Eric Coulter Imagines

Where You Go, I'll Follow

Your story begins the same way they all do, with the slice of a knife across your palm. You watch as a line of red blossoms across your skin, and the second a bead of blood forms, you carefully dash it into the vessel of your chosen faction. This is the Choosing Ceremony, after all; it would not do to make a mistake. Not now, not when your life just opened up before you.

A second later, you look up and see the room around you thrown into disarray. The members of your home faction, Erudite, look irate at your betrayal. You have, after all, chosen to throw your blood into the basin of Dauntless, forever sealing your fate away from your family. The black-clad faction, however, looks delighted at the sight of another transfer.

You step away from the basins, away from the knife, and join their ranks. You're enveloped almost immediately in a wave of black clothing, inked tattoos, and razor-sharp grins. It feels like coming home, even though you're about to leave the only place you've ever known.

Speaking of which, you just have time for a quick glance over your shoulder before you're swept away with the crowd of Dauntless. Erudite looks sickeningly smaller than the group of people that had been there earlier in the ceremony, and you're able to locate your family with ease.

They look disappointed, but your attention strays to linger on your brother, who seems haunted, slow to rise from his seat. This isn't the first time he's lost somebody to the Choosing Ceremony, after all- he had a best friend, once, who transferred away from Erudite as well. Even though that friend is the same age as your brother, scarcely a few years older than you, you haven't really thought about him since.

That's the way it always is with transfers. The second somebody leaves, it's like they're gone forever. No matter how many memories you share, you have to do your best to forget them before it starts to hurt. All photographs with them are discarded and cast away, no one talks about them anymore, and the second you catch your mind straying towards them, you force yourself to focus on something new. They're no longer your faction, no longer your blood. Hell, you don't even know where the guy went. It's a shame that your brother will soon think the same thing about you.

You don't have time to think about that, though, because the crowd of Dauntless is starting to move, breaking past the doors and scattering out into the street. Running like this through the city is exhilarating, making you feel alive despite the burn of your lungs and aching of your legs as you sprint faster than you ever have before.

Even jumping onto the moving train just makes you laugh. It's all such a rush, isn't it? You end up next to two girls who seem far more stunned by what they've just done than you, one in Abnegation gray and the other in Candor black and white. You three stare at each other for a few seconds, then start grinning like mad and decide that you're all going to be friends. It's an absurd thought that you just stumbled upon your first friends by accident, but it feels right somehow. This is Dauntless, isn't it? All the best things happen by chance.

Before long, you hear shouts from the train cars further ahead, directing everyone to jump off again. The girls you met earlier, who had introduced themselves as Tris and Christina, seem terrified at the thought of leaping off the train again, but you find yourself looking forward to it. You throw yourself towards the roofline before you can talk yourself out of it, managing to catch yourself before you fall.

You look around, dusting yourself off while you wait for Tris and Christina to land. You laugh at them, taking in their stunned expressions. "Man, I thought you guys were never going to jump. What, were you taking in the view?"

Christina rolls her eyes, shoving you slightly in the arm. "Some of us have good judgment, which means that we aren't all thrilled by the idea of launching ourselves out of trains without a second thought."