Chapter 1 — Fear's Prospect
Hey everyone! So here's chapter one of Fire and Ashe, and I hope it's good! The story will nod to the movie Divergent and the book in the beginning, but after she arrives in Dauntless things will begin to drastically change against the story, so it's not a copy of the same story. Thank you to the guest who reviewed for thinking this story is very promising, and thank you to Sharon Mayes for you're kind words and hoping to read more. Here it is! I hope you all enjoy reading it. Please review, favorite and follow for faster updates and lots of love! Thank you all very much! :)
Previously...
"Well then, Ashe, I plan on seeing you on the other side." The Dauntless boy smiled crookedly at me and stood, just as his name was called. Jacob Fryer. His gait was confident as he neared the Dauntless member, the assistant smiling at the boy and clapping him on the shoulder. Both of their bodies disappeared behind the room, and that's when I heard it.
"Ashely Carr." My name.
One hundred years ago, after the war, our founders created a system they believed would prevent future conflict and create lasting peace. Today aptitude testing, based on your personality will assign you to one of the factions. While it is our belief that choosing the faction indicated by your test is the best way to ensure success within the faction system, it is your right tomorrow at the choosing ceremony to choose any of the five factions regardless of your test results. However, once the choice has been made, there will be no change permitted.
I remembered the orientation woman from Erudite, her name Caroline, speaking in a fast tone. I realized that them calling my name hadn't meant that we would immediately be sent into the simulation, but instead that we would be told what the simulation meant and that we had free will to choose what lives we wanted to lead. Even though we didn't. The ever present Jeanine Matthews smiled on from a glass pane in another room, her folder clutched tightly to her side, her blonde bobbing hair kept painfully neat. Since I was an Erudite I knew that that hairdo hadn't changed since I was young, and I hadn't found a hair out of place to this day. She was why I didn't want to be in Erudite, the fake smiles and the false propaganda spread for our own faction's benefit the only reason we existed anymore. It wasn't about knowledge. It was about gain.
I sat in the chair for my aptitude simulation, the person administering the test not yet in the room. I breathed deeply and tried to regulate my heartbeat, my eyes staring upwards at the ceiling for the second time that morning. A door opened and closed and I saw a woman of medium height and build walk through, her eyes brown and her hair cropped short in a buzz cut. She took hold of my head without introducing herself and placed it firmly within the cradle, her chin hovering over my face as the small electrodes on the U-shaped cradle latched onto my skull. I became rigid, my body straightening in the strange chair.
"Calm yourself down. This test will tell you what faction you belong in, but if you have a different decision in mind, be my guest. I'm just the messenger," she smirked at me in an arrogant way and sat herself in a chair next to my own. My lips parted waiting for whatever was going to happen. I turned my head as far as I could to see her, her short dyed stark white hair streaked with different colors. Red, black. I gulped down my fear, trying as hard as I could not to appear afraid despite myself.
"What's it like?" I asked, eyes darting to hers. She didn't look at me.
"The simulation? It's simple–"
"Dauntless. What is Dauntless like?" That got her attention, I thought with an inward smile of satisfaction. She turned her head towards me and cocked it in bemusement.
"It's tough. And it's hard. It will beat you down and break you before you even enter the walls. Don't be stupid, smarty," she nodded to my clothes. "It's unbecoming of an Erudite." I sighed at the sarcasm in her voice. The second person to doubt me in a mere hour, or at least I guessed. I hadn't seen a clock since I entered the facility. My head turned towards the mirror adjacent to me, the wall just mirror. My eyes were wide, and I looked scared and young and innocent. No wonder she thinks I'm a crazy, stupid Erudite, I thought helplessly, she thinks I'm some young kid with no idea of hardship.
"Here," she handed me a small vial of blue liquid that smelled sweet. I didn't ask questions as she pushed it against my lips, the liquid seeping into my mouth. It was like honey, but after I swallowed it there was a taste that made me want to wash my mouth. I bit the inside of my cheek instead.
"Good lucky, smarty."
I stood in a familiar facility. Erudite walls surrounded me on every side and in front of me lied two small silver plates, the contents a piece of meat and a gun. Silently I wondered why such two different things would be situated next to each other, but instead of questioning it, I walked towards the strange plates and saw my reflection against the cool metal.
"Choose," I heard a male voice ask, but for some reason I could no longer turn. I breathed in through my nose slowly, waiting.
"Why must I choose?" I asked quietly, my voice suddenly lost to me.
"Choose!" The voice was impatient. Angry.
"What's the point, it's stupid!"
"Okay, Erudite." I felt annoyance at the term build in my stomach. I could turn finally. A door is suddenly open, the grey walls breaking to show a white light and a small figure. My eyes strained against the darker lit room to see what it is, and as I hear growling, I recognize that it is a dog. I turned back towards the plates but they are no longer there, replaced by mirrors instead that surround me, making me stare at myself in all different directions. Bright light filled all the corners, reflected in the glass that shows my own features. All of the faces changed, their heads cocking to the side. The dog growled again behind me and I watched it carefully. The animal had become closer, its fur dark and it's sharp teeth visible through the snarl etched on its face. It began a fast run, the dog gaining momentum fast and suddenly I know that I can't run. If I run I die. I wondered with fear that if I die in a simulation, do I die in real life? Is it game over then? Too weak to participate.
I didn't have time to think as I fell to my knees and hung my head low, my hands holding me above the ground. I could sense that the dog had paused in front of me, its foul breath cascading over my face and blowing loose strands of hair around. I slowly looked up and found the dog sitting innocently in front of me, the dark fur of the dog not matted or messy, but instead very sleek. I reached out a hand and petted it, my fingers brushing the soft fur.
"Good doggy," I smiled, but it was short lived as a small Erudite girl appeared. Her features were normal and weren't striking at all, but she called to the dog with a loud voice, her hands inviting the dog in front of me towards her. I shook my head and was ready to caution the girl, but the dog snarled viciously and saliva dripped from its teeth. The dog took of at a sprint as the girl began to run, her feet not fast enough for the fast paced dog. I ran, suddenly running faster than what I should have been capable of, and grasped the dog with my arms.
I hit the ground with a loud thud, my side burning with pain as I held onto myself. There was no dog, and there was definitely no girl. Was that it? Was that the big test that told me what faction to go into? I stood, my breathing wild. Strands of my hair hung in my face and they pushed away with every pant that I took. Suddenly my vision morphed and I was no longer surrounded by mirrors or in an Erudite facility, but I was on a train. My hand held tightly onto a metal pole.
A woman sat on the train, a single piece of paper in her hands. She glared at me angrily but her face holds a grimace that frightens me. I'd never truly seen someone so scarred, so–tortured. She had tattoos on her arms of skulls and dragons that winded throughout each other, the ink changing from black to red the closer they got to her chest. Her heart.
"Do you know this guy?" The woman pointed to a face on the paper, a man of normal features. Someone I could've sworn I had known in a past life, an unearthly connection telling me that I did know him, but my heart began to pace wildly and my skin began to tingle. I was afraid. And fear meant that I was in danger. I glanced around, my eyes locking on different things, checking to see if perhaps someone could hurt me, but it was just me and the woman. I deadpanned.
"Well?" She prodded, her eyes sparking with hostility I had never seen anywhere. "Do you?" I held onto the pole and looked the woman in the eyes. I inhaled slowly, allowing myself to relax. It's just a test, I can't be hurt, I thought as my fear and instincts pounded through me.
I answered in the most calm voice I could muster. "Never. I don't know who that is." She threw the paper against the ground and stood, her face inches away from mine.
"You're lying," her voice was deathly quiet. "You're lying!"
I shook my head. "No. I'm not. I don't know who you're talking about."
"I can tell you're lying," she gripped my arm fiercely, her fingernails clawing into my skin. "I can see it in your eyes. If you don't tell me the truth, I'll die here."
"Now who's lying?"
I gasped awake, my fingers ripping into leather and sweat beading against my forehead. I closed my eyes as my bottom lip trembled, the sudden acknowledgement that I had lied to that woman beating in time with my heart. I had lied. I guess that meant I wasn't Candor, if it came so easy. But was it really easy? I let my fingernails dig into my pants and legs the way the woman had, the idea of being in a situation like that stretching across my thoughts. I shook my head to rid myself of the reflection process in my head and looked at the woman who had administered my simulation. She looked...Stressed, to say the least. A deep mark of confusion was etched in her features and her eyes were staring at the screen as if whatever was on it would change.
"That's not right," her head bowed and her dark eyes met my own. "You're test results were...Inconclusive." I gaped at her incredulously.
"What do you mean inconclusive? That simulation is supposed to tell me what to choose!" I sucked in a harsh breath.
"It means that you're not like the factions, or the others," she rolled forward in her chair and put her arms on either side of my legs.
"You're divergent, Ashely. You don't fit into any category."
Divergent. The word meant a million different things. To some it meant different. To others it mean a threat. Whatever it meant to the rest, divergents were eliminated. The thought that I could be divergent made my blood run cold. I felt panic start to run through my veins, seemingly taken the place of the blood in me. No no no, I hadn't worked this hard to be a divergent, to lose it all. Would the girl turn me in? Have me killed? I had seen it. I was from Erudite, I knew what happened to people they knew or found out were divergent.
"Please! P-please no! I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Her eyes filled with confusion, the girls orbs plastered onto her mothers. Both women were sobbing, their tears running in long, translucent streams against their faces. A Dauntless guard stood above the girl who had been thrown in the faction clearing only a few moments before. He was emotionless, his eyes dark pools of hate and cold. She stared up at him, the barrel of a gun that was pointed at her head. Her sharp blue eyes begged otherwise, but it was nothing compared to his.
"Divergence is to be eliminated." With a loud, shrill bang, she was dead.
I couldn't stop shaking uncontrollably, my hands fisted at my sides to stop from trembling. I walked home that afternoon, my footsteps heavy and my thoughts running wildly. If I was divergent and the woman who had administered my test, Tiffany, wiped out my results and instead replaced it with Erudite I would be okay. I would survive, and go to Dauntless, and prove to everyone that I was strong enough to make it.
I would survive.