Five

The Fairy

Before the sun sets, me and tobias take food from cupboards and the refrigerator; 3 dinner rolls, raw carrots still with the greens, a chunk of cheese, And two apples, leftover chicken without seasoning. The food in abnegation tastes the same, like dust. It is mostly dry so it is like eating cardboard but I'm use it.

We slip into the chairs at the table, the food on a plate between us. We are use to sharing everything, especially food. Tobias keeps his eyes on the door and I understand why. We don't want to be caught here by father's coworkers. He wouldn't like it if we were still down here when they arrived. He would probably punish us and I couldn't afford that when the punishment I received for being here when his coworkers were last time is still painful and sore.

We finish with a glass of water each when the first council members approach the doorstep. Tobias grabs my left hand, my right still with a glass of water for tonight. Mother would always leave a glass of water by my bed side at night because father got angry if I snook down in the middle of the night and woke him up going down the stairs.

Tobias drags we through the front room before father reaches the door. He waits, hand on the door knob and eyebrows raised at us as we race up the stairs. Once we are from view, he opens the door, letting the guests in. Father hates it when we are around his guests or coworkers.

"Hello Marcus." I know the voice, I've heard it multiple times before. Andrew prior. He is one of my father's closest coworkers at work. I would say friend, but that means nothing when it comes to my father, no one knows my father. Not even me or tobias. Sometimes I wonder if mother even knew him.

We peer down to look at Andrew, me crouched around the corner, my head just popping around as tobias stands. I've seen him and his family around the faction. The perfect abnegation family. Andrew and Natalie with their children, A son and a daughter. They are both a year younger then me at school but they are not twins. The family always walks down the sidewalk in sink, bobbing their heads at people who pass them with a smile. The children I have seen around school. They seem perfect for the abnegation life, the perfect future members. Beatrice and Caleb I think. Honestly, Caleb is pretty good looking, especially with his selfless personality and from what I have seen, he would make any girl happy.

Suddenly, Andrew looks in our direction, his eyes on us. We quickly duck away and rush into our own bedrooms, closing the door behind us. A sigh escapes my lips as I rest my head against my door. My room is as clean and plain as any other bed room in abnegation. My grey sheets and blankets are tucked tightly around a thin mattress, and my school books are stacked in a tower on my plywood desk. A smaller dresser that contains several identical sets of clothing stands next to the small window, which let's in only a little light through in the mornings. Through the window, I can only see the house next door, identical to this one but five feet to the west.

I wonder what tobias is going to do at the choosing ceremony tomorrow. I know he wants to leave abnegation even though it's the safest, most knowable faction to him. And it has me here, even though next year I will be choosing. Something in me wants him to choose abnegation, to choose the familiar easy life. But I want him to choose a different faction, to escape here so I can follow. Even though that means to leave Marcus without any children.

I make my way to my bed. Then I slip my hand under the pillow and grasp the cold metal. My mother gave me it, a small metal fairy sitting on a metal rock. The only color is the color of the metal but the detail makes up for it. She came into my room, touched her fingers to her lips and set the fairy on the dresser. I was in awe at the 4 inch sculpture.

"What does it do?" I asked her and she smiles, but the smile was tight.

"It doesn't do anything obvious." She said as she took my hand in hers. "But it will look over you at night as long as you sleep with it under your pillow. A fairy will always look after another fairy." I frowned at her response and she chuckled slightly at my face. "Faye, that names mean fairy. Something sweet, kind and beautiful."

I run my finger tips over the metal, still as shiny and smooth as the day she gave it to me. When I showed it tobias the day after, he smiled and showed me a glass feature mother gave him. It looked like a falling tear, clear, polished and flawless. Since then, he would collect stuff and that others would call useless; fragments and discarded things, rusted knife blades. Sometimes I would help him and he would put it in a case that mother told father contained blankets. When she lied, I knew she didn't want anyone to know. A knock on my door pulls me from my thoughts and my heart drops. Quickly, I slip the fairy in my pocket and place a smile on my face.

"Come in." I call and the door opens. When tobias walks in, I noticeably relax, pulling the fairy from my pocket. He smiles at the metal before beckoning me to follow him. I oblige and walk into his room, seeing all his precious little things scattered around the bed. I don't know if mother called them beautiful or would say they look over us as we slept, I don't know if me or tobias would call them beautiful, but they all struck us the same way as the sculptures did, as secret things, valuable ones, if only because they were so overlooked.

Once I walk in, he closes the door, slipping a chair under the handle as if he doesn't what anyone to intrude. We lie down on his bed, side by side, shoulders touching as we examine all the things we have collected over the years. None of us talked, we didn't have to as we would show each other, smiling. It was a moment of peace in which we could mentally understand what the other was saying without words. I don't know when, but I fell asleep, my fairy captured in my hand, close to my heart and my head resting on tobias's shoulder as his arm is wrapped around my body.

I wake to the feeling of someone shaking me. My eyes open to see tobias looking into thrm.

"Father." With that one word I notice the slowing footsteps outside the room. We quickly grab all of our found things and put them in the case before he locks it with a key. As he puts the key in his pocket, I put the case under the bed. As the footsteps stop, I notice the glass water is still on the mattress, so I quickly slip it under the pillow as the door knob begins to turn. Tobias dives for the chair, removing it so father can enter as I glance to the pillow and then back to the door.