Her Candor [1] //Divergent// Eric Coulter

Vanessa Hayes

THREE ✧

We ran through the city; it was the most fun I've had since I decked my brother at school last term.
I was keeping up just fine, we got some strange looks from onlookers but who cares right?

The dauntless members and the dauntless born started to climb up the steel beams so we followed. I was keeping a good pace but the further up I got the harder I found it. I can pull myself into a moving train and jump out again perfectly fine, but that wasn't vertical climbing with someone's head in your ass. When we got to the top, I smiled at Veronica who smiled back.

"Get ready!" Someone shouted from the top of the platform.
Veronica creased her eyebrows, "get ready for what?"

Just as the sentence came out of her mouth, the train made us both jump as it came into the platform, but it didn't stop. We followed suit in people running, when I had gathered enough speed, I grabbed on to the door handle and pulled myself up into the ledge and held my hand out.
"One chance, take it or leave it," I told Veronica.
When her fingers grazed mine, I leaned out a little more and pulled her in before I climbed in myself.
"That was exhilarating." She laughed.
I nodded with a smiled," ya don't say."
"Oh, but I do say." She smirked back," people call Ronnie."
"Vanessa, but Nessa works" I took her hand in mine.
"That's Charles, who goes by Chase sometimes."

He gave me a two-finger wave and in return, I gave him a tight smile. He had strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes with smile creases in the corners. To begin with, I couldn't read him very well but when he moved it was quite clear how he would turn out by the end.
Standing up, I looked out of the door and saw people jumping from the other carriages.
"They're jumping," I informed everyone on my carriage.
Ronnie nodded," on five?"

"Make it three." I smirked," gets it over with quicker."

We grasped each other's hands and counted down from three before we launched out of the train. I lost my footing and rolled to a stop in the stone roof. We heard a scream from behind us and saw four people look down at the ground.
"Amanda, let it go." A girl said and she guided her friend away from the edge.

For a second, we sat on our knee and took a breather before we had to stand and join the others. I was shaking, probably from the adrenaline that was causing through my veins.
A guy with a countless amount of piercing and tattoos running up his arms and neck stood at the ledge with his hands under his armpits. His brown hair slick back and shaved at the sides and he had piercing cold eyes and scabbed knuckles and a wicked smile that formed on his lips.
"My name is Eric, one of your dauntless leaders. To get into Dauntless, this is the way in." He said.
No stairs? I'd rather take the stairs.
"Aren't you too young to be a leader?" Someone called out.
He was in Erudite blue, that know-it-all look on his face, the dauntless born around him whistled and shouted, 'dead man walking!'

"Age doesn't matter here, and neither do you." Eric snarled," so who is going to go first? Maybe it should be you."

No one stepped up, I wasn't going to go first, that was insanity.
A dauntless born went first and we heard his screams echo down until we heard nothing else.

"Next."

I walked through the crowds then I faced a small dilemma, I was too short to get up. Raising one leg up and placed it on the ledge; I tried to pull myself up but ended up losing my balance slightly, but I regained it quickly.

"Take your time," Eric told me, looking at me from the corner of his eye as he kept his head forwards.
"I will, thank you." I smiled.
He turned to face me," That wasn't an offer."
"Sounded like one though." I shrugged back.

Looking down, I couldn't see the bottom. Not really stopping and thinking about what my next move would be, I turned around to face the crowd and let gravity take me. A scream was caught in my throat, but I was enjoying myself too much to scream.
My back hit something mesh, it ricocheted and sent me flying up in the air a couple of times until the net stopped moving. A guy helped me out of the net, my hands on his shoulders and looked down at me as he put me down on the ground.
"What your name? Choose wisely you only get one shot." He tells me.