I didn't think my parents were different. They seemed like everyone else in Erudite; slim from skipping too many meals so they could finish their project or book, glasses—though no one knew who really needed them, dark circles under bloodshot eyes from too many late nights, and spouting off any fact they knew about whatever you were talking about.
Apparently, however, they were very different. From what I've gathered about them over the years, they were both divergent and were apart of a secret organization to stop the hatred and murders of divergents.
I saw them before I heard them. They were hiding in the bushes across the lawn, I could see their flashlights from the window of my darkened bedroom. I was thirteen at this point in my life and had read enough thriller and adventure books to know what to do.
I crawled out of bed and to the door, trying my hardest to imitate what I imagined a spy would do. I opened the door slowly just a crack, just enough to see more flashlights shining in the window by the front door. I closed the door and thought of emergency messages a spy might communicate to their parents in the next room.
Intruders, I tapped on the wall with my knuckles. I smiled to my clever self when I heard my parents bed creak as they both shot out of bed.
"If the kid's asleep, leave her, we don't know if she's divergent yet," a male voice whispered directly outside my window. "We're supposed to make this look like an accident." I army crawled back to my bed and under my covers, ruffling my hair to look like bed head in the process.
I wish I could say I was as brave as my parents were that night, I wish I could say I fought off the enemy with them and that we were as kick ass as I felt when I tapped Morris code into the wall to warn them. I shut my eyes and left the plane of reality, I felt like I really was asleep and this was some bazaar dream that would make me think twice before I fell asleep reading murder mysteries again. Their screams echoed and I felt the vibrations of them fighting. They obviously fought hard, because when I "woke up" that morning the house was a disaster.
Tables and chairs were knocked over or thrown across the room, there was more blood than any thirteen year old should ever see, blood on the walls, blood on the carpets, blood on my parents clothes, blood running down a cut on my mother's throat, blood oozing from the gun shot wound in my father's temple. It must have been some accident.
The newspapers said my father went insane from overworking himself and killed my mother before killing himself. They said the gun was registered under my father's name and that I had a diagnosed sleeping disorder that caused me to have been sleeping so heavily I didn't hear the gunshot.
That last one is true, I didn't hear a gunshot, though I was thinking more along the lines of a silencer and not so much a sleeping disorder.
Everything except the gossip was over after only a few days, including the funeral—both of my parents were cremated, as per their wishes according to their wills, though I remember them wanting otherwise. During these days I stayed in one of the hospital rooms while they found somewhere to put me.
I had no relatives. I couldn't live by myself at thirteen. I was an unusual case.
Not many people who die in Erudite leave kids behind. They die of old age when all of their children have grown up and can take care of themselves. Erudite is essentially the safest place among all of the factions. Amity has farming accidents every other week, Abnegation go into the factionless sector every week, Candor deals with violent criminals, and Dauntless are just plain reckless. Erudite has the best hospital with the best medicine and the smartest doctors. If something's affecting your health you can know and be cured of it within the hour at Erudite. So not a lot of parents die.
However great Erudite's healthcare is, they couldn't find and help my dad's supposed mental illness, causing him to kill his wife and himself, leaving a thirteen year old girl with no place to live.
Before the war, they used to have families who wanted kids like me, because medicine was shit back then and parents apparently died a lot more frequently. These families sometimes couldn't have kids of their own, so they would take in kids who don't have parents. People not being able to have kids isn't a problem with Erudite medicine, so the government will usually pass you off to some kind, Abnegation family until the choosing ceremony.
The family I was placed with consisted of two parents, one son, and one daughter. They were boring and typical Abnegation in every conceivable way. I won't even go into detail about them, because they were the epitome of Abnegation; when the founders made the Abnegation faction, they pictured this family.
I tried my best to fit in with them, just for the sake of civility, but they were too selfless and caring. Don't get me wrong, they were amazing people, but with me being an obvious Dauntless and them being literal angels, we just never "clicked". Their idea of winding down was volunteering, whereas mine was going for a run. Their idea of a good time was, again, volunteering, and mine was going out with friends.
I didn't actually know if I would enjoy going out with friends, because all of mine abandoned me once I became Abnegation, but it seemed like something I might like.
I didn't like volunteering and I didn't have any friends for the three years I was in Abnegation, so I spent my time in the gym—not training, they don't allow you to train for anything before the choosing ceremony. I knew I had to be in prime shape for Dauntless initiation, and by watching the Dauntless born running around the city and jumping on trains, I knew I needed to start with running.
It was no secret I was choosing Dauntless. I all but announced it every time I walked into a room. And then I did announce it. There were no gasps of shock as I confidently walked up the stage and with no hesitation sliced open my hand over a bowl of hot coals. There were only the sounds of a hundred Dauntless members welcoming me to the family.