The Transfers of Dauntless | Newt x Reader

6 | A Fear of Jumping

"As you hopefully already know, Dauntless is the faction of bravery," Vince drawls, crossing his arms over his chest. "In your initiation, you'll be expected to prove your courage in more than one way. All of you will be tested, trialled and ranked in order to become part of this faction. There will be casualties. Not all of you will succeed." The older man gestures towards the edge of the rooftop, and I avoid looking at Brenda. "But to prove yourself, you have to learn to push yourselves. To take risks."

He turns around and sweeps his arm over the ledge he stands on. I can't see what's over the other side - it's just a ledge with a black abyss, nothing obvious to catch him if he falls. Our new leader claps his hands together.  "Below us is the members' entrance to our compound," Vince says. "To even begin initiation here, you have to muster the courage to jump off the edge."

Murmurs sound out around us, but the Dauntless-born smirk at each other. They were born and raised for this. We weren't. However, I still see the panic that's just visible in their eyes - they are still scared.

"We need a first jumper!" Vince calls, and everyone shuffles around awkwardly. Including me. Even the Dauntless-born are picking at their cuticles nervously, waiting for someone to volunteer.

"What's at the bottom?" I hear a loud, masculine voice call out from the centre of the Dauntless-born group, and I crane my neck around to see a boy with close-cropped hair and arched eyebrows. His brown shirt is ripped and torn, and he's nursing a bleeding wound on his arm, but a cocky smirk is still visible on his face. I immediately don't trust him.

Vince chuckles. "Guess you'll just have to wait and see."

"What if refuse to jump?" another voice sounds from a Dauntless-born girl next to the boy.

"Then you don't belong here, and you'll get a choice. You either die, or join the factionless."

The girl scowls and then gulps, as do most of the initiates. Most of us take a step backwards, except for two transfers.

"I'll do it!" the two voices chime at once. Of course. A Candor transfer and an Erudite. Minho and Thomas. I roll my eyes as they both step forward.

"Great," I hear a voice beside me whisper, "they're gonna bloody kill themselves."

Minho and Thomas both step forward and Vince gestures for them to continue forward, but my eyes turn to Newt. I surprise myself with my words. They don't sound like they come from the timid girl from Abnegation. "What do you mean? If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it by now."

I turn forward as Newt looks at me incredulously. "So you're not a bit buggin' scared of jumping off? Of the height?"

"Not really, no," I answer as they position themselves on the ledge. Newt doesn't respond, but I feel him tense beside me. He must be more scared of heights than I thought.

We watch as Vince steps away, grinning. Minho turns around, winks at me, Teresa and Brenda, then lifts his jacket off his shoulders as he stretches. Next, as Thomas looks around nervously, Minho reaches out a muscular arm lazily and whispers something unintelligible in the boy's ear.

Before proceeding to push Thomas off the edge.

The Erudite transfer shrieks the entire way, which causes even a slight smile to form on Newt's face. I smile softly. 

"I'm coming down, shank!" Minho calls out, laughing harder than anyone else before bending down and hurling himself over the edge.

"I'm going next," the Dauntless-born boy from before says, pushing people out the way to get to the ledge. He doesn't bother with anything else, instead, he leaps off the edge, his shirt flapping in the wind.

A few more of the Dauntless-born leap off, before Teresa tugs at my hand. I yank my fingers away. I'm not used to physical contact. Teresa gives me a confused look.

"We need to jump. Again," she groans.

"Yeah," I agree, and start to walk forward. Teresa, Brenda and Frypan follow, but I swivel back around. "Newt?"

His face looks pale and clammy, and he's staring off at the ledge that the others are now jumping from. I take note of Frypan's screaming.

"Newt," I repeat, more insistently as Teresa and Brenda jump off. "Newt. Is something wrong?"

"I-" he begins, but pauses. "It's just that-that heights don't agree with me, that's all." He rubs his right leg, and a brief flash of pain crosses his face, quickly replaced with a blank frown. I look down at his leg - does it have something to do with his limp? Is it why he couldn't run before?

"Newt-" I try again, but he shakes his head.

"Let's just bloody get this over with, love," he says in his thick accent, and I feel a shiver run up my spine. Love?

He grabs my hand and drags me to the ledge. For some reason, I don't pull away, like I did with Teresa. It's different with him.

He looks off the ledge, and then into my eyes. His eyes are the worst part of his gaunt expression, full of fear. He must hate heights. He releases my hand, which falls limply to my side. Disappointment shoots through me.

"Together?" I ask, and he nods.

"Together."

My knees bend. There's no going back now. In the end, we leap off at the same time, hurling through the air. My grey clothes flap around me, like his red and yellow ones. My heart's pounding, my palms sweating, the air tearing past my ears as we travel downwards. The hole in the building underneath me grows closer, and everything seems to be in slow motion as we fall down into darkness.

At least, until our bodies hit something hard. As I land, I crash into Newt's body, and I can feel his warm breath on my face before I collapse beside him, the wind knocked out of me.

I look around. We landed in a net. A shucking net. I begin to laugh. Newt's lying next to me, cradling his ankle, his eyes closed. 

"Newt?" I ask, and he winces.

"Don't ever get me to do that again, love," he groans, holding his right leg.

But Newt's eyelids open, and I see his warm chocolate eyes, crinkled in relief through the pain.