All rights go to the lovely Veronica Roth.
A.N. hey guys I am so sorry that it took this long for me to update. It is summative week at my school, and my parents just gave my brother and I the news that we are going to be moving from Lima Peru to a caribbean island. We don't even get that much notice, we are leaving in January, and I have been struggling with my friends recently. Anyways, enough about my life. I really hope you guys enjoy it, and tell me what you think, or any ideas or guesses of what is going to happen that you have for me.
"B-Beatris I…" my normally so composed brother is at a loss for words. After a few seconds of spluttering, he lowers his head and falls silent. We both know why the other is here.
"Which one." I say quietly. He doesn't have to ask what I am talking about, we both know what I mean.
"Erudite" my head jerks up, and I look at him in surprise. It was shocking enough that my brother, the person who seemed made for abnegation was switching factions, but to join Erudite? He must see the mild revulsion on my face, because he is somewhat defensive as he asks "why? What did you choose?"
I simply hold my paper out without a word. His eyebrows bunch together like fabric being pulled tight around a running stitch. His eyes flit back to mine, and says the last thing I want to hear. "How should we tell mom and dad?"
The guilt is so thick I am practically choking in it. This is the part I never wanted to think about. That was too painful to think about. They will be crushed, angry, but most of all, hurt. I don't answer him. Instead I just say "we should get home to pack." I walk quickly to the front desk and set my slip on the surface without a word, and then speed out of the door. My legs may be short, but I am very motivated.
The air has a faint chill it didn't have before, as the sun has shifted behind a cloud, and I relax slightly as it cools my flushed skin. I go to stand at the bus stop, but the other students are making me restless.
I feel like they can all see what I have done. I feel the pressure of their eyes around me, and it is squeezing the air out of my lungs. I feel nausea in the back of my throat, and my stomauch is full of prickles of pain. I break out in a sweat. These people must know, they must know what a terrible person I am. I begin to lose feeling in my fingertips, and without warning, I turn and run in the opposite direction from home. It is the cowardly thing to do, but I cannot face myself right now, let alone my parents.
Though I have no memory of the crazed sprint here, I am in the forest. Not being in human form is calming. Of course, I can still think mostly the same as in human form, especially because Athena hasn't decided she wants mental control too, but these things that worry me are not considered problems by Athena, so my body is calm.
The calm is more relaxing than I thought, and I awake a couple of hours later without being aware that I fell asleep. My neck is sore from where it was craned awkwardly against a rock, and I lazilly twist it to the side to stretch it. As I do so, I realize how dark it is. The events of the day come rushing back to me, and I spring up with a start. For the second time today, I have lost track of time in this forest.
Too mentally and emotionally exhausted, I walk home rather than run, though it gives me more time to dwell on the inevitable. I slowly trudge into the darkness of the street.
I walk the last few paces to the front of my house, and quietly slink up the stairs. It is 8:45 at night, so I am hoping I can sneak in unseen to avoid being punished for staying out late. I need to pack, and mentally prepare myself for telling them.
I turn the knob all the way, and begin to quietly push the door into the house. I creep in past the doorway, my eyes downcast to avoid any creaky floor boards. I round the door and am slowly pushing it closed again, when I hear a sharp inhalation of breath. I whirl to see both of my parents sitting in the living room, staring at me. My father looks at me with revulsion, shock, and most of all, pain. My stomach drops, and I stare at them mouth agape. My father slowly stands up and begins the conversation I have dreaded all day.
"Just what do you think you are doing here?"
"I-I came to s-say good-"
"And why would you need to say goodbye? Could it have anything to do with the interesting email I received from the school earlier? I can't-" he closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry." I say, the end of my words trailing off in a broken whisper.
"Leave." I glance up in surprise, certain I heard wrong. My father's face is stony, uncompromising, and cold. I stare wide eyed at him, the feeling of soon to be tears stinging behind my eyes. As I watch, his face falls, the mask crumbling before my very eyes to reveal the utter hurt concealed beneath. The tears start to fly down my face, fast and heavy, blurring the world around me. I let out a strangled sound from the back of my throat as I fumble behind my back for the doorknob. I grasp it tightly, and begin to walk backwards, my legs containing as much strength as gelatine. As I am backing out of the door, I glance back to the place my mother has not moved from this entire conversation. Though her face bears evidence of some of the sadness my father's contains, she is smiling at me, her eyes shining with forgiveness and melancholy joy. This look is all it takes to wrack my body with a great choking sob.
"Goodbye" I whisper as I shut the door behind me. Once outside, the sobs overtake me. Unable to see my surroundings through the tears, I let myself stumble towards and fall against the nearest wall, curling up at it's base. My entire body shakes with the force of my sobs, and the great hiccups that overtake me. Whoever has said that people can cry delicately is a liar, or a sociopath that is luckily unable to feel this great of emotional pain. I feel as though my world is crumbling. I expected them to take it harshly, but not like this, never with so much pain involved for both parties.
Though I feel like I could cry through the night and not be finished, I give myself 5 minutes. Five minutes to compose myself so I can find a place to stay the night. After five minutes of sobbing, I take a few quick hysterical breaths and start down the street, thinking of options of places to stay. Even though I met a few people in abnegation who live near here, I definitely do not know them enough to show up like this on their doorstep asking for board. Even if i did, I still know what I am going to do anyways. I begin an unsteady sprint down the street, not caring if anyone sees my inhumanly fast stride. After what seems like hours, I reach the forest. After stumbling about a half mile in, I collapse on the ground, the tears beginning to build up again.
I do not know how long I cried, but now I am lying among the roots of an oak, numb. I have cried myself out, and in my state of being aware of my surroundings, I realize what a vulnerable position I am in, lying feebly by the roots in a loose fetal position, my head tipped back baring my throat. Athena gives an anxious whine, asking if I am ok. I slowly sit up, and at her request, turn into my less vulnerable state. Being in this body gives me some comfort, and I rise to find a place to sleep.
As I begin to trot out to a patch of denser trees, my stomach snarls, reminding that my lack of dinner combined with the erratic sprint here, and the transformation between human and wolf which uses thousands of calories, have left me famished. I pause, sniffing. Though I smell a lot of small game in the surrounding foliage, and even a doe with her fawn, my mind focuses on a group of elk a mile and a half away from me. I begin my silent run towards them, seeming to hover with the amount of noise I make. After just a short while, I am beside a large burbling stream that the elk are standing in, eating the plants on the bottom with the occasional distrustful glance or snort at their peers. Though my mind wants to dive headlong at the nearest elk, a fair sized one with 12 antler points, I tell myself to fucose and lock my eyes at the big heavy 16 pointed male further down. I begin the slow trot through the underbrush to the bank closest to him. Though the river in shallow, and he is a good 25 feet from the edge, it will be no problem with my werewolf capabilities. I charge from the underbrush and am leaping across the river towards him before any of them know what is going on. I grab onto the thick ruff of hair around his neck. Though I am small by werewolf standards, I am still much larger than the average wolf. I use this to my advantage, swinging my body downwards and disbalancing to him so his feet have to scramble, looking for purchase. He lets out a bellow as his side thuds against the bottom, and I quickly silence him by cleanly biting through his carotid artery. I watch for a moment as he grows still and his eyes turn glassy, but then grab him by one antler and drag him back to the shore. Once there, I dive into the kill, stomach roaring. Despite him weighing around 750 pounds, I am able to finish all but one hind leg, my stomach distended and panting contentedly. I nose the remainder of the corpse into the trees for the scavengers an to avoid the rotting carcass spoiling the water, and continue my trot looking for shelter.
My search leads me by the rocky hillock that I howled so joyously on top of on my first night here. That night feels so long ago, that is seems impossible that is was only just over a week ago. A cool night breeze blows towards me, ruffling my fur. I sniff it inquisitively, wondering what message it bears, and smell another werewolf. The scent trail is fresh. Though I am not shocked or scared anymore like I was my first time here, and I long to follow it and see what I find at it's end, my physical and mental exhaustion crash down on me, and I feel as if I can't move another tail length. I glance at the sky, and realise that it is just past one A.M. My eyes lazily scan the landscape around me, and I settle for sleeping at the end of a tall cave under the hill, curling up on top of a patch of flattened grass that was most likely once a deer's nest. I circle around a few times, before curling up with my nose burrowed in my tail to protect it from the biting winds. As my mind grows foggy and I am drifting off, I here a distante howl.
A.N. what did you guys think? I hope it is good enough for you guys, because I felt that it was a little rushed whenever I tried to write it. I tried to make the parent scene really emotional, but I think it was a little stupid. But how did you guys feel about the first hunt scene I wrote for this? As always, send your thoughts, suggestion, and predictions in the reviews below. I do not want to guilt you into it, but I am going through a tough time right now, and all of your reviews - yes, even negative ones - help to get me out of that ditch and inspired to write the next part. I hope you guys enjoyed!
-Anonymouseweirdo