Divergent: The Unknown Girl

Chapter 3: Secret Door

Tobias POV

I couldn't concentrate at school, I didn't hear or learn a single thing today. All I could hear was that scream over and over again in my mind, she got her punishment because of me. How can I live with myself knowing that she got seriously hurt because she stood up to my father?

I need to find her, I need to make sure that she is alive at the least. I now totally understand what she meant by 'it killed me to hear you in pain' hearing her scream in pain killed me, it made my heart stop for a millisecond before making it race with fear, regret, pain, hope. Please don't die, please don't die. I find myself thinking.

I realise I am at my front door, I pray that my father isn't home so that I can search for this basement. I open the door and walk inside. I look around the house is silent. I walk to the kitchen and see a note out on the counter.

Tobias,

I have had to go to deal with some business, I do not know when I will be back. I have made you some food so that you just need to heat up.

Do not forget to do your homework.

Father

I smile, I start in the kitchen, and I look down at the floor for a hatch or anything. Please be ok, I will get to you, I will find you, I will tend to your wounds just like you tended to mine. I move onto my hands and knees crawling around, I look at the corners to see if it looks like anything seemed to lift up or if anything was out of place but nothing was. How can nothing be out of place?

I start knocking on walls to see if anything sounded hollow like a secret passage but in the kitchen there was nothing. Damn it! Why? Why would she live in our basement? Is she a relative? Is she my sister? I mean mother goes missing and suddenly I find out there is an 11 year old girl in our basement. It would all make more sense.

I walk towards the living room doing the same as in the kitchen kneeling on the floor crawling around looking for anything that will give anything away. I sigh deeply when I find nothing. I sit on the floor for a moment.

It would explain why she saved me, it would explain everything, she knows me and she loves me. She hears everything, she has heard my cries for all these years, she knows about my 5 whips, and she knew he was losing control. She saved me from him. I sigh again before standing up knocking on the walls in the living room, everything was solid, no section of the wall was silent.

This is ridiculous, where would there be a secret door? Why would there even be one in the first place? No abnegation home has a basement so why the hell does my father? I slide to the floor and decide to just talk, hopefully she will hear, maybe she will even reply or give me some clue to tell me she is alone.

"Hello? I just wanted to thank you for saving me yesterday, I'm sorry I didn't hear your name." I sit silent for a few minute to silence, there wasn't even movement anywhere, I begin to worry that he killed her. That he got rid of her for interfering.

I decide to continue talking hoping she would give me something, "If you knew that you were going to get punished you shouldn't have helped me. I mean don't get me wrong I am extremely grateful for it, but I heard your scream this morning. What happened? What did he do?" 

I am met with silence once again, I sigh frustrated and I punch the wall, I put my head in my hands, I am the reason that she is dead, I am weak, if I didn't scream then she wouldn't have come to save me she would alive right now, she would be answering me.

"I am so sorry that you saving me cost your life." I say out loud. Then there is noise below me, a thud and a muffled yelp. I let relief flood over me, she is alive.