The rush I get is like nothing else, because one minute I'm standing on a moving train, and the next I'm flying through the air weightless as my body hurdles towards the rooftop. Over a gap between the moving train and the roof of supposed safety, the actual ground is more than 14 stories down, if I don't make this jump, I die. It's a relief when my feet hit the roof first, spraying gravel rocks around me and into the air. Then it's my knees that fall, slamming down into the small sharp rocks. Gravel flies to my face and already I feel the ache and burn from the cuts in my knees.
After I rise to my feet I let out an excited yell of triumph. I spin around to find Adrian, because I'm more than sure that she jumped off with me. But when I don't see her dark red hair, I start to panic."Cass!" I call, her dark head pops up and I turn to her, she landed and rolled it seems. "Where's Jamie?" I ask her, maybe he can help me find Adrian. She looks at me and shrugs her shoulders slightly as she moves to sit back and assess the rips in her jeans. Suddenly a pair of hands are on me, over my eyes and on my waist. A hot low deep voice is in my ear "You scared little princess?" I'm suddenly lifted off my feet before I can answer. A shriek escapes me as I'm ripped back off of my feet, his hands are around my wrists and another pair are on my ankles and legs, It's at this point where I start thrashing my body.
I think I end up slugging someone because I'm dropped to the gravel with the rocks digging in my back, and Aziel is holding his jaw above me. His head blocking the fierce sunlight. He's laughing but you can tell he's in pain, "You hurt little boy?" I mock him, he grins and helps me up. I look and see that Jamie was holding my ankles, he smacks his hands together, removing gravel and dirt. He shoves my shoulder and Aziel says to me while hugging me from behind, "You hit hard miss Aislin, my ears are still ringing."
"My mother was from Dauntless," I chuckle at him,
"Well," Cass says as she walks up. "That explains a lot, but look at what I found," My eyes rise and land on Adrians scraped and bruised face. Her dark glossy brown eyes meet my green ones and she manages a small smile. I look down and see that her legs, and arms are scraped up. Blood trickles down her right arm to her hand. I look at her feet and see that they are red and bare against the hot rocks, I look at Cass who is helping to hold her up. "I knew you could do it,"
"I found her hanging on the edge," I walk out of Aziels arms and wrap my own around Adrian. She huffs out a small laugh when I say "See that wasn't so hard," By now everyone has assessed the fall, so Aziel, James, and Cass lead the two of us to where the other transfers and Dauntless borns are. They are crowded around a ledge, a man, he is bulky wearing all black and has blonde hair. There is enough stainless steel on his body to give him an extra two pounds. His grey eyes land on me when he begins speaking, and throughout the speech he eyes my group specifically. A smirk planted on his face when he sees me, "My name is Eric!" He shouts over the wind, his voice is deep and dark, and it would be warm if he wasn't glaring at everyone. "I am a Dauntless leader, and I will help oversee part of your initiation training," He states as he walks along the ledge as if he won't plummet off the roof and fall to his death several stories below.
His eyes lock with mine as he says, "Behind me, is the only entrance to Dauntless. If you want in, and begin your training, you will jump," Everyone is silent, I look at Adrian who is shaking in fear, she almost didn't make the jump off the train and she has to jump off the same building into a shroud of darkness. Then my eyes find the city that surrounds us. The sky is partly cloudy but so blue apart from the blinding sun of midday. The view is like nothing else, and when the wind blows it's the only thing you hear. It chills your nose and ears because we're so high up. It's almost peaceful until Eric asks, "Any volunteers?" Not even the Dauntless born speak up. It's an almost eerie silence and I'm about to speak up when a deep loud musky voice sounds over my own, "Eric, I'll jump," He has his back to me as he walks up to the front form my left.
His shoulders broadened, stiff and strong, but his body is slim, like he's played some form of sport that involves agility. He steps up, looking down for a moment, then without a word he jumps, and as soon as both his feet leave the ledge he shouts all the way down. Hollering and laughing. Then he goes silent, we all hold our breath, until a few moments later a loud voice shouts, "First jumper! Rhett!" Then we hear cheering within the building and an excited smile finds my face. The Dauntless born up here cheer and one girl even screams "I love you Rhett!" as she jumps up and down. I laugh at them. They know how to let go.
Eric scans the crowd while saying "There will be one more volunteer, and after that, I pick who jumps," I glance at the ledge and I wonder how falling would feel. "I'll go," I say subconsciously, timidly. Eric's eyes land on me, and a malicious smirk plays on his lips. "Alright Amity, I was hoping you would," I walk forward, Eric places his hand at the small of my back, "Fact, I'm amazed you've made it this far," he whispers in my ear. I turn my head only slightly, my eyes fire against his icy steel eyes, I glare daggers at him and he seems taken aback. "See you at the bottom," I whisper back, against his skin, my voice lower than normal. His eyes widen slightly when I pull away, I jump before he says anything else. I jump for the sake of Dauntless yet again.
Falling is a very different feeling compared to jumping across or over something. It's an overly sensational feeling of plummeting to your unexpected impending doom. You don't feel suspended, and it's nothing at all like tripping and falling over your shoes. Air whips viciously around my ears, filling my mind with the sound that's similar to a train. My body is tilted, so my butt would land first, my plaid shirt whips up, almost off if it weren't for my sleeves. The wind is chilled and feels cool on my back, my hair gets unraveled. I'm engulfed in black and I know I've entered the building, I look at the indigo sky and I don't think I'll see it for a long time. The feeling is so serene that I almost think that I've missed the jump and died, until my body and back hits something hard and theres a loud snap. My body flies up and the wind is forced out of my lungs, not that there was any there in the first place.
I gasp and sputter as my back hits it again, a net. Searing pain rips through me to my head and through my shoulders. The pain spreads through my veins like a wildfire. I lay there a moment assessing the level of pain, waiting for my body to calm down. But my heart is pounding at a million miles per hour and my eyes are wide. I feel my chest rise and fall and Eric pokes his blonde head over the ledge. I feel the net tilt to my left and roll my body slightly looking at who's pulling it down. I get off and roll over, I scramble to my feet, a giddy feeling spreading up to my face as a laugh of hysteria escapes me. My body trembles with adrenalin so my legs aren't working, I trip over my own foot and fall into the arms of the Dauntless boy that jumped before me. He has his hands on my elbow and my waist. I giggle and remove my face from his chest, his soft sturdy chest. My eyes flicker to his face and I see a grin plastered to it. With a giggle I apologize "Sorry, thanks for catching me,"
"It's no problem, you're from Amity, right?"
"Yes, and you are?" Were so close we could be breathing each other's air, he smells like mint, maybe cinnamon -I can't say for sure- vanilla, and something strong, it's addicting. He grins at me again, showing white teeth, I notice the small silver ball at the bottom right corner of his mouth, "The name is Rhett. Good luck in here, Amity," my eyes find his, they're a soft green, with splashes of hazel in them. He removes his hands from me, and I miss his heat. It sends a shiver up my spine, so I just smile as he turns to walk into the darkness with the other Dauntless-born. "Watch yourself Amity," the Adrian says to me,
"Why?" I ask,
"Because boys like him only want one thing from girls like you," I don't know why, but when she says that, it ignites something in my chest, it's hot, it's squeezing me, and it hurts.
It's a good kind of pain.
We stand in the darkness watching, waiting while everyone goes through the fear of falling into a pit of dark. Each scream sounds different and when Jamie falls he bounces onto the ground, which is thankfully wood around the net rather than the rocks that look almost obsidian down here. We laugh and when Aziel falls he walks over to me, putting his arm around my slim shoulders. I smile up at him, the rings in his lips pulling slightly when he smiles. Soon we're all walking down a hall following Eric and another guy. They both stop after a minute or so, Eric turns, "You already know who I am, but this will be your instructor. For both Dauntless born and transfers, you're all lucky, this is the last year we're enforcing this," He somewhat glares at the man next to him, who is tall, tan skinned, dark haired, and his eyes are dark. "My name is Four, I will be your instructor for the few weeks that you will be here in Dauntless," He pauses, as if he expects someone to question him, but by the low way he speaks, he's the quiet type, I only hope that no one will have the nerve to test him.
Four nods and shows us around, following a path of dimly lit blue lights that flicker on and off. They make the pathway stick out in the right way, but the only other light is natural light, coming from a glass roof, there is a stairway carved into the side of the wall going up into a glass room. We don't go into the pit, we go straight to our dorm. Where we will get to know each other on a much closer level, there are twenty-seven of us. Eighteen Dauntless born leaving nine transfers. Adrian and I are of those nine, I look over my shoulder at her when Eric explains the ranking. She looks tired like she can't wait to fall into the beds presented to us. Eric and Four left after a few minutes of explanation and telling us the directions to the dining hall.
Aziel smiles at me before lifting me up and tossing me over his shoulder, I squeal like a girl and laugh while Cass drags Adrian into the dorms. He starts running in some direction with Jamie following, I'm gripping Aziels tight black shirt and laughing until I'm crying while he runs into the Pit. By the time we get to the piercing shop, my face hurts, Aziel is panting along with Jamie. I get put down, my hands are still on his shoulders and now I see his eyes, they are a dark purple, the inside laced with a gold hue, turning a grey and white turning to the purple the farther from the pupil it gets. I gasp softly. He stands up and runs a hand through his black hair before smiling at me, "You know miss Aislin, for an Amity girl, you are quite pretty," I smile back at him after wetting my lips. "I do hope you mean that in a friendly gesture,"
"Why whatever do you mean?" He grins and does this motion of tipping his hat to me, "Either way, my intentions are my own, in the meantime, now that you are part of Dauntless-"
"Initiation, Dauntless initiation," I correct him,
"Yes, for now, but I believe you should get a piercing," I stare at him a moment, won't that hurt? Instead of asking I laugh at him, "Oh no, no way, I'm not ready for that, but I'll watch you," He seems satisfied with that as he takes my hand and leads me in there. I'm shocked when I'm met with violet lights and dark marble counters with glass screens protecting any studs or gages to pick from. Then there's another side that just sells body jewelry, like navel and facial piercings. Theres a guy getting up from the chair with his silver ball in his right corner of his lower lip replaced with a ring. His eyes lock with mine and again the dark green paralyzes me. He walks up to me and stops, glancing at my hand locked with Aziels. His breath is again warm on my face and it seems that we keep meeting up, almost on accident. "Aislin," He says questionably, I nod and respond formally "Rhett,"
"You're here to get your skin permanently punctured?" He asks me, only, looking at me. I feel Aziel tense next to me when Rhett continues, "Any other places that you need popped into and permanently there?" I'm confused at first, but by the expression on Aziels face I understand what he's intending, "Do you really think that I'm going to sleep with you?" And suddenly I'm out of Aziels grip and pinned to the shop wall with everyone watching, his hands gripping my shoulders and upper arms, his grip is not light like it was before. When he smirks my father comes to mind and I glare at him, at all of the handsome and perfect features of this boy. He leans into me, whispering, "We could do it here," My eyes widen and I shove him off of me into the counter, he laughs. "C'mon baby, I was only kidding, don't be like that," He tries taking a step towards me and I take one back.
Not a very Dauntless move, but he's trained how to fight when he was born here. He's probably been in this situation before, and gotten what he wanted. "You touch me again and I'll make sure your boys can't give you what you want," He only glances down.
"And if I kiss you?" He tests,
"I'll rip out that fucking ring in your lip," I'm surprised by my own actions, I've never cursed before, let alone threatened someone. Is this what Dauntless is like? Rude and disturbing? I don't want to be a part of that. Rhett stands there, staring at me with a slight smirk on his face, and then his eyes catch Aziel, who has his hand on my back, and Jamie, who continues to clench and unclench his fists. Rhett nods slowly and steps toward me, enough to smell me, "Aislin, I'll have you know I'm not as bad as you think, hell you might even like it," I glare daggers at him hoping they are licking at his skin and just cutting enough to go red. When I remain silent he backs off, walking out he says "I'm sure I'll see you around, initiate," We all hold our breath until we're sure he's gone. Aziel hugs me and tells me, "Promise me you won't ever let him touch you," I nod.
"I promise," He smiles into my shoulder, even though he's about 5'10". Then he pulls away and says, "M'lady are you ready to watch a Sir scream like a girl?" I laugh and nod, letting him sit in the chair, he wants to get the top of his ear done, with a small ring in both, she wipes on the antiseptic and gets the gun ready, he tenses up and I hold his hand, feeling how cold and clammy it is. Then the click goes off after the count of three and a loud yelp echoes off the stone walls. Gotta love Dauntless.
I am so sorry this is late. And I need help with 'Lights'! Writers block, ehhhh pleassseeee...