Convergent

Chapter 11

"Lizzie, Lizzie wake up." Olivia shook me and my eyes flew open, assuming something was wrong.

"What? What's wrong?" I sat up quickly and looked around, the room was fairly empty. It took me a second to remember that half of us had been kicked out. But Olivia and I were in the room accompanied by that Asher kid who was getting ready for the day.

"Nothing, it's visitor's day, remember?" She started throwing clothes at me.

"I won't have any visitors. You know who my father is." I take the clothes and stand up to start getting dressed.

"Well maybe your brother will play a visitor and you can go spend time with him and his girlfriend." She smiles softly at me; I could tell she pitied me knowing that I was basically an orphan.

"I doubt that. But I might go look for him." I get dressed and run a hand through my hair in an attempt to smooth it out, "I haven't gotten a lot of time to hang out with Tris."

"See? Look, already a better day than you thought. Let's go get breakfast." She grabs my hand and drags me out of the room and to the cafeteria. However when we got there it was a chaotic mess of initiates and their families.

"Really? In here? Is anything sacred? I just want to eat my pancakes in peace!" I sigh and shake my head.

"Sorry Lizzie, I didn't think they would start this early- hey! It's my mom!" Her face breaks out into a smile. "I'll talk to you later Lizzie!" She ran off into her parent's arms. I sat down at an empty table in a corner and began stuffing my face with breakfast.

"Hey kiddo." My brother smiled at me and sat down. "Save some for me!" he laughs and steals my plate, a common thing he did at home when Marcus wasn't around. I smiled and hugged him tightly, hopefully today he can be Tobias, my big brother, and not Four, Dauntless initiation leader.

"Get your own!" I let him go and take my plate back from him and he ruffles my hair, just like old times, God I missed this.

"Figured today would be a good day to actually be your brother, people are so wrapped up with their own families." He nods and grabs a plate for himself.

"That sounds good. I miss my brother, not the drill sergeant I've had to deal with all week." We both share a grin and he shakes his head.

"You're doing a good job though. I'm very impressed." He takes a bite of his food.

"Thanks. I'm trying my hardest." I finish my pancake.

"Elizabeth, Tobias." I froze at the sound of that voice. The one that haunts my dreams at night and the source of all my anger. My father. Tobias had clenched his fist hearing our father speak. Marcus just walked to the other side of the table and sat down.

"What are you doing here?" I asked rather rudely. I felt Tobias' knee hit mine from under the table. A sign for me to play nice, we didn't need to make a scene.

"Can't I visit my daughter? It's visitor's day after all." Marcus ignores Tobias again.

"You didn't visit Tobias when he left." I answered back. Tobias looked angry, like he could blow up any minute.

"That's different." He replies curtly.

"No its not. I was still your son and you treated me like shit. Just like you did Lizzie. You're probably here to get some good press for the newspapers to hide the abuse allegations!" Tobias spoke angrily. Marcus' nostrils flared in anger, if the two of us were still in abnegation, we would be dead now.

"Tobias, go calm down, I'll go look for you later." I pushed my brother away before he did something drastic. Thankfully Tobias did leave.

"Why are you here Dad. You hate me now, just like you hate him. There's no one at home for you to hurt." I ask him again.

"I didn't hurt you. I disciplined you, That's what parents do." He said through clenched teeth.

"No, Discipline is when you kept me from going outside as a child for breaking a lamp or taking away toys for a period of time. What you did was abuse, you took out your frustration out on us. Discipline doesn't leave scars." I spoke firmly to him. He didn't have a hold on me anymore.

"I didn't leave scars." He tells me. God I hated this man. I showed him my wrists, cut and scared from his lashings.

"I became afraid of you. Of what mood you would be in after work. After my brother left it got worse. You weren't the same dad I knew. You weren't the dad I Ioved, the one who held me when I cried, The one who used to play little kid games with me. You stopped being the man I looked up to, When mom died, yeah you were still my father for a little while, then you snapped. Everything changed after that. Mom's death was hard on everyone, not just you." I started to stand up to leave, I had enough of him.

"Elizabeth sit down." He looked up at me. He had a different look in his eyes. I think I finally broke him.

"Why? So you can accuse me of more things and hurt me? No thanks. I'm not your daughter anymore.

"Elizabeth!" He says a little louder, I heard his voice crack. With that, I slowly start to sit down.

"What?" I asked him a little more calmly. Wanting to know his change of heart.

"Your brother and you, you're special. I can tell. People will go after you both and kill you. I thought I could get rid of it, or at least stop one part from growing.

"Personalities can't be changed dad. The only thing that can be changed is how people react to things. Do you see why Tobias and I hate you? How we have to put up this wall to protect ourselves from you. We have built up this hatred for you, dad, no matter what you do. That animosity will still be there after the way you treated us the last ten years." I told him, it felt great to get this all off my chest. Though I really did seem to break him. His face changed, he looked like he did when Mom died.

"Elizabeth..." He started but I didn't want to hear him. I didn't want to hear his apology, it meant nothing to me, it wouldn't make these last few years any better. Despite being a Daddy's girl as a child, I could no longer find any love for the man.

"No, I don't want to hear it Dad. It's over. I'm not going to let you ruin my life anymore. I'm not your little girl anymore, you can't just apologize and expect everything to be okay. I'm happy here, let me go." I looked at him one more time before getting up and swiftly leaving him behind. I went in search of my brother.

I wondered around the hallways of the apartment part of dauntless trying to remember what door was Tobias'. I must have been wandering around for ten minutes before I ran into Tris.

"Hey Tris!" I called and ran over to her. She turned around and smiled at me.

"Hey Lizzie, have you seen your brother?" She asked as she gave me a hug.

"I'm looking for him now. I saw him earlier today...our father showed up and I made Tobias leave before a scene could start." I hugged her back and joined her in the search for my brother.

"Marcus showed up? Why?" She asks me as we walk around shops in dauntless

"To see me, I just don't know what he really wanted. I wouldn't let him explain. I hate him, I told him off which seemed to break him, but I didn't want to hear what he had to say. He would probably try to make me feel guilty for leaving. I had to get out of there Tris. I couldn't bare the pain anymore. I needed to get out of abnegation." I started to get worked up. Tris stopped walking and wrapped me into another hug. From there I just couldn't hold it. I started crying, all the emotion I held back towards my father all came out. I cried and cried, years of hell on earth, all the pain and suffering he caused were now over. I felt another pair of arms wrap around me. I looked up and saw Tobias.

"He won't hurt you again Lizzie, you're safehere with Tris and me. He doesn't have that grip on you anymore." He tells me,Tris lets go of me so Tobias and I can have a sibling moment. I just stayed inmy brother's arms for a while. Hoping this last week of initiation goes well soTobias, Tris and I can be a family.