"Teams." Our instructor boomed across the glass dome of the Dauntless Headquarters. "Each of you will be entering your fear landscape with a partner today. This exercise is about teamwork, so you must help your partner through their fears."
I look to my left as Mason grabs my hand. He gives a gentle squeeze and I smile, with him as my partner this'll be a breeze. My smile grows as Mason smiles back at me. When his grey eyes sparkle like that it never ceases to make me feel like the most important person in the room. "We got this." Mason said reassuringly as he leaned in and quickly brushed his lips onto mine.
"Cassidy!" I flinch at the sound of my name, "You're first." I swallow the fear quickly rising in my stomach and pull Mason over to the doors of the fear landscape. I can't show cowardice. That is everything Dauntless is against. Plus, I've made it this far, how bad could a few fears be? I let my wavy brow hair fall away from my neck as they inject the serum into my neck. I flinch slightly, but Mason looks completely calm as they push the needle through his skin. Mason curls his fingers into mine and gives me a reassuring smile as the doors slide open. We walk through them hand in hand, and suddenly the scenery begins to change. The concrete floor and walls begin to morph and change into something else.
My eyes bugged out as I saw that we were standing on the edge of the roof of a giant skyscraper. I stumbled backwards and fell onto my butt. "No." I whispered quietly, suddenly wishing it wasn't my fear landscape we were trekking through. "Come on Cassidy, heights is easy. You just have to jump." Mason said gently as he pulled me to my feet. Mason tightly interlocked his fingers with mine as he bolted forward, off the roof, tugging me after him. I felt the stomach-churning free fall for about a second before we fell with a hard splash into an ocean.
I gasped for air as my head broke the surface. I frantically looked around to see Mason treading next to me. He looked pretty composed as he asked, "drowning?" I gave a small nod before another wave crashed over us. I struggled to catch my breath as I surfaced once again. "Just calm down Cass. Float and try to calm down." Mason suggested. I let myself slip onto my back and closed my eyes. The water lulled a relaxed feeling into me.
When I opened my eyes I was met with pitch-black everywhere around me. "Mason?" I called, willing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. After a few seconds my eyes conformed to the dark, I could make out Mason's shape across from me. "You're afraid of the dark?" Mason asked in a confused tone. "Childhood fear." I explained briefly. Suddenly I heard a creak down the corridor that sounded like heavy footsteps on wooden floor boards. "Not the dark, the things hiding in the dark." I felt terrified, and completely not in control of whatever was at the end of the hallway. "I got it." Mason stood up confidently, walking to the wall of the hallway. He slid his hand down the wall until he found what he was looking for. "Light switch." Mason said triumphantly as the lights came on. The hallway began to morph.
We were back in the concrete fear landscape room, but someone else was with us. My breath came in ragged gasps as I faced my Mother. "You are a good for nothing excuse for a human being!" she screamed. I cringed at her words. "Candor." Mason whispered, catching on. Because I used to be Candor, my mom would use that honesty every day to hurt me and my brother, because we knew she meant it. "You are trash, I should've left you at the hospital!" she spat at me. "Shut up!" Mason yelled, stepping in between my mother and I. "Who's this Cassidy?" my Mother asked, a sickeningly sweet tone to her voice. "You never told me you had a boyfriend!" She walked up to Mason and grazed his chin with her fingers. I stepped forward and pushed her shoulder as I yelled, "Get away from him! And leave me alone!" The apparition of my Mother faded and was replaced by my younger brother, Jayden.
He was standing in front of us, frozen in place, staring at me. "Shoot him a gruff voice barks next to me. I whirl my head to see a large man to see a man that was unfamiliar to me. He shoved a gun into my hands and another into my spine. It was either kill Jayden, or be killed. Tears streamed down my face as I aimed the gun at my brother's chest. "He's not real, "Mason consoled. "Let me do it." I moved my finger so Mason could slip his into the trigger of the gun. I closed my eyes as I heard the shot and felt the gun jerk in my hands. I opened my eyes just to see the bullet rip into Jayden, a flash of red, and then he was gone.
Suddenly everything faded to black and I was standing in a single spot light. "Being alone." I whispered to no one. I let the words echo out there as I began looking around in frenzy. Panic swelled in my chest as I repeatedly yelled "Mason! Mason!" I sat down in the spotlight and crossed my legs. Silent tears rolled down my face as I stared into the darkness. I guess my heartbeat slowed enough as I cried for the landscape to move on because room progressively began getting brighter. I looked around and still saw no one. Panic filled surged through me. Was I not done with my isolation fear?
My question was answered as a figure limped out of the shadows. They collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud. The first thing I saw was the blood pooling around their body almost instantaneously. I ran to the person's side and fell to my knees next to them. I gasped as I rolled the person over. I thought the last two fears had used all my tears up, but they sprung back to my eyes as I saw Mason bleeding to death on the floor in front of me. "Mason! What happened!" my voice was more alarmed than I thought possible. I shouldn't have left him. Something happened to him during my isolation fear and it is all my fault. "Help! Stop the simulation! Help!" I screamed, praying someone would hear me. "Cassidy?" a familiar voice asked from behind me. I whirled around to see Mason standing behind me, probably wondering why I was screaming like a lunatic. "Mason?" I choked through the tears. He ran to my side and finally saw why I was crying. "It's okay." He consoled as he knelt down next to me and pulled me into his arms. I closed my eyes and settled into Mason's arms, my breathing eventually steadying out. Once I opened them again, I saw my fear landscape was over. Mason helped me to my feet. I wobbled unsteadily before Mason wrapped his arm around my waist and let me out of the fear landscape room.
"Good job Cassidy, Mason" our instructor acknowledged as Mason lowered me onto the floor. He sat next to me and looked at me cautiously, like I was a ticking time bomb of emotions. He would be too if he had just gone through what I had. "What was that last fear? The one where I was…" Mason trailed off nervously. I stared at my shoes, knowing exactly what it was but too afraid to say it. I swallowed hard, summoned all the Dauntless courage in me, and whispered "Loosing you." Mason looked at me, shocked, then happy. "You're that afraid of losing me?" he asked. I gave a meek nod in response, trying not to seem to attached. "I love you." Mason confessed wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "I love you too" I replied, leaning in for a kiss. Mason's lips pressed against mine and I knew without my Candor training that he meant it.