The next step of training was interesting, to say the least. It was apparently something done individually, as we spent most of the time sitting in a dark hallway, wondering what was behind the closed door.
Now that the Dauntless-born and transfers had been combined, I could see that Alicia and Alex bickered constantly. They were in a middle of a heated argument about who deserved to be ranked fourth. Alicia had ranked fourth while Alex was ranked fifth.
"It wasn't fair. I sneezed!" Alex protested about the fight against Alicia that had decided his fate as fifth.
"Always take every opportunity you can get. It'll save you one day," Alicia replied, winking at the rest of us. As Alex opened his mouth to reply, the door opened and his name was called.
The silence that resulted in the ending of Alex and Alicia's argument was quite uncomfortable. My brother had refused to tell me what the second stage of training was. "Ashley Coalter." After waiting what seemed like forever, my name was finally called. I stood up and entered the room. When I saw the needle Four was holding, I blanched, glaring at it suspiciously. I hated needles with a passion. When I mentioned it to Four, he couldn't help but smile. "I guess you can face your fears starting with this then," he commented while gesturing to the needle, which seemed to grow bigger by the minute.
The stab of the needle was the last thing I felt before I became immersed in the simulation. 'Of course the first fear I had to face is needles,' I groaned to myself as I opened my eyes and saw thousands of hands coming towards me, holding needles. I was unable to hold back a scream as I was stabbed with the first needle. 'This is- This is just a- just a simulation,' I think to myself. That didn't help me calm down, however. It was only when I forced myself to close my eyes and ignore the existence of the needles that I was able to calm down and awake from the horrible, horrible simulation.
Stage two was the worst. I faced all of my greatest fears. My family leaving me, not caring for me anymore. Becoming factionless. Not having any friends. Failing at anything and everything. The needles. There were more fears than I could list. Yes, while in the fear simulations, I knew they weren't real. Yet, I couldn't think of a rational way to defeat the fears. I practically had nightmares every night. They only stopped when I went to my brother's room to find comfort. He wasn't the best at verbal comfort, but his presence comforted me and made me feel safe.
When rankings were revealed, one of my worst fears almost became reality. Even though it shouldn't, it made me relieved that I didn't get an exceptional time in coming out of fear simulations. Just for ranking first, Tris suddenly became an outsider in Will and Christina's eyes.
"Congrats," I say to Tris, smiling at her. I had no hatred or jealousy towards her for doing well. After all, my high ranking from Stage One of training would make sure I got into Dauntless.
I was even more relieved when I learned the next day about what had almost happened to Tris. Just for ranking first, she was almost thrown into the chasm by Peter, Drew, and shockingly Al. Finding out that he was ranked last pushed him over the edge. I could barely stop myself from going to find him and beat him to death when I heard during breakfast about how he had been one of the conspirators against Tris. I could barely restrain myself from just taking a few easy steps and beating Peter to death. The only good thing about this whole ordeal, was that it brought Christina and Will back to Tris's side.