Jeanine's trial tommorow. You can stay if you want or leave now." He says.

"I want to stay, I want to know more about this whole thing. How about you, Tris? You can go back if you want." Tobias says to me.

"If you are staying, than so am I." I say.

"Very well then." Jack leaves.