Hey guys! I am really appreciating the amount of favs, follows, and reviews! Let's try to get at least 5 or so reviews each chapter!
And yes, I am continuing the song thing.
I do not own anything by LMFAO.
YEAH, YEAH, WHEN I WALK ON BY, TRIS BE LOOKIN LIKE DAMN HE FLY, I PIMP TO THE BEAT, TRYING NOT TO FALL OR TRIP ON MY FEET, THIS IS HOW I ROLL, DAUNTLESS PRODIGY NUMBER FOUR, ITS THAT GUY WITH FOUR FEARS, THEY LIKE HOW SEXY I AM EVEN MY EARS... (I have no idea I'm bored.)
IM SEXY AND I KNOW IT!
Chapter IV. The Tour and Dormitory
BEATRICE
Six turns to us. His hair is quite short for a Dauntless, it is a cut I see on Abnegation men. He doesn't seem to have as many tattoos and piercings as other Dauntless. He has a tattoo of three ravens near his collarbone, the Dauntless flames on his shoulder, and the Abnegation insignia on his left shoulder. His tank top revealing them, and his abs. I understand most of the tattoos, but-
Why would he have some Abnegation apparel?
"Most of the time I work as a Faction Ambassador to the Abnegation, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor. My name is Six." Explains his style.
"Six? Like the number?" Christina from my side asks. Just control your inner Candor Christina…
"Yes," Six states blankly. "Is there a problem?"
"No." Christina starts to get nervous, because her pitch drops slightly.
"Good." He continues.
"We're about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It-" Christina cuts him off again.
"The Pit? Clever name."
I fear for Christina.
Six leans into Christina, entering Christina's personal bubble. I can see her slowly shrinking in fear.
"What's your name?" Six asks, slowly and quietly. I gulp.
"Christina." She whimpers with a squeak.
"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would've joined their faction." I nod. True. "The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?" Christina nods so quickly, it looks like her head is going to pop off.
Six turns around and continues walking. We follow him.
"What a jerk." Christina mumbles.
"I guess he doesn't like to be laughed at."
She frowns. "Well neither do I, shut up!" I roll my eyes with a small smile.
Six pushes open a set of double stone doors, and we walk into the pit. It's amazing. It seems to be the heart of the Dauntless compound. There are people running around everywhere, countless shops, at which Christina lets out a small squeal. She seems to be the girly-girl shopaholic type. Great. I am snapped out of my trance by Six's next words.
"If you follow me, I'll show you the chasm." He waves us forward. We walk to a large hole, with churning water pouring down. I look over the edge-I see the bottomless hole that seems to be a dark abyss- and yelp and step back. I blush as I notice that I embarrassed myself. Luckily, everyone, including Christina, is too busy being fascinated with the chasm to notice. I sigh.
"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" The water is so loud, Six has to yell for us to hear. "A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You've been warned."
I am astonished. I look around to see the other initiate's reactions. Most of them look wary, as they scoot closer to the wall and farther from the ledge. Christina and I both exchange a look of wonder.
Six leads us away from the chasm.
"This is incredible." Christina says, breathless.
"Incredible is the word." I agree.
We are lead through an archway and are greeted with the Dauntless, cheering and banging their fists against the table, cheering for us. Christina and I exchange a smile. We search for empty seats, and I find myself between Christina and Six. I stare at the platter in front of me. It contains a circular piece of meat wedged between two pieces of bread.
Six nudges me with his elbow. I wince. He looks like he noticed it, but doesn't seem to let it show. "It's beef. Put this on it." He passes me a bowl of red sauce.
"You've never had a hamburger before?!" Christina asks incredulous. I resist the urge to laugh, because she looks like it's a miracle that I am alive.
"No. Is that what it's called?" I ask, holding it in my hand.
"Stiffs eat plain food." Six tells Christina, who seems to understand.
"Why?" She asks.
I shrug. "Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary." I smirk.
"No wonder you left." She rolls her eyes.
Her question makes me feel sad. I left to get away from Marcus. I'm a coward. I don't let my sadness show, even though I want to break down crying. I roll my eyes. "Yeah, it was just because of the food." I see Six in the corner of my eye failing to hide a smile.
Suddenly, all conversations in the dining hall cease. I look at the door. I see Eric walk in. His cold, lifeless eyes scare me. They remind me of the black pits Marcus has for eyes.
"I forgot to ask, how old is Eric? He seems like he's just our age." Christina asks.
"He's eighteen." Six replies.
I am shocked, but I do not let it show. Christina, however, it show-jaw dropped- loud and proud. "Seriously? But he's so young!"
Six glares at her. "Age doesn't matter here." Eric comes up to us and sits by Six, who tenses. I take in a gulp of fear.
"Well aren't you going to introduce me?" He asks, nodding toward Christina and I.
"This is Christina and um… she doesn't have a name." I tense, I forgot I do not have a name, beside my real one, which I do not think I'll be sharing with anybody. It connects me with my past.
Eric smirks. "Ooh, a Stiff. Last jumper right?" I nod, flushing of embarrassment. I feel uncomfortable. "We'll see how long you last." I open my mouth to tell him off, but I don't; in my instinct, I've been used to obey intimidating people for six years.
Eric taps his fingers on the table. The fighting wounds on them look like they are going to burst any moment.
"What've you been doing lately, Six?" Six shrugs, his muscles tensed.
"Nothing, really." I furrow my eyebrows. Are they friends? I highly doubt it. The tension is so thick, it could be cut with a knife.
"Max tell me that he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don't show up. He requested that I find out what's going on with you." Eric bares an accusing look towards Six.
"Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold." Position?
"So he wants to give you a job." Eric states. Six looks at him with a look that says, 'Just Shut up.'
"So it would seem," Six replies evasively.
"And you aren't interested." It seems like Eric is afraid of Six threatening his leadership position.
"I haven't been interested for two years."
"Well, let's hope he gets the point then." He claps Six on the shoulder a little too hard to be friendly. More like stating his dominance. I slouch. I can't hold in my curiosity.
"Are you two… friends?"
"We were in the same initiate class. He transferred from Erudite."
"Were you a transfer too?" Christina asks.
He sighs. "Yes. My name is Tobias, but don't call me that during initiation." We nod in approval.
I am shocked. "Wait, you're Tobias Prior? First transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless?"
He nods. "Yes. Looks like you're the second." We smile.
-o0o-
By the time lunch is over, I've eaten five hamburgers. In Abnegation, I hadn't eaten anything for awhile. I take a sip of water.
"Damn! How do you eat that much but don't get fat?!" Christina exclaims.
"I haven't eaten anything for a while." And by a while, around a few days or so. I haven't really counted.
"Oh."
"Initiates!" We turn to Tobias, who stands beside Eric.
"Come on, let's go Christina."
"We should get tattoos." Christina and I are in a heated conversation about tattoos. We are following Six and Eric once again. We stop. Tobias and Eric turn to face us.
"This is where you will be sleeping for initiation. Follow us."
They disappear down the staircases. We follow them. The room is large, with five beds on each side of the room. It isn't much, really. Tobias explains to us about the schedule and about a box filled with training necessities under our beds.
"If you love this, you'll love the bathrooms." Eric says, sarcastically. We follow him down another door. The bathroom is just ten faucets, ten toilet stalls with no doors, and several showers with no doors. Great. "I'll leave you to it." Tobias and Eric leave.
We turn to each other. "Anyone up for a shower?" Peter jokes, making us all laugh.
I take a shower once everyone is sleeping in the dormitory. The hot water burns against my bruises and cuts that reopened after jumping into the net. I crawl out of the bathroom, change back into my Abnegation dress, and go to sleep.
-o0o-
I wake up and find myself in pitch black. I look around and I am stuffed into the closet. But how? I was in the Dauntless compound. The door squeaks open. I come face to face with Marcus. "You shouldn't have disobeyed me Beatrice." He pulls me out of the closet. He throws me on the floor, which reopens my cuts. I brace myself, ready for the belt. But I do not hear anything. Marcus puts me up against the wall. He retracts something sharp and holds it against my throat; a knife. "This is for your own good." He starts cutting at my arms and legs, and I try not to scream in pain. I lock my teeth together. He puts his hand up under my shirt. I start to scream, I do not want to be violated. He holds the bloody knife against my throat.
"SHUT UP BITCH!" He cuts at my Abnegation grey clothing, which I just notice I am wearing. He cuts until I am a bloody mass in nothing but my undergarments. I never wanted to be seen this much by Marcus. He pours salt into my cuts and I start to scream at the burning sensation digging into my body. Marcus grabs a gun and holds it against my temple. "This is for your own good." BANG!
I rapidly sit up, panting and tears rolling down my face. It's just a dream, it's just a dream…I hug my knees and cry myself to sleep. I notice more cries coming from across me; Al. He sobs into his pillow. I want to comfort him, but I'm not Abnegation anymore. I close my eyes and cry myself to sleep.
-o0o-
"How are we supposed to know what time it is?!" A girl voice exclaims.
"I don't know! Turn on the light!" A boy voice. I hear a thump.
"OW!"
I narrow my eyes and prepare for the blinding light.
"GOD THAT'S BRIGHT! TURN IT OFF!" Peter yells throughout the room.
"Wait, there's a watch in my box. We have thirty minutes. Should we wake the others?" I look up from my bed to see its Myra.
"No, leave them." Edward. They run out of the dormitory. I get up and shake Christina awake.
"GET UP!" I scream.
Christina jumps out of her bed. I open the box underneath my bed, it contains a lot more than Tobias said it does; three pairs of black clothing, a watch, combat boots, bathroom necessities, and… um… certain, girl products. I blush. They probably only put them in the girl's boxes, or else that'd be awkward.
-o0o-
Right now, I am not comfortable with the room arrangements. It's going to be hard changing and showering with this low level of privacy without anyone seeing my scars and my purple bruised body. I grab the black long sleeve and pants. I don't know how to change without showing my scars. The other initiates, including Christina, are just changing out in the open. I crawl under my bed covers and change.
"Come on Christina!" We run to the Pit with the other initiates for training. There stands Tobias and Eric, who is impatiently tapping his foot. "Finally slowpokes!" He exclaims.
We follow Tobias and Eric, after about five or so minutes of walking, we arrive at a big room filled with targets, guns, knives, and punching bags. "Initiates! Line up!" Eric yells. We stand in a horizontal line. I stand near the middle between Christina and Peter.
Eric sits down while Tobias paces slowly in front of us, with his hands crossed behind his back. "The first thing you learn today is how to shoot a gun. The second thing is how to win a fight." Six picks up a gun, and hands it to me. He does the same to the other initiates. I stare at it in my hands. It feels dangerous in my hands.
Capable of murdering anyone…I feel like Marcu- NO! I am NO WHERE at the low level of him.
"Thankfully, if you are here, you already know how to get on and off a moving train, so I don't need to teach you that."
Tobias stops and continues. "Initiation is divided into three stages. We will measure your progress and rank you according to your performance in each stage. The stages are not weighed equally in determining your final rank, so it is possible, though difficult, to drastically improve your rank over time. We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear."
"Therefore each stage of initiation is intended to prepare you in a different way. The first stage is primarily physical; the second, primarily mental;" Mental? "The third, primarily emotional." No. Emotional? If they find out about my past… I shiver about the thought of it. I hear a voice beside me. I turn to look at him. "But what…" He cuts himself off with a yawn. "What does firing a gun have to do with bravery?" Tobias sighs, and presses the barrel of his gun to Peter's forehead. The scene scares me. It reminds me of what Marcus did to scare me. Peter freezes mid-yawn. "Wake. Up. You are holding a loaded gun, you idiot. Act like it." Tobias snaps and lowers his gun. He turns back to paces back and forth in front of us. I hear a snicker from my left. Christina is stifling a laugh. I wonder if Peter and her are rivals, they did transfer from Candor.
"And to answer your question, you are far less likely to soil your pants and cry for your mother if you need to defend yourself. This is also information you may need later on in stage one." Mother. I can't count how many times I cried and called out for Evelyn while being beaten. I later learned to keep quiet, sound only fueled Marcus more. I put up my walls. No one will break them. The sound of a bang snaps me out of my thoughts. I look up to see Tobias shooting several bullets, hitting the same hole in the center of the target.
"Begin!" Tobias yells. I turn to my target. The image of Marcus wielding the gun up to my head keeps popping up in my head. I grow furious. I hold the gun up.
I copy Tobias's stance and brace for recoil, pulling the trigger. My bullet strays far to the left of the target.
I hold the stance a bit more firm this time, aligning my eyesight with the gun sight, and pull the trigger. The bullet hits a bit closer to the target, but not necessarily on it.
I try again, holding a firmer stance and preparing myself for the big kickback. My bullet hits the lower right of the target.
I look around to see everyone else shooting in the incorrect stances, and their bullets stray far from the target. I am the first to hit the target.
I aim at the center and pull the trigger.
Bang.
Bullseye.
"How did the Stiff get it on her fourth bullet?!" says Peter.
I flush slightly of embarrassment and turn back to the target, ignoring the stares of my fellow gaping initiates that are starting to make me uncomfortable.
-o0o-
When I run of rounds, I set my gun down and breathe heavily. The sound of shots being fired stop. I hear multiple gasps. I look around to see all the other initiates looking at me. Eric and Tobias look genuinely shocked. I look at my target. Besides my third shot, there is only one hole, in the center. I imagined it being Marcus's heart.
I look at the other's targets. "Good job, um…Stiff." Tobias says. He is covering a smile. I can see why. Peter is red from fury. "Lunch! You have an hour, come back after."
I walk out with Christina. We sit at the same table yesterday. "Oh my gosh! How did you shoot almost every single bullet in Bullseye?!" I shrug.
"Hey, can we sit with you guys?" I look up and see Will, that Erudite boy, and Al, another Candor. "Sure!" Christina says. I zone out while Christina and Al talk about math. I stare at Edward and Myra, the other two initiates from Erudite smacking lip, not even caring about being in public. "Do they have to be so public?" I say.
"She just kissed him. It's not like they're stripping naked." Will says.
"A kiss is not something you do in public." Why am I talking? I haven't been in public for two years. Only since I transferred.
"Your Abnegation is showing. The rest of us are all right with a little affection in public." Christina says. Abnegation showing? No. I am not Abnegation. I am nowhere near Marcus.
"Eh." I shrug. I tune out of the conversation when Christina throws a roll at Will.
-o0o-
After lunch, we are led by Tobias to the training room once again. I see nine punching bags hung up, presumably one for each initiate. We line up once again, in front of the punching bags. "As I said this morning," Tobias continues. "Next you will learn how to fight. The purpose of this is to prepare you to act; to prepare your body to respond to threats and challenges-which you will need, if you intend to survive life as a Dauntless." I think I needed it in Abnegation. I thought about fighting back in the many sleepless nights of the closet, but that'd only lead to much worse beatings. I shift my weight onto my other foot uncomfortably.
"We will go over technique today, and tomorrow you will start to fight each other." Fight each other? "So I recommend that you pay attention. Those who don't learn fast will get hurt." Tobias stands in front of a punching bag and demonstrates different punches and kicks. "Begin!"
I turn to my bag. I clench my fists. I recall how many times I would've loved rebelling against Marcus. My fingernails dig into my purple fists. I punch and beat the bag like its Marcus, hearing the metallic sound of the bag's chain hitting the ceiling. The skin on my fists begin to burn at the rate I am throwing my fists at the bag. I start kicking like there's no tomorrow.
I hear a loud clang, and I no longer see a punching bag in front of me. I hear the collective gasps of my fellow initiates once again. I broke the chain. "What?" I snarl. Everyone turns back to their bag. Tobias hangs another one up and I continue beating it. Marcus used me for a punching bag. Now I will do the same.
-o0o-
I hit the bag. I do a 360 kick. The punching bag falls on the floor, completely demolished. I see Tobias come up to me over my shoulder.
"I want another one."
He shakes his head. "That's the fourth one today. You don't seem okay."
I shake my head. "Point? I want to practice." I snap.
He sighs, but hangs up another punching bag. He stands beside me, watching me hit the bag. I feel uncomfortable. I hit the bag with all my might, even if my fists look like Eric's; about to burst. I feel a hand on my stomach. I stop and look over my shoulder and come face to face with Tobias.
"Never forget to keep tension here."
He lifts his hand and walks away. Warmth escapes my body once he leaves. Did he feel a spark like I did? I shake my head. No. I'm not letting my walls come down. I beat the bag until Tobias excuses us for lunch.
I walk out with Christina, Will, and Al. "How'd you do that? Break FOUR punching bags?!" Will asks.
I shrug. I look at my fists. Now they match Eric's, red and roughly calloused. Nothing compared to my bruises.
"I'm surprised Six didn't break you in half. He seemed pretty annoyed with you breaking all the bags." Christina says, incredulous.
I am just about to open my mouth to remind her that Six's real name is Tobias, but I remember that he doesn't want us sharing his name with anyone else until after initiation.
"Yeah. He scares the hell out of me. It's that quiet voice he uses." Will says, nodding toward Christina.
Yep, quiet is dangerous.
Thank you all so much for supporting my story! Please review, follow, and favorite! Let's try to hit 5 to 10 reviews for this chapter!
Check out my other story, The Beauty of One
~WhatifTris Writing