I can't scream. The wind is taken from my lungs, and my stomach feels as though it's going to drop out of my feet as I plunge down into the darkness. There's a split second where I think that I'm totally about to die, and there will be little Caroline pieces splattered all over the ground, but before I can really start to panic I hit something sturdy. Quickly, I gulp in a deep breath, and relief floods through me as I stare up at the little tunnel of light far above me. Whatever I hit-a net, I realize- moves, and I roll to the side, into a pair of arms.
The pair of arms belong to a woman with brown eyes and long blonde hair, and she smiles at me as she helps me out. "Wouldn't want you to get crushed by another initiate," she explains, gesturing with her head back to the net. "What's your name? You can pick a new one if you want, but choose a good one. You don't get to pick again."
"Um," I say. "Caroline. I'm Caroline."
"First jumper, Caroline!" The woman shouts, and I hear clapping, a few people shouting my name back as a means of encouragement. "Welcome to Dauntless."
"Wow, we really did snag the Amity princess," a masculine voice snarks, and I turn to see a man by the net. His jaw looks like it could cut glass, and so do his eyes, which are so blue they remind me of ice, and go well against his pale skin and raven black hair.
"Get back to your side of the net, Damon," the blonde woman snaps, scowling at him, and Damon rolls his eyes but obeys, moving to a dark skinned man who is also smirking at me.
"At least have Blondie get out of the way," Damon calls, and I blink before moving to the side.
Katerina comes third, and immediately gravitates to my side. "That was a head rush, wasn't it Katerina?" I ask her.
"It's Katherine now," she informs me, picking at her cuticles.
"Katherine," I echo her. "It suits you." It's the first time I think I've ever seen her genuinely smile.
As more and more people come down, I notice Damon beginning to get more and more confused and impatient. Every time someone begins to fall, optimism spreads over the man's face, only to diminish when the person falls into the net. Whoever Damon is waiting for, he or she is not here. Finally, when everyone is down, a Dauntless born who fell right after me-Enzo, he had said his name was- moves to Damon and claps him on the back.
"Stefan transferred," Enzo tells him. "I'm sorry mate."
Stefan- I remember that name. He transferred to Abnegation. Damon's face falls, but before he can say anything, the handsome, dark skinned man speaks up. "Alright," he calls. "Dauntless borns, you're with Lexi and Damon, seeing as you all don't need a tour of the place."
"Come on," the blonde woman from before-Lexi- orders, and I can't help but notice she looks vaguely upset too as she and Damon lead the Dauntless born initiates through a tunnel to the side.
"That leaves you with me," the dark-skinned man smirks. "Usually, I'm an ambassador between the Factions, but during initiation, I help train the new transfers. I'm Marcel, and you are going to be seeing a lot of me in the next few weeks, so get used to it." Rebekah is blatantly staring at him, and when his eyes flicker to her, recognition flits across them before he turns and starts walking to a tunnel entrance. "This way, initiates."
We all scramble to keep up with his large, confident strides, through the narrow tunnel. At one point, it gets so narrow we have to line up single file just to all fit through before the tunnel ends. We follow Marcel through a few hallways, and he doesn't speak, not even looking back to make sure we're still following him. It's obvious he thinks himself above all of this.
Finally, Marcel leads us into a vast room. It spans several stories above us, with stairs leading up and down the sides, and I can make out several stores farther up, along with several on the ground level, where we are. "This is the Pit," Marcel starts, spreading his arms out behind him. "the center of life here at Dauntless."
"You think they would have come up with a better name for it," Katherine snarks in my ear, and I have to suppress the urge to snort.
"You need anything, you'll find it here," Marcel continues, leading us through the dead center of the Pit. Laughter from the Dauntless members floats in around me, and it's nothing like the laughter back in Amity. Amity laughter is light and airy, where as here, they are not afraid to make a ruckus. "Furniture, food, clothing, any other necessities are sold within the shops here. But, you may have noticed we don't exactly have railing on the steps leading to the upper stairs, so try not to be an idiot and fall off, yeah? Get high enough and you won't survive the fall."
I shudder at the thought of dying such a bloody death and tear my eyes away from the rock walls.
Marcel veers towards the left, and we follow, looking around one last time before directing our attention to the bridge he has led us to. Below, I can hear the deafening roar of some type of body of water. "This is the Chasm," Marcel shouts over the noise. "Let me tell you right now that there is a FINE line between bravery and idiocy. You may think you're being brave jumping off this bridge, but you're most definitely dead if you pull that little stunt." He shrugs, as if falling to your death from the Chasm is the most normal thing. "Alright, come on."
We follow him back into the Pit, where he leads us to a big hole in the wall, filled with the Dauntless, sitting and eating at tables, laughing, shouting across to each other obnoxiously. Katherine, despite her confidence before, looks somewhat unsure of herself as we walk in and they all begin to cheer, and I suppose it makes sense. She may not act like someone raised in Abnegation, but she still was. This amount of noise would be foreign to her. To me, it's not. Sure, we were never this loud in Amity, but we still all ate together, and I can't help but smile at all the attention being thrown our way.
Marcel dismisses us to eat, making his way to who I can only assume are his own friends, and we don't try to follow him. "Over there," Bonnie nods towards a particularly empty table, and the three of us make a B-line towards it. Katherine and I sit by each other, and Bonnie sits across from us. We're about to dig in when there's a shadow, and Enzo, the boy from earlier, slides in next to Bonnie with his own plate.
"Can we help you?" Katherine asks him, but he doesn't seem bothered.
"For an Abnegation, you're mighty rude," he tells her, but he's grinning, making it obvious he's teasing her.
"There's a reason I left," she shrugs.
"Yeah, well, my best mate is currently pouting because his broody brother left Dauntless like the rest of us knew he would, so I thought I'd get to know some of the fresh meat."
"You're an initiate too," Bonnie points out, glaring at him. "That makes you fresh meat just like us."
"Except I've been living here my whole life," he retorts, his eyes moving to me. "What about you, gorgeous? Think you've got what it takes?"
"I know I've got what it takes," I reply, and it's the most Dauntless thing I've ever said. "I'm Caroline."
"I know," he grins again. "Everyone knows by now, I'm sure. The name of the first jumper tends to stick with you."
"It's that big of a deal around here?" Katherine asks, cocking her head, and he nods casually, taking a bite of his hamburger. "
"I can't help but notice you haven't touched your food," he tells her. "They don't have hamburgers in Abnegation, Stiff?"
"You're gonna want to refrain from calling me a Stiff," she answers him coolly.
"I'll take that as a no, then," he replies, and I can't help but admire him, so unapologetic and sure of himself. I hope I can get to that point someday.
"Put this on it," Bonnie instructs Katherine, handing over the ketchup, and she looks as it skeptically, making no move to put it on the burger, so I do it for her. She gives me a look before picking it up, and we all watch her as she takes a bite, chewing slowly.
"Well?" I prod. Her only response is to take a bigger bite, and we all laugh, easy smiles on our faces.
And then the whole room goes silent. I twist to see what's going on, only to see a man who only looks a few years older than us stalk into the room. He's handsome, that's for sure- with dimples and brooding eyes, but something else tells me no, don't find him attractive. He'd eat you up in one bite.
"Who's that?" Bonnie hisses to Enzo, and I turn back around, afraid I'll make eye contact with the strange man and burn to ash just by looking in his eyes.
"Klaus," Enzo answers, turning back to his burger. "One of the leaders here at Dauntless. Probably the most ruthless, too."
"He's so young," I whisper.
"Age doesn't matter here, Blondie. Skill does." He shrugs. "Klaus was the top of his class, ranked first." And he could snap anyone at this table like a pencil.
I spare another glance in his direction. He doesn't even look over at us, which I am grateful for, as he plops down into an empty seat across from Rebekah Mikaelson, of all people, who doesn't look the least bit afraid of him. Next to them is a dark haired, dark eyed boy with a smirk on his face, and they all talk with their heads down low. It takes a minute, but I see the resemblance between them all- especially Klaus and Rebekah. They have the same eyes, the same bone structure, and I notice it even though I sit far away from them.
Mikael Mikaelson has two sons that transferred.
"He's a Mikaelson, isn't he?" I ask Enzo. "Him and that boy."
Enzo's eyebrows raise so far up I think for a moment they're going to crawl into his hairline. "How'd you figure that?"
"They all look alike."
"Wow, sure you didn't come from Erudite?" Katherine drawls, earning a disapproving look from Bonnie.
"Yeah, he's Mikael's kid," Enzo says simply, and after that, the subject is dropped, and I don't blame him for it.
Mikael Mikaelson is fear itself. And Klaus being his child only gives me more incentive to stay away.