Tris POV
I get out of my new Blue Porsche and skip into school. I turned 16 in November and got my license, but that's not why I'm excited. I'm excited because today Four promised to take me into his fear landscape.
I see Principal Eaton, Amar, Four, and other teachers greeting. I wave at Principal Eaton and he smiles back. Four is so lucky to have a dad like him, he must be like a mother and a father cause Mrs. Eaton died a while ago.
I walk up to Four and grin, he looks really nervous.
"Good morning Mr. Eaton," I smile which kinda calms him.
"Good morning Miss Prior," he smirks and I walk in leaving him to greet more people. I hope no girls try to flirt with him, who am I kidding EVERY girl will flirt with him. I scowl and walk to my first class.
+ + +
The bell rings signaling the end of lunch. I hop up and notice Four does to and we watch each other out of the corners of our eyes. Once we reach the hallway we head for the north side of school. After about 7 minutes of walking we get there. We take the elevator to the top floor and it's a glass room. From here we can see the entire city of Chicago, DH being in the middle of the city and everything.
"Tris," Four's voice knocks me out of my gaze.
"You ready?" He asks and I nod suddenly nervous. He presses the three inch needle into my skin and does the same to himself. He sits on the chair and I lay on him as the scenery slowly changes.
I stand up and we're on a rod that's on top of a skyscraper. Four's breathing is very irregular. He looks up and grips the pole till his hands are white.
"Four, we have to jump," I say coolly. He looks down and for a second I think he might faint.
"Alright," his voice is shaky and so are his hands. He slowly stands and I follow. He closes his eyes and I take his hand. He looks at our intertwined hands and it looks like he's getting strength. We bend our knees and jump.
We fly through the air like a diving bird. The ground gets closer and Four's grip gets tighter, never letting go of me. The impact of the ground is sudden but painless. Before I can ask what's next a wall comes crashing in on our backs.
I wince in pain and realize the box we're in. It creaks as it rapidly gets smaller. Four's eyes widen and I feel his heartbeat through my shirt.
"Four," I say trying to calm him. It doesn't work, in fact I think it makes it worse.
"Four listen to me, we have to make it smaller," I say holding his face. He nods and crouches down and soon I find myself on his lap with one leg wrapped under me and another folded next to me.
I wrap his arms around me for a more comfortable position. I feel his warmth radiating off of him as he buries his head in my neck.
"Where..." I start, "Where did you develop this fear?" I ask, I didn't know if you were born being claustrophobic or if something made you that way.
"Tiny closet upstairs," he gasps, "punishment."
Why would he be put in a tiny closet for punishment?
"We have a closet for all our coats," I say trying to lighten the mood.
"I really don't want to talk about it," he breathes.
"You know most guys would like to be in close quarters with a girl," I say.
"Not claustrophobic people Tris!" He gasps.
"Try and steady your breathing," I say while putting his hand on my heart.
"Tris? Why is your heart beating so fast?" He asks and thus time my breathing becomes irregular.
"It's, um, not everyday I'm crushed against a guy..." I say.
"Maybe you are a little bit candor," Four says, "Cause you're a horrible liar."
Right when he says that the walls break and I'm left cold without Four's touch. The room we're in next is black with a dim red glow. It's large but there are no lights except the red ones above us so I can't see how large.
I look around the room to see Four standing with a gun.
"This isn't so bad," he mumbles, "You know, once I found out what to do."
In a chair sits one of his sisters, I can't identify which one though, it looks like a combination, and Amar stands with his arms crossed over his chest behind them.
"Killing your family?" I ask.
"Murder," a simple word that gives anyone chills. He raises the gun but instead of shooting Amar or his sisters he puts it to his head takes a shaky breathe and fires.
"Four!" I shout but instead of him falling to the ground the world spins.
One more fear. I can't help but wonder what the mighty Four's worst nightmare would be. The worst fear is always your last. But it kind of eliminated my options so far. Fear of heights you can't help but be born with, claustrophobia was apparently childhood punishment, and killing of the innocent is one I excepted from Four.
More questions flood into my mind as we appear in Four's room, except this time there's nothing in it, no bed, no closet, no bathroom. The only this is Four and I. That's when I notice the person lying dead on the floor, and the other person kneeling over them.
I watch as the person slowly stands giving me a clear view of the dying person on the ground. It was Evelyn. Four's mom, her skin was blue and blood was dripping from her mouth as her eyes lay half open.
I glance at Four to see him sweating and staring at the figure standing. The figure looked so familiar in his senate uniform. Then he slowly turns, eyes as pits, mouth sown on his face. There's blood on his face, except it's not his blood, it's hers. Marcus killed Evelyn.
He killed his wife.
"Tobias," his voice booms and echoes a thousand times making us surrounded by Marcus's.
"This is for your own good," he walks toward Four and lifts the belt ready to strike. I step in from and the belt hits me right across the face.
Four's eyes turn dark as he watches me fall to the floor from impact. I look up to see him punch him, knocking all the Marcus's down.
Soon the room turns back to the glass room we were in. He's the first to move and when he does he walks to the edge, opens a door and walks out. I follow and soon we're looking over the city.
"Aren't you afraid of heights?" I ask smiling a little.
"Yeah, sometimes you just have to act like the fear isn't there though," he comments.
"Why have you stayed? Why don't you run away?" I ask.
"He threatens me," a short answer but not what I'm looking for.
"What? He threatens your money cause Amar could have you out of the country with millions if you wanted."
"No," he looks down and off to the Ferris wheel, "he threatens my sisters, he said he'd kill them if I leave or tell anyone."
My heart stops, kill them?
"Kill his own daughters?"
"He abuses his son and... And killed his wife."
"So she was murdered, just not by a gang?"
"Yeah."
A heavy silence settles on us. I try to take it in but I can't. All of it is to much, I feel like my whole life is a lie, the man I've been taught to trust is a murderer.
"Why aren't you looking at me that way?" Four asks.
"What way?"
"Like I'm some kicked puppy," his voice is strained, almost like he's mad.
"You're not, you're protecting your family."
Silence falls again and I want nothing more than to break it.
"Why did your dad let you get a tattoo then? Would he... hurt you more?" I question.
"I got a tattoo cause it covered up the scars, so I could go to the beach without the paparazzi asking me what happened," I totally forgot about Marcus's reputation in the city, he was head of the senate and didn't even know how to take care of his own son.
"But if you look closely you can see them, it's worse in the winter cause he doesn't hold back, he knows I won't be shirtless so..." He doesn't have to finish.
"Can I see?" I ask kind of surprising myself.
"The scars?" He sighs and thinks.
"Some are a little fresh," he says but nonetheless slides his shirt off, his back to me.
I want to throw up. I want to erase this image from my head. His back doesn't look human. Scars cover his whole back, but so does his tattoo. I get what he meant by fresh. One that's really obvious is going across his back like a sash, it's a half an inch deep and the skin is still tender.
"Mrs. Pedred fixed me up yesterday, so I should be a little better," he comments turning around.
"Yesterday?"
"Yeah, I guess he didn't want school to start so he let it out on me."
I don't know what I was thinking but I knew it wasn't a pity kiss. I kissed him because I wanted to share his burden. Somehow. I didn't know why a kiss would make that happen.
But our lips moved in sync as my hands shook like crazy.
"Beatrice Prior?" He says when he pulls back.
"Yes Tobias Eaton," I whisper being careful not to touch his back.
"Thank you."