Defected - A Divergent FanFic

Chapter Four

I AM AFRAID of Eric. He emits danger even when he isn't talking and when he is, there is something in his voice that makes me want to cower away. It's not just his voice, it's his whole appearance. Even the way he stands tells me that he doesn't mess around and won't tolerate any slackers.

"If you want to enter Dauntless," he turns to look down at the ground. "this is the way in. If you don't have the guts to jump...then you don't belong in Dauntless."

"Is there water at the bottom, or something?" Will calls nervously from next to me.

"I guess you'll find out." Eric says in a snide voice. "Or not."

A girl from Candor, dressed in black and white with spiked dark hair, whispers to Beatrice. "We've just jumped and they want us to jump again?"

"Well someone's gotta go first," Eric says in a bored voice. "Who's it gonna be?"

There was no reply; not even from the Dauntless-born. I look around nervously at everyone. I don't want to volunteer first; I'll gladly go second. People start whispering, egging friends to go first or, like me, insisting they'll go second.

The person who speaks up first is the one that seemed most unlikely.

"Me." It's Beatrice.

She walks to the front of the crowd and Eric looks at her as though he wants to laugh. Every set of eyes are on her back and she looks around for some reassurance before peeling her jacket off.

"Yeah Stiff, take it off." The boy from Candor who was picking on the group of Abnegation pipes up. "Put it back on!"

People chuckle at his words and I glare at him. We all watch Beatrice intently as she walks to the edge and looks down for a long while.

"Today initiate." Eric sounds really bored.

I whisper to Will. "Has he got somewhere to be?"

We both giggle and turn our attention back to Beatrice who is still looking down. I see her take a deep breath and then she steps off with a small gasp. I gape at the spot she stood not two seconds ago and wonder if she's dead.

"Alright," Eric turns to the rest of us. "Who's next?"

Everyone starts pushing to get into some sort of line, I end up sixth and someone bumps into me. I look back and it's the girl with dark hair who was speaking to Beatrice.

"Sorry," she apologises. "I'm Christina."

"Nice to meet you." I reply and turn back to the front.

I hear a chuckle from behind me and Christina pokes me. "Usually when someone tells you their name, it's good courtesy to give one back."

"You're better off not knowing." I state bluntly.

"What's that supposed to-?"

Christina is cut off by the loud screech of Marlene who has just jumped, we all start to laugh as we hear a loud 'whoop' below us. There's obviously something at the bottom to catch us or break our fall. I wait for a good couple of minutes before I'm at the front. At the bottom there is a large, pitch-black hole and I suddenly have the urge to throw up. I don't like heights. Don't think, just jump, I tell myself and immediately step off the roof. The wind whistles in my ears as I fall at an increasingly quicker rate, my stomach is doing flips and I have to shut my eyes because of the cold wind. My heart thuds violently as I hit a large safety net and bounce around a bit.

I cover my face with my hands and laugh with relief into them. There is shaking below me and I start to fall towards the edge of the net. A young man, a few years older than me, is pulling the net down so I can climb off. He has light brown hair and a square jaw, he's dressed in black like every other Dauntless.