I woke with a start, as I did most days. Quickly quieting my fast beating heart I listened, not daring even to breathe. If I had made any noise in my sleep my father would be here in a hot second, reprimanding me for disturbing his sleep. The thought of my father's fists made my stomach drop, and my heartbeat quickened again, slowing only when I realized that I was the only one awake.

The choosing ceremony was today. My final escape from this life of fear and secrets. The light from the morning sun was just starting to peek through my bedroom window, and I sat up slowly and as silently as I could to watch the sun rise over the buildings of the city. My aptitude test had told me Dauntless…..and Erudite…and Amity. But Dauntless was what my heart had always dreamed of. Far away from the cold logic that was Erudite. My family were not high in the social hierarchy, my father was just a scientist, working on the serums like the one from our aptitude test, but we were well respected. My mother had died giving birth to me, one of the many crimes my dear father would never forgive me for. Dauntless was freedom and strength and bravery. All the things I had aspired to for as long as I could remember. Unlike the other initiates though, I had an advantage. I already knew I was strong and brave. All that was left was to be free.

Eventually the sun rose and as soon as I heard my father start to stir in the next room I did too. I pulled on my light blue slacks and my slightly darker blue shirt I pulled over a white camisole, making sure the long sleeves covered the bruises my father had given me when I didn't tell him about my aptitude test. There were finger marks on my wrist and my bicep, but I wouldn't show them now. Not yet.

We ate in silence, and when it was time to make our way to the hub I went upstairs to pull my long strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail. I had my mother's eyes. That was what people told me. To me they were unremarkable, just blue and basic. Not clear enough to make them pretty or dark enough to make them interesting. They were just blue. I inspected myself in the mirror, wanting to remember everything about who I was in that moment. I was average height for my age, average build for a reasonably well off Erudite girl. I didn't have much for curves but I wasn't terribly thin either. I had a pretty face, one thing I did admit came from my mother. I had full pink lips and a sprinkling of freckles over my petite nose and high round cheekbones. My soft pale skin would have been pretty too, if it wasn't the perfect canvas for the scars that marred my back and the backs of my legs.

"Don't you dare make me late girl." My father shouted softly from the living room. I could hear the rage in his voice, bubbling just beneath the surface. Today was a stressful day for him too. People would see whether the poor widower's daughter would stay loyally by his side or leave him forever. He was always good at playing to the crowd. There was a reason he wasn't in Candor. I took one last look in the mirror and steeled myself for what I was going to do. Today was the day I would finally take my life back into my own hands.

The hub was almost full when we entered the large domed room of the choosing ceremony, and thorough the crowd I glimpsed the bowls that held the door to my new life and my stomach flipped a little inside me. I was nervous. For the future I was about to choose and the consequences when I did. But I was home free. He would never again be able to lay a hand on me. From the moment we stepped into that room he was trapped in a social convention that stopped him from being anything other than the sad but doting father the city had seen him as since my mother's death.

We took our seats and Jeanine Matthews took the stand. Our fearless leader. She gave me the same feeling my father did, like something was brewing under the surface of her smile. Something deadly.

She talked for a while and then started calling names. My heartbeat was thudding in my ears, deafening me. I stared at the bowls as one by one new adults declared their choice, their loyalty, and themselves.

"Kira Zaluski." This was it. The final test. I had been waiting my whole life for this moment, but when it actually came, I was terrified. What if I really wasn't strong enough to make it in Dauntless, then what? Factionless? The thought made my stomach fill with lead.

Then my father grabbed my wrist. To the rest of them it looked like he was helping me stand, but they couldn't see the way he was twisting on my fresh bruises, forcing me up with hidden strength. And in that moment I knew that even life with the Factionless was better than this. It wasn't his intent, but the pain in my wrist gave me strength as I stepped up to where my other classmates had before me, and I made the choice that had been burning inside me for 18 years.

As my blood sizzled on the coals and the roar of the Dauntless hit my ears I turned to see my father's reaction. As I expected all I saw was cold fury. Even from the distance I could see his dilated pupils fill his light green eyes. For the first time in my life those eyes didn't scare me. He couldn't hurt me anymore, and as I dropped my blue shirt on the floor, that's the thought that ran through my mind. The gasps of shock as people saw the bruises, fresh ones layered over ones that were mostly healed were gratifying. The exclamations of horror as I turned towards my fellow Dauntless, and they saw the old scars on my back were delicious. But the best of all was the blotchy skin of my father, his eyes wide, humiliated and terrified as I ran out the door with my new faction.

Free at last.