The ceremony is today. Last night, I didn't have dinner with Marcus like I normally do. Like I have to. Instead, I went straight to my room and thought over my decisions some more. But it didn't take long for me to fully convince myself of what I am going to do. I've known what I'm going to do for a long time, since before my brother left. And that is to leave Abnegation. And I know where I'm going.

We walk up the stairs, behind the Prior family. I've never properly met them, only seen them a couple of times. Marcus eats dinner with them every so often, but I don't go over. Tobias did the same before he left. We shuffle up the stairs, our feet hitting the ground in sync until we reach the top floor.

We enter a room with black, glass walls. Inside, there are three rings, formed by railings. The one in the center is made up of five bowls, all with a symbol on it so faint and small I can't see it from where I stand. With a railing between the sections, surrounding it are chairs, all being raised a bit with each new row, split into five sections. One section has grey seats for the Abnegation. Another, to the left of Abnegation, are red chairs for Amity. To the left of that are white chairs for Candor. Left of that is blue chairs for Erudite. And in front of me are black chairs for Dauntless. Around the last row of chairs is a railing and a few, short steps higher than the chairs is the last row, which is of all my classmates standing in a circle, a mix of grey, black, white, red, orange, blue, and yellow.

Marcus leaves me at the doorway to find his seat across the room. I stand there for a few minutes before finding my spot in line, in between an Erudite boy and an Amity girl. I stare straight ahead as everyone finds their seats. Marcus stands up and walks to the center of the bowls and takes the microphone from Jeanie Matthews. He gives the usual speech about how the Factions were formed. I zone out like I normally do when he talks. Well, whenever he talks and isn't beating me.

I stay in my thoughts for a long time, my eyes trained on the unique glass ceiling above us, how the sunlight filters the complex glass design, and how it casts a dark shadow on everything. After a while, I feel movement from the right and I turn to see the Erudite boy walking down the steps. He cuts his palm and places it over the hot coals, the Dauntless bowl. Marcus announces it and he moves to stand behind the Dauntless.

"Grace Eaton." I take a deep breath and as I exhale, step forward and down to him. I feel everyone's eyes on me and I want to shrink into a ball and hide, away from the attention and away from having to choose in front of Marcus. He already loathes me. This will only give him more reason to.

I reach him all to quickly and he holds out a knife. My knife. The knife I, and only I, will use to mark my blood on one of these bowls. I intended long ago that I wouldn't look anyone in the eye, make it seem like a selfish thing, that I'm ashamed to leave. But I don't. I take the knife, not looking at it. I feel the cold metal handle against my palm, but I only stare into his dark blue eyes that perfectly match mine.

I stare at him as the knife glides over my left palm. I only stop looking at him when I walk over to the Dauntless bowl and let my blood drop onto the coals, sizzling until it can't be seen anymore. "Dauntless," he says. I hand him back the knife, looking him dead in the eye again before taking the napkin and pressing it to my bleeding hand and moving to stand next to that Erudite boy again.

"Are you alright?" he asks once I stand next to him. "You weren't focused earlier and you're tense now."

"I'm fine," I reply, a bit more curtly than I intended.

"I'm Will Edgar," he says, holding out his hand before drawing it back. "Oh, right. Abnegation. You don't shake hands."

"I'm not Abnegation anymore. I'm Dauntless."

"It'll take a while to get used to that," he says, facing the front again, watching the next person, a Candor girl, chose Candor.

"It won't. It didn't take my brother long." I feel his gaze shift to me for a minute before shifting back as another person, an Amity boy walks up and chooses Erudite.

"Lot of transfers." I keep my mouth shut on this one. I don't feel like talking, mainly because if I do keep talking, my semi-rant will turn into a full one. After a few more go, at least three more choosing Dauntless from another Faction, we are pushed out, taking the stairs again, the Dauntless-born like maniacs. I look around. Ten of us are from a different Faction. I can't tell how many are Dauntless-born. The adults and children are wild and crazy.

Someone hits my shoulder as they run down the stairs. Apparently, I'm slower than them. I pick up my speed so as not to be left behind and to not get hit again. Someone else, however, lands on top of me and we roll down the last few stairs, taking down a few others. "Sorry," I mutter helping as many people up as possible. Five others were on the ground, all Dauntless-born. The only other was a Candor girl with chocolate brown skin and short, black hair.

"Sorry about that. I was trying to see how close we were to the bottom. I guess we were close. What's your name? I'm Christina." I stare at her, my eyes wide, as she takes my arm and pulls me through the door after she stood up. She said it so quickly, I don't know how she was able to breathe.

"It's fine. It was partially my fault. I guess I wasn't going fast enough. And I'm Grace."

"Well, Grace, do you know what we are doing? Or where we are going?"

I stop and stare at the people ahead of us, heading in the opposite direction of where I normally go. "No, I do not."

"Let's go find out." She takes off in a run and I follow after a second. I don't care that my legs hurt a bit or that my breathing is getting heavier and my lungs burn more with every second. That won't matter soon, at least. Dauntless training should make me stronger and have better endurance. About fifteen minutes later, we reach the train tracks. Everyone has stopped. A train whistle sounds in the distance and a few seconds later, the train arrives, running down the railway. It looks slow compared to what we learned about how fast they can go, up to five hundred kilometers per hour. This one, is slower though, reaching about the speed of a human. It seems to inch towards us until it's blowing my hair back and the others start running after it. One jumps up and hits a button on the side, opening a door. We're jumping in.

I follow them, running alongside the train until I reach an open door. I jump and grab the handle, somehow not falling, and pull myself inside and away from the door. Instead, I sit, my back against the wall in between two doors. Another Abnegation girl, the only other one now that I look around, sits down next to me, Christina on her other side.

"I believe Dauntless Headquarters, but I don't know where that is," the Abnegation girl says. I look at her and realize it's Beatrice Prior.

"I don't think anyone knows where that is," Christina comments. "They basically just appear and disappear. Hey, Grace, you made it too. Beatrice, this is Grace, the only other Stiff here."

I give a shy smile. I already knew who she was, but I doubt she knows me. "You're Marcus' daughter, aren't you?" Nope. She knows. I nod my head slowly, keeping my eyes on the ground. "Why'd you transfer? According to Susan, you'd fit perfectly with Abnegation."

I don't respond right away. I can't give her the normal answer. She'll look at me weirdly for the rest of the time I know her like I need to be protected at all times and that I should be pitied. I don't need to be pitied. "My brother transferred to Dauntless," I say, deciding to give at least part of the truth, "and I have an aptitude for Dauntless. Why else would I transfer?"

"Oh. You must be like Caleb, my brother. He transferred to Erudite." Even though it's covered, I notice the venom when she said "Erudite" like it was a filthy thing that she shouldn't even touch.

"Hey, they're jumping off." I glance at Christina, who has her head poked out the door.

"Are they crazy?" Beatrice asks, also glancing out the door.

"Yes, and we are too if we want to pass initiation. Come on," I say, stepping up to the door and jumping as soon as the building is across from me. I roll on my side until the momentum wears off, gravel digging into my arms, legs, and face. After a few seconds, I stand up, leaving divets in my palms from the gravel, and watch as Beatrice and Christina jump off, also falling over. Christina starts to laugh before pushing herself up, Beatrice following her.

I look around, on the other side of the roof stand a boy and a girl, Dauntless-born, the boy holding the girl as she weeps. I can't understand a word she's saying, but when I step forward to see what she is crying about, I see a deformed body lying on the pavement five stories below. "Alright, listen up." I pull away and look at who spoke. A middle-aged man with dark skin stands on the edge of the building, just to the left of where the body lays. I tense at how close he is to be like her. "Welcome to Dauntless, where we will test your strength and bravery. First up, jump off the building here."

Everyone looks at him like he's crazy, even the Dauntless-born. I guess they have never done this before. "Did I suddenly grow two heads? One of you volunteer to jump off I will push one of you off."

"I'll do it." I glance toward Beatrice, who is stepping forward, shedding her grey jacket to reveal the standard grey shirt all Abnegations wear. She throws it to a Candor transfer who had commented at her taking the jacket off, which I roll my eyes. She walks up to the man and stands on the ledge. She stands there for a few seconds before jumping. How she had the nerve to do it, I don't know.

"Alright," the man says, facing us again. "Who's next?"

I raise my hand before I can think anything through. Beatrice has to be okay. "I'll go." I'm surprised at my nerve, but I can't back down now.

"Stiff number two. Let's see what she does," the Candor boy says. I throw him a look before stepping on the ledge as well. I take a deep breath, grab my skirts so they won't go flying up, and jump.