Burn Bright (Sequel To Bare Hands)

Pace

Ever since Tris and her accomplices were imprisoned Evelyn has kept me under close watch. She must think I'm going to do something crazy like break them out, which isn't far from what I might do depending on what she plans to do with them.

Although we know that she actually did us a huge favor, Evelyn has it in her sights to lead and she can't do that if all of her citizens go beyond the wall.

She's had it closed off and closely monitored ever since we saw the video to deter people from leaving. I don't want to think about what she must do to people that somehow evade the guards but don't get to the other side in time.

I imagine it isn't pretty.

Her new goal is to destroy the factions and to have us all just live as one society, and I can't say that it might not help us. After all, we've had the faction system since before I was born and look how it turned out? I no longer think categorizing people is the way to go.

But at the same time I don't think Evelyn is a good choice for leadership.

She relishes the idea of people being under her control. Power is what she craves more than anything and I'm afraid that eliminating the factions is more to show her reign over everyone rather than to help us.

And that is the only thing stopping me from breaking Tris out right now - I have to find out what she's planning on doing to the city once the factions are gone, because a lot of it's citizens are becoming restless and anxious to see what's beyond the wall. There are so many of them that if they all decided to raid it to get through, they'd win for sure.

A snap in front of my face yanks me from my thoughts.

"Tobias you've seemed awfully distant lately." She says, and I cringe just slightly at my name coming out of her mouth. The only person I feel comfortable with calling me by it is Tris. "Is there something on your mind?"

"Mainly just Marcus and where he'll end up." I say, hopefully convincing her. She doesn't do much more than straddle the line when it comes to my issues with Marcus. She knows what she did. Which is precisely why I say something along those lines any time I think she's becoming suspicious of me.

"Oh..well he's going to have a trial along with the rest of the traitors and most likely be sentenced to death just like the others. What he did was despicable and the citizens won't feel anything for him and therefore be more inclined to vote for his demise."

As much as I relish the idea of Marcus finally getting justice, it irks me that she feels that what he did was despicable when she left me alone with him. Sounds like they're evenly matched to me.

"Great." I say, smirking. She smirks back and probably figures that it means I'm on board with it without any second thought.

"Have you and Tris broken up yet?" She asks.

I resist the urge to wince at the assumption. "No actually, but this would most likely be the best time for it. There's no use waiting until she's on trial. Who knows what could happen from then on."

She smiles a strained smile and nods. "Sure. Just try to hurry."

I walk down the winding hallways of Erudite remembering my very torturous stay here and then the near depression that followed when I couldn't get Tris out when I wanted to. Of all of the things they did to me that I recovered from psychically but not mentally.

They were able to break me down here, using the person I love most.

I hate this place.

It's not as clean as I remember it and the smell of alcohol is nearly gone now. In they're places are smells of gunpowder and fire from areas where explosions went of from Dauntless's attack.