Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
"This is not a negotiation. It is a warning."
                          
— Insurgent, page 299.
                          
Tobias asked me to spend the night with him.
                          
   We rarely spend the night into the other's apartment, but today it feels like we have to be together.
                          
   I don't know why, but I want to.
                          
   When Tobias and I were alone, we discussed how we would make Bobby come with us. Telling him something like: "Hey! You may be a threat and kill us, so why don't you go to the Erudite headquarters so they kill you instead" seemed too rude, so we came up with other plans. Kidnapping him would attract more attention than we need and tricking him into going to the headquarters himself would be really hard.
                          
   "We can't do this," I say while I collapse in Tobias's bed.
                          
   "Do you mean kidnapping him or—" He sits next to me.
                          
   "You know what I mean," I cut him off before he says what I don't want him to mention. "We should at least let him decide his fate."
                          
   "He is not like you. Candor-born initiates only care about themselves."
                          
   Tobias lies next to me. He draws his arms around me and buries his face in my short hair. He is exhausted, too, after all the stress this kid Bobby is giving us, and perhaps he slept little because of last night.
                          
   "What are we going to do?" I whisper.
                          
   "Well, somebody has to turn off the light first."
                          
   I laugh softly.
                          
   This is what I hate and love the most of Tobias: he always makes me smile in the worst moments and forget all my worries. That is often a relief, but mostly a nuisance.
                          
   "Turn off the lights, Tobias," I say and shake my back a little so he stands.
                          
   He does, and the room submerges in full darkness. It's a good think I am not afraid of the dark; here in Dauntless it would be a disadvantage. There are moments I feel secure in the dark as if the threats of my life will never find me while I'm hidden in the shadows.
                          
   Tobias sits back on the bed.
                          
   "I think kidnapping the kid will be fun," he says while lies down again next to me.
                          
   I hate they keep calling Bobby "the kid." It reminds me that I am turning in a sixteen-year-old boy to Jeanine.
                          
   "Are Zeke and Shauna going to help?" I ask. After all, they intruded in our conversation.
                          
   "You want them to?" He yawns.
                          
   I hesitate. "No."
                          
   "Then I guess we will do it by ourselves." His words tickle my nape.
                          
   "Okay."
                          
   In the moments before I drift off to sleep, I hear him whisper, "I trust you, Tris."
                          
   And I would say something back, but I am far gone into my dreams.
                          
* * *
                          
That night I dreamed about my mother.
                          
   After years, I got to see her face again, but it wasn't a face I would like to see. Her expressions were all full of terror and her words shaky. It got to the point where I wished to wake up, but couldn't.
                          
   I decide not to tell Tobias about my dream.
                          
   If it was weird enough to confuse me, how would anyone else react?