Hello readers! This is my third chapter about Elin from erudite! I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as I have done! Thank you for the follow and favourite by the way!
There are many books in my house. Each are held in a large cabinet upstairs. As children, we are urged to read at least 1,500 pages a week. I sit on a stool in the kitchen reading a book titled 'The History Of Chicago'. Faction history has to be one of my favourite subjects. I've never gotten below an A in it. I'm probably one of the most intelligent of my classes, but most people overlook this because of my faction of origin.
When I finish the chapter I'm reading, I pull my dirty blonde hair away from my face. My mother sits across from me with a stern look on her face. If we were the same age, we could be mistaken as twins. Like me she has dark blonde hair, but hers is short. My eyes belong to my father, blue-grey in colour. Like my parents, others consider me emotionless due to the fact I rarely smile or frown. "I expect you to be there early today, so you must walk" my mother tells me. "Yes, mother" I reply.
It isn't as if my parents don't love me, which they do, they just don't think being sappy around me is intelligent, in fact they think it looks quite dumb. I feel a tad different to them about this, the amity are quite affectionate and sometimes I watch them kiss in public places and I feel a pang of jealousy. This morning I will take an aptitude test to decide which faction I belong in, honestly I think it is a waste of time because I'll get an erudite result but testing is mandatory in the city.
I half run half walk into the city which takes about fifteen minutes and eventually I reach the door of the cafeteria where we will wait to do our aptitude tests. I'm wondering what will await me when I accidentally barge into a blonde girl wearing black and white and she topples into the wall. "Sorry!" I shout, my cheeks red with embarrassment. "Watch where you're going" she says sternly. I walk to the cafeteria in silence and sit down beside my friend Avery. Him and I don't talk much, we prefer to grasp knowledge from books rather than each other. "What are you going to choose?" he asks me. "Probably erudite" I respond "And you?" His reply surprises me and I decide its best to hold my laugh "Dauntless" he says "Why?" I ask. "I would like to do my duty to defend our city" he replies proudly.
My name is called for testing and before I realize it I'm standing in a large room filled with mirrors. In the centre of the room is a reclined chair like a dentists with a machine next to it. "How does the machine work?" I ask the woman testing me "I can't tell you that" she replies. She then hands me a vial and orders me to drink up. "I don't kno-" she interrupts me "If you'd like I can inject the liquid into you with a needle?" I shudder at the word 'needle' as if I were a little girl scared of spiders.
I quickly drink up and for a second I feel dizzy and when I can pay attention I notice I'm somewhere else, the cafeteria, without the people. The sound of a door slam stops me talking.
"Choose" a woman's voice says "Why?" I ask, but she doesn't respond so I pick up the knife. The baskets disappear and I see a dog with a pointed nose and large fangs approach me, I freeze in terror. What do I know about dogs? It doesn't matter about the facts, I must kill the dog. I can't run, but I can fight and I take a slow breath. The next few seconds last a lifetime, I remember hitting I hitting the ground hard before my head starts to hurt.
I blink and when my eyes open a child stands a few meters away from me wearing a white dress "Puppy!" she squeals and I can't help but smile. The dog turns. Instead of barking, it growls and attack "I can't save you, run!" I tell her and I feel as if I'm lying. I wake to sweaty palm and a bad feeling in my heart. When I look behind me my test administrator looks amazed "That was the fastest test that I've ever administered". I'm surprised by the fact she doesn't mention that I didn't save the girl. No matter how much I deny it, that was just selfish. "Well when I came in here I was 90% sure I was erudite and know I know so thanks for testing me". I'm too embarrassed to look at her again so I head for the door in silence.
Suddenly she blocks my way and stares at me with her deep blue eyes, I have never noticed a pretty abnegation woman before. Her next few words make my heart skip a beat. "You might want to take a seat for the news you're about to hear, erudite was ruled out." These few words bounce along my skull and I try to make sense of them "ruled ou-" I get up to process to this thought and she stops me "Your result was dauntless." I can't believe this, I won't believe this. "That's not true." I reply. "You can leave now, but if you had tested for erudite you wouldn't have fought your way out, you were taught about dogs and how they react to fear but you chose to ignore it.
I decide to walk along a quite street. If I get home early, my father will notice, he checks the house when he returns from work every day. I've barely seen him over the past few weeks, he's an engineer and always busy. For some reason he never likes to talk about work.
I stay in my room until dinner and we eat in silence. I note my mother has gone to extra trouble today and I give her my thanks, surprisingly my father eats alongside us. I can't focus on eating so I stare at the table and wonder what I'll do tomorrow, chose dauntless or erudite?
I excuse myself and go to bed early. Maybe choosing one over the other will prove where I belong. Tomorrow those two qualities will struggle within me, eventually one will win.
The bus my family take to the choosing ceremony smells of cigarettes. I try to act calm and my mother grabs my arm as we make our way up the steps. Soon my legs get tired and I'm delighted to find there is a lift up the rest of the way.
As the choosing ceremony starts I begin to feel extremely apprehensive, as if I could faint. My parents watch me proudly as they wait for their daughter to rejoin them but secretly they have no idea that she may not return. Our representative Jeanine Matthews hosts this year. I ignore her speech, I don't particularly like her anyways.
I barely even notice people choose their factions until I watch Avery switch factions, to dauntless. After five more names I hear my name being called and I watch the blade causes a tear on my skin. I stare at the water in silence. I'm my parents only child, do I really want to make the mistake of leaving them? But my own body responds with its answer. Yes. My blood drops onto the burning coals.