Choose Your Own Adventure: Divergent

Tell Me More!- 94

You wave a hand at Four, exchanging glances with your crew. Tris stares longingly at Four, and you smile at her, giving her a small push.

"Talk to Tris," you tell Four, nodding and walking away with a grin. Tris squeaks, but he goes over to her, and they talk, balancing on the railing. Christina rolls her eyes. 

"Come on, Al, let's get some food," she says loudly, making a gag-me sign at Tris. Al scoops her up, and they careen away. You hear your steady heartbeat, and you suddenly realize that you and Will are alone. There's a soft shhh of water from a waterfall above you.

"Good move," Will says, raising an eyebrow at you.

You shrug, swinging your arms around as you walk through the stairway. "Hey, what can I say? I'm a good friend."

You pause by a small break, an abandoned shop of some kind. It's dark, the remnants of shelves hanging up. "What were you saying about the serum? That was kind of cool."

Will's face lights up. He leans towards you. Your heart beats a little faster, and you lean back right before his hand can brush yours-

"So it deals with fear," he's explaining. "What's interesting is that what it conjures is so real, especially because it's just a stimulus. It shouldn't give us these pictures in our heads, but it does, unique to each person, almost like we're creating the reality around us."

Will pauses, opening his mouth, and then closing it. Finally, he frowns, shaking his head and pacing in a circle. "Which is weird to me," he says eventually. "If the serum was just stimulating the thalamus, we'd get fear, but not these scenarios. You'd have to work with perception, which, as far as I know, is a forbidden area for Erudite scientists."

You lean forward, a sudden chill creeping up your spine. "Forbidden? But-"

"I know!" Will says, grabbing your hands, words spilling out of him. "I didn't think it was that way in Erudite at all. We're supposed to have free reign to experiment, right? But then, when I went to research the fear serum before coming here, it was blocked. Y/N, everything on the perception part of the serum, it was all blocked."

He releases your hands, taking a shaky breath. His hand, quivering, draws up to brush the hair away from his forehead. 

"You think there's something going on," you finish, and he nods quietly, hand resting on one of the shelves.

"There's something they don't want us to know," he says. "And I'm not so sure I'm ready to find out what it is."

You're not sure if he's ready, but you walk over to him anyway, cautiously taking his hand, ignoring how your breath catches in your throat. "We'll be ready," you breathe. "We're Dauntless."

He laughs, shaking his head. "Yeah. Thank you... thank you for listening. It's hard..."

He doesn't finish, so you turn your head to meet his sharp eyes. "It's hard when no one understands where you're coming from," you finish. "We can't change our blood."

You suddenly freeze, understanding what you just said. We can't change our blood. 

A heavy weight settles in your stomach, and you cringe back, hand slipping out of Will's. Do you believe that? Do you still feel so defined by Factionless? The world is spinning around you, and you stumble out of the old shop.

"I... I have to go," you mumble, all but sprinting back to the dormitory.

You have to focus. You have to be Dauntless, especially now that something might be happening. 

Advance to 96.

1+ Will

1+ Tris