Divergent Contest: Contestant #10

Final Round Part 1

I stood frozen, shocked, incredulous. My body refused to move. My brain refused to process everything, anything. I could only manage the small tasks of blinking and breathing.

"C, are you okay?" Xaver asked.

I felt my head nod up and down. Up and down. Up. And. Down. Xaver let out a deep breath. I copied his motion, hoping to release all my shock into the atmosphere. My feet began to work again and my brain started processing at a somewhat normal speed.

Slowly, I made my way over to Xaver. He was standing there, giving me time to comprehend. His body was turned away from me. I made my way up next to him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you. You wouldn't understand anyways. It's just so hard, and for some reason I thought you would understand. I thought you might, I don't know, be okay with it or something. I was so stupid thinking that you would-"

"I'm divergent, too," I heard myself whisper back.

He turned his head towards me, studying my face, making sure I wasn't lying. I took the moment to examine his own features.

His face was bruised in a variety of places, bringing out the paleness of his skin. His mouth was dry, like it had been starved of something, or someone. His eyes were bloodshot, bright red veins contrasting with his charcoal pupils.

"Are you really di-?" he asked.

"Yes, but so are you," I smiled and for once, it didn't feel strained. I leaned into him, blocking out everything else in the world. Our lips got closer and closer until-

Suddenly, I felt different. Invaded. I slowly looked away from Xaver to examine my surroundings. Xaver copied my movements. With my eyes twice as wide and my heart thumping rapidly, I looked at our new company. They had guns.

There were about 5 of them, 4 of which I recognized as being part of Xaver's "possi." They all were dressed in a black attire except the new one. He was in Erudite colors. Xaver looked as confused as me.

"Well, well, well," the Erudite one spoke up, "what do we have here? A couple of love birds?"

I tried to kill him with my eyes, but all he did was walk closer and closer. His minty fresh breath brushed against my face and I flinched. I wished with all my mind he would just back away and leave us alone; however, all I could accomplish was increasing my heart rate.

"What do you want," I heard Xaver accuse beside me.

The Erudite's blue shirt touched me as he turned towards Xaver. I flinched.

"Oh nothing, just need to do a placement serum, make sure you're in the right faction and all," he remarked with a smirk. My eyes darted to the two needles in his right hand. How had I not noticed them before?

Before I could muster the courage to ask him why he needed Dauntless help if the serum was harmless, both my legs and arms had been grabbed. I could smell the daredevil Dauntless spirit on the two guys holding me captive. The more I tried to kick and squirm, the tighter their hold on me got.

I decided to save my energy for the right time to escape, but it never worked for there was never a chance to get away. A firm hand was placed on my head, pushing it back and exposing my neck. A sharp pinch came, and stayed for a few seconds as the Erudite released the serum into my body.

"Sweet dreams," he taunted before my body went limp and everything went dark.

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I woke up or at least I think I did. My eyes weren't comprehending as quickly as they used too and my mind was running about 1 mile an hour. Words floated around in my brain as I saw them.