hahahahahhaha sorry. it took a while. love ya.

Azure x

I had never imagined the Dauntless compound but I'm pretty certain that if I had it wouldn't look like this. Our group walks down the hallway into low ceilinged passageways where blue lights like those in the Hub illuminate spots of light on the ground and an echoing sound of water dripping reverberates through the walls. Zeke smirks as we shuffle forward, then, he stops and gestures for everyone to come forward. As we move into the light the thing we stopped for becomes clear, down below us, a huge space filled with light and the noise of people talking fills my eyes.

"This," says Zeke, "is the Pit, you will one day learn to love it."

Pit is a good way to describe the space before us, it's deep and wide and the walls are dotted with platforms that are the entrances to shops and some residences, leading to these platforms are thin steel walkways, some of them many metres off the ground, none of these have railings. On the bottom of the Pit a crowd swarms where people laugh talk and drink. Small children run along the walkways and the Dauntless yell and whoop as people pull stunts and accept dares. The sight itself, the atmosphere, it's so Dauntless that I can't help but smile.

Above the pit one of the buildings that we saw from the outside towers massively, a tremendous structure made of nothing but glass.

"That," Zeke continues, pointing at the tower. "-is the Pire. You'll have more to do with it later."

I we keep walking, down into the Pit and towards a hallway where you could hear the echoing crash of water pounding rock, Zeke takes our group forward over an iron pathway over a pure black abyss. There must be a river running down the bottom of there. I'm right, there's an almighty crash and then a flurry of cold water sprays up from the hole, the path that leads over the hole has small rails around it, but it would be only too easy for someone to get around them if they were in danger, suicidal or intoxicated.

"This is the chasm." He says with another smirk. "Don't be an idiot and jump off, you will die, it's happened before."

"Who would be an idiot enough to jump?" says an incredulous voice from the back, it's the Erudite transfer with the olive skin. Kurt. I silently agree but it was a stupid thing to voice out loud, Zeke looks less than pleased.

"Since when were the Erudite smart mouths? Leave it to the Candor please. Though to answer your question would be several people." Zeke hesitates then continues. "- My instructor through initiation, Alb…" he begins before stopping hurriedly. "…A boy in my brothers initiate class, not to mention many people who can't deal with the stress of initiation. So- Kurt? Is it? You don't have to be an idiot to end up in the chasm. Got it?"

"Yes." Kurt replies, eyes downcast.

Zeke smiles. "Don't freak yourself out transfer, most people make it." He says.

We keep walking, the lights grow brighter reveal what is clearly a mess hall, we walk in to many stares from the Dauntless and find empty tables, there aren't any, Esther by my side, we stroll through the rows and find a table, Dan's table, he sits with Maddy, Jack, Ben, Dominica, Stanley and Tamsin. Dan calls out to us.

"Hey Amber- Esther! Sit down, have a burger." He smiles at Esther tentatively as she takes a seat.

Stanley speaks up for the first time.

"Esther? What a Stiff name." he says cuttingly.

I look at him, disgusted.

"What's your problem Stan Hayes?" Maddy spits. "You are soooo like your dad. From what I've heard, he was a dumbass as well."

Esther blushes and stared at the stone floor of the mess hall, her blonde hair hiding her face as she tentatively picks up a piece of beef and turns it around in her fingers. Dan gives Stanley a look of venom. I pick my food carefully as I add ingredients to my burger, lettuce, onion, tomato and cheese, plain, simple. Vegetarian. I get a side of fries and then cover them in tomato sauce. The lack of meat makes me feel in touch with the part of me that is still Amity. The Amity part wants to tell Stanley off, I would have, but the Dauntless streak reminds me of my place, this is a new world for me. It's a new world for many people.

Olympia and Celeste walk towards our table together.

"Can we join your table?" Olympia asks

"Sure." Dominica replies "There's exactly room for two more."

Olympia sits down next to Maddy and the two grin at one-another, as an Amity, one thing we were always taught to look out for was for signs of friendship and conflict. There was friendship going to happen here.

Celeste, on the other hand stares at her food, sitting on the other side of the table. She looks away from Olympia on purpose, I notice that she hasn't taken any meat either. I look at her enquiringly.

"Vegetarian?" I ask. She smiles, her face, which I see for the first time is thin, with an upturned nose and fair, freckly skin. Her eyes are so dark that they're nearly black, her eyelashes are long and reach almost up to her thin, near-perfect eyebrows. She has straight brown hair which is cut just above her shoulders. She looks tense, barriered. The barriers break away when she sees me. I don't know why but she relaxes herself. She's pretty. I think.

"yeah." She replies with a crooked, wry smile.

We both bite into our burgers and eat in silence, slowly, the crowds trickle out of the mess hall and the amount of people left dwindles.

When our table's finished we stand. I notice that both Celeste and Esther stay close to me. In front of me Maddy, Olympia and Jack hop about and joke. Esther drops back and walks with Dan. She talks to him and they smile and giggle at one-another. There's another up-and-coming friendship.

Somewhere on our way back through the maze of corridors that I am sure I will never learn, the Dauntless born leave us. Led by Zeke we make our way to a small room filled with bunks. I dash in. I always had a thing for heights, I love them, I grab the top bunk of a bed in the corner. Esther beneath me. Celeste on the bottom, next to Esther. Olympia above her.

It could have been seconds, minutes or possibly hours later. Everyone is asleep. Almost everyone. From beneath me I hear a sigh. Esther. I follow my Amity intuition and enquire as to what the problem is.

"You ok Esther?" I query.

"Yeah." She responds. "Just do me a favour, call me Essie."

I smile.

"Sure thing."

And with that, I sleep as peacefully as the Amity.


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X Azure