Fractured | Tobias Eaton ✓

26 | Kind of Freaking Out

I wake up when I hear Tris slip out of her bed and sneak out of the dorm. I sit up and stare at the closed door. My nosy nature beats my sleepiness as I dress quietly. I zip up Tammi's jacket and shove on my tennis shoes. I follow after her as she wanders down random halls.

"Psst! Tris!" I feel bad when she spins around, eyes wide with fear. "It's just me."

"What are you doing?" She asks and I roll my eyes at her.

"What are you doing? It's like–one in the morning." I hiss, wanting to go back to bed already.

She shrugs at me and it makes anger flare-up, I ignore it. "It smells like blood in there." I don't have to think about what she means. The dorm does have this lingering copper smell underneath all the bleach and antiseptic. It makes me gag when I think about it too much.

"Oh, yea, I get that." I scratch at my cap. "Wanna go to the gym?" I ask, pointing over my shoulder toward what I hoped was the gym.

"Tris?" I spin around, not afraid but curious, and see Uriah. "Oh hey, Rita. You guys okay?" He waves his friends on, they walk past us with strange looks on their faces.

Tris doesn't really answer, "Difficult night."

Uriah scratches the back of his neck, "Yea, I heard about that guy Edward." He looks back at the hall where his friends just were, "Want to get out of here?"

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"A sort of initiation ritual, come on. We have to hurry."

I look at Tris, she's the one who's got to say yes, I came out here to check on her anyway. She shrugs and I take that as a yes. It might be nice to get out of here.

A smile breaks out on Uriah's face, "The only initiates they usually let come are ones with older siblings in Dauntless, but they might not even notice. Just act like you belong." He says as we walk on either side of him.

"What exactly are we doing?" Wonders Tris. Good question.

I can see the excitement in his eyes, "Something dangerous." When we reach the others, the similarities between the different bundles of people makes me smile. I've always loved seeing families together. Picking on who got what from which parents and so on.

Some kid with a septum piercing looks Tris and I over with a nasty expression, "What are they doing here?"

"They both saw some guy get stabbed in the eye, Gabe. Give 'em a break." Uriah says, patting our shoulders with a smile.

Gabe turns away and nobody else asks us any questions. I sigh a little bit, the first stage of whatever we're doing is over.

Soon, we're following the rest of the group toward a pitch-black hallway. "I don't like this," I mumble and hear a few people laugh. I run into Tris and scowl when her elbow jabs into my stomach. "Ow."

"Sorry."

I can barely make out the shape of Uriah, "Back staircase, it's usually locked." That helps me when I almost knock my shin against the next stair. We walk for a few minutes before I see a door open and light floods in. It might be dark out, but the moon is full and casts white light all over the compound.

The train is rounding the corner when I walk through the door, I jog to keep up with everyone. Once we make it on the train, Tris and I sit on the floor of the car across from Uriah. "That's the smoothest it's ever gone for me!" I admit and Tris nods. The wind is loud with all the doors open.

"Where are we going?" She asks, having to shout for us to hear.

"Zeke never told me," He shrugs.

I lean toward him, "Who's that?"