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❝Our world doesn't play out like a fantasy. We aren't some carefree princesses getting handed happy endings on a silver platter-you make one wrong move, and it's game over.❞
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In a world where all control over their lives is illusory, a grou...
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—Part 7.2— Chasing the Abyss
"They're asking us all to die." —Omniscient—
For moments, silence washed over the crowd.
It was as if all the transfers had stopped breathing, suffocated by the bravery a seemingly mere weak Abnegation had mustered—the bravery to jump. Clothes ruffled. Gravel rustled. Every teenager tried to will their muscles to move—at least flinch—to take the stand and be brave, yet no one dared.
Questions barraged a certain raven boy, taller than most as he stood within the crowd next to the girl he had met on the train. Park Jisung's fingers fiddled with the hem of his dark blue shirt that clung to his skin like an unyielding sticker. As the smell of burnt coal wafted to his nose, his hands trembled. His senses overloaded, and fear truly enveloped him, pushing him toward a black hole labeled "the Factionless."
How do they expect me to jump from here? I didn't sign up for this shit.
That had to be impossible, he thought. He believed there was no way that stupid Abnegation truly survived the jump.
They're asking us all to die.
Slowly the cheers reverberated into the boundless sky, echoing a painful relief into every transfers ear. The source? The bottom of the endless pit—the location Jisung was sure he was going to die in.
"So," Haechan's annoyed voice brought him out of his thoughts, driving him to glance at the much shorter male. "Who's jumping next?"
Once again, the crowd fell dead silent.
Even if they had the reassurance that they weren't falling to their death, the fear of jumping still persisted. What if they were truly falling toward their death—that the cheers that resounded within their ears were some sick, twisted way of honoring the dead within the Dauntless?
The fears and questions that forced their way into the transfers' heads were stupid, tactless even. Yet, fear always accumulated uncanny thoughts and questions that would always sweep the mind.
Jisung was sure no one was going to volunteer in the cold silence. Hell, he couldn't even bring himself to show an ounce of bravery despite picking the faction himself.
Did I really have a choice?
Haechan stood impatiently, disappointed about the boring crowd he was forced to watch. All the transfers were wimps in his eyes—idiots thinking they had what it took to survive within the faction.
Meihua stood a couple of feet away from him, slightly trembling at the sight of the sharp wires and debris that disfigured the otherwise circular hole within the roof. She didn't understand how that girl had done it. She didn't understand how someone could so fearlessly jump to their death with such bravery.
