We Are Divergent

Chapter Three

After thirty straight minutes of punching, my knuckles were swollen and bleeding just slightly. I decided to go into the simulation room. I haven’t been through my fear landscape since I did my final Dauntless test. Reliving my worst fears isn’t something that I exactly enjoy, so I don’t often think about going back in.

I know Four goes in whenever he is upset or stressed, which is crazy, but I’m somewhat curious whether mine has changed over the course of a few months or not. I’m pretty sure it hasn’t. I started setting everything up and pulled out a small injection of serum.

“You’re going into your simulation?” I heard from behind me, making me curse.

“Jesus Tobias,”

“Sorry, you weren’t in the cafeteria so I went down to the training room and saw you coming in here.”

“Er, yeah I am… I haven’t been in it in months.”

He gazed at me, probably trying to understand my thought process. “Can I come with you?”

I hesistated. I know I’ve been in his fear landscape, but he has never been in mine. I remember being in the small box with him. He had asked me if I was scared of being in small spaces also, because my heart was beating so fast, and I told him that it had nothing to do with it. “You are in my last fear though.” I said quietly, thinking of my last fear of intimacy, not sure of how I’ll feel with him there watching.

He walked over, putting a hand on my cheek. “I know. That’s okay.”

“Alright,” I handed him another needle and we both injected it into our necks and he attaching a wire to his head that was hooked up to my simulation. We laid down on the chair, waiting for our surrounding to change.

I blinked once more and I was standing in the empty field, the clouds looming above. There are three ways to go about this. One, to get my heart beating at a regular pace and be calm enough to move on. Two, to get through everything the way a dauntless would, or three, change the simulation with my divergence. I guess I’ll have to decide what is easiest with each fear. I looked to my left to see Tobias smiling reassuringly, but my attention was quickly diverted to above him, to the crows starting to circle above us. He took my hand in his just as the first bird dove down and pecked me on the cheek.

“Ow,” I mumbled, covering my face as more of them came down and started attacking the both of us.

More and more of them came down, pecking hard and making me bleed. I can’t calm my heartbeat as they fly around us, crowing loudly. I ran through them, trying to uselessly bat them out of the way. I ran to the small fire starting in the field like I did in my test, grabbing a branch and catching it on fire before waving it all around me to block them from coming at me.  Sure enough we moved onto my next fear. I stood on a rocky ledge surrounded by splashing ocean water. I was about to say something to Tobias when a big wave crashed into me, knocking us over. I spat out water, coughing and clutching at his arm next to me.

“Well this is an annoying fear,” He said loudly.

“Tell me about it!”

I tried to hold onto the slippery rock but my hand kept slipping, and eventually I lost grip of Tobias’s arm and got thrown onto another hard rock by a wave. I let go entirely, letting the waves slam my body over the rocks roughly until it eventually moved on. When I opened my eyes we were standing in the glass box. We looked down as water splashed against our ankles, rising steadily to our knees.

“What do you do for this one again?” He asked.

“I prefer to break the glass, but I think I can calm my heart easily with you here.”