𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐓 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒. chapter two; A Dauntless Hamburger " Well, we're not Factionless yet. "
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
AMITY WAS HOSTING the Choosing Ceremony this year, and Marlowe didn't care to listen to the speech. Her mind clung onto the goodbyes her family knew were goodbyes as she stood in the alphabetical line of 16-year-olds.
A part of her was nervous now. Standing before an endless crowd, watching teens choose their own faction time and time again. There was one transfer— Amity to Abnegation. Then another— Candor to Erudite. Then, one that shocked the crowd— Amity to Dauntless.
This made Marlowe feel better about her drastic change. That, someone, had chosen bravery over peace, and Marlowe was only choosing bravery over selflessness. So, when Marlowe heard her name called, she didn't have fear.
She accepted the knife without hesitation, now more at home than it'd felt in her Aptitude Test, and sliced her palm open. Her grit her teeth, holding her hand over lit coals— but all the pain subdued when the sizzling of her blood was met with the cheers of Dauntless.
Marlowe knew it was customary. Dauntless were rowdy and cocky and it inflated their ever-growing ego when another faction's member transferred to them— but Marlowe remembered, she was not Dauntless.
Not fully, she was an initiate, but Marlowe would be. She wasn't going to make it this far only to end up Factionless. She was going to be Dauntless. Fully.
And the first step in this happened immediately.
Dauntless were the first to leave the ceremony, a privilege Marlowe found herself relishing in.
And then, it started. Dauntless members began cheering, running down the tens of thousands of stairs in the Hub. A sea of black that was familiar to Marlowe, ignorant bravery and stupid happiness radiating as the burst into the world.
Marlowe was grinning as if she was one of them.
She kept a good pace, proud that she was ahead of a few kids in black. But, the thing that really excited Marlowe, was the realization that she would be jumping onto the train. The crowd flattened into a thick line, alongside the tracks, as the train itself rushed past them. Instantly, Dauntless began grabbing on, lurching themselves inside, and Marlowe kept running.
She held her hand out, fingertips skimming the side of a handle, until she wrapped her digits around and let her feet leave the ground, swinging until she hit solid metal. Marlowe relished in the busy loudness of the train car, until, of course, she dared to look beyond it.
The Amity girl, whose raven hair fanned out as she sprinted along with the train, had tears running down her cheeks. Marlowe wasn't sure why she didn't just grab on— she easily could have. It wasn't like any of the transfers knew how to do it or landed gracefully, but that was the thing.
