Chapter 31:

Tris' Perspective

    I walk into the bedroom, and close the door behind me. Tobias is laying on the bed. "How are you taking this?" I say. "I don't really know. I kind of had to process it before I fully understood what happened." he says. "It's okay, my Dad reacted the same way." I say.

He looks at me. "Yeah, but just a half hour ago I was chasing her in the Pit, and giving her a tickle attack, and now she's started her period. It's like she's growing up way too fast." he says. I'm still in a towel, but I sit down at the foot of the bed anyways.

     "Of course she is. She's 12 years old now. It's not like she'd stay a little girl forever." I say. He sighs. "I know, but I miss it when she was a little girl." he says. I take his hand. "I do too, but now she's older. She'll always be your little girl." I say.

He smiles and sits up. I know that he's probably gonna kiss me, so I get up. I need to get clothes on.  I walk over to the dresser, and pull out a pair of underwear and a t shirt.  I set the towel on the bed, and slip into my underwear. I glance over at Tobias who is still staring at the ceiling.

    "Just stop thinking about it. You won't even notice when she gets it again." I say. I slip on my t shirt. He sits up. I walk over to him, and sit on his lap, facing him. "It'll be okay." I say. I place a kiss on his lips, and he kisses back. I pull away. I get off his lap, and walk into the kitchen.

    "Mom, what's for dinner?" says Natalie, from the couch. "Chicken fried rice." I say. "Mmmm." she says.

Tobias' Perspective

    I get up from the bed and walk into the living room. Natalie is watching a movie on the couch, drinking chocolate milk. "I'm gonna go over to Zeke's. I'll be back before dinner." I say.

    "Okay, hurry back. Or we're gonna eat all the cake." says Tris. I laugh. I grab my jacket, and keys from the table next to the door. I put the jacket across my shoulder and stuff my keys in my pocket. I feel around for my wallet, and feel it in my back left pocket.

I open the door and walk down the hall. I don't know why, all of a sudden, I decided to go to Zeke's house. I guess we need some man to man talk or something like that. I walk down the stairs, carefully eyeing the cameras in the corner. I still don't know why they still keep cameras here. Not many people live here anyways.

What's funny is that there are still small shops all over the place. About 30 other people live in the Dauntless compound. I hop off the last step, and walk into the Pit. It's so empty and lonely. A lot of people decided to live in Abnegation houses a couple years after the attack. I get to the Chasm railing and start to jog across, remembering what time the train gets here. It's 3:49.

The train gets here in one minute. I start to run towards the door, and push it open once I get to it. I see the train, and bolt towards it. I run beside it, and grab a handle. I pull myself in, and land on my feet. I sit in the corner, my legs in front of me. I'm only gonna be there for about a half hour, then go to the safe house to get our phones and the car.

Zeke lives near the fence, and I'm a little ways from him. Shane's birthday is on Friday, and today is Wednesday. Tris, Natalie, and I need to go get him a present. I don't know exactly what Zeke and I are gonna talk about when we get there. But I'm sure he's gonna find some weird topic. I see the fence from the door, and I stand up, ready to jump.

I wait a couple more seconds, and run. I jump off, and land in the grass. I landed on my feet. I see Zeke's house just about a hundred yards away. I run through the grass, avoiding patches of thorny vines. Where did those come from? My jacket is gripped tight in my hands, and is swinging in the wind. I hear a squish, and look down. Dog crap.

Zeke's dog, Lindsey probably did this. I sigh, and wipe it in the grass. "Four!" I hear Zeke yell. I look up, and see him waving at me, and Lindsey running to me with her tongue flying out of her mouth. Zeke is tumbling around. She jumps up on me, licking my face.

I press my lips together. Lindsey is a Labrador retriever. I start to walk to Zeke, and Lindsey runs back to him. Once we're close enough, he looks at me with a questioned look. "What are you doing here?" he says. I am panting.

    "I.....neehd....to talk....to youhh." I say. He nods. I follow him to the porch, and see Shauna standing in the door way, a bottle in her hands. She takes a sip. "Hey." she says. "Hey." I say. I'm assuming Shane's not here considering Shauna's drinking.

She moves away from the door way, and we walk in. I sit on the couch, and Zeke walks into the kitchen. He pulls open the fridge, and takes a bottle out. Much like the one Shauna had. "Want one?" he says not looking away.

    "No." I say. Normally I'd have one, but I'm about to have to drive, and don't want to show up at home drunk. Tris would kill me. He walks over to me, and sits across from me on the other couch. He puts two beers on the table, and pops one open. "So, what's up man?" he says. I set the jacket next to me.

    "Nothing. I just wanted to come over." I say. "You got Tris pregnant on accident, didn't you?" he says. "No!" I shout. "Oh! You gave her an STD." he yells, 'Oh!' and whispers the other part. "GOSH, NO!" I yell. "We didn't even have sex." I say. He snickers.

    "Sorry, I had a couple before you came." he says. "I can tell." I say. "You just wanted to talk?" he says. I nod, and look into his bloodshot eyes. His hair is super crazy, and flying in all directions. "I don't think we killed all those masked freaks." I say.

    "What?" he says. I should have known better than to try and have a serious conversation with drunk Zeke. "Never mind." I say. "Alright." he says, his speech slurred. Shauna walks in, and plops down next to Zeke. "So, what has he said?" she says, setting the bottle down.

    "Oh, not much except for suspecting I got Tris pregnant on accident, and gave her an STD." I say. Zeke laughs. "Yeesh. Sorry. He usually doesn't say stuff like that." she says. She's clearly trying to make me feel better about what he said, but the problem is Zeke does act like this when he's drunk.

I look at my watch, and see that it's 4:16. "Um, I have to go pick something up. Thanks for the talk Zeke, bye Shauna." I say and stand up. I hear Zeke throw up, and Shauna yelling. I'm glad I got out. I shut the door. I walk on the sidewalk towards the train tracks.

The train doesn't get here until 4:30. Tris usually finishes cooking dinner around six. I look ay my watch. 4:17. Now I have to wait eighteen minutes. 

Natalie's Perspective

    "Wait, so like this?" I say. I hold the carrot on the cutting board, and start to chop it into small pieces. Mom watches me. "Yep, you're doing great." she says.

She puts some chicken in the oven, and shuts the door to the oven. She stirs the rice. "How many carrots do I chop?" I say. "How many have you already done?" she says, putting peas on the stove.

    "Uh, one." I say. "Do 1 more." she says. I walk over ot the fridge, and pull out a carrot. Mom and I went to go grocery shopping a couple weeks ago, and she bought them. I set it down on the cutting board, and start to cut it. I feel the carrot juice dripping down my fingers.

I get to the end, and scoop them into my hand. I dump it into a bowl, and put the knife in the sink. "Stir the peas for me." Mom says. I walk over to the stove top, and take the spoon. I stir the peas, and set the spoon down. I wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead, and walk over to the couch.

I take a sip of my chocolate milk, which is almost gone. "Where'd you go?" Mom says. "Taking a break." I say, setting the empty glass on the coffee table. "Well hurry back, I need you to cut the chicken." she says.

    "Got it." I say. I'm surprised that Dad's not back yet. He left at about three thirty, and it's almost four thirty. I wish I had my phone. "Come on!" she says. I groan, and get up. I'm barefoot, and the soft carpet tickles my toes.

She's taking the chicken from the oven, and sets it down on the counter. She leaves it there for me, and I grab a knife. I go to grab it, but it's too hot. What the heck? I am fire, and chicken is burning me? What the.....I ignore my ridiculous thoughts, and just start cutting it in the pan. After I'm finished I scrape it into a bowl.I get very bored, very easily and right now I am bored out of my mind.

    "Mom, can I go in my room?" I say, setting the knife down. She sighs, and then eventually nods. I walk out of the kitchen, and into my room. I honestly don't know what I'm gonna do in my room, but I usually do something pretty stupid. I throw myself on my blue and black comforter on my bed.

Should I go to Mariah's house and hang out? That sounds like a good idea. But I'm too lazy to get up. "Mom!!!!" I yell. "What?" She says. "Can i go to Mariah's house?" I say. "No, dinner's gonna be ready pretty soon." she says. I groan.

I've been bored like this before, but considering on what's been happening in the past few weeks I've gotten used to running, crying, shooting, and escaping constantly. I expect it to have to happen any minute. But it doesn't come. I sit up in my bed, and stare at my hands. I light them, and watch the flames flick back and forth.

I am praying to God that I don't accidentally light my bed sheets on fire. I then hear a tapping, and stop my lighting. What in the heck is that? I listen for a couple more seconds, and realize that it's coming from my window. My window that is fifty feet in the air. I walk over to my window, and push the curtains back.

I almost scream at the sight before me. A body hanging from the window sill above me, with a rope tied around her neck. She is clearly dead. I recognize it as a woman.

Her eyes are open and blank. He skin is pale, and bruised badly. There is dried blood on the corners of her mouth, and her hair is almost completely ripped out. Her face is smashed against my window, so her nose is pressed into the glass pane. There is deep gashes on the area where the rope is, and blood is spattered across my window. I cover my mouth to keep from throwing up on my carpet.

    "MOM!!!!!!!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "What's wrong?!" I hear her yell. I hear her footsteps coming fast towards my room, and I realize that I am shaking. She slams the door open and screams. She runs over to me, and pulls me from my window.

I stare at the face, and she yanks the curtains shut. I am staring blankly at the ground, and rocking back and forth. Mom wraps me in her arms mumbling 'Tobias' repeatedly.

I don't know why I am so phased by this. I have seen dead bodies before. Maybe it's the fact that it's outside my window.

Who is that woman? Who killed her? Why was she killed? All of the questions race through my mind at once but one petrifying question remains: How did the killer know this was my window?

Cliff hanger! DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!! I made it super boring at the part where she was cooking just to see if you guys would keep reading! Glad you did! Can any one guess who the woman was? First one to guess right, the next chapter will be dedicated to you! This one is a little bit harder than the one where Natalie ran into someone outside of the hospital with Uriah! I'll let you know if you got it right or not! Love you guys!!! Don't forget to vote and comment! :)