A/N- so, I took my regents yesterday and am officially done with school for the summer. Yay!
My focus for this summer is going to be writing. I will be trying to write as often as I possibly can. I've also written 371 words of my epilogue to Afire Love and 259 words of the prologue to one of my future stories, Cold Coffee. Hopefully those will be able to be uploaded in the near future. Would you prefer me to upload the prologue or epilogue first?
Disclaimer- I don't own anything
"Everyone, up!" I yell to the initiates from the door of the dormitory. "Fear landscapes today!"
I hear a few groans from some of the initiates, but the others just willingly climb out of bed, most likely just hopeful and worried about stage three today. Only one of them is leaving us for the Factionless today, though. Unless they've repetitively been having bad times, none of them should be worried. Except for the fact they will be facing their worst nightmares today.
"Caleb, can I talk to you for a second?" I ask, seeing my brother rushing to get some clothes to change into.
He looks at me. "Yeah, sure."
I step away from the door, waiting for Caleb to join me.
"What do you need?"
"Shh." I silence him and we walk down the hall, outside the compound where I know there aren't cameras.
Caleb looks confused. "What is it, Tris?" He asks.
"The fear landscapes today. You don't need to hide anything. You will feel the same as you did during the hallucinations in stage two. Everyone is going to feel that way though today. Got it?"
Caleb nods. "Just get through the fear like I wanted to during the other simulations?"
"Yeah. You're going to do fine. Don't worry."
"Thanks, Tris." Caleb wraps his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head. "Thank you so much for helping me."
I hug him tighter and don't say anything, knowing that the emotions I put into the hug were better than anything words could say.
"I should probably get going." I whisper, pulling away. "I have to help set up for later."
"Are you going to see the fear landscapes?"
I shake my head. "Just leaders. Excluding Uri because he's also an instructor." I reply.
He nods. "Okay. I'll see you later?"
"Of course. Good luck. You don't really need much luck though. You'll do great."
"Thanks, Tris."
I give Caleb one last side hug. "Bye, little bro."
I walk Caleb back into the compound and leave him in the dormitory. I head down to the dining hall and grab a muffin to eat on the way to the simulation room. I'm already running late. I don't have time for a sit down breakfast.
The area near the room is already quite full and busy when I arrive there. Many Dauntless like to crowd around the room and watch the clock that shows how long the initiate has been in the simulation. You can also see the monitored heart rate the initiate has, which gives away when the initiate begins and ends each fear.
I push through all of the people and let myself into the room.
"Tris!" Uriah yells when he sees me. "Come over here."
I walk over to Uriah quickly, knowing that I can't waste more time. "Yeah? What do you need?"
"A life." Uriah bursts out laughing. "Just kidding. I'm not you."
I send a death glare to him.
"Just kidding. I need you to grab the extra syringes from the other room."
I groan. "Fine."
I turn and leave the room and walk down the three hallways to where the other simulation room is, the one for stage two. All of the extra syringes are kept there just in case some idiot loses the other ones for stage three. There isn't a difference, but the leaders like to say there is to make this more dramatic than it already is if someone loses them because the leaders are extremely stupid.
And that idiot is obviously Uriah because he's a major dumbass.
I grab the box filled with about ten syringes and carry it back up to the other simulation room. When Uriah sees me with the box, he smiles.
"Thanks!" He exclaims. "I kinda lost the other syringes."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I kinda figured that."
Uriah flips me off before taking the box and putting it next to the computer that will operate the serum once it is injected into the initiate. There is a large screen connected to the computer where the leaders will be able to watch.
After about fifteen minutes, the leaders shove Uriah and I outside to call in the first initiate for the simulation. In this stage, the order is from the worst ranking initiate from stage two to the top ranker, so first would be one of the Dauntless borns, Mia, and last would be Tobias.
I look around the crowded space and see that the chairs that are for the initiates only are completely filled with initiates, and I notice that Caleb is sitting on Spencer's lap, with Spencer's arms wrapped around Caleb, protectively.
"Mia." Uriah says. "You're up."
Mia shakily stands up from her seat and walks through the path the Dauntless made for her to the room. About a minute after she enters the room, the timer on the wall starts and so does her heart rate monitor. This isn't good. She's already panicking.
"Who do you think will get out of the simulation the quickest?" Uriah whispers to me, leaning down to me. "I think it will be Zeke."
I shake my head. "I bet it will be the Stiff."
"You willing to bet a Dauntless cake on it?"
I nod. "It's on." We shake hands and turn our attention back to Mia.
Almost a half hour later, Mia is finally out of the landscape and I call in the next initiate. After a few hours, it I call Caleb's name. He gets up from Spencer's lap and giving Spencer one last kiss, he walks into the room.
I watch the timer and heart monitor intensely, praying that Caleb will finish soon through the entire time. I can't even see him facing his fears, but I still hate seeing my brothers heart speeding so much.
He was incredible, though. Caleb was only in the simulation for 14 minutes and 27 seconds and appeared to only have ten fears. That does not happen often. As soon as he leaves the room, I rush over to him and embrace him.
"Congratulations. You did incredible!" I tell him.
"T-thanks." He replies with a shaky voice.
"It's okay. Calm down. It's over now."
Caleb nods. "Thanks for helping me through this, Tris."
He gives me one last hug before leaving me and jumping into Spencer's arms and kissing him.
I turn myself away and stop watching them. "Stiff." I call. "You're up last."
Tobias looks over at me and we make eye contact before I give him an encouraging look and he stands up. The Dauntless all part and make a path for him for one final time. Tobias disappears into the room, and I turn to the clock. I feel so bad for him. All of the leaders are going to find out about Marcus.
I shake the thoughts out of my head and watch the speeding and slowing of Tobias's heart rate.
To everyone's shock, the timer freezes after 7 minutes and 41 seconds. Everyone is in too much shock to even cheer for Tobias. That is the fastest anyone has ever gotten through their fear landscape. And it only appeared that he had four fears.
I turn to look at Uriah. He is in just as much shock as I am. How did Tobias do that?
The entire crowed erupts in cheers, making me turn to the door that is now open and Tobias is emerging from it, seeming to be shocked from all of the cheers and applause he is receiving.
I immediately push my way through the crowd over to him.
"Can we go to your place?" He whispers to me. I nod and we hurry away from everyone to my apartment.
"How did you do that?" I ask once we are safely inside my apartment.
Tobias shrugs. "I don't know. I only had to face four fears."
"That is insane." I mutter. "The lowest ever before this was my seven. Four fears his unheard of. You're a legend, Tobias!"
"Thanks, Tris."
"How were their reactions to your one fear?"
Tobias knows I'm talking about his fear of Marcus. "They all looked pretty shocked. I'm not surprised. No one said anything though."
"They're not allowed to discuss anyone's fears."
"I'm extremely grateful for that."
I nod. "I am too." I glance at the clock on my wall. "There's two hours until the ceremony. Do you want to stay here until then?"
Tobias nods.
"Okay. Let's go lay down."
Tobias and I lay down on my bed together, his arms wrapped tightly around me.
"Congratulations, Four."
A/N- this chapter was slightly rushed because I procrastinated for so long, but it is a long chapter so yay I think?
I don't know if I'll be able to update my Harry Potter fanfic tomorrow. My grandparents may be visiting and I also have a gymkhana (a horse barrel racing show) that I will be spending a few hours at which is going to be fun, but I don't think I'll find the time to write. Sorry again.
Thanks for reading. I love you guys. Bye.
