DIVERGENT: Tobias (Watty Award Winner 2013)

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The lights flicker on then and Tris’s face becomes much easier to see. But what I see practically breaks my heart. She’s shaking all over, a look of horror stamped on her face. My curiosity overcomes me and all I can think is what could possibly have been in her fear landscape to affect her like this? She falls to her knees and wraps her arms around herself. Still shaking vigorously, she begins to rub her arms.

Just standing here doing nothing annoys me when I could be in there with her, comforting her, warming her. The urge to burst through the doors and hold her close to me is stronger than ever and I’m having trouble containing it. But I know I have to. That is the only thing stopping me from running up to her and crushing her to me.

I see her calm down just before Max opens the door and she stands. Max walks into the room first and is closely followed by Eric. I find myself behind Eric, impatiently waiting until I can see Tris and she can see me. Our eyes meet for a brief second and all I see is coldness in her usually warm eyes. I flash her a smile in what I hope was an encouraging way. I understand what she’s going through. I had to too. And if anyone is going to be there to comfort here, it’s going to be me.

“Congratulations, Tris. You have successfully completed your final evaluation.” Eric tells her.

Her answering smile doesn’t reach her eyes and her voice comes out rough. “Thanks,” She says slowly.  I look around quickly to see if anyone had noticed the slight change, but it seems that the change was only evident to me.

“There is one more thing before you can go and get ready for the welcoming banquet.” Eric says, while motioning for someone carrying a small black case to approach him.

Oh! The new serum. I completely forgot about that. And who can blame me? I was so focused on waiting for Tris to show up, I barely noticed when they injected me.

And then Eric takes out the syringe for Tris and I see her body tense slightly. She eyes it for a couple of seconds before Eric explains its purpose.

“At least you aren’t afraid of needles,” he jokes. “This will inject you with a tracking device that will be activated only if you are reported missing. Just a precaution.” He says, making the whole thing sound less important than it really is.

Of course, being who she is, Tris asks Eric a question before letting him inject her. “How often do people go missing?” A frown frames her mouth as she speaks her question and that familiar curiosity burns in her eyes.

“Not often,” Eric says, a smirk occupying his face. Something in the pit of my stomach is screaming no. This is wrong. But I don’t know what I can possibly do. I’m just going on a whim here. But the look on Eric’s face has to be proof enough, right?

No, that’s just insane. Why would he do anything against his own faction? I’m just being overly cautious. I tell myself several times, letting it sink in.

“This is a new development, courtesy of the Erudite. We have been injecting every Dauntless throughout the day, and I assume all other factions will comply as soon as possible.”

“All right,” She says, giving in. Eric approaches her then with the needle in hand and she swiftly moves her hair away from her neck. I don’t watch Eric inject her. No. Instead, I find myself staring at her face. She’s so calm that I don’t even notice when the needle enters or when it exits. But suddenly there’s a bandage on the side of her neck and Eric is speaking again.

“The banquet is in two hours. Your ranking among the other initiates, Dauntless-born included, will be announced then. Good luck.” He says with false enthusiasm.