The Other Prior: Candice Prior || Divergent Fanfiction

Chapter 17: Stage 2

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I ran through the Dauntless compound wanting to escape the wave of anger that threatened to consume me. Four was still standing at the entrance of the Pit, far enough from his father to ensure his security, but not far enough to escape the bad thoughts that had probably been flowing through his mind.

I kept walking away from the pit before settling on the Chasm. The small bridge between the two tunnels over the flowing river which gave me peace from my feelings by drowning them out. The chasm is soothing. A place to think, and to stop thinking.

Four caught up to me eventually to find my sitting on the edge of the metal walkway with my legs swung over the edge between the bottom railing and the walkway floor. He sat down beside me, with his shoulder touching mine slightly. I lay my head on his shoulder and breathed out a sigh.

"You know." He said, in a calm voice.

"I know." I echoed blankly, still trying to wrap my head over what happened.

"You punched my father in the face." He said, again in a calm voice that portrayed no feeling whatsoever.

"I punched Marcus in the face." I confirmed in the same blank, unfeeling voice.

"You don't feel sorry for me?" He asked, this time his voice more of a question than a statement.

"Never."

I am laying atop my bunk bed staring blankly at the ceiling above me. The last few days have been uneventful, contrasting the jam-packed Visiting Day that we had. It has been a time for recovery from the physical strain on the first stage, and a time of preparation for the second stage. I have come in 5th place after the rankings following the first stage. The total knockout of a higher ranked initiate, Austin, having helped my rise in rankings. It is four in the morning, but my anticipation for the next stage of initiation keeps me awake.

Finally, after laying in bed for 30 minutes, I sit up, swinging my legs over the banister of the bed and jumping off. I land lightly on my toes with no sound, so I don't wake the others, take a quick shower, slip on a black tank-top and some jeans shorts along with the new knee-high combat boots Mia and Shauna made me buy. Then I head out the door, checking all the bunks on my way out to make sure I won't have to meet any of my fellow initiates while walking around the Dauntless compound.

I walk around the compound for a few hours, wandering through the vast maze of tunnels. I've been here for a little more than a week now, but nowhere has felt more like home. I don't need to go back to the dorms at wake-up time, since I have already finished bathing and changing, but I decide to do so anyway in case Mia needs my help.

I skip into the dorms to see everybody bustling about to get ready. Mia is already changed, so she probably woke up after I left, but still early enough to have the showers to herself. She's standing, leaning slightly against Jake, as they both chuckle at some inside joke. I walk up to them as I see Four walk into the showers.

"Wow, babe, those boots look amazing on you." Mia shrieks, running up to me and practically hugging my boots.

I laugh at her with Jake before replying, "Thanks Mia."

We all, after Four gets out of the shower, head to the Pit to grab breakfast before the second stage of initiation. I grab a piece of Dauntless cake, a small can of fizzy water, and a burger that I'm probably not going to finish given the large variety of flying insects currently occupying my stomach. In other words, I'm nervous. I sit down on a table across from Shauna and Zeke, with Four on one side of me and Mia on the other. Jake sits down next to Mia, looking unsure about talking to Dauntless-borns. And it's probably for good reason. You never know what to expect from Dauntless.

"Any idea what the second stage is?" I ask the table at large, though the question is directed towards Shauna and Zeke.

"Nope. We aren't allowed to know anything about it to keep it fair for the transfers. But my mom says that it's something to do with the emotional part of our mind." Shauna replies, I can tell from her leg, which is bouncing up and down rapidly, that she's nervous too.

All of us make a feeble attempt at conversation despite the cloud of nervousness hanging over the table at large. Finally, we all stop and eat in silence, each of us exploring within our own minds what horrors the next stage of initiation can bring.

+++

"Andi"

Amar calls into the tunnel that all the initiates, Transfer and Dauntless born alike, are sitting in anticipation waiting for their turn. Eric, Four, and two Dauntless borns I don't know are left sitting in the room. I walk up to the door that Amar has just opened and walk inside. He shuts the door behind me. I sit on a chair like the one I took my initiation in as he hooks up the computer and preps a needle beside me.

Wordlessly, he injects the needle into my neck, me flinching and pulling back slightly by instinct. Then I wake up in a dark room. Even though it feels real, something in the back of my mind recognizes that it is a simulation.

There were starch clean tiled floor just like the ones in my fear landscape, and If I am right about this, I know what will come next. I wait in rising panic for what seems like ages before the familiar skittering on the spider legs start. I force myself to breathe, in and out, trying to keep myself from spitting out bile. But unlike my fear landscape, spiders appeared. They started to come, one at a time, racing towards me, large, black, hairy, and ugly. I jumped to my feet and try to run away, but I am met with an invisible wall. And another one, and another one. I'm unable to move further than a few inches as spiders rush at me from all sides. The mass of black becomes greater and greater consuming the Erudite tiles than I can see and stuffing me into near darkness. I can still hear the skittering of spiders as the white ring around me becomes smaller and smaller.

Spiders lunge onto me from every direction. I screech with fear, trying to swat the wretched things off my skin, but for every spider I manage to swat away or kill, three more emerge. I am drowning, like someone would if they jumped off the chasm, but I am drowning in spiders, and in fear.

Spiders climb up my body, racing to consume me. I shriek and scream but nobody comes to my rescue. Finally, after a strenuous battle between my brain and the simulation spiders, the spiders win. The consume me.

My neck.

My head.

But just before I can't see anymore, just before they fully consume me.

I wake.

"Help!"

I sit up in the chair covered with sweat, trembling. I am holding back tears as best I can, but I can feel hot wet liquid coming down my cheeks. My heart is still beating fast from panic.

Amar reaches out to touch me, probably to put an arm on my shoulder, comfort me, but it does not have the desired effect. The contact with my skin reminds me of the skittering I felt in the simulation. I jump away from him, scrambling off the chair hurriedly.

"Don't touch me!" I scream, before wrenching the door open and storming out past Four, Eric and the two other Dauntless borns.

I am still shaking, but I can't go to the normal place that I go to cool down. The chasm will remind me of the simulation. Of how I almost drowned in fear. So, I stick to wandering around the Dauntless compound until I am able to calm myself down.

Only two weeks more. That's a plus point.

If you survive this week, then yes, it's a plus point.

I will survive.

This is going to be a long week.

Touché.

That's chapter 17! Wow I've come a lot farther than expected. I'd love it if you guys commented on what you think will happen next in the story:) Just a clarification for those of you that are confused, the first part of the chapter is a flashback, and the last part in Italics is Andi (or Candice) talking to herself.