MISPLACED || DIVERGENT¹

-twenty seven-

Annabelle couldn't sleep that night, thoughts of Edward's screams and the blood stained floor clouding her mind.  She left the dormitory and her fellow sleeping initiates and made her way to the pit, hoping for a change of scenery and anything to distract her.

She didn't know what she would find, but what she didn't expect was Eric to come and take a seat next to her.

"Congratulations," He said, looking at her side profile as she continued staring at the grey concrete floor. "You earned your rank,"

"I earned 4th," She replied, now looking him in the eye, "Foul play got me 3rd,"

Eric only stared at her, not showing any approval nor disapproval of what she had said; of what Peter had done to Edward. Annabelle didn't doubt that in his head he thought Peter had done a brave thing, the right thing even. However, she also doubted that he would voice that to her, especially when it seemed clear she disagreed.

After a few moments of silence Anna decided to speak up once again, "Thank you by the way,"

"For what?" He asked, his deep voice had no sense of confusion, and Annabelle could see the small smirk playing at his lips. He just wanted her to say it.

"Thank you for helping me," She continued with a roll of her eyes, "For practically getting me through stage one,"

"You were already good Anna," He said, looking back at her as she looked at him, "Trust me, from the moment I met you, I knew you belonged here,"

***

The next day was the first day of stage two of initiation. So far all it consisted of was sitting in a corridor with all the other initiates.

"So, which one of you is ranked first huh?" Lynn asked, as she sat across from Annabelle, winking at her before scanning the rest of the transfers.

"Me," Peter said, after a moment of silence. Annabelle couldn't help the scoff that came out at that, he harshly glared at her muttering a quick "Shut up," before turning his attention back to Lynn.

Peter had tried to talk to her earlier that morning but Annabelle refused to bite his bait, she was angry at him, and despite knowing she'd have to talk to him eventually she thought later was better than sooner. Despite being mad at him and his actions against Edward, she couldn't help but wonder why? Why he had actually done it and what the hell was going through his mind?

"Bet I could take you," Lynn said, "I'm second but I bet any of us could take you, transfer,"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Peter replied, "Who's first?"

"Uriah, and I am sure. You know how many years we've spent preparing for this?" Lynn said, Annabelle knew she was trying to intimidate him and by the sounds of it, it worked as Peter didn't respond, or didn't get the chance to as Four called out Lynn's name and she went into the mysterious room, where the mysterious task of stage two would take place.

As Lynn left her seat, Annabelle stood up and stole it, sitting next to Uriah, who laughed at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"So you're first" Will said to Uriah, causing him to take his arm off of Annabelle's shoulder and lean forward slightly in his chair.

"Yeah. And?" He shrugged lightly, wanting to come off as confident and cool; it worked.

"And you don't think it's a little unfair that you've spent your entire life getting ready for this, and we're supposed to learn it in a few weeks?"

"Not really. Stage one was about skill, sure, but no one can prepare for stage two," He said, "At least, so I'm told,"

No one responded and they all sat in silence until around twenty minutes later when Peter's name was called.