Sorry it's a short one, it had to be. The next chapter is Amber's final exam so... yeah. There's no way around the shortness... sorry.
Dedicated to IronicalSarcasm because reasons. And I'm the author. I can do whatever I like.
*****
You may tell the greatest lies and wear a brilliant disguise, but you can't escape the eyes of the one who sees right through you ~ Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito.
*****
They put me second to last on the testing list - it’s almost worse in a way, than going first. Because I’ll be shockingly nervous by the time it’s my turn, and I likely won’t even be able to form complete sentences. Callie and Julian are across the room. I don’t want to be next to them, not after what just happened and what’s just about to happen.
The testing of other initiates goes past in a blur. One of the Dauntless transfers had and abusive father. One of the Erudites kissed his cousin when he was eight, with tongue and everything, just to see what it was like. An astounding three Candor borns get worked up about how they lied to their parents this one time three million years ago or something. I mean, come on Candors. You lied once, and it’s killing your conscience. How do you think it feels to be me? Pet fish boy has a crush on the smallest shyest girl there - so small and shy that in everything, I kinda forgot about her. But I don’t really hear it; it’s all trivial to me as I focus on simply trying to remember to breathe.
We get through Callie’s testing - the one before me - and I’m freaking out. I don’t want to do it. I don’t. But I will. I wrap and unwrap the bandage on the tattoo, the word ‘truth’ written in fancy letters across the inside of my wrist. It helps calm me, as Callie is asked personal questions, like the person she hates most, which is her father, how comfortable she feels about herself as a person and about her childhood. But it all has to climax eventually.
“What’s your biggest secret?” Callie breathes in, as though she’s nervous about her answer, but then the words just fall out of her mouth.
“I’m Divergent.” The crowd inhales a collective gasp, and they’re too shocked and in too much of a panic to notice what’s happening. But I’m not. I know Callie: her ins and outs, what she loves, what she hates, who she is. And I can tell what even all these Candors cannot.
She’s lying. Which must mean two things. Firstly, Callie has found an antidote to the Truth serum, which is huge. She’s not an academic herself, so how? Who helped her? Secondly, she’s hiding something so important to her that she’s willing to risk all the consequences that will come with the entirety of the blabber-mouth faction thinking she’s divergent. She was willing to lie to protect it, which for a Candor, is… wow. But why? I know, even though I don’t know the truth, I do know why. They engineer the testing that way. They like to go out with a bang. If she hadn’t come up with something phenomenal, they would’ve kept going, until every last one of the things she keeps close was bared for the whole population to see. But what was she protecting?
She leaves the chair and walks towards Julian, on the other side of the room, amongst the disbelief and the gossip and the fright and the chatter. it’s my turn now. I swallow, and step up to the chair.
Don’t ask the question. Don’t.
She lied. Oh Callie, what have you done?
YOU ARE READING
Truth (a Divergent Fanfic)
Romance"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Amber Rose is a Candor initiate, an Erudite transfer and a liar. Struggling to fit in in a place she doesn't belong, how can...
