"IF YOU'RE RANKED ABOVE THE RED LINE, YOU'LL MOVE ONTO THE NEXT STAGE OF TRAINING. If you're below it, we will waste no more time on you. Here are your rankings," Max's voice boomed above them, Eric was standing next to him with his arms crossed. He scanned the crowd looking for Celia, his eyes darting across the room before finally landing on her.
It was officially the end of stage one and Celia couldn't be happier. She knew that her training with Eric, which she has had every night, won't stop with the stage. She looked at Max, who just finished his speech. She then looked next to him, at Eric. They stared at each other until Celia saw names popping up on the screen. The rankings appeared and Celia scanned the names, hoping Eric had changed his mind. Her eyes fell upon the fifteenth spot. Her name was next to it in all red letters. She smiled a genuine smile, looking back at him.
Everybody cheered including Celia. She went down the list, looking for her friends' names. Her smile faded, seeing Tris' name at the very bottom. She glanced at Tris, who looked distraught about the new information. Feeling bad, Celia walked up to the girl, Will, Al, and Christina following.
"God, I'm so sorry, Tris. I should've done more," Celia hugged her. Tris silently cried on Celia's shoulder. When Celia tried to pull away, Tris hugged her tighter. Celia looked awkwardly at Christina to help, but all the girl did was shrug and laugh at her friend.
"Okay," she said, finally getting the girl off of her. "The board might make an exception for you, because of your dad and all." She used the words that Will used the other day. Tris nodded and walked off with everyone else that was eliminated. Just then someone tapped on Celia's shoulder, she turned around and smiled. Kai laughed before hugging her tightly.
Four glared down at the two, he never was a fan of Kai. Mostly because he was always around Celia.
"I told you, not factionless," Kai smiled and put his chin on her head. She glared at him playfully.
"Shut up, Kai," she scoffed. "But yeah, I'm glad I'm not factionless or whatever." She rolled her eyes. They slipped from each other's grasp when a voice told them that they had to do a task.
Helping amity.
Celia was scared that she would run into some familiar faces. Hoping for the best, she got ready with everyone else. When they got there, they had to start right away. Celia got serious Deja vu from doing this, remembering all the times she has done this in amity. All they had to do was move bags from trailer to trailer. It wasn't that hard for Celia but she could see some people struggling, she quietly laughed at that.
"So we pass the first stage of training and this is our reward, glamorous," Christina said, sarcastically. Celia snorted and jumped on the trailer. She went to pick up a bag but something stopped her. The bag was glowing, literally. It was like someone was shining a light on it. She looked up and saw it was coming from behind a couple of crates. Curious, she followed it, like a dumb girl in a horror movie.
She moved in between crates, trying to find whatever was shining on the bag. A hand touched her shoulder and she almost screamed. She whipped her head in the direction it came from. She wasn't prepared to see Stella, a the woman she worked with, standing there.
"Oh my, Jesus Christ, Stella," she gasped, startled by the older woman.
Stella laughed, "Oh dear, Celia. I missed you," she hugged the girl, but Celia looked just confused.
"I-how did you know I'd be here?" She stuttered.
"I knew they'd assign you here...sooner or later," the older woman started, "Look at you! You're so strong and beautiful. Oh my, you also have tattoos." Stella rambled on.
"Stella, we can't be talking, we'll get in trouble!" Celia exclaimed quietly.
"I know, but you're in danger."
"What?" Celia asked.
"I had to ask you something, you weren't sick the day you took the aptitude test, were you?" This caused Celia to go into panic mode.
"Why?"
"What were your test results?" Celia didn't reply so Stella put her hand on the younger girl's cheek. "It's okay, honey. You can tell me."
"They were...They were inconclusive," Celia admitted, trusting that Stella wouldn't tell anyone.
"Divergent? You can't tell anyone. Not your friends, your instructors, the leaders. You can't trust anyone with that," Stella notified her, but she's heard all of this before, from Tori.
"I'm not," a whirring sound came from the left, they both looked over to see if they'd been caught, but they hadn't.
"People have always been so threatened by divergents, but now Erudite is looking for them everywhere. They're actively seeking them out."
"Why, Stella, what am I?" That one word had been coming out of Celia's mouth a lot since Stella showed up.
"You don't conform. Your mind works in a million different ways. They're scared of you. Stage two of training is when you're most at risk. They're gonna get inside your head and watch how you respond to fear. But you can pass, you can make it through dauntless, I've seen it before," Stella ranted, only stirring up more questions for the teen in front of her.
"How do you know so much about this? About dauntless?" Celia asked.
"Nevermind about me, don't let them know who you are," she warned.
"Wait, wait, were you dauntless?"
"Listen-" She got cut off by another voice.
"Hey! What are you doing? The truck's loaded, let's go," the guy demanded, not letting her say anything back. Celia looked back to where Stella was but found no one there. She glanced at the guy and nodded, walking toward him.
They all left and got ready for stage two. They were sitting in a waiting room of some sort. When Molly and two guards came through the door. Molly looked thoroughly fucked up like she was on drugs or something.
"What did they do to her?" Christina spoke from beside Celia. Four came out of the room and called Chris' name. After everyone else was gone, Celia was the only person left.
"Celia," Four called out to her.
"Why'd you make me go last? Waiting here was boring as fuck," she muttered. Four laughed at her language.
"Take a seat," he ordered, Closing the door. He went to a small table that had a computer on it. He started fumbling with a couple of small pieces on the table. Then he grabbed a syringe, Celia immediately tensed up. Seeing her tense up beside him, Four turned to look at her.
"Are you scared of needles?" He stupidly asked.
"No, I'm scared of rainbows and unicorns," she answered sarcastically.
"Okay, I'm going to inject you with this serum that stimulates the part of your brain that processes fear," Four informed her.
"Mhm, great," she thought back to last night and how much she enjoyed it.
"It induces a hallucination, and then the transmitters in the serum allow me to see the images in your head," he concluded. Celia looked at him, worried.
"You can see in my head?" She fearfully asked.
"Mhm, lay back," he told her. She did and his next question surprised her, "What's your favorite hobby?"
"Excuse me?" She looked at him weirdly. Why does he need to know her favorite hobby?
"You heard me, what's your favorite hobby?" He repeated himself. Then Celia realized what he was trying to do.
"You're trying to distract me, aren't you?" She questioned, amused. Just then she felt a prick in her neck. She flinched and brought her hand up to her neck, looking up at him.
"And it worked, didn't it?" He laughed at her annoyed look. She rolled her eyes before pursing her lips, trying not to smile.
"Yeah, whatever...thank you, Four," she smiled at him, grateful he did that for her.
"Mhm, now, you're going to be facing your worst fears, Celia. Most people have ten to fifteen bad ones. You have to calm yourself, and slow your heart rate, and your breathing. Deal with what's in front of you. Be brave," he whispered the last part. Celia's eyes started to close as she left reality.
Celia woke up and she was no longer in the room with four. Now she had duct tape over her mouth and was in a cold, dark room. She looked around but couldn't see much. Her heart was beating faster and faster as she thought. This fear was kidnapping. She remembered what four told her, be brave.
She knew this wasn't real, that it was a simulation, but it felt so real. Just then a light turned on, Celia blinked to try to adjust, when she did, she wasn't prepared for what she saw. It was a guy in a hood, he had a knife that had crimson red blood dripping down from it. That wasn't the scariest part though, the fact that he had no face made it ten times scarier. He stalked toward her. Celia backed up with each step he took until she hit a wall behind her.
She secretly broke the restraints that held her, Four's voice boomed in her head, be brave, be brave. She steadied her heartbeat and closed her eyes, focusing. Then she opened them and kicked the guy in the knee, making him buckle. She took the tape off of her mouth and stood up. She leaned against the wall and breathed in deeply, reminding herself that this wasn't real. A loud noise came from beside her and she gasped.
Celia jolted up from her lying position. A hand grabbed her shoulder, and she hit the arm, thinking she was still in the simulation.
"Hey, it's alright, it's alright," Four's voice said from beside her. She grabbed onto his arm, that she had just hit, steadying herself. Her breaths were shallow, she gulped. "You okay?" He asked her, his thumb stroking her shoulder. Celia nodded as she leaned back against the chair.
"How long do you think you were in that hallucination, Celia?" He asked.
Celia looked at him weirdly before answering, "I don't know, twenty minutes?" She breathed out.
"Four. Five times faster than the average. I've never seen anyone do that well their first time. How did you get out? The image wasn't clear," he ranted. Celia glanced at the screen next to him.
"Um... I just fought back, I guess," she muttered, thinking she knew the actual answer to his question. She knew it was fake.
"Well, next time it'll be a lot easier," he told her, smiling. Celia whipped her head to look at him.
"I have to do this again?!" She exclaimed.
He snorted at her rage, "Yeah, you have to practice several times before the final. But you have nothing to worry about, you're a natural," Celia glanced at the ground before she left.
She met up with her friends in the dormitory.
"My whole body was covered in these tiny insects. They were in my ears, my throat...I couldn't breathe," Christina told them about her simulation. Then Al had to pitch in.
"I heard about this guy, like two years ago...so panicked that he had a heart attack in his chair and almost died," he told them. Celia looked at him, annoyed.
"Wow, thanks Al, that's really comforting," she sarcastically said.
"Yeah well, we have that to look forward to, right?" Will said, diffusing the tension. Everyone laughed before Christina looked toward Celia.
"You didn't seem to have any problem at all," she stated, their attention turning toward the girl.
"Me? No, no, it was horrible, scary as fuck," she tried to get their prying eyes off of her.
"Oh, come on, no one even came close to your time, you were amazing," Al praised her before an agitating voice popped up.
"Yeah, what's amazing is that she's gonna knock you right outta' dauntless," Peter spoke toward Al.
"She's not gonna knock me outta' dauntless," Al spoke, trying to convince himself that she won't.
"Look, she's gone from being considered factionless according to Eric, to being in one of the top spots. Somebody's gotta take her place at the bottom, who's it gonna be? You," he ranted but when he brought up Eric, Celia remembered something. She has to train with Eric.
"Fuck, guys I gotta go," she threw her hair in a low ponytail while getting up. "Bye, guys." She walked out, not knowing someone was following her. When she got to the pit, someone turned her around. It was Peter.
"I just wanna know, how do you do it? What's your trick?" He quizzed her.
Celia glared at him, "I have no trick, Peter."
"Nobody gets through it that fast," he roughly grabbed her shoulders. "Why don't you tell me how you do it, or at least tell your friends." He demanded. Celia didn't like how he grabbed her, so she did something about it. She punched him in the face and kicked him in the stomach. Ge fell over, groaning in pain.
"Don't touch me," she seethed. "I don't have a trick, Peter. If you keep talking about me, I'm gonna consider you a fan." She glared at him before walking away.
"Also," she called out, "Stop following me, it's fucking creepy." She scanned the room, her eyes landing on Eric sitting on a boulder. He eyed her up and down.
"You're five minutes late," he started. The younger girl rolled her eyes.
"You never said when I needed to be here," she shot back. She always showed up at this time, but now she's late? Eric pursed his lips and nodded.
"That's fair," she glared at him, already annoyed.
"I also have an annoying guy following me so..." She trailed off, referring to Peter.
He nodded, "I can see that," he walked toward the mat. "Come on," he gestured for her to follow. When they got on the mat, Celia couldn't resist saying something, to try to diffuse the awkwardness.
"So, how ya doing?" She muttered. Eric didn't laugh though. No smile, just a blank face. It scared Celia, seeing him so serious, not having anything to say about her comments.
"Take me down," he said. Celia furrowed her brows, confused.
"Excuse me?" She questioned, thinking she heard him wrong.
"I said, take me down, Celia," he sounded like he was taunting her. "When you were fighting Peter, use that, and fight me." Okay, now he was taunting her.
"That wasn't me, Eric."
"Oh yeah, who was it then? Your dad?" Celia knew what he was doing, he knew that what Peter said, triggered her. Now, he was using that against her.
"Haha, funny joke, Eric," she sarcastically said. Trying to seem like she wasn't gonna attack him. When he looked down, she tried to punch him, but he grabbed her hand first.
"Oh c'mon, flower girl, you can do better than that," he bent her arm and pulled her to his chest, putting her in a headlock. "You know you can." He taunted her. She elbowed him in the face, then the stomach, getting out of his grip.
"Shut your mouth, Eric," she seethed, punching him in the face. Eric doubled over but recovered quickly.
Celia and Eric danced around each other. If one moved, the other moved with them. If you transported them into an eighteen-hundreds ballroom, they'd fit right in. Celia threw a punch. They both had to admit their energy was wearing out. But they were both too headstrong to give up.
"Sloppy," Eric said as he caught the hand that was flying toward him.
"Bite me." When Celia tried to kick him, he blocked it, punching her in the gut afterward. This time, Celia doubled over, groaning in pain. He kicked her knee, making her buckle. She fell on her back and he got on top of her, straddling her.
"Isn't it ironic, how I just used your favorite move against you?" He laughed. "And I thoroughly want to stay in this position, don't you?" He taunted her, again. Celia decided the only way to win was to play along.
"You know what I want, Eric?" She said, seductively, looking at his lips before going back to his eyes. He smirked from above her.
"And what would that be, princess?" He wasn't 'playing along,' he thought this was all real. Celia looked at him before kneeling him in the stomach. He groaned and fell beside her. This time, Celia straddled him.
"Another tattoo," she said, bored. "Rule number one in fighting, never let your guard down in front of your enemy. Not even if you think she's flirting with you, Eric," she laughed, placing her elbows on his chest and putting her head in her hands. "I can't believe you bought that, truthfully, I didn't think it would work," she shook her head in disbelief.
All Eric could think about was how pretty she looked. But he snapped out of it, knowing he shouldn't be thinking like that. Celia got off of him, offering a hand. Stubbornly, he didn't take it, he was still kinda upset that she beat him. Also that she wasn't really flirting with him. He wasn't blind, he could see that Four had taken a liking to the girl, but Four had always gotten what he wanted. He thought maybe, this could be the one thing that he gets, and Four doesn't. In all of his thinking, he didn't hear Celia calling his name.
"Hey, Eric! You okay?" She looked concerned. He nodded, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he muttered. Celia looked at him before nodding.
"Alright then, uh, I'm gonna go...ya' know sleep or whatever. Um, bye," she waved at him before turning around.
"Mhm, bye, Princess," he murmured, watching her walk away. He didn't even care that she ended training early.
When Celia got to the dormitory, everyone was already asleep. She thought to herself, she does this way too often. She showered and brushed her teeth before going to bed.