❝ I knew, from that moment on,
that nobody could ever confess,
they love me, without the splintered thought of you
running through my mind.
Consciously or not, my soul will always be tangled
with you. ❝
Aurora Matthews, the daughter of Jeanine Matt...
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The crowd of Dauntless leads us to the stairs instead of the elevators. I thought only the Abnegation used the stairs.
Then everyone starts running. I hear whoops and shouts and laughter all around me, and dozens of thundering feet moving at different rhythms. It is not a selfless act for the Dauntless to take the stairs; it is a wild act.
"What the hell is going on?" the boy next to me shouts.
I just shake my head and keep running. My breath is not heavy compared to the other's when we reach the first floor, and the Dauntless burst through the exit. Outside, the air is crisp and cold, and the sky is orange from the setting sun. It reflects off the black glass of the Hub.
The Dauntless sprawls across the street, blocking the path of a bus, and I continue to sprint just behind the leader. My confusion dissipates as I run. The feeling of running clears my head. My lungs relaxed, my muscles working, the fierce pleasure of a flat-out sprint. For once I feel like I could belong. I can belong. I follow Dauntless down the street and around the corner and hear a familiar sound: the train horn.
"Oh no," mumbles the Erudite boy. "Are we supposed to hop on that thing?"
"Yes," I say, breathless.
It is good that I spent so much time watching Dauntless arrive at school. The crowd spreads out in a long line. The train glides toward us on steel rails, its light flashing, its horn blaring. The door of each car is open, waiting for the Dauntless to pile in, and they do, group by group, until only the new initiates are left. The Dauntless-born initiates are used to doing this by now, so in a second, it's just faction transfers left.
I step forward with a few others and start jogging. We ran with the car for a few steps and then threw ourselves sideways. I easily got in but for some this wasn't the case, I joined in by helping the others get in the cart safely.
I hear a shout and look over my shoulder. A short abnegation boy with red hair pumps his arms as he tries to catch up to the train. An abnegation girl by the door reaches out to grab the boy's hand, straining, but he is too far behind. He falls to his knees next to the tracks as we sail away and puts his head in his hands.
I feel uneasy. He just failed Dauntless initiation. He is factionless now. It could happen at any moment. I needed to fight for myself in this now.
"You all, right?" A Candor girl asks briskly. She is tall, with dark brown skin and short bleached hair. Pretty.
I nod.
"I'm Sarai," she says, offering me her hand.
I haven't shaken a hand in a long time either. The Erudite were never ones to meet new people, we kept to ourselves. I take her hand, uncertainly, and shake it twice, hoping I didn't squeeze too hard or not hard enough.
I thought before I said anything.
"I'm Quinn," I say in confidence.
If Dauntless was the right move, I needed to begin fresh, to leave the life I had in Erudite behind. To stop being in the shadows of my mother and brother and become my own independent. I'm not Aurora or Rory anymore... I'm Quinn.
