The first thing I noticed was his stance. The way he stood screamed confidence and intimidation. The second was his eyes; steel grey and cold as ice. The third was that those eyes were locked on mine, issuing a silent challenge.
Never one to resist a reckless impulse, I took a step back and ran forwards, not bothering to stand on the ledge, or look below. I was going to jump regardless, so why waste everyone's time? I heard a gasp, but everything else faded away as the wind raged against my body. My eyes were shut as I fell, not for lack of wanting to see, but rather the painful sting of the air, forcing me to close them.
I felt a jolt, and my fall came to a stop. Opening my eyes, I snorted as I saw the net that cradled my body. A hand extended in front of my eyes, and I grasped it, exiting the net in a rather undignified way. The man who'd pulled me from the net spoke, "What's your name, jumper?"
"Persie... It's Persie"
He gave a nod and turned to shout behind him "First jumper Persie!"
Immediately, the space is filled with cheers and shouts. "Whooo, nice one, Persie!" I didn't know who'd spoken, but it filled me with pride. I wasn't just going to make it through Dauntless initiation, I was going to thrive here.
The cheers quieted down as the screaming of another initiate grew louder. The screams didn't sound afraid. In fact, they sounded rather like the jumper just wanted to hear the noise. Upon the initiate hitting the net all confusion was wiped away, fucking Cassius. Of course.
The jumpers were a continuous stream after that, I recognised a few of the transfers from school. Emma and Jackson, they were a couple and had transferred together from Erudite, Michael a Candor boy, and two other Candors who were sisters, Leuke and Lo. I didn't recognise anyone else. In total 4 Erudites, 2 Amity, 4 Candor, including myself, and an Abnegation boy, as well as all the Dauntless-born, made the jump.
The leaders from the roof went down last, not surprising anyone with their effortless movements and gruff but graceful exiting of the net.
The man who'd helped me from the net spoke, sending everyone into silence. "Welcome to Dauntless initiates, I'm Four and beside me-" He gestured to another woman "- is Lauren, we will be your trainers during initiation, the Dauntless-born will be with Lauren and transfers with me." His eyes turned hard "You may be training separately, but you will all be ranked together, so don't get complacent." With that, it seemed his speech was finished and he turned, shooting one final command over his shoulder, "Transfers with me!"
He took us on a brief tour of the compound and I couldn't help the excitement that was beginning to steadily grow with every step. Four left us in the initiates barracks with instructions to change and bring our old clothes to the Pit to burn.
The conditions were far from the nicest and a lot of the other transfers had issues with the openness of the room. Their complaints got them nowhere and I opted not to try, the room had obviously been used for the initiates for years. I doubted they would change it for us.
I changed quickly trying not to look at the others, but unable to prevent myself from catching a few glimpses of skin. I caught the back of the Amity girl transfer and paused with my leg partially in my pants, before shaking it off and continuing, this time with my eyes firmly fixed on the floor. Her back had crisscrossed scars standing out vividly from her skin, there could have been no doubt what had caused them.
Sleep that night was hard to come by. It wasn't the awful bed, but rather Brad's crying. It wasn't the first night of Dauntless I imagined, but even the sobs of another couldn't fully bring down my spirit.
ooOOooOOoo
Most people were up by the time Four came to wake us. I had formed a middle ground with the female Amity. I knew her from before, not by name but I'd lent her a pencil in second year, which she promptly stole, and I'd held a grudge. I hadn't said anything about the pencil to her, because that was stupid, but if the fucking smirk she sent my way, was any indication, she knew I remembered.
