To Be Factionless- A DIVERGENT Story

Chapter One - THE CHOICE

"You did this to our son! You doomed him!" Marcus- my husband, the greatest mistake of my life- raises his belt. I told myself that I would be strong, but now I cannot channel the courage I felt before. I shiver, and scream quietly as the belt hits my skin. I would cry, but Tobias, upstairs, might hear me.

And so I scream inwardly.

The hits come repeatedly. I see him stop, suddenly. I hold a breath, the pain slowly clearing from my mind. I see him smooth his hair down. The respectable council leader, once again.

"Get out of my sight," he hisses. I cower and squat-run towards my room. I moved out two years ago. I scuttle, keeping close to the wall.

I am not the perfect Abnegation wife. I look around before sliding my wall upwards.
It conceals a chest filled with unnecessary things, but hold meaning to me:

The paper that held my Abnegation result from my Aptitude Test when I was sixteen. I now wish I had chosen something else. Amity, maybe? No one would result to violebce there, but I did not know that Abnegation would hold violence too...

A glass scupture that my Erudite brother had given me the day I earned the right to speak at the table. It is blue, and shimmers in the light. I touch it lightly, and sigh. The Erudite hate the Abnegation. That was actually the last time I saw my brother. Keeping those small artifects were a breach of faction rules, making me an Abnegation traitor. I stayed true to the rules, until I married him. But if I was a faction traitor, so was he.

And he more so.

A little scrap of a notebook that I wrote when I was ten to help the littlies. I pick it up, thinking of how innocent I was.

And a knife. I hated violence, but sometimes I see myself using a knife amd slitting Marcus' throat with ease while he snores in his bed. I shudder, revolted at the thought. But I can't help as see that as an option. I sigh and sink down on my bed.

● єνєℓуи: тнє ¢нσι¢є ●

I hear Tobias scream and I want to scream myself, want to go and help, but I am helpless. And a coward. If I go out, I might be hit by the belt again.

I hear Tobias' heavy feet run up the stairs, patter on the carpet, and his quiet sobs. Then he quickly shuts the door. My heart wrenches.

I make a quick decision to rebel.

I take the glass scupture from my wall and creep to his room.
Below me, in the living room, Marcus switches off the kitchen lights. I shiver again and try to open the door.
It is locked. Tobias is that afraid of his father. He should be.

I knock quietly, our secret knock. Once, thrice, twice.

The door opens slightly. My eight-year old son's face stares back at me. It is streaked with tears. I brush aside a stray piece of hair gently. I am his family.

He smiles weakly and brushes his face away. He nods at me and I walk in. His room is a perfect Abnegation room, and I feel a pang. I am about to lead his in the first step to become a faction traitor.

For a while, we sit together and suffer. Then I lift my hand and give him the glass sculpture.

"What does it do?" He asks, looking at his feet.

"Tobias. Look at me," I say, tilting his chin upwards. His dark blue eyes, so like his father's and yet not, more kind, shine back at me.

"It doesn't need to serve any purpose. No, don't look at me like that. It just... is pretty, I guess."

I wonder, for a moment, if I am doing the right thing, teaching him to slightly rebel against his Abnegation nature. Then I catch sight of his left arm, a masterpiece of red lines and welts, and grit my teeth. I am doing the right thing.

I know I am.

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A/N: Okay, so...If you want me to read your story, but are too shy to say so to me, or you want me to advertise-ish your story up here, like shadowghostnatalya, just vote for this chapter. I can see who votes, and then I'll check you, and your story, out.