Hey there! I'm here with a new Fanfic that I've wanted to write for awhile. Basically, it's Divergent if Tris's and Tobias's roles were switched. I really hope you guys like it!
Enjoy!
"Abnegation!" I shriek in pain. "I got Abnegation!"
I wince as the belt slaps my back again, although I have long since gotten used to the pain. Andrew, my father - definitely not my dad - stands over my curled up body, his belt that he uses as a whip in his hand.
"And are you transferring?" he shouts. I hear a cracking sound as he brings the belt down again on my sore back. I'm wearing a plain grey shirt, as all Abnegation do, but because of the abuse, the back has been ripped more than twenty times through the course of this evening. It seems to be hanging off my body by a thread, and I'm surprised it hasn't fallen to the ground yet. It's no surprise that I have so many shirts in my closet - all plain, grey, and identical.
Yes! I desperately want to say yes.
"No, I'm not!" I moan, wiping away a tear. I know I'm not going to stay in Abnegation, though. The thought of living with Andrew, of living in terror for the rest of my life sickens me.
With one last, sharp whip to my bleeding back, he kicks me away from him with his boot. I roll onto my stomach, groaning. Blood rolls off my back in tiny droplets, soaking into the carpeting. I'm drenched in sweat and fighting to stay awake.
"Good girl. Now go to sleep. If your up when I come to check on you..." He trails off, leaving the threat hanging in the tense air around us. However, I know that he'll come whip me anyway, awake or asleep.
I drag myself onto my feet and stagger to the bathroom. I open the drawer and snatch up the antiseptic and gauze that sit at the top of the pile of items, as if they anticipated my presence. It is highly possible; I use them every night.
Now comes the tricky part. The cuts are all on my back, and most of them are at particularly hard to reach places - mainly the middle of my back. Although, years of practice - 10 years to be exact - has allowed me to master the skill.
At around three o'clock am, he comes hustling into my room. Throughout the night, I had been drifting in and out of consciousness and unconsciousness, dreadfully expecting Andrew's arrival. Now, as he enters, I'm wide awake, already bracing myself. And God, I try to look asleep, thinking maybe, just maybe, he won't actually hit me this time.
But he does.
"This is for your own good." His fist comes flying into my gut, and I let out a tiny squeak, before cutting myself off. I try to keep silent, because if I don't, it will be so much worse. The most unfortunate thing about these early morning punishments is that with my closed eyes, I can never know when he will first hit me. Typically, he only hits me a couple times, four at the maximum, but they are like he is hitting me with a metal brick, slamming my abdominal area over and over. Tonight is no different.
The moment he's satisfied and leaves, I relax the tension in my muscles, letting out heavy, relieved breaths. My head is spinning and it's as if something is clamping down on the sides of my face, squeezing my temples together. I'm so, so tired, due to the physical and mental stress.
Abnegation. And Erudite. And Dauntless. Those were my Aptitude Test results. I had gone into the testing room, expecting to receive Abnegation, one of the five factions that our society is divided into. I have to join one of those five factions tomorrow, during my Choosing Ceremony. I never would have thought that I would end up positive for three factions: Abnegation, the selfless, Erudite, and Dauntless, the brave. The last one I especially did not predict. How could I, Beatrice Prior, be even remotely brave? All my life, I have been cowering away from my father, dreading every single day that awaits me. However, I'm not surprised that I didn't get Candor, the honest and Amity, the peaceful. I am neither of those two.
I can't stay in Abnegation. I can't stay in the place where my deepest fear lives. I've never particularly liked the Erudite, and even though I hate Andrew, his words against the Erudite have some effect on me. But Dauntless? Filled with the train-jumping, adrenalin junkies? Filled with the people who risk their lives for fun?
I truly do not know.
My back aches. It normally does each morning, and I've learned to bear with it. Each morning is a struggle and each night is terrifying. I can only go through the motions.
Today is the day, though. Today, I will escape the grasps of my father.
I am required to go to classes for the first half of my day, and at noon, I go to my Choosing Ceremony. Classes go by quickly, but they are still fairly boring. I've never had an interest for learning.
I'm practically shaking by the time I walk into the Hub for the Choosing Ceremony. I've had all morning to ponder over my choices, but I still have no idea. We, as in all the sixteen year olds, walk into the Hub, some excited, some calm, and some, including me, walking slowly as if in a trance, like zombies.
I sit with my faction, and everyone else does the same. We all exchange polite nods, barely speaking to each other, unlike the Dauntless who are slapping each other on the back, so hard that I wonder how they don't seem to be in pain, and laughing like maniacs. Or the Candor, in which every one of them seems to be in a heated debate of some kind.
That is, until Andrew, my father hushes everyone.
He speaks so formally, so kindly, that it's almost impossible to tell that it's only a mask, set up for the public to see. I wrinkle my nose in disgust. My father is the leader of the government and also the leader of Abnegation, so everyone assumes that he's the definition of selflessness and that I will follow in his footsteps. Ha.
He talks about the factions and how they keep society in order and that without them, our world would be chaotic. And then he talks about the Choosing Ceremony, which is when all sixteen year olds must choose the faction that they will live in for the rest of their lives. But only if they pass initiation, the process of tests that determine whether an initiate is fitting for the faction. If not, the initiate becomes factionless and is sent to live poorly on the streets with all of the others. My faction, Abnegation, is the one that usually tends to the factionless and provides them with food and water.
Finally, Andrew begins the Choosing process. He calls out names in backwards alphabetical order by last name. With the last name Prior, I am somewhere near the middle.
I don't hear the names, or Andrew shouting the faction they chose. You can either stay with your original faction or choose a new one. Typically, initiates choose the former, but per each Ceremony, there are a couple of transfers.
All the while, I'm thinking, Erudite or Dauntless? Erudite or Daunt-
"Beatrice Prior!" Andrew shouts, interrupting my repeating train of thoughts. I stand up slowly and shakily and quickly walk to the middle, where my father awaits. He hands me a knife that I'm supposed to pierce my hand with, letting a drop of blood drip into one of the five bowls, each representing a faction.
Grey stone for Abnegation, water for Erudite, glass for Candor, earth for Amity, and hot coals for Dauntless.
I take the knife from my father, and he looks at me expectantly, menacingly, waiting for me to drop my blood onto the grey stones of Abnegation. They don't look so grey anymore, with splattered blood decorating it.
I pierce my palm, barely registering the pain from all my years of pain ten times worse than a simple knife.
I hold it over the Erudite water, ready to transfer, thinking that at least it's another act of defiance against my father since he hates the Erudite, but as I see the blood seconds away from tainting the water even redder, I let out a shriek and jerk it over the Dauntless coals.
I'm not sure I'm brave.
But I'm free.
And that's the first chapter! Should I continue? Well, I am going to continue, but feedback would be awesome.
Review, favorite, follow!
-Cindy:)
