"Alright listen up, I'm Eric one of your leaders" A man calls out, walking along a ledge as if it was nothing, "If you want to enter Dauntless this is the way in, and if you don't have the guts to jump, then you don't belong in Dauntless" Small murmurs break out through the crowd of initiates, clearly nobody too keen on going first.
"Well somebody has to go first, who's it gonna be?" Eric asks with a slight smirk on his face. Hugo takes a slight step forward but grab his wrist to stop him going any further. He gives me a confused look but stays still. A couple of Dauntless born volunteer and eventually everyone starts to follow. The group of Dauntless members don't hang around for long and jump down once only about half the initiates remain. At this point I nudge Hugo forward deeming it safe enough for him to jump.
I watch the rest of the initiates jump its mostly just transfers left, and soon its me and Eric left on the roof. No putting it off any longer I step gingerly onto the ledge, then quickly step back down again. Taking a deep breath, I step up onto the ledge again, before stepping back down again. Why did it have to be heights? I think to myself, the adrenaline from before having worn off and the fear coming back full force.
I walk away from the ledge and pace around the roof. I have to do this, Its just one jump, its perfectly safe, I tell myself. But I still can't do it.
"Why'd you not let him go earlier?" I jump slightly at his voice and look over at Eric confused. " The other Abnegation, he was going to jump first but you stopped him" he clarifies.
"I wouldn't put it past Dauntless to kill off the first few" I say shrugging slightly, "to teach a lesson about blindly following orders, and once the others jumped clearly it wasn't a trap"
"Makes sense" I look over to him briefly him slightly shocked at the hint of approval in his voice. I step back onto the ledge determined to not let Hugo down. I shut my eyes and drop.
After what feels like forever, I hit a net and am helped onto my feet by another Dauntless member.
"Name?", he asks as he helps me out the net.
"Rowan" I mutter quickly before making my way over to my brother. Rowan was my formal name, only my mother and brothers ever called me Rory.
"Finally, I was starting to think you were never coming down" He teases lightly, pulling me into a hug.
Hugo introduces me to the small group of initiates, a mix of both transfers and dauntless-borne he's been chatting, I give them a small smile but don't join the conversation. I look around me, just observing the other initiates. I watch as Eric lands onto the net and easily makes his way over to the other three members standing near the net, looking away before he notices me.
"My name's Four" the guy from the net introduces himself, the initiates falling into silence, "this is Lauren and Jac" each of the women giving a slight wave as he says their names. "And you've already met Eric" he doesn't wave, instead he stands stoically staring everyone down. "Dauntless-borne go with Lauren and Jac, I hope you don't need a tour by now".
The Dauntless-borne follow after Lauren and Jac off to god knows where chatting to one another. The group of us transfers are the complete opposite, everyone deadly silent as we follow Four round the halls of the compound, Eric bringing up the rear. By the time we get to the pit everyone has settled a bit and the rest of the group is making small conversation with the people nearby. Hugo is chatting to Jamie, the only other transfer I knew the name of, the two of them had been best mates since birth. I trail behind the group, just wanting to find a bed go to sleep. We move on from the Pit and I can here run water coming from somewhere, as we round the corner I see why.
"This is the chasm, a jump off here will end your life," Eric speaks up for the first time since the rooftop "Its happened before, it'll happen again"
"Who would want to jump off here?" the annoying amity girl from before questions.
"Who wouldn't" I mumble absentmindedly to no one, peering off the edge.
"Do me a favour and at least wait till after initiation" I look up at Eric, I didn't think anybody had heard me "Gives me less paperwork".
I let out a small laugh at the wry remark despite myself and carry on over the bridge shaking my head slightly. Finally, we get to a room with beds, and I silently rejoice.
"This the dorms..." Four says as we get further into the room.
"Girls or Boys?" someone interrupts
"Both" Four says with a smirk, "Oh and if you like this, you're gonna love the bathroom" Chuckling at the look of disgust on some of the transfer's faces.
"There's sets of clothes in the storage room, you've got 30 mins before we come back and show you the mess hall" Four points to another door on one wall as he leaves the room. I am the first to get new clothes and get changed quickly, trying not to think about who could be watching. As the others follow suit, I look around at the beds. All of them except one are bunk beds, I take the single bed on its own in the corner furthest away from the door.
I collapse onto the bed; I don't even bother to get under the covers. I'm out like a light, not caring that I'll probably miss dinner.