Eric's Sister

Chapter 3

"Get ready to jump!"

That is all I heard as I stand as fast as I can and make my way to the opening of the train car to see Dauntless jumping onto a roof. I think to myself that this is insane, but I jump because I don't want to be factionless. I slam into the roof and feel the pain of scraped skin on my leg and arms, but I am alive and I am surprised to have a smile on my face. I have never had such a rush before, and I have to admit I liked it. I see a few people standing on the ledge and walk towards them with the rest of the initiates.

"My name is Eric and i'm a leader here in Dauntless. If you want in you have to jump if you don't we will be done with you." 

I see him scan the crowd and I feel his eyes linger on me. I look up and I am face to face with a face of my past, my brother.  My eyebrows furrow, how can this be right? My parents told me he picked Amity, this is anything but Amity. In fact it is the complete opposite of Amity. Why would they lie to me, why was he here, and how was he a leader?

He looks away from me and continues his speech. 

"Who will jump first?" 

A Dauntless boy with short dirty blonde hair steps forward, climbs the ledge and jumps with a yell not of joy but of terror. He is gone as fast as he jumped and we all form a line to jump after him. I am third in line. I look over at the group of Dauntless members and see Eric, my brother looking at me intently, almost daring me to not jump. I turn away and let myself fall without a sound. I blink and hit a net which knocks out the air in my lungs. I take a moment to remember what just happened. I see a hand and reach for it, it helps me get off the net. I see a tall man connected to the hand and a small girl she smiles at me and says welcome to Dauntless, and points to me where to go. I nod and walk to the other initiates though a sound of whooping and screams from Dauntless members all around me. Once the last person hits the net, the two people that were on the platform plus another girl much taller and older then the blonde motion for us to follow them.

The taller girl calls out, "Hey i'm Lauren. I will be training the Dauntless born, all you guys follow me I doubt you need a tour." 

About 20 people leave our group leaving Six of us, the transfer group.

The small girl smiles. 

" My name is Six and this is Four, we will be training you lot. Now if you follow us we will show you to the pit which is the center of life for the Dauntless and you will soon learn to love it." 

Six turned around and I see the tall man named Four give her a quick smile. Well if they are not together they will be soon I think to myself.

Before getting to the pit I hear a Candor boy going "Hey Four and Six what happened to One, Two, Three and Five?" I see Four stop and turn as if an invisible turntable was under his feet.

"What's you name?" He glares at the boy.

"Chris." He says softly.

"Well Chris," I see Six smile a little as if remembering something funny. "If I wanted to deal with Candor smart mouths all day I would have joined them."

Four is intimidating but also very sure of himself. I have already learned that I need to be careful around him. Six opens the door and I see the pit. It is like nothing I have never seen before. People in black everywhere running, jumping, playing and yelling.

"Now if you follow us, we will show you the chasm."

We walk over to the chasm. I know not to go to the railing, I can tell it is high, and I don't need to show a weakness right away. We are ushered to the dining hall where we are greeted with cheers by other members. I get some food and find an open seat next to a few transfers. I sit next to Chris and a girl named Stephanie though she told me she was just going to go by Steph now. Steph was from Candor as well. The only other Erudite was a boy named James, and we did not really get along so I am happy to sit by some people I can hopefully soon be able to be call friends. I see James sitting with two other Candors, both boys. Six and Four are sitting at a table with a bunch of people and then the room goes eerily silent. I turn to see Eric walking in. He walks over the Four and says something to him, I see Four turn his head slightly in my direction I quickly advert my eyes. Eric jumps onto a table telling all the transfers to stand as he will continue the tour of Dauntless and show us to our dorm. I get up with Chris and Steph, and we follow Eric out of the dining hall. I hope that at some point I will get to talk to him alone and figure out exactly what is going on.

"Danni!" I open my eyes in a flash no one calls me that, no one except my family and even then it is usually just my father. I think the worst. I see a dark shadow over me and I feel my heart rate increase. As my eyes start to focus I realize it isn't my father, but Eric. He motions for me to follow him, so I quickly pull on some sweats and follow him into the hall. We pass a water fountain and walk further down the hall. When he stops I see his eyes look around the ceiling and he nods to himself. We stare at each other for what seems like eternity before he finally speaks.

"What are you doing here Danni?" I cross my arms and feel a pang in my chest. Wouldn't my brother be happy to see me?

"I could say the same to you. This isn't Amity this is in fact the furthest thing from it. Why would mom say you went there? Why did she lie to me?" He pinches his nose a sign of frustration.

"Look. I just meant why did you choose to come to Dauntless. I mean you're not exactly a prime candidate for us and I don't want to watch you become factionless if you can't make it. I am a leader here and I can't show favoritism, didn't you think how mom would feel if I had anything to do with you being factionless. Also, I never told her to lie, I never told her anything I knew where I had to go and I went. Case closed."

"What do you mean? What happened to you? You used to be happy and carefree now you strike fear into people. Also, you look like you have more metal in your face then skin." 

He stares at me with his cold eyes, but when I look at the rest of his face he seems relaxed and smaller then what his eyes portray.

"Just be the best you can be and hopefully you survive initiation. It isn't going to be easy and I am not going to take pity on you. If you make it through then we can talk more." 

With that he walks away from me, for the second time in my life.