Dauntless Monsters (Eric Coulter Fanfic)

Accidentally not Amity

"Maritza Celeda." My name was called out and I couldn't stop my slender hands from shaking as I walked down the glass stairs to the choosing ceremony's large stage. Now was the time that my life would change forever and in every way possible. Picking up the brown handled knife that had been used for decades of choosing ceremonies I looked at the five bowls sitting on the table in front of me. Behind the white table stood a leader of Abnegation, the announcer. Ignoring the pebbles of Abnegation and water of Erudite I rested my eyes on the bowl of glass representing my faction of origin, Candor whom I knew I was not. I had lied often to keep the peace and that was not a Candor trait, so I moved on. The bowl of soft brown Earth was going to be my choice, Amity being my result on the aptitude test and something about calming nature it had always appealed to me. The burning coals of the dauntless bowl to the right of my selection made me feel strange inside, so it was easy to discard that as an option. Gently carving a perfect line in the middle of my palm I raise my hand above the Amity bowl and wait for a drop of blood to fall.
"No!"A Candor voice ring out across the silent room of 18 year olds and their families. I look towards them distracted as does everyone else in the room. Realisation smack me in the face, it was the one and only Reece Tulloch. We had been the best of friends since before I can remeber and his rash outburst surprised me. He out of all people knew that I wasn't fit for Candor. After I told him that I was transferring to Amity he had begged me not to go not to leave him there, he had also told me that he loved me. I was confused but and told him so, but we didn't get to finish the awkward conversation as the beginning of Jeanine Matthews 'motovational' speech had interrupted us. I was about to apologise to him when the voice of the announcer behind me called out.
"Dauntless!" I looked around in confusion, I swear I picked Amity. It was then that my fatal mistake came to light, in my distraction I had dropped my blood into the dangerous bowl of coals. Shock overcame my body as I crossed over to the cheering crowd of deadly dauntless. I mentally scolded myself for being so stupid, this was the exact opposite of what I was, this was meant to be my chance to become something amazing, something beautiful and I just ruining that. The rest of the eventless choosing ceremony gave me time to really think about what I was going to do about my situation. Occasionally I'd look over to Reece who would flash me a small sympathetic smile and it just made me angry so angry I wanted peace not war. I felt myself start to shake with the anger building up inside me and knew that nothing good would become of this if I didn't find some way to stop it so I forced all of my emotions out of me. They couldn't deal with this in an Amity way and that was yet another thing today that had confused me, it was quite clear I'm no Erudite. Had my aptitude test been wrong? By the end of the train wreck of a ceremony I had come to the conclusion that I was going to die, I had seen the Dauntless fight and they were almost as savage and unforgiving as the factionless.

While we were running to the train tracks I let myself revel in the feeling of freedom and decided that this feeling is what I'd chase before my life ends at Dauntless. I heard the train in the distance it was getting closer, what were we supposed to do? Stand here and get run over by the train, I knew Dauntless caught the train but I didn't know how. As the train reached us the Dauntless borns starting jumping on board.
"They're absolutely crazy." I scream above the noise.

"They're Dauntless." An Erudite guy next to me smiles clearly hopy with his faction choice.
After barely making it on to the train alive he introduces himself to me.
"I'm Will." He sticks out his hand.
"Ritza." I reply shaking it, using my nickname in hopes he doesn't recall the incident from earlier. But who was I kidding his Erudite.
"Hey, you're the girl who accidentally picked Dauntless." He laughed at me.
"Yeah, not exactly my brightest moment." I murmured.
"Who was that? Who called out your name, I mean." His Erudite curiosity had kicked in. I contemplated telling him, he seemed trustworthy enough and considering the inevitability of my death in the very near future I decided to tell him.
"He is my best friend. I love him, even if he id the reason I'm in the most dangerous faction." I had meant what I said. I did love him, but not in the way that he wanted. After more small talk we heard a commotion and I looksd  out the door with wide eyes.
"They're jumping off the train."I say deciding to jump without allowing me to talk myself out of it. The feeling of flying through the air was so liberating I wished it to last forever. The landing however was less than graceful to say the least. Standing up I brushed the gravel from the brick roof top off myself and headed over the the edge with the other initiates.
"Alright initiates. Time to jump." A very serious looking guy announced scanning the group of fresh faces. I noticed his face falter for a second when he noticed the abnegation girl who was already friends with my arch enemy from Candor Christina. Great. Thinking about the jump we were forced to make I figured it would be a great way to get a good rush in before I get slaughtered by the other initiates. I stepped forward and onto the ledge looking into the dark nothingness that lay before me. I hesitate but imagine that this is like all the times I used to jump into the Candor river with Reece. Somersaulting off the edge I clung onto the feeling of freedom and was greeted by a rough net preventing me from falling into oblivion. The net was pulled to one side forcing me to the edge of the net. I turned and came face to face with another serious dauntless face, this one however was seriously and dauntlessly more attractive, his piercings adding to his badass demeanour. He picked me up gently and placed me on the ground asking my name.
"Ritza." I reply softly walking to the back of the room.

"First jumper Ritza." He calls out and prepares for the next initiate. My name sounded so good when he said it. What am I thinking? Shaking my head I try to focus on the incoming initiates, but I am drawn back to the becoming stranger. His grey eyes made him look cold-hearted but a small ring of blue around his pupils told a different story and his brown hair was combed back clearly highlighting that he'd be one of those 'taking no shit' people. Once we were all through the drop the 'adults', who in reality were only a couple of years older than us, got down to business.
"Okay initiates I am Eric, this is Four and this is Lauren. We are your trainers for the two stages of initiation that you will be required to undertake if you plan on becoming a member of this faction. Dauntless-borns with Lauren, transfers with me." Eric finished speaking and abruptly walked off. As we followed him around the dimly lit compound we looked like an ugly mess of blue, black, white and a spot of gray, all out of place in this very specifically colour co-ordinated compound. After introducing us to our extremely open living quarters Eric sent us to change into the black Dauntless clothes. Attempting my best to keep myself decent as I change into tight fitting pants and a top I hear some guy I barely recall as Peter say to the abnegation girl.
"Nice legs stiff." and I instantaneously knew that this guy was going to be a dick. I changed as fast as I could and waited for Will before heading off to burn our clothes.
"This makes it all seem so final." I say to him as we stand in the slow moving line.
"It is all final. We're going to start new lives here." An expression of sadness crossed his face.
"Are you going to miss your family?" I ask hoping that it wasn't too personal for him to answer.
"Yeah, I will miss them, they were great and very supportive of me changing factions. What about you?" He asks smiling at the thought of his family.
"Not really, they weren't exactly a big part of my life. I will miss Reece though, he is practically my family." I say sadly, I didn't plan on telling him that my parents died years ago. i hesitated before throwing my clothes in the fire knowing I wouldn't have anything to remind me of home anymore. We then headed to the pit, which was a large open room, for instructions.
"This year we are going to run things a little differently than usual. This here is the board where all of you will be ranked. At the end of each stage initiates ranking below the red line will be cut." Eric pointed to a scoring board. What did he mean by cut? I was about to ask but Christina beat me to it.

"What do you mean cut?" She asks and we all look at Eric expectantly, he smirks. Is it disturbing that I found that hot.
"As in kicked out and factionless." I gasped louder than I had meant to and everyone gave me a weird look, before discussing the matter further. I had however tuned out, being factionless had scared me ever since I was a little girl. In Candor I was preview to the horrors of the factionless, they way they truly were. The inhumane deaths, the abuse and the poverty, all hidden from the other factions in order to maintain a calmer society, that was Amity's idea. It gave me nightmares and I'd occasionally get a few every now and again, but there was absolutely no way I was going to be factionless, I'd die way before I became factionless. And that was how all respect for my life disappeared, I'd die Dauntless.