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
SITTING IN a dark hallway isn't entirely pleasant, especially since we've been here for quite a long time. The transfers sit along one wall and the Dauntless-borns sit along the other.
"So... whose first out of you lot, then?" A girl says as she scuffs the floor with her shoe.
Peter smugly raises his hand, then scans the Dauntless with an eyebrow raised. "Me. Of course."
"And I came in second," Rhett quickly adds, glaring sideways at his friend. I roll my eyes and concentrate on my hands, tapping them against my thighs as they continue to argue.
"Doesn't mean it'll stay like that," The girl continues. "I promise I'll beat your ass."
Before Peter or Rhett can say anything else obnoxious, the door opens and Tobias appears. I haven't seen him since yesterday, and I feel a flicker of relief. He's still alive.
And then I think: why wouldn't he be?
"Lynn," He beckons to the girl, and she stands to her feet and walks down the hallway and disappears.
We sit in continuous silence for another 20 minutes, then Peter is called through. There is something uneasy in the air, maybe nervousness, maybe excitement. I don't notice how many people have gone until I look up, and there's only me and Molly and two other Dauntless-borns.
"Venus." Tobias says my name, and something drops in my chest, erupting in my stomach. Fear. Apprehension, because it's finally time to face whatever is behind that door.
I walk quickly down the hallway and hurry inside, slipping past him. My pulse increases when I see the reclining chair, similar to the one at the aptitude test.
It's okay. I have to remind myself that the chair is also like the chair at the tattoo parlor, but even that experience was painful. I swallow my doubt and turn to look at Tobias.
"God, are you okay?" I look him straight in the eye, and he lets out a sigh. "You were bleeding, I-"
"Don't worry." He says.
"Did you kill him?"
Tobias walks toward a machine, and starts preparing something. At first, I don't think he's going to answer my question but then he does. "I was going to kill him, you know?" He says. "Even though I could possibly get kicked out for killing a faction leader."
I wipe my clammy palms on my pants. "Did you?"
"A parent reported screams coming from one of the hallways, and Max intervened before I could do anything." Tobias almost spits. "I think he would've understood if I did... you know, kill him..."
"But you didn't." I say. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad when Four shakes his head.
"No. I didn't." He mumbles, and approaches me with a needle filled with orange liquid. "And I fixed the bleeding, Venus. I'm okay. Are you?"
