Hello everybody! Welcome to chapter six... I was meaning to update yesterday but had a busy evening with a hockey game an hour and a half away, then this morning I had a game of hockey (Field hockey) also. I would just like to notify you that my friend vcgibbs and I may be doing a Tandem story, said Tandem story will most likely on The Julliette Chronicles (Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me), so if you haven't read them, I urge you to do so. Without further ado, here is chapter six! The plot line is taking shape...
CHAPTER 6: Leap of Faith
'I followed the other sixteen year olds, all of whom were sporting different colours of the rainbow. Some wore black, some wore white, some wore grey, yellow, red or blue; a sea of colour. I ran along and followed the teenagers in black, sprinting down the stairs two at a time and shouting at the top of our voices. The stairwell kept twisting around, two floors, three floors then four. We kept running until finally we emerged into the sunlight. It was a beautiful summer's day; ravens were flying high in the sky, a vast blue with puffs of white and a golden orb of sunlight. I could hear the oncoming tooting of a train and ran faster to reach the curb.
All the runners in black ran along and hopped onto the moving train with ease, I had to sprint just to keep up with the gradually speeding vehicle. Just as I was starting to drop back from fatigue, a dark skinned feminine hand shot out of the door in offering, I took the hand and used my free hand to latch onto a handle next to the door and was pulled in without strain. The train was dark inside, with only the light seeping through the doors and the odd skylight. I looked around and noticed that there weren't as many people as I had originally thought, and stood in front of me was a dark skinned, pretty faced girl with a warm smile on her face, dressed in the colours of Candor, black and white. I then realised that my hand was still attached to hers and I snatched it away hastily. Her mouth moved, forming words but not sounding them, she seemed to be having a conversation with me but not realising that no sound was coming out. We supposedly kept having a conversation, one of which I didn't know what was about, or why she would occasionally laugh or smile. She turned away and started walking over to the other side of the train, where the other airy door still stood open. Wind blew in with a force enough to knock you off your feet. She yet again stretched out her hand in offering and I took it, she seemed to be saying something and my hands were trembling from the words I didn't hear. I somehow knew that I would have to jump off this moving train, but was immediately glad that I had Christina by my side, jumping every step of the way with me. I knew it was time to jump when I saw her mouth forming the words one… two… three! And with that, we jumped through the air; it seemed to take forever for us to land on the hard gravel surface of the roof in the outskirts of the city. I straight away knew why I had become close friends with Christina; we had bonded almost from the second we had met. In the distance, I could see the faint outline of The Hub, where we had just escaped and where the choosing ceremony had just taken place. We had to choose a place where we would live the rest of our lives, the one choice that would change our lives forever. I heard feet meet gravel and bodies fall to the ground; the other initiates joined us on the crowded roof and Christina and I were forced to approach the front of the crowd, where a tall, intimidating dauntless leader I now recognised as Max stood. He waved his arms around expressively as he talked, but still no sound made through to my ears. He kept a menacing look on his face, and suddenly the tension in the air rose. Even though I couldn't hear, I could tell that everyone had grown quiet.
I looked around, and robotically and without my control my hand shot nervously into the air. Max gestured for me to walk forward and my feet obeyed. I stepped up onto the ledge, knowing but not knowing why I had to prove myself. I turned to face the empty space off the edge of the building and looked down; there was a huge, black circular cavity in the concrete below. I had no knowing of what lay beneath but did know one thing: I had to jump. And that's what I did. I soared through the air for the second time in ten minutes, closing my eyes and bracing myself for impact. Nothing much came next, just the soft rise and fall of a large springy net catching my small body. I opened my eyes and a hand reached out to help me off the net. I took the hand and was strongly lifted off my feet. When they were planted again on solid ground, I was met with a pair of intriguingly familiar blue eyes.'
I woke sleepily to the sound of people talking in hushed voices, the blue eyes slowly drifting to the back of my mind and the sound of pairs of feet walking around taking its place. I opened my eyes and was surprised to see that the big neon lights were on full blast in my room. I looked around, by my bed there was a table with a tray of eggs, bacon and beans on it, with a glass of orange liquid beside it. I searched for the sound of the voices but could not see anyone anywhere. The digital clock on my bedside table indicated that it was nearing six o'clock in the morning. What was someone doing waking me up so early? I had had the weirdest dream, it had felt so real. I couldn't help thinking, was it real? No, it couldn't have been. Unless…unless it was a memory?
All of a sudden, the door squeaked open and out came none other than Christina.
"Rise and shine Trisy-poo! Time to get ready for training, you got a big day ahead of you with some hard work and all, you will need to be wide awake and full of nutrition," She said, all of this of course, in a baby voice.
"Chrissy-poo!" I said mockingly.
"Ooh, I like it!" She said loudly under her breath.
"It's six O'clock in the morning, you could have at least left me in bed for another hour… or three." I carried on, pretending that I hadn't heard her.
"Nuh uh uhh," She said in her best diva voice, her own. "Not when the occasion is a special as this. We're going shopping!" She sang the last bit, of course. I'm guessing shopping was like a god to her? Or maybe just the shops? Or her points that would buy her all the articles of clothing and accessories?
"Why now?" I whined, burying my face in the pillow. "Besides, won't all the stores be closed this early in the morning?"
"The shops open at six because they got a sale on! Besides, you need some new clothes, like seriously needs some…" She said whilst looking at my small pile of clothing, the only articles I owned.
"But what if I don't get through initiation? There'd be no point in wasting all of my points on them."
"Then we've got to live and shop while we can! And we're going to get through initiation together." She said strongly in a calm and determined voice.
"Fine. I do like the sound of us doing it together." I said with a smirk. "Just give me a second to get dressed."
After Christina turned towards the door, I replaced my pyjamas, which consisted of an old grey T-shirt and charcoal running shorts, with long black tracksuit bottoms and a dark sports singlet that went in at the shoulders and was lined with neon yellow at the edges. I laced up my old, tattered, black combat boots, reminding myself to buy a new pair and then tied my dirty blonde hair at the top of my head in a ponytail, not caring if it was messy or not.
Christina sighed when she saw what I was wearing and then looked at my hair. "We may be taking a trip to the hair salon apparently as well. I do like your top though, you just gotta accessorise it more."
Turning back to my bed and checking that I didn't need to bring anything else, I notice my plate of food on the table, I was reaching for it when Christina's hand clasped my wrist, pulling me out of the door.
"But what about my breakfast!" I whined.
"No time! We can head to the dining hall on the way back!" She said seriously, ignoring my tone.
We walked hurriedly through the infirmary, Christina's hand never loosening its grip. We passed the quiet reception without a word and exited through the glass doors. We walked through hallways and corridors until we reached the magnificent pit. The pit was sloping around the edges in a narrow dirt walkway, spiralling all around the wide edge and lit by ancient wooden torches glowing amber and red. The illumination and space of the pit sent tingles up my spine and warmed my heart reminding me that I had chosen this beautiful place as a home, and that I don't regret it a single bit. The chasm's water roared and pounded with tremendous force against the jagged rocks in the bed, a railing only belly button height protected passer byes from falling or jumping in. A memory popped into my head of Four saying something about there is always one person each initiation to jump or be pushed past the railing and into the thunderous chasm, never surviving the fall, and if they did, with tremendous and awful consequences.
We walked around the twisting edge of the deep Pit, at some parts of the path dirt crumbled away and fell into the deep, dark oblivion below. There were a few dashes of lights at the bottom of the Pit, but I was yet to venture down that far, besides, I don't know if initiates are allowed down there. I was immediately curious and decided to ask Christina.
"Christina, do you know if we're allowed down there?" I asked, gesturing with a point to the hole and the distant flickering lights.
"I don't think anyone's been down there in centuries Tris, I haven't heard anyone talk about it. But I do know is that when you walk further down the path there is a road block and a sign that says 'No un-authorised access' and 'Out of bounds' or something like that. It's all rusty and old so I don't think anyone has been down there."
"Apart from you…"
"Hey! I only went up to the rotten sign!" The accusations stopped there as Christina turned on her heel and walked toward neon red and purple lights.
We walked further until we reached the illuminated stores and entered, initiate points cards at the ready and an over excited, squealing Christina in her own version of heaven.
After being dragged around numerous makeup stores and dauntless designer boutiques, and lugging around three of my own bags and two of Christina's (Christina was already carrying three in each hand), we found our way to the tattoo parlour. We walked inside the Dauntless favourite 'Wu's Piercings and Tattoos' and timidly approached the design ridden wall. There were little quotes and messages in fancy script, one read; Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them but they're always there. It had little spots and dashes around it signifying the stars. I decided that I would someday get that as a tattoo, it was beautiful and deserved to be showed off, it just wasn't what I was looking for were intricate pictures of majestic old cats and preying birds. One of the birds caught my eyes, it was an eagle, and I was certain I had seen it in tattoo form before. A woman who only looked to be in her early twenties walked out of the back room and up to the counter, a paying client at her tail. She was pretty, with dark hair and olive skin and fading smile lines around her eyes. What struck me was that when she turned around and her back was facing me, a tattoo peeked out of the top of her vest and I noticed the distinct shape of the eagle on the wall. So that's where I recognised it from? I asked myself.
Once the woman had done with her customer she turned and did double take as she saw me, did I know her or something?
"Tris. What are you doing here. At the tattoo parlour? Did you get lost?" She asked, stiff as a button.
"Hey, you must be Tori! I've heard so much about your work! And no, we're not lost, we were thinking about getting a tattoo." Christina nodded with thought and enthusiasm, Tori though, kept her eyes on me the whole time Christina talked, and gave a quick, "Yeah cool." In oblivious response to what Christina had said.
Thankfully Christina didn't notice as she had turned her attention to the wall with all the tattoo designs splayed on it, staring with deep concentration and meaning.
"Um, can I help you? Tori is it?" I asked suggestively.
"Oh no, don't mind me. You recovered quickly, I heard that you'd been knocked out for a few days."
"I wouldn't say that I have recovered… more that I am slowly gaining full consciousness of my lost memories. If that makes sense. Do I know you somehow?" I asked after she went rigid.
"Oh, nowhere. I just conducted your aptitude test."
"Aptitude Test?" I said, confused.
"Oh, its where we assess you to see what faction you are best suited for. Nothing much really…" She said, waving her hand in dismissal. It sounded more than nothing. "So! What are you looking for today? Any certain symbol? Writing? An animal maybe?"
"I suppose I was thinking of something to symbolise my family." I remembered Tori's tattoo of an eagle. "I like your eagle, does it mean anything?"
"I guess one of my fears is of preying birds, eagles. It also is something personal that I am not willing to share."
"OK."
"Why don't I leave you to have a look at the tatt's, have a bit of a browse and see what you think?"
"Thank you." Tori walked back to the counter where another eager client was waiting to be drawn on with permanent ink.
I turned back to the wall and took my time studying all the amazing, and sometimes gruesome designs, admiring some and dismissing others. I was about to give up my search when my eyes wandered back to the area where the different birds were. There seemed to be more choices than I had seen when I had first walked in, one caught my eye: it was simple, made up of three black ravens, all of them spreading their wings in flight but in three different sizes, like a mother, father and child. I knew immediately that this was the one, it was perfect.
Christina was still looking intently at the wall closer to the door and Tori was just finishing off with the client that had walked in earlier. I turned back and memorised the design of the three flying ravens and debated on where to have it.
I heard the door to the shop click shut, the bell chiming, and walked up to the counter, where Tori was writing down something intently.
"Tori."
"Yes Tris?" She said without looking up from her piece of paper.
"I think I've found it."
She seemed to know what I meant and her head snapped up in surprise. "Lets get to work then. What's it of? Where would you like it?"
"It's of three black ravens, all of them are flying with spread out wings and are in staggered sizes. I thought that they reminded me of my mother, father and brother. They signify them well." I said with confidence and a smile, pointing to the design drawn onto the wall.
"Where do you want it?" She asked again.
"Here." I said, pointing to my left collarbone. "I want them flying near my heart. Then they'll always be near me and with me." I said with another smile.
"Rightio. Give me ten to set things up." And with that, she walked to the back room.
Christina had walked over on the mention of me getting the tattoo, and I told her what it was with excitement. "Are you going to get one? " I asked.
"Oh I don't know Tris, I just cant decide!" She said spreading her arms and gesturing to the vast amount of designs to choose from.
"Is there anything that you can think of, that's not necessarily already on the walls? A fear?"
Christina zoned out for a moment then her eyes lit up. She clicked her finger in the air and sang; "Lightbulb!" in an opera-worthy voice.
"What is it?"
She seemed to look embarrassed at the thought of telling me. I nodded my head in encouragement. "Um, I'm kinda scared of moths..." She said hesitantly, rubbing her arm self-consciously.
"Christina! thats fine! Everybody's afraid of something, its nothing to be ashamed of. So, would you get a moth or a bug type thing?" I looked over at her, giving her a reasuring smile followed by a thumbs up. She smiled back, the corners of her eyes creasing.
"Do you think you'll get the birds?" She asked.
I looked over to the back room and saw Tori walking around with a concentrated look on her face. "Yeah, Tori's just-"
All of a sudden, the room turned black as pitch, not an inch of light visible.A siren started blaring, like the one's i'd heard about from the old days, an air raid siren. The only thing I could hear over the siren was complete rukus.
Tortured and terrified screams filled my ears.
