Closer

Chapter 3

I stared at him, speechless. The feeling must have been mutual seeing that he didn't say anything either. Someone shouted something from behind him and it snapped him out of his daze. His expression went cold and so did his eyes. He grabbed my waist and hauled me off the net and onto a platform a few feet above the ground. I saw him look over the left side of my face. His cold eyes and neutral expression turned pained and apologetic.

"I can't believe it," A dark hair woman said as she walked towards us. The three silver rings in her right eyebrow glistened as she smile. "A Stiff? The first to jump?" She made it seem as if she just witnessed a miracle. "Wow, her 5 minutes here and she's already outdoing you, Four. She might be the new face to the Abnegation turned Dauntless club," she teased.

"We'll see about that, Lauren." His expression went cold again and his tone gave no hint of emotion. She looked me over for a few more seconds before walking away. His expression was still unreadable as he looked at me. After a year of dreaming how this day would go, this was not one of the scenarios that I had imagined. He looked over and began to shout, "First jumper, Alexan-,"

"Alex. Just Alex." I interrupted. He looked back over at me and I swear I saw a hit of a smile on his face.

"First jumper, Alex!" He announced correcting himself. "Go wait over there by Lauren," he instructed, his tone smooth. As I went to pass him, he grabbed my arm, "I'll talk to you later and I'll explain everything, I promise," he whispered. He let his grip linger though, before finally letting go. I nodded and made my way over to Lauren.

His behavior left me confused. Why didn't he mention the fact that I was his sister? There must be a reason for it, right? And why did Lauren call him Four? I had dozens of questions bouncing around in my head as I waited for the other initiates to make their way to the ground.

Once all of the initiates had jumped, we were separated into two groups; Dauntless-born and transfers. Tobias, or Four, Lauren, and Eric led us down a dark narrow tunnel. Olivia stopped short and I almost walked into her. Both groups had stopped.

"This is where we divide," Lauren announced. "Dauntless-born, you'll be coming with me. I'm assuming that you don't need a tour," Lauren began to walk past Eric and Four, leading the Dauntless-born further into Dauntless. I made eye contact with Jake before they turned a corner. Jake was my comfort zone here and now he was gone.

"The rest of you will be with me," Four informed us. "Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks I'll be your instructor as you go through initiation. My name is Four. And Eric," Four motioned in the young leader's direction, "will be overseeing your training." I could tell by the look on Four's face that he wasn't exceptionally happy about it. I wouldn't be too happy either if I had a Dauntless leader looking over my shoulder while I was trying to do my job. The fact that it was Eric made it worse.

"What kind of a name is Four?" The one Candor boy asked with a chuckle.

"What kind of a name is Seth?" My brother questioned back sharply. So that was the Candor boy's name. I could tell by the tone of voice Four was using that the frequency of that question began to annoy him. "Follow me."

We all followed him forward, walking in the same direction as the Dauntless-born. It was only a few short minutes of walking before Four pushed open a set of double doors to the "the Pit".

As he explained the purpose and significants of the Pit, my mind began to wander. It wasn't long, however, before my eyes accidentally made contact with Eric's, who was standing off to the side. He scowled as his eyes met mine, reminding me that my choice words on the roof would come back to haunt me. I quickly looked away and back at Four just as he had finished speaking.