Venus Eaton is desperate to escape the abuse of her previous faction although she is unaware and unprepared of the ordeals of Dauntless initiation. She is a stranger to her own brother until he accuses her of murdering their mother, and finds out th...
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VENUS
ERIC LEADS us down a narrow hallway until we reach a room, a training sort of room, with rock walls and punching bags. We are all silent, even though no one told us to be, and Eric starts speaking.
"For those of you that don't know, my name is Eric." He scans the crowd of intiates, his eyes landing on mine for a moment before flicking to someone else. I try not to slump my shoulders. I keep my head high."I am one of the five leaders at Dauntless. We take the intiation process very seriously here, so I volunteered to oversee most of your training."
My stomach starts flipping. With any other Dauntless leader, I probably would've been fine. But, something about Eric overseeing our training makes me feel apprehensive. I suddenly don't feel comfortable anymore.
"Some ground rules," He continues. "You have to be in the training room by eight o'clock everyday, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you please after six, including some free time inbetween the stages."
The words he uses: you are free to do whatever you please and free time leaves me nervous. So nervous, a weird feeling pangs in my stomach and my chest, and I loosely wrap my hands around my waist. I wouldn't know where to go in that free time, or what to do. Back in Abnegation, free time was limited to none. It was so limited, in fact, that I don't think I even have any hobbies or fun lesuire activities in my mind.
"The only time you are permitted to leave the compound, is when you are accompanied by another Dauntless." Eric adds, "In the first stage of intitation, we train transfers an Dauntless-borns seperately although you will be ranked together-"
"Ranked?" I blurt out, raising my eyebrows. My hands fall loosely to my sides. I suddenly feel sick.
"Yes. Your rankings will serve two purposes; the first determining the order in which you will select a job after intitation. There are limited desirable positions available."
The knot in my stomach fails to unravel. It stays there, tightening, and I clamp my front teeth down on my lower lip to stop it from shaking.
Eric continues to hold my stare. "The second, is that only the top ten members are made official Dauntless members."
There is chatter, there are questions. Christina shouts, "Only ten?" and someone else shouts, "I thought we were already members-" although I cut him off, keeping my voice sharp, keeping my voice loud.
"Why didn't we know this?" It is only after I speak I am aware of the reprimand I will recieve.
"What, are you saying you would've chosen differently if you were aware of this before you chose?" It sounds like the question is directed to others, not only me, but Eric is staring right at me. I glance down at the ground again, licking my dry lips, swallowing hard. I want to say something, but I don't. I can't. I don't even know why.
"If that is the case," I hope his eyes aren't focused on me anymore, but when I quickly glance up at him, they still are. "I suggest you get out now." He waits a moment after his words, like he expects me to leave - right then, right now, but I don't. I would've still chosen Dauntless, I couldn't stay with Marcus anymore, I couldn't.
I open my mouth and speak. "N-no-" But my voice is so small he doesn't notice, or he just talks over me because he can.
"Three of you, at the least, will be factionless at the end of this week." I don't look at him. I can feel tears filling my eyes, threatening to spill. I'm a stiff. That's one of the downs of being a transfer, one of the things that makes me doubt my survival here.
"Training starts in here, tomorrow. I expect everyone of you to be here by eight o'clock, otherwise there will be concequences."
Most of us turn away, although I glance up at him for a moment longer, trying to kindle at least a spark of hostility in my glare. Although his glare is too intense, and I find myself turning away after Emily and Tris, who scramble out of the training room like mice.
I just about hear Eric say: "You chose us. Now we get to choose you."
not very happy about this chapter so i'm sorry about that, but thank you for the views! it's probably the farthest i've ever gotten to and it's inspiring me to write more! in a couple more chapters, there will be more ericxvenus stuff. these chapters at the start are basically me just introducing the characters, etc. i promise there is a well-thought plotline up ahead (that i've already planned) and i really like it, i hope you will too! by the way, i'm getting mixed up between past and present and first and third person, so if you spot any mistakes could you please point them out by kindly commenting? i'll try to shoutout as many people as i can that help me along the way! love you all<3
