Chasing Dauntless (A Divergent OC Fanfic in Dauntless)

Chapter Five

I followed him to the exit of the training room. As I walked next to Chase, I noticed the tattoos on his arms: a detailed tribal print, stretching on one large, defined bicep and slipping into his shirt. I had never really noticed it during training. "Do you have any other tattoos?" I asked. Chase gave a small grunt, rubbed absently at the tattoo, and nodded, not looking at me. He stared straight ahead and kept walking. I waited for an answer. "I have more on my back and other arm," he finally said. I nodded.

"Are you planning to get one?" Chase asked after a while. I shrugged. "Maybe a small one to start, probably on my upper back or something. I want to get my ears pierced first." Chase smiled. "Most girls go for that first, and other body piercings. A lot of guys, too." I grinned, too. "You should get piercings. You should get, like, an eyebrow ring, a nose ring, a lip ring, all those weird bite mouth piercings...." I trailed off, laughing slightly. Chase shook his head, laughing too. "Piercings on guys have never been my thing." "Good. I think they should leave most piercings to girls. Black studs in the ears are fine with me-" "Same." "-but in general, best for girls." I agreed. We had reached the entrance to the dormitory. "Shit, Chase, you didn't have to walk me all the way back." He shrugged. "It's fine." I nodded, and reached for the door. "Hey," I suddenly said. "It's pretty late. Where do you live?" Chase gave a general jerk of the head. "In an apartment building really close by. It's where just about all Dauntless adults live." I smiled. "But you're, what, eighteen?" "Yeah. Why?" "Just wondering." There was an awkward silence. "Well, um, night. Thanks for the help with the knives." There was another pause. "Welcome, Jess." As Chase walked away, he called quietly over his shoulder, "See you at training."

In my bed, I was unable to fall asleep for a long time. I stared at the dark ceiling, surrounded by sleeping teenagers, with something like adrenaline pumping through my veins. It was a while until it faded and I fell asleep. 

Several weeks later, I dreamed of my aptitude test.

I had gone into the small room. A reclining medical chair, several machines, and a young Amity woman waited. The woman, named Heather, had talked to me a little bit. I had taken the injection, gotten into the chair, and got the probes hooked up.

I was never really sure what my fears were, but I had a basic idea.

I knew they always threw common fears at you to see what you would do.

I closed my eyes, then opened them.

I was standing in a blank grey room. A snake appeared out of nowhere and slithered towards me.

I smiled. This was too easy.

The snake hissed and seemed to grow in size. I knew the simulation wasn't real and would normally just let it bite me and see what would happen, but I needed to do everything the Dauntless way. I stepped towards the snake and bent down. I swiftly reached down and grabbed its head, holding its jaw closed. The snake struggled, then thinned and slipped out of my hand. It was gone before it hit the floor. I felt a soft tickling on the back of my leg. I glanced there.

A large, furry spider was crawling up my leg. I laughed out loud, and picked it up. I held it in my hands, turning over my palm, creating an infinite running space for the spider. After a few seconds, it slowly grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

I blinked.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing on flat railing a dozen stories up. About fifty feet away was a large ledge, big enough to stand comfortably on. I wanted to jump, because I invariably would not die, but I knew a Dauntless would go for the ledge. I stayed low and crept towards the ledge. I even jumped the last few feet for good measure.

I was aware of time passing after my dream. I woke up just a minute before Chase came and banged on the railings. I sat up and started getting dressed. As I was lacing up my boots, he turned on all the lights and banged on the railing. "Get up," he yelled, projecting his voice across the concrete room.