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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
RECAP: Venus is attacked at the chasm by Rhett, Peter, Kathleen and Al. She was beaten to pulp by all four of them, although she especially remembers Rhett's treatment, hyperventilating every now and then when she remembers that he possibly raped her. Eric came across her at the chasm just before her eyes closed and she fell into unconsciousness.
VENUS
MY EYES snap open, and my body jolts forward. I'm falling, I was falling - that's what it felt like, what it still feels like.
But this room is not the chasm, and I'm laying on a bed.
I try to sit forward, but pain shoots through my torso. My teeth clench together and I push my head further into the pillows with frustration, what happened, and who saved me?
I clear my throat. "Hello?" My voice is nothing but a desperate little whisper, and my throat is sore like I've been screaming-
And then I remember.
"Oh, my God, oh, my God-"
A door creaks open, and I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Venus?" The deep voice says. I untense for a moment.
"Eric?"
"Sit up." He instructs, and I furrow my brows, trying to support myself into a sitting position just enough to see him standing in the doorway.
"What time is it?" I croak.
"9am," He says. "You still have time to get to training-"
"Get to... Get to training?" Something presses against my brain, a dull throb, but I can't move. I push myself backward so my head is resting against the headboard, and I take a painful breath in.
"...Yes?" He snaps. "You can't slack. Not here, not in Dauntless-"
"But I'm bleeding, and I can hardly move!-"
"It shouldn't have to stop you from sitting in a chair and talking to your friends in the mess hall, should it?" He growls, approaching me in a few long strides.
"Sitting in a chair...?" I repeat, and my lips feel too huge in comparison to the rest of my face. I stare at him blankly, then quickly look down at my hands. "Uhh..."
I don't know where the tears come from, not at this point. I'm too numb to feel them falling down my face, but with every stiffled breath my chest pounds, like my ribs are exploding. The pain in my chest is severe, but I'm caught in a hysterical sort of crying - I can't stop breathing erratically, burying my face in my hands. My face stings, but I ignore it. It hurts, and I keep remembering little parts of the night before. It feels like a dream, or at least I hope it is.
"Stop crying, Venus." Eric says after a couple moments, almost in a bored sort of way, but it doesn't stop me. I try to control my breathing but it's impossible. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I focus on my grazed hands to avoid thinking about the pain as I take deep breaths in and out, until my breathing (and crying) is as settled as possible. It hardly works since sharp pains shoot through my chest when I breathe deeply, so I take short shallow breaths instead. It doesn't really help either.
