Don't Be Afraid

by Metal Fight Maru

Choosing

“Applejack.” The man says. I stand up and walk to the center. The man hands me the knife, and I glance back at my dad, who is sleeping. Figures.

I wasn’t nervous until I got up here. Now my hands are shaking, and I know it’s because of my aptitude result: Divergent. I know that no matter what I choose, I’m taking a risk at people finding out.

I already know what I want, though.

I cut my hand, and a drop of blood falls onto the burning coals.

“Dauntless.” People cheer. I go over to the dauntless and one of them pats me on the back. I sit down next to an empty seat, probably for another initiate.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Twilight Sparkle.” The announcer calls. My mother pats my back, and Spike gives me a thumbs up. I really am going to miss him.

I walk up to the center and take the knife. I feel really bad for whoever is afraid of knives today. I close my eyes, make a cut, and hold my hand out. Spike will be so proud. My mother will be so mad.

“Dauntless.” He says. I go over to the Dauntless section, and everyone is cheering. I sit next to another Candor girl with emerald eyes and a face covered in freckles. Once the whole ceremony is over, I follow the Dauntless up the stairs. Before I start running, I glance back, and my mother looks furious. Spike is beaming and we lock eyes. Someone grabs my arm and I turn away. Several people pass me as I’m running, and when we’re about halfway up I start panting. When we finally get to the top, we all climb a ladder and I see a train approaching.

“You gotta get on the train.” Someone says to me. So I grab hold of one of the bars on the side of the train, but the wind is so hard I smack into the side, which knocks the wind out of me. Someone grabs my hand to help me in. Once I’m sitting down, I see that it’s the girl I sat next to during the ceremony.

“Jeez, you ok? That looked painful.” She asks me.

“I’m fine.” I breathe.

“Applejack,” she says, sticking her hand out. “But I prefer AJ. I plan on changing my name once we get to Dauntless. You are?..”

“Twilight Sparkle. Erudite.”

“I’m Candor.” AJ smiles. I laugh a little.

“No offense, but I really couldn’t tell what faction you were! I thought you might have been Dauntless, what with the only white thing you’re wearing is a hair clip.”

“Yeah, you could say I was born to be Dauntless.”

“Get up, guys! We’re coming to the roof!” Somebody says. I stand up, and AJ says to me,

“You know we have to jump, right?”

“WHAT!?” I exclaim. “I did NOT know that, actually. I was hoping we would get a ladder or something. Is the train at least going to stop?”

“Um... not that I know of.”

“Well, that’s just wonderful. Ok... let’s do this.” I squeeze my eyes shut, but then she forces them open.

“You should probably open your eyes when you’re jumping onto a roof.” AJ laughs.

“Yeah...” I say nervously.

She grabs my hand and we run off the train. First, I’m in the air.

The next thing I know, the wind gets knocked out of me. Something smashes into my nose, and I feel hot blood trickle down my chin. And then it’s dark. I hate the dark.