Prestigent

Prestigent (Chapter 1)

First off, thanks to Nikki Santos, who helped make this beautiful cover!!!!

This is my first solo book adding on to the final book of the Divergent series. Hope you like it! I do not own any of the characters in the Divergent series.

Oh, and be careful for the spoilers if you have not read Allegiant. There is a very BIG spoiler.

CHAPTER ONE

TOBIAS POV

After so many years, I still hold feeling for the bravest woman I have ever known. That blonde hair is still branded in my mind.

Tris.

That is a name I will never forget. No one else will ever get to live my fears. No one else will ever know who I am. Tobias will stay preserved for her. Everyone else will only know a fabrication of my true identity. They will only know Four.

I lie on the couch in the house that I used to share with my mother, thinking of my past. I don’t want to feel like this, but I also don’t want to lose her. I want to remember every day I spent with her, every hour. I want to hold her close to my heart, and never let go, but every coming day, I lose more and more of her. I have lost a part of myself.

                                                                  +++

Today is Choosing Day again, exactly one year from the day that we spread her ashes. I can’t believe that we did that. We did so many things that she resented. We confined her into a single, fragile object (one thing she definitely was not) and carried her off. I’m sure she would hate me for it.

She is, no, was not weak. I remember her telling me that after her parents’ death. It is the transition from is to was. It is belittled, it is nothing. But grief is not easy.

I walk outside, the hot sun pounding on my face. I walk south, down to the river, just for a change in scenery. For so long, all I have seen is concrete and the same old buildings over and over again, constantly reminding me of her. I walk until I can just see the slight curve of the Chicago River (which sounds strange to me, even now). For a while, I just sit there, the same routine, but in a different place.

“Hey,” I hear from behind me. I turn and realize that it is Christina, Tris’s best friend.

“Hey,” I answer. I have lost all originality, even for my own words.

“You seem pretty happy.” She comes over and sits down next to me, with our feet hanging over the edge of the river.

“Thanks for the compliment. I’m so happy, I could be Amity,” I remark. Soon, all memories of the factions will disappear. We will all try to assimilate back into the old way of life. All of those years of living with factions will be forgotten. You can still see, even now, the impact those five categories did to us: the shy Abnegation, the daredevil Dauntless, the loud-mouth Candor, the brainy Erudite, and the laid-back Amity.

“How is it now, though? I heard today was Choosing Day... so, 3 ½ years still hasn’t cut it, has it?”

"No, not really… I have lost her so many times. I don’t want to lose her again. I know it sounds dumb, considering she’s dead, but…”

“I know, but you have to realize that she is gone. You’re slumping around like a lazy bum. This isn’t what she would have wanted,” she says.

“No, I guess not.” For a moment, I look at Christina’s face and see Tris, her legs hanging over the chasm river. We sit in silence, waiting for one of us to break it.

“Can I ask you something?” I ask Christina.

“Sure I guess,” she replies.

“How long did it take you? You know, to let go…” I ask expectantly.

For a moment, when I look up, I see tears in her eyes, but she blinks them away quickly. “It took me about a year to finally let go, but sometimes I’m not sure I have… Does that mean I’m more Dauntless than you?” she smirks.

“Ha, ha, real funny,” I answer smiling. For a moment, I can see this as my life, just sitting here, talking about the past with my new best friend. Is this what Tris saw when she had plans for the future?

I will never know.