Chapter 4: Coward.

"Today your fighting partners will be of your choice. I will pick the top five initiates and the top five will pick out of the lowest five." I said, standing on the combat platform. "Jayden, Raven, Parker, Hayden and Preston." I call out, they join me on the platform. "Remember, if you win to one of the weaker it will only lower your position in ranking. If you lose it will have the same effect. Don't pick someone because they are weak, look for a challenge."

Jayden thought for a moment before choosing Olivia, that was his mistake. He chose the one at the very bottom, she was no risk. I wrote down who was fighting who and stepped off of the platform, leaving Jayden and Olivia to fight.

Olivia's problem was that she was tall, therefore she had more room to hit and she was slow. Jayden was shorter than she was. But he always stepped before he made a move. I decided in my head that Olivia would win, she was good at noticing things quickly.

Jayden hesitated to hit her at first but when he did his fist connected with her throat, she coughed and lunged at him, dodging his kick by grabbing his foot and flipping him onto his back. He quickly recovered and charged forward, taking the back of her head by the hair, pulling her down onto the platform and connecting his elbow with her nose. She cried out in pain, her nose bleeding and covering the mat beneath her. He stood and kicked her in the stomach, her eyes went blank and she went unconscious.

Jayden stopped and looked at me, I nodded and he picked her up then carried her to the infirmary.

"Raven, you're up." I called out like it wasn't unusual to have an initiate leave the room unconscious, mostly because it wasn't.

I knew that Olivia would be moved up to the number nine spot in ranking and that Jayden would be moved into the two spot, Raven would win but this fight was chosen fairly so she would go up into spot one and the boy she chose would stay where he was, the sixth spot.

XxX{PAGE BREAK}XxX

I walked into Olivia's room in the infirmary and sat by her bed, she was awake and looking at me.

"You're below the line." I looked at her. "I'm telling you this because the other one below the line doesn't deserve to be here. They don't try."

She watched me and nodded. Her face was a little bruised and her nose, surprisingly, wasn't broken.

"I can give you some extra training if you'd like."

"Thank you." She said, biting her lip.

"Come back to the training room after dinner tomorrow night, you have a lot to learn." I stood and walked out of the infirmary then down the hall to the tattoo parlor.

I missed the shop, everything was so peaceful and you could just forget the world for a bit. I decided I wanted to get another tattoo. I looked through the books and found a design for the outline of a cat. I pulled the copy out of the book and went to a room. I sat in a chair and under the "free" tattoo I applied the machine. I slipped the paper into the machine, adjusted the colours so instead of black it would be orange, and pressed the start button. The machine lit up and went dark multiple times. And rested my head back onto the chair and thought of Jane. She would have done this with me, I have no doubt. She loved Sammy as much as I did, if not more.

When the machine finished I stood and took it off, the lines of the cat were crisp and new. I paid for the tattoo and rang it up myself then walked out of the shop.

XxX{PAGE BREAK}XxX

Sitting at a table in the dining hall, Shae sat beside me with her hand on my thigh, Ava sat across from us.

"So, are you two together now?" Ava asked, eating a piece of cake.

"No, we aren't." Shae responded. "I have few things to take care of, I'll catch up with you guys later." She smiled and stood then walked out.

I knew where she was going. She had to go take food and water to Jane, she did this once a month. I once asked her to take one of my sweatshirts to her but Shae said no, she never told me why.

"You two are having sex?" Ava looked at me, her brow raised.

"Well, I mean, yeah but-"

"But what?" She interrupted.

"It's not the same." I looked down. "We don't make love like how Jane and I did. We just kinda have sex."

"Do you think its okay to have sex with someone just for the sex?"

I shook my head no, stood and walked out of the dining hall and towards the pub.

I took my seat at the bar and ordered the strongest drink they had. After chugging that I ordered another and took a couple shots. I looked over to the seat beside me as someone sat down and realized it was Olivia.

"You like to drink, huh?" She asked.

"You look almost identical to your sister." I blurted out.

She looked down and bit her lip. "Yeah, that's what they use to tell us."

I ordered her a shot and she took it. "Is that why you came to dauntless?" I could hear the slur in my words.

"No, I came because I want to be here. But when I got here I was told that my sister was factionless." She spoke slowly, as if she was talking to herself.

I took a sip from my drink.

"How did you know her?" Olivia asked, looking at me.

I shrugged. "She was in my initiate group, we hung out a couple times." The thought of our zip lining adventure came to mind and I smiled to myself.

"Why do you drink so much?" She asked as the bartender brought me four more shots.

"I'm Dauntless, that's how we work. You solve all of your problems with this." I held up a glass of tequila and took the shot. The burn wasn't there anymore, this was good.

She shook her head. "That's not being Dauntless, Dean. That's being a coward."

I looked at her. "Well when you've gone through what I've gone through you'll understand." I stood, paid, and stumbled out of the pub.