"We need a first jumper!" Demands a cruel dauntless leader with greasy hair and many facial piercings his tattooed skin glistening in the afternoon sun as he paces back and forth along the roof in front of us wielding a stick that he just picked up… he waves it in our faces. He told us his name was Eric.
A cocky, well-built young man steps forwards… He pumps his chest and laughs. Eric instantly whips him on the leg causing him whimper and hop back into line "Not a dauntless born you idiot!" he snarls "A transfer!"
That's where I come in…Victoria Lambert, a short, terrifyingly skinny girl, no figure just a cascade of soft, charcoal hair hiding the chiselled features of my tiny, childish face, not the face of a dauntless nor a face of any fraction… well that would be a lie I'm from erudite, not that I actually ever felt I spent much time there, I spent more time dreaming… I found it boring, too many books, too quiet, you couldn't speak out…
His eye's latch onto me… "You!" he bellows his voice rough. My heart leaps… typical for him to pick me; the girl that looks the weakest!
It seems people are still judged by their appearance. I feel sorry for him, he seems to enjoy picking on people a little too much… people who he thinks are helpless… these are the worst kind of people…
My mum always told me that individuals who feel it's necessary to make other people's lives a misery are only doing it because there miserable, and need to make themselves feel better by making others feel just as bad a them… This guy I obviously over compensating for something, with his burly shoulders and arms larger than my waist… It's clear that he's actually self-conscious… Maybe it's because he has a small penis?
The crowd separates, revealing the ledge that I must jump off… I couldn't see it before, everyone was stood in front of me and I wasn't about to try to push my way through the crowd… I liked standing back, well out of the way. I've always lived like that, trying not to get under people's feet. As my father said: a pretty girl should stand in the corner and be quiet… They should be admired not listened too, and I wasn't ever going to argue with him… not while I was at home anyway.
As I peered over the edge my stomach dropped, not because of fear… of excitement I can see the hole in the courtyard. I can't see any further but the urge to jump is too strong to worry about if this will kill me or not. I just have to jump … In Erudite climbing to the top of the metal sculptures in the middle of the park and doing interpretive dance is considered strange but here it's normal… Well I hope its normal…
I back up a little and start running towards the edge of the roof… I planned to jump as high as I could and pose, just to prove to Eric how much of an over confident prick he can be but instead I find myself doing a flip and not just one, but four… I never tried this while in the park but I guess that's because the sculptures are too low and the trees are too perfectly grown to reach even the lowest branches… but if I could reach I'm sure I would have tried it before… Of course I would have… this is too fun not to have tried before… I feel as free as a bird or the pages of a text book that I have just thrown off a bridge… I would have liked to have jumped off the bridge too but I knew that would be stupid and not worth risking my life for… Not in the erudite fraction anyway. I see the net as a spin slowly edging closer with each rotation… I jumped with my eyes open of course. The stinging of the air adds to the overwhelming emotions of freedom and moments of power.
I'm sure that in dauntless I can start again... A fresh life, a new start, a new me…
I land perfectly on my feet wobbling a little before toppling backwards… looking out of the hole up at the sky… I can't believe I just did that… I felt so… fearless…
"First jumper, Congratulations!" A voice to my left interrupting my moment of sincerity… A hand reaches out towards me… only a helping hand, of a nice person, not a bad guy but even the idea of someone touching me is too much to bare… I pause taking a sharp breath, almost yelping. I felt fearless a second ago but now? I was gripped by terror…
I'm not scared of heights or monsters under the bed, or insects, or the dark, or even of death… Not when there a things worse than death… I desperately crawl backwards kicking the hand as hard as I can away from me… I don't care who it belongs to just as long as it not stretched out towards me I curl up into a ball… my heart throbs making my whole body sore. I can't hear anything but pumping off blood rapidly passing my ear drums. My breathing suddenly becoming heavy. I feel like I'm drowning...
"I can do it myself!" I try to shout but all that comes out is a whisper… The man's hand slowly retracts "You should move… The next jumper will be coming soon" I whispers back a little bewildered by my sudden change in mood. Cautiously I slither from the netting realising I have lost all control over my legs… I crumple to the floor and burst out crying… people walk over to comfort me before thinking better of it and just awkwardly ignore me… This isn't the new start I was hoping for, I'm still me, I'm still scared little Victoria.
-Authors note-
How was it? Please R&R this is just an idea and at the moment… I have only written two chapters so far and they don't even link… If I get enough love I will try to write more because this is my GCSE year I might struggle... Thanks for reading and see you next time
