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Please review! Should I do Candor or Dauntless? I don't know, what about you?
Nice long chapter with 3500 words for you awesome Divergenters! (Like Directioners but more badass im not a fan of One Direction, they r too boyish)
Chapter X. Ranking and Butter Knives
BEATRICE
I run into the dining hall, with the normal Dauntless volume.
Screaming.
I find Christina, Will, and Al sitting at a table in the corner of the room. I grab a piece of Dauntless cake and sit down next across Will, next to Christina.
"What took you so long? And is your ear okay?" She asks.
I laugh. "I'm fine, I had to get it bandaged. It didn't hurt at all."
Al seems to avoiding my gaze and he looks down. I realize that I probably made him look weak, but I couldn't just stand there watching!
Christina looks at my plate. "Again? Dude, you've had Dauntless cake every meal for the past two days." I shrug.
"I'm Dauntless."
"True." Will nods.
I look at my watch. "We still got an hour until fights. Want to rest back at the dormitory?" I offer.
"Sure." We walk to the dormitory.
Al and Will fall asleep, so I decide to take a shower. I remove the soaked bandage on my stomach and look at my tattoo, running my fingers admiringly across the five faction symbols.
I wrap my towel around myself and I realize that I have no clothing. "Christina!" I hear no answer. I peek around the corner and see Christina, Will, and Al asleep, and Peter and his trio walk in. Great.
I walk over to my bed and pull out a black long sleeve and pants. I look up to see Peter smirking. "Well Stiff, you certainly have a nice body." I stand up, and tighten the towel around my body.
"I don't know Peter, how about we take a look?" Molly says.
Drew, Molly, and Peter surround me. They pull my towel and I run into the girl's bathroom in the hallway across from the dormitory. I can hear their cackling. I hope they didn't see my scars.
I crouch down to the floor against the wall with tears flowing out of my eyes.
Peter's evil sneer with his matching deadly eyes scared me.
It wasn't the first time I've been violated.
Sometimes, all the time, in Abnegation I wish I was a boy.
Because one night when Marcus came home drunk, he raped me.
Without protection.
It's happened three or four times, the rest of his attempts failed because I knocked him out before he could touch me.
It's hard to believe I'm not pregnant. I think I had a miscarriage from his beatings. He always fainted of being drunk before he was…done.
The painful memories that always seem and will forever haunt me stabs through my mind like a knife. I start sobbing.
I change and walk to the dormitory, where Christina is awake, and Al, Will, and Peter and his trio are gone. She smiles at me, but that smile drops instantly as she sees my tear-stained face.
"OMG! What happened?!" She frantically ask.
"Peter…" Is all I say, before my fists clench in anger. Christina fumes with me.
-o0o-
As we walk into the training room, I see Peter and his trio glare at us. I look at the pairings.
Peter/Edward
Christina/Al
Drew/Myra
Molly/Stiff
Will/
I smile. I'm fighting Molly. I watch as the fights go one by one.
I smirk when Edward gives Peter a nice, black eye in addition to my damage I did to him yesterday. Christina knocks out Al, and Drew easily beats Myra. Then it's my fight.
"Stiff and Molly."
I step up to the mat, and get into fighting stance. "Was that a birthmark I saw on your left butt cheek, Stiff?" I growl at her comment.
"By the way, nice tattoo! I love the Dauntless flames!" I cringe. Luckily, I was too far away, and the tattoo covered my scars from their sight. Also, they couldn't have been able to see the five faction symbols with my speed. I feel anger rise in my throat. No one will violate me like that again. No one.
Molly throws a punch at me, but I dodge and kick her back. She falls down. I punch her in the throat. I kick her side, kick her stomach; anywhere. That's what you get BITCH!
I see nothing but red.
I continue kicking her, and I feel arms restrain me from kicking her again.
"You won. Stop." Tobias mutters in my ear. I look at Molly, who's a mass of blood on the mat.
I could've killed her. I'm a monster.
I look at Christina, Will, and Al. They look horrified. I look at Eric, who is smirking. I look at Tobias with a crazed look in my eyes.
I breathe deeply and wipe the sweat off my forehead.
"I think you should leave. Take a walk." I nod.
"I'm fine." I mumble, and walk out of the room escaping the shocked gaze of my friends, and the proud sneer on Eric's cruel face.
I'm turning into Marcu- No.
I am not him, I will never be.
I was just mad at what Molly did.
That night, I have another nightmare of Marcus.
-o0o-
"Attention!" I turn to Eric's loud voice ringing through the dormitory of sleepy initiates. "I want to give you some advice about today." What's so special about today? Right, its visiting day. A.K.A., hide-where-Marcus-can't-find-me day. Christina wouldn't stop blabbing about it during dinner last night.
"If by some miracle your families do come to visit you," I scoff.
Miracle, my ass.
"Which I doubt, it is best not to seem too attached. That will make it easier for you and easier for them. We also take the phrase 'faction before blood' very seriously here."
I like that phrase.
But I don't have any blood that I wouldn't kill, or they are already dead.
"Attachment to your family suggests that you aren't entirely pleased with your faction, which would be shameful. Understand?" We nod. I, like most of the other initiates, head back to sleep. I black out once my head touches the pillow.
-o0o-
"Hey! Wake up!" I groan, and move the hand off of my shoulder. "Five more minutes…" I mumble. A pillow hits me in the face. "IM UP!" I look up to see Christina with a pillow in her hand. I look around to see that we are the only ones in here.
"What?" I sigh.
"It's visiting day!" If Marcus came…no. He wouldn't come to save his life.
I get up and yawn. "Point?"
"We have to dress up!" NO.
I must have a look of terror on my face because Christina falls back onto the floor, laughing.
"Yo-Your! Face!" She gasps and goes back to laughing.
"Well, I am NOT dressing up." I cross my arms.
She stops laughing. She pouts. "Please?" I shake my head.
"Fine." She harrumphs. I smile in victory.
I sit on my bed as I watch her come out of the bathroom in a beautiful black dress that reaches her mid-thigh. "When did you get that?"
She blushes. "When you took a walk around the Pit, I sort of dragged Will shopping."
I immediately crack up. "So you two were on a DATE?" She turns redder than a tomato.
"NO!" She says. The dormitory door opens and I turn to see Will and Al walk in. Will's jaw is dropped and he stares at Christina.
"Will!" I snap my fingers next to his ear, breaking him out of his trance. I laugh when he blushes.
"Let's go eat breakfast. I'm starving." We walk out of the dormitory.
-o0o-
"I hope my dad comes! I want to show him the cool hawk tattoo I got!" Al shouts, running through the Pit with Christina on his back.
"Yeah. Well, my parents don't exactly care how I am now. Only that I pass initiation. Guess that's what I get when I have competitive Candor parents." Christina says, jumping off Al's back.
"Hey!" Al says.
"We were all thinking it!" Christina reasons. We nod.
"True." Will says.
I walk next to them with my hands in my pockets.
"What about your parents? Think they'll come?" Christina asks me. I sigh. I know that I'm not just going to tell them that my mom's dead, and Marcus would never come to see his disgrace of a daughter.
"I don't think so." I mumble.
They all exchange thoughtful glances, but I do not want to be pitied. "Let's go eat."
We walk to the dining room and eat some Dauntless cake for breakfast.
Hey, cake is cake!
After eating, we walk to the Pit and find it full of people with different color clothing, including black.
No gray so far, I sigh in relief. I watch as Christina, and Will go off to their parents, who happily hug each other.
I feel tears well up in my eyes watching them.
Where'd Al go? A pair of Candor parents that are very tall and bulky and look like him come up to me.
"Have you seen Albert?" I shake my head, and look back to Christina and Will with their families. I don't follow them; I wouldn't want to be a third wheel, as I already am with Will and Christina. I decide to hang out by the chasm.
I lean against the railing and watch the rushing water crash against the concrete wall, feeling the spray on my face. I tune out the happy chatter of the other families. I let the tears silently roll down my face. I am happy Marcus isn't here, but that's not why I'm crying.
I'm crying because when I see other happy families, I think of Marcus and Evelyn. I think of how I never deserved to be abused; it was never for my own good unlike Marcus said.
I hear footsteps nearing me and I look to my side to see a blushing Tobias and a familiar woman in gray who somewhat looks like him walking towards me.
"Hello, my name is Natalie." Tobias comes and joins this awkward conversation.
Natalie.
Natalie Prior.
Wife to Andrew Prior. I gulp, I hope she doesn't recognize me. I don't see Andrew around.
"Um, I don't really have a name, but it's nice to meet you." She shakes my hand.
"You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Great. She remembers me. I try not to let my panic show.
"No, I don't think so. I am one of Tobias's initiates though."
I can feel my whole body go cold.
"Well, I'll leave you to your reunion." I say, and walk away. I watch as Tobias visually relaxes, and Natalie playfully shoves him and says something, making him blush a deeper red. I feel a slight blush coming up my face when he looks at me.
I hang out by the chasm, desperately waiting for ranks.
"This is one of my friends, um, who doesn't have a name." I turn around to see Will and an older version of him as a girl dressed in blue. She scoffs. Erudites.
"No name? How dumb." I frown.
"Cara! Be nice!" Will nudges Cara.
"I'll leave you to your little reunion." I sound like a broken record. I begin to walk away, but I see him. My heart rate picks up and I immediately run and hide somewhere; anywhere. I find a decent place between some rocks under the waterfall bridge.
"Has anyone seen my daughter, Beatrice?" Marcus's voice rings through the Pit at its standard low, quiet and soft volume.
"Who the hell is Beatrice?" I sigh in relief at Tobias' comment, yet I take in a breath as I hear Marcus's next words.
"Tobias, anyone, take me to my daughter or I swear I'll have you killed."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Eaton. I don't know where she is."
"Can someone tell me where my goddamn daughter is?" I quiver with fear underneath the waterfall bridge, praying to God; any deity out there, that he won't find me.
"Who the hell is Beatrice?" I hear Eric yell, probably joining into the scene to calm the pissed Abnegation leader. Eric.
PLEASE do not tell. I could die.
The memory of the first nightmare I had here flashes back in my head.
"My daughter! The Abnegation kid. Yay tall, blonde hair, shaky little thing." I guess he's making hand movements, but I don't care. I want him to leave.
"You mean no name?"
"What?"
"I don't know any Beatrice, but that sounds a hell of a lot like no name, or Stiff, except without the shakiness."
"Okay then, where is no name or Stiff?" I sigh, putting my head in my hands.
Come on, Eric, no matter how much I don't like you, please don't tell him.
"I don't know, man. Sorry." I sigh in relief as I hear Marcus storm out of the Dauntless compound, quietly whispering profanities.
I climb up from my hiding place and look around, seeing no Marcus. I sigh.
I look around. Luckily, everyone who isn't visiting the compound is too drunk to notice Marcus's scene. I meet Tobias's gaze, who raises an eyebrow. I look down, avoiding his gaze.
I look at my watch. We have ten minutes until dinner. I look around and find Will and Cara, who scowls at me. "Will! Get Christina and Al! We have dinner than ranks!" Will nods. He hugs Cara, and runs off to get the others.
I walk into the dining hall, and save four seats. I wait for Will, Al, and Christina to come. I haven't seen Al since we walked to the Pit after Eric's speech. I look up to see Will and Christina sitting down.
"There you are. Where's Al?" I ask. They shrug.
"I was going to ask you." Will states.
"I haven't seen him since this morning." Christina adds in.
We eat our hamburgers, which are my favorite-besides rich and creamy Dauntless cake-and talk.
I finish my burger and decide to go back to the dormitory to rest before rankings; we still have an hour. "I'm heading back to the dorms to rest, if you wander around, try to find Al." I say, and leave.
I walk inside the dormitory, expecting it to be empty, but I find Al on his bed. His eyes are red and puffy; he looks like he's been crying. "There you are!" I exclaim.
"Your parents were looking for you. Did they find you?" He shakes his head and I sit down next to him on the bed.
This isn't the happy, cheery Al I know. Something's wrong. "You didn't want to see them?" I ask.
"Didn't want them to ask how I was doing," He starts nervously. "I'd have to tell them, and they would know if I was lying." Candors.
"What's wrong with how you're doing?"
He sighs. "I've lost every fight since the one with Will. I'm not doing well."
"By choice, though. Couldn't you tell them that too?" My voice is shrouded in worry.
"Dad always wanted me to come here. I mean, they say they wanted me to stay in Candor, but that's only because that's what they're supposed to say. They've always admired the Dauntless; both of them. They wouldn't understand if I tried to explain it to them."
I tap my fingers against my knee. "Oh. Is that why you chose Dauntless? Because of your parents?" I understand Al, but I would never do anything for my parents. Parent. He isn't a parent; he's practically the devil. And I transferred to get away from that hell.
Al shakes his head. "No. I guess it was because…I think it's important to protect people. To stand up for people. Like you did for me. That's what the Dauntless are supposed to do, right? That's what courage is. Not…hurting people for no reason." My lips slightly part in surprise.
Al sounds so wise; he'd be an Erudite!
"Maybe it will be better once initiation is over." I suggest.
"Too bad I might come in last," He says. "I guess we'll see tonight.
We sit in silence for a bit. I look at my feet.
"I feel braver when I'm around you, you know." My stomach lurches. "Like I could actually fit in here, the same way you do." I resist the urge to laugh or smile.
The same way I do? I am bound to be in the top ranked, but I still feel for him as a friend.
I feel an arm pressing on my shoulder; Al's. I tense and wince at the pressure it holds on my wounds. I lean forward so that his arm falls off my shoulder.
"Um…I…" He says. "Um…sorry. I wasn't trying to…um. Sorry." I feel Al stiffen beside me.
"I should go," I am completely embarrassed. Al nods at me sheepishly. "You going to be okay? I mean, because of your parents. Not because…" I trail off as Al nods. This is so awkward.
"Oh. Yeah. I'll see you later." I nod and walk out the door and join Christina and Will back at the dining hall.
"You all right?" Will asks.
"Yeah. I found Al. Apparently he likes me." Christina smiles.
I sigh. "No I do not like him back, I do not like anyone." Her smile drops.
"We should go…rankings." They nod.
"It was really awkward, cause' Al sounded like some old wise, Erudite!" I say, trying to brighten the mood.
"Hey!" Will says.
"What? It's true!" I defend. We all laugh together, and walk to the dorms. I look at my watch. "CRAP! Guys! We have three minutes!" They look shocked, and we all start running.
-o0o-
We all run in with a minute to spare. I sigh. Tobias sits on my bed with a chalkboard faced away from us on his lap. Why is he on my bed? He probably just sat on a random one.
"For those of you just coming in, I'm explaining how the ranks are determined. After the first round of fights, we ranked you according to skill level."
"The number of points you earned depends on your skill level and the skill level of the person you beat." I smile. I haven't lost a single fight, but I wasn't fighting one day. Still; I beat Peter and Molly easily. My stomach churns when I remember Molly's beaten body, all thanks to me being fueled by anger.
She deserved it.
"You earn more points for improving and more points for beating someone with a higher skill rank, I don't reward on praying the weak; that's cowardice." His eyes drift in Molly's direction. I resist the urge to laugh. "Stage two is weighed more heavily than stage one, because it's more closely tied to overcoming cowardice. That said, it's extremely hard to rank high in initiation if you ranked low in stage one. We will announce cuts tomorrow," Tobias continues. "The fact that you are a transfer or a Dauntless born will not be taken into consideration. Any combination of initiates could be possible for the four cuts tomorrow. That said, here are the first ranks." He flips over the board and I search my for my name on the list, which doesn't take a while.
Stiff
Edward
Peter
Will
Christina
Molly
Drew
Al
Myra
I got first! I look at Christina and Will, and they smile back. At least Al didn't get dead last. The look Peter and his trio are throwing me says, 'You're dead'. I shiver.
Tobias leaves. "Congrats! You got first!" Will claps me on the back. I wince. They look at me for an explanation. "Sore from the fights." They nod. I look back to the chalkboard.
First.
I belong here.
I take a shower with Christina covering me, and we switch places. I change into my black usual training outfit and I head to sleep. "Night!" I say.
"Night!" Christina says.
-o0o-
I hear a thump and immediately tense in alert. Knowing Peter, he'd try something on me.
I look up to see Drew with a butter knife over my eye. "Don't move Stiff, make it easier for yourself." I scream and kick his place where the sun doesn't shine-well with Drew, or anyone one of his friends, the sun doesn't shine anywhere, just evil and darkness-I hear footsteps and someone bumping into the wall.
I hear a pair of screams and I hear multiple footsteps running out of the dormitory. "Turn on the lights!" I scream. The light turns on, and I see Edward bleeding on the floor with a butter knife in his eye, and Myra sobbing next to him.
They should stop giving out butter knives for free in the dining hall. I run to help. "Hey, calm down, don't pull the knife." I say.
"Pull it out! It burns!" Edward sobs.
"I know, just wait for the doctor." I turn to the door to see an alarmed Tobias and Eric. They bring Edward to the infirmary, who is followed by Myra. I notice two certain figures are gone; Peter and Drew.
Thank you all so much for supporting me!
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~TrissyPoo