Venus Eaton is desperate to escape the abuse of her previous faction although she is unaware and unprepared of the ordeals of Dauntless initiation. She is a stranger to her own brother until he accuses her of murdering their mother, and finds out th...
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VENUS
SOMEONE SHAKES me awake. My eyes snap open, and I stare up at Emily. Her eyes are wide and her face is pale, like she's seen a ghost. Then I remember.
Rebecca.
"Someone's jumped. From the chasm." She says in a hurried voice. I sit up, rubbing my face.
"Jumped?" I play along. Maybe knowing something before everyone else is bad, in this case. "Who?"
"I-I don't know-" I cut her off.
"Is it an initiate?"
"They're hauling up the body as we speak," She explains and rushes to the door. I notice she's only in a baggy t-shirt, like me, and I wonder what the time is.
5:12? She woke me up at this time?
"Are we really going out like this?" I say, pulling down my shirt before following her toward the door. It reaches my knees, but I still feel uncomfortable.
"Someone has died, Venus! No one cares what we look like!" She snaps, and I roll my eyes. Al and Will follow us out as we run to the chasm. I pass the water fountain. What would've happened if I stayed where I was? I wouldn't have seen her fall, I wouldn't have felt the guilt although I've done nothing wrong.
When we reach the chasm, a group of Dauntless are pulling someone from the chasm, as I suspected. I see curly auburn hair and eyes that no longer glow as they used to. They stare lifelessly, right at me, and I quickly look down although her appearance stays in my mind, imprinted against my eyelids.
Blue lips. A pale face. She is no longer smiling, and I hear a scream behind me.
The girl from the cafeteria with straight black hair and a freckled face stands next to Kathleen, who barges past me to get a closer look. It's too late to cover my ears as her horrified screech echoes from wall to wall, pounding in my chest. She covers her mouth with her hand, trying to get to her, although another Dauntless pushes her back.
I glance across at Harmonie and she glances across at me. In a few steps, she's at my side.
"Well, that's an unfortunate ending for such a popular girl." She says, although her voice has drooped a little. I shuffle uncomfortably. I can't be around the chasm for any longer, but my feet won't move.
"Someone pushed her." Harmonie continues, and my head snaps up. I meet her eyes and she raises an eyebrow. "What? Don't you believe me? This is a murder!"
I inhale a shaky breath as footsteps sound beside us. I hear Max's voice, followed by two other voices. My mind fuzzles them, and I slump my shoulders a little. This shouldn't have happened.
