Seeking Freedom -Eric Coulter

I- 18

I'm fucked.

That's what I thought waking up on my 18th bithday, in my clean white sheets in a bright room, you may ask the reason of the scurrilous words my mind had chosen to describe the situation I was in; In my society when you turn eighteen you're compleatly indipendent from your parents. You see... I may or may have not relied on the fact that my mom is my faction's leader to get out of trouble... But now all te responsabilities were on me, along side my likely change of faction, zeroing my advantages in life compleatly. I already knew I wasn't like my family nor most of my friends before the aptitude test. However I didn't expect the guy who directed my test going like "Eve Matthews turning out dauntless, who would have expected it, uh?" watching me waking up.

I don't have many memories from that day's allucinations, I remember watching a dear friend of mine, Alexander, being threatned by a factionless armed man, I reacted in a reasonable way: I tackled the guy and threw punches at his jaw. So what? I'm not Erudite 'cause I didn't yell out mathematical theories? I'm not a Stiff just 'cause I didn't help him rob Alexander? What if I was Amity or maybe Candor, What was I supposed to do in that case? Tell them my deepest and darkest secrets? Right, I don't trust this test much.

As I brushed my teeth I kept thinking what my parents would have thought of me moving far from them, leaving my people behind. My mom, Jeanine, was a proud Erudite, a devil woman, covinced she was the ideal to lead all the factions. I knew it cause she made me assist some of her meetings with her fellow smart guys, she really hoped I followed her path becoming a leader. She knew those were false hopes, there was no goddamnit way I could be like her under any aspect. She knew that someway I was gonna dissapoint her, like always. My dad liked me a bit, I had the feeling he was a past transfer from Dauntless by his name: Gunnar, he took mom's last name when they got married. Maybe I got the genes from his side of the family. He was pretty easygoing, always did what mom told him to, atleast he wasn't suffucating like her, during my childood dad was just kind of there, standing in the picture's background.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Mom asked me seeing me coming down the clean and cold stairs barefoot, "What? No, mom. It's like a national holiday today." She raised a brow at me "And what would that be?" "My birthday!". My dad chuckled but the blonde woman sent him a glare that shut him up. "I'm skipping with Alex and others-" "Eve you can't just miss out school days like that!" "Mom who cares? I have the Choosing Ceremony in like a week!" " And what about it? You're gonna continue it afterwards! And stop backtalking me!". Oh yeah, back talking, love it, maybe I'm classificated as Dauntless cause I have the courage to speak up whenever I feel like it, to whoever annoys me, in whatever situation. I was kinda known around for it. Back talker or not I didn't respond to my mother's last sentence, I thought that silence was just fine.

I met my friends a couple of hours later, we cheered with cheap champagne in flute glasses we stole from our parents cabinets. "To Eve! Who won't shut up even if payed to!" "Oh, shut up!". Laughter echoed through the secret clearing, masked by the cacophony of the city beyond. I clinked glasses with Alexander, his grin wide beneath the dappled sunlight. "May the rest of your life be as brutal as your first eighteen years." he teased.

I took a swig, the fizzy alcohol burning pleasantly down my throat. "Here's to escaping this fricking suffocating faction." I countered, eyeing the gleaming metal buildings in the distance. "No more Erudite superiority complexes, no more bad grades'guilt trips, no more parents control."

But a shadow passed over my face. "Except...what if the isn't getting any better?"

The mood shifted. My friends exchanged nervous glances. Maya painted her words with brutal honesty and spoke first: "You're, like, unstoppable, Eve. You could make it in any faction you want and any circumstances."

"Thanks, that's good to hear, cause I'm gonna transfer." I pressed. "I'm still not sure about it thoug, what are you guys planning?" Silence settled once again, heavier this time. Alexander, with his Erudite pragmatism, sighed. "I'm staying, Eve. I think I have a better future here."

He was right. I knew it. Yet, a tiny flame of unease flickered within me. The vision during my aptitude test flashed in my mind – the chaos, the blood, the fear. Was Dauntless truly my haven, or a potential nightmare in disguise?

"Come on!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet. "Somebody puts some music on! Get drunk and let's dance a little!".

As I danced on the building's roof, the weight ofmy choice pressed down on me. Dauntless. It was the faction that resonated withmy defiant spirit, but also the one shrouded in uncertainty. But one thing was certain – my life, as I knew it, was about to change irreversibly.