Shared Pain

Chapter Twelve-Crows

I awoke to an earthquake. It shook me violently and.... It yelled?
I rolled over and looked up to see Christina's face above me.
She was the earthquake.
"Tris! Tris!" She said, continuing to shake me.
"What? Chris stop you're going to give me whiplash!" I yelled. I was tiered, and I wasn't in a good mood.
"Whiplash will be the least of your worries if you're late to training!"
My eyes bugged out of my head. What time was it? Was I really going to be late to our first day of mental training?
I threw the blankets off and pulled on my boots, running down the hall with Christina, who God love her, got me a muffin to eat on the way.
How did I even get home last night? All I remember was standing with Uriah at the bottom of the zip line.
We stopped outside the door to the simulation room.
Four nor Eric were there yet, but everyone else was, including Dauntless born.
Chris and I took our seats and I looked around, landing my eyes on Uriah, who was having a really hard time keeping his open.
That's when I remembered, I had fallen asleep, standing up, at the bottom of the zip line and Uriah must have carried me home.
Four finally came down the hall and went into the simulation room.
We had gotten a basic explanation about what was going to happen. We were told that it was a lot like what we'd gone through on our choosing day, but instead of going through a series of weird and random events, we were going through our deepest fears.
Four went one by one in alphabetical order, and every single one of the people that went in, came out a nervous wreck that could barely speak.
The person that had to go before me just happened to be Uriah, and he entered without hesitation.
There was nobody left other than myself, everyone else had already gone through whatever was ahead of me, and not anyone was very clam coming out.
Christina even came out rubbing her arms as if dusting herself off muttering, "moths, so many moths."
Uriah came out maybe twenty minutes later, shock written over his face.
Nobody had been that calm, but Uriah, instead of freaking out, simply walked away with empty eyes and his mouth dropped open.
I swear I even heard him whisper, "So many old people."
I laughed a bit. Was Uriah scared of old people?
"Tris, you're next."
I got up and headed into the room and it looked identical to the one I had been in on my choosing day.
The only difference was that there were no mirrors, and I was now clad in Dauntless black and not Abnegation grey.
"Take a seat." Four said.
I did as asked, adjusting my pant legs to cover my ankles and moving all my hair to one side.
Some things just stick.
Four turned to me and held up a needle.
"This with pinch." He said, holding the needle to the nape of my neck.
I felt the small pinch and my eyes closed.
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I was in the middle of a dry, open field. Nobody could be seen for miles, and the only thing I could see was the fence.
Why was I outside the fence?
Caw!
I looked up to see a lone crow flying over head. It was all by itself and its caw echoed.
I looked back down at the waist land.
Was this really how it was outside the fence?
Caw! Caw! Caw!
I looked back up and there was now a murder of crows flying above my head.
Where had they all come from?
I started to walk towards the fence but the crows got louder, and my feet stopped moving.
I looked down and my shoes were stuck in a mud puddle.
The crowd now noticed me and were targeting me, flying lower and diving, ripping hole in my clothing.
I tried to pull my feet out of me shoes but it was no use, I was now ankle deep in the mud.
Crows started clawing at my arms and face, I covered my face with my hands and tried to steady my breathing, maybe if I just calm down they would go away.
I took a deep breath in through my nose, and let in out through my mouth, repeating this cycle until my heart rate went down and stopped pounding out of my chest.
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I gasped and sat bolt up right, breathing heavily.
"You did well." Four said.
I was almost hyperventilating and he said I did well?
"Why would you make me do that, it was terrible." I said, holding my head in my hands.
"Tris, how long do you think you were in there?" Four asked.
"I don't know, half an hour maybe?"
"Five minutes." Four corrected.
"What?"
"Tris, it took you half the record time to get out of your first simulation."
I shook my head in disbelief. All the other kids took twenty to thirty minutes to finish their simulation, thinking that it took me about a quarter of that time was beyond me.
"Tris, let me walk you to the cafeteria." Four said, packing up the room.
We walked down the halls towards the cafeteria where lunch was taking place.
"You know, you are very talented for a former Stiff." Four said.
I looked over at him.
"Former?"
He smirked and rolled his eyes, "At this rate you are on your way to the top, most likely to be top of your class."
I nodded and thought about this.
The former Stiff, head of her class.
It had a nice feel to it.
"Be careful though Tris, now that there are cuts, people like Peter will do anything to get the top spot. It was bad before, but now it's just mad." He said.
"Thank you." I said.
He looked at me weirdly, "Why?"
"You have given me small tips here and there that probably mean nothing to you, but they meant that I had a chance, and that's why I'm thanking you."
We arrived at the cafeteria and we stopped beside the door.
"I'll see you tomorrow at training Tris." Four said, placing his hand at the small of my back and sending me into the crowds of people.
"Goodbye Four."
I walked into the cafeteria, spotted Christina and headed over.
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Four
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What was wrong with me?