The Fourth Eaton

Chapter 19 🔪 This Isn't Real

A/N: I broke my record for shortest update time! I wrote an ENTIRE CHAPTER in ONE DAY! *pumps fist in the air* Yeah!

Surprisingly, I don't have much to say today... I'm still on spring break, and I'm totally ignoring my other (original) stories to work on this fanfiction. So... yeah.

Well, enjoy the chapter (Or don't... I don't know how any of you will take enjoyment in Cammi's suffering)!

A dark hallway. A closed door. All the initiates, together. Uncertainty.

Could the first and second stages of initiation be any more different?

The Dauntless-born sit on one side of the hallway, and the transfers on the other. The separation between the two groups is evident, and the atmosphere tense, out of anticipation for the next stage, tension between the groups, or a mixture of both, I don't know. We were separated from the Dauntless-borns in stage one, Tobias said, but we will completing initiation together from now on. He also mentioned - probably for the sake of the more agitated initiates - that nobody was prepared for stage two, not even the Dauntless-borns, so nobody would have any advantages.

That makes me feel a little guilty, because I know what's going to happen in stage two. Even though I know that that knowledge is for my own safety, I will still have the advantage of prior training, and that that advantage may be the reason someone else is cast out of Dauntless.

I stare at Rowan's shoes as I wait. He sits across from me, but I can't bring myself to look him in the eye without blushing, feeling the ghost of his lips on my cheek every time I do. He is flanked by Chloe on one side, and Kian and Juniper on the other. Ethan, Julia, Lavender, and I are arranged similarly, with Julia on my left and Lavender and Ethan on my right.

I can feel someone glaring at me. It only takes me a quick glance to figure out that it is none other than Catalina. Ever since Rowan brought me ziplining yesterday, she seems to have it out for me.

Nobody talks much, just quiet murmurings to their friends every once in a while. Fingers drum against knees. People shift their weight from side to side. Eyes dart around, almost as though something will jump out of the room with the closed door and attack them.

Everyone, including the Dauntless-borns, is scared, and, in small, anxious ways, it shows.

The oppressive silence is finally broken by the sound of the door opening. Tobias steps out of the room, alone. It's a chilling pattern; two people go in, but only one comes out. I mean, I know that, logically, everyone who goes in there is probably going out of another door, but the intimidating aspect of that particular detail is still valid. "Catalina."

With one last glare in my direction, Catalina gets up, and walks to my brother, stepping into the room. Tobias shoots me a curious glance, before closing the door behind him and Catalina. I can almost hear his question in my ears, Cam, why was she glaring at you like that?

We continue sitting in silence. It takes just under twenty minutes - I keep track on my watch - for the door to open again. "Rowan."

Rowan stands up and walks to the door, glancing at the other initiates as he does. Somehow, he manages to lock his eyes with mine.

I feel my heart flutter as the moment from yesterday replays through my mind, but I push that strange feeling away firmly, and offer him a small smile in reassurance, as well as a barely noticeable thumbs-up. Rowan's eyes shoot down to my hand, then back up to my eyes. He smiles in return, then disappears into the room.

It takes ten minutes for the door to open again.

The minutes start turning into hours. Tobias opens the door again and again, calling more and more people, one by one, causing our numbers to dwindle.