Mute/ Eric Coulter

Chapter 3

(Amira above)

I wake up and all I can do is groan into my pillow. I slowly get up, not wanting to aggravate my back any more than I am. I make my way to my shower and after carefully peeling my shirt off and the rest of my clothes I take a cold shower. After the 10 minutes are up -per abnegation rules- I get out and go to my room to get dressed.

When I'm finished I go to the kitchen and start breakfast. I start practicing walking normal, even when it hurts my wounds. Not wanting to draw any attention to myself today. As usual Marcus comes downstairs just as I finish the food.

"Do you know what you have to do today?" Marcus asks me while giving me a look that says if I defy him he will kill me

All I do is nod at him. Never showing any emotion, even in my eyes. He searches my face and just nods before continuing eating . I eat toast before going to our sitting room and waiting for him to finish eating so we could leave.

I usually do the dishes but I don't have enough time so we leave towards the bus. I have to take it today since I'm with Marcus and he would never walk. On the bus I notice one seat open and immediately grab the hand hold above my head knowing that he will take it and even if he didn't I would get punished for taking a possible seat from someone, even an abnegation.

It isn't long before we get to The Hub. As per usual as abnegation instead of taking the elevator to the twentieth floor we take the stairs. It's never made sense to me why we did this. How it was selfish to use something everyone did, especially for the elderly. But it doesn't matter anymore because in a few hours I won't belong to this faction anymore.

We immediately take our seats in the section for abnegation. I look around the room, at how the factions are clearly sectioned and each one is a color for its faction.

White and Black (Candor)
Black and Red (Dauntless)
Red and Yellow (Amity)
Blue and White (Erudite)
Gray (Abnegation)

Ours is the only faction without any variety of shades or a difference in styles. Everything uniform and standard.

When we sit he sits with me since this year it's the Dauntless leaders turn to perform the ceremony. We wait patiently for everyone to arrive and take a seat before Max takes the stage and begins his speech.

Each year it's basically the same. The only real difference that depending on what faction is performing the ceremony is what faction the speech tends to have more of. This year since it's Max he talks up Dauntless more that any other.

I zone out the speech having heard it many times before. It takes about ten minutes before he starts to call the names of the children who're choosing but since it's going in reverse alphabetical order it takes a while to get to my name.

When it does I don't hear it at first. He had to repeat it and even then Marcus had to grab my hand and squeeze it hard, in a way that looked lovingly but in reality bruised me immensely, before I realized what was happening and by then everyone was looking at me.

I blushed slightly before standing up and without a glance at Marcus I make my way to the stage. I manage not to trip and remain calm on the outside when in reality on the inside I was a nervous wreck.

When I got to the bowls I looked at Max as he handed me the knife. I looked down at it in my hand for a minute just thinking, the room in complete silence, before I finally lifted it to my hand and cut my palm in one fluid stroke .

I didn't flinch and just put the knife on the table, letting the blood pool in my hand for a couple seconds before looking into Max's eyes and letting my blood fall onto the sizzling coals,  just as my brother did four years previous.