Eric's POV
Age 9
I sighed, closing the book in front of me and rubbing my eyes. I hated reading constantly, it made my head hurt and it made me wish I was climbing a tree even more. I was doing great in school, well, compared to the other kids at the school. Heck, we were all smart since we were the faction that wanted knowledge. But it sucks, the constant reading back and forth and the mountain sized homework that was always on my desk. I wished I was outside with Aidan, seeing who can climb the tree the fastest. That was my favorite game, when I wasn't reading constantly.
Stupid science, what a buzz kill. I thought in my head as I heard a tap at the window. I looked over my shoulder, seeing my window on the other side of my room. I had a typical room for a typical Erudite 8 year old, covered in books and knowledge. I had a few things here and there for myself, my favorite baseball bat that I got from my dad when I as 6, some comic books that were once my brothers. He was going to go to the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow and choose what faction to be a part of. My dad thinks of it as a high honor, to make your own choice. I didn't really care about it, but all I knew, was that if my brother decided to choose another faction.
We would never see him again. Because, after all, faction before blood.
Another tap was at the window, and I walked over, seeing nothing but darkness at first. But I knew who it was, since we've been doing the same thing like this over and over for the past year or so. She lived next door after all, and her door was directly across from mine with a tree in the middle. I opened the window, hearing nothing at first but the cool wind against the tree and peered through the leaves, having me see a silhouette of my neighbor with her red hair. I smiled.
Wendy.
"What gives Wendy?" I asked her in a whisper, not wanting to wake sister who was sleeping early, as well as my brother, "I'm trying to study."
"Liar, you never want to study." Wendy whispered back.
"Jerk." I replied in retaliation.
"Beefhead." Wendy shot back. We both giggled, our playful banter was always nice to have around. I pushed the window to open completely and I grabbed the thick branch in front of me, pulling myself into the tree and sitting on the branch, dangling my feet in the air and feeling Wendy come out on the tree as well. This was a ritual for us, we would meet at night and talk about anything that was on our mind that was not about Erudite and not about school. Wendy say next to me, having me watch her red wavy hair that was now down to her mid back flow in the wind.
"Did you get in trouble again today?" Wendy asked me in curiosity.
"What makes you think I got in trouble?" I asked her in wonder,
"Because you weren't outside today during recess." Wendy replied, taking one of the leaves from the trees and examining it with her eyes and fingers, "Besides, Aidan told me that a teacher was talking to you after lessons."
"She wanted to talk to me about Benjamin." I explained to her, seeing her watch me as I stared off in front of me. I thought of my brother, how be was about to make a big decision in his life and I still didn't understand it myself.
"About him and the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow?" Wendy asked me, in which I nodded my head, "What did he get on his test?"
"He scored with Candor." I replied in return, having Wendy nod her head to show she was listening. I remembered earlier that day when he came home from his test, telling mom and dad his results. My mom was thrilled for him, telling him Candor was a good faction and a honorable one. But I saw something else in my dad, a bit of hesitance in him. Candor, the faction who believed in black and white, what is right and what is wrong, believed in brutal honesty. It sounded like my brother, it really did.
"You think he's gonna leave you guys tomorrow and go with Candor?" Wendy asked me in a softer tone, watching me with her careful green eyes. I grabbed a leaf from the branch in front of me, not as gentle as Wendy did, but roughly with a hint of annoyance.
"I don't know. Ben's a jerk, but a honest one. It'll just be weird, if he leaves…I won't see him again." I confessed to her, thinking about the sadness in it. It would be weird, not seeing him anymore. He would have a new life, new way of going from day to day. Would be even read as much anymore? And to make it even more depressing, he would have a new family.
Faction before blood.
"That's gonna happen to us one day." I looked over at Wendy, seeing her examine the leaf some more with her frail fingers and having me raise a eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, in like 8 years." I tried to reason with her.
"But it's going to happen." Wendy pressed on, having me watch her as she held out the leaf in front of her, watching it and seeing what shape it was. That's the one thing about Wendy that made me watch her in interest, it was how she viewed things and what she saw in them. She was just as smart as me. if not smarter. We would help each other with homework when we could, but she had a different kind of intelligence in her, something I couldn't figure out.
"Where do you think we would end up?" I asked her in wonder, seeing her look away from her leaf to me and thinking to herself.
"I don't know. All of the factions are good." Wendy replied,
"But where do you wanna end up at?" I pressed on, nudging her with my side and seeing her smile, her hair framing her face.
"I don't really care, Eric. I don't really know where I wanna be when I'm old enough." she explained, folding her hands on her lap and having me watch her for a moment. I wondered, for a moment or two, if we were going to end up in the same faction. It would be nice to know someone who wasn't annoying or too smart for their own good. Wendy and I have been friends for the past there years, and besides Aidan, she was growing on me as a friend. We had a good amount of time together, playing with each other and defending one another. She was a solid friend, and to think that in 8 years we would be separated from one another from our choice.
"Let's make a promise to one another." I said to her finally, having me watch me with intrigue.
"What do you mean?" She asked me in confusion. I shifted a bit on the branch of the tree.
"When we go to our own Choosing Ceremony, we will go together to whatever faction we want. We won't separate." I explained, thinking about it in my head. I would rather stay with Wendy and know I had a best friend behind me, than to go alone without a friend or family.
"Well, what if we have a different thought of which faction we want?" She asked me with hint of worry, but I shook my head.
"Then we will decide together. We won't split up Wendy." I reassured her, seeing her watch me carefully. I held out my hand to her, making this a done deal for the both of us. I wanted her to know that she had a friend in this, and I was just as scared about my future than she was. She then took my hand in hers, having me smile at her as we shook on it.
"We don't split up." She voiced to me, having me nod in agreement.
"Deal."
Age 24
I shot up from my bed in a cold sweat, breathing in harshly and blinking a few times. That recent nightmare was in my mind, having me remember when Wendy and I made a deal to not leave each other. It was a nightmare to me, since I knew I broke that promise. I did that to her.
I decided to hurt Wendy.
My nightmares have been getting worse since the incident at her house months before, it was making me loose more sleep and become more of a jerk to the new transfers that were coming in after the Choosing Ceremony. I maneuvered my feet on the floor, looking down at him and taking a few dee breaths. My hands resting on the bed, having me see my tattoos on my arms and squinting my eyes closed. Her voice was still in my head, I hated it, I wanted it to go away. But a part of me wanted it to stay, I needed the nightmares to know that it was real, and she was real.
Walking away from my bed and over to the bathroom, I rubbed my eyes and felt my heavy feet hitting the floor with every step. Wherever she would flood my mind, I was no longer myself. I wasn't tough, or brash, or a leader. No, I was back to being a young boy who was afraid and scared. Scared that she was dead, or far away from me.
I splashed my face with water, feeling the cooling of the water against the moist and hot skin. My breathing was still shallow and short, having me take a deep breath and look in the mirror in front of me. My tattoos on my neck, the piercing above my eyebrow and on my ears, the hair style that I had: it was my strength and leadership that I had. But I didn't feel like a leader anymore, I felt like a traitor to my friend, to the woman that I loved. Loved? I was still in love with her, but was I in love with a ghost?
"Where are you Wendy?"
