Chapter 35

I woke up smiling, so did Connor. He occasionally winks at me which makes my heart flutter. Eventually we are all back waiting to go into our own fear landscapes, I sit next to Connor of course. And we occasionally hold hands when no one is looking. The mysterious door opens and Uriah carries out a Dauntless born initiate with spiky purple hair, he is shaking like mad and crying. This unsettles me. Tobias walks out of the room and I soon let go of Connor's hand. Tobias looks at us "Bayley." he says. Bayley nervously walks in. 

"Ya know. I still don't think it is fair that we are put against the Dauntless borns." Shayne speaks out a little too loudly. But that is the thing with Candor, they have no filter. Keira raises her head. "What is that suppose to mean Candor? Scared you will become faction less?" She asks with a sharp tone. Olivia whispers for Shayne to be quiet, but he doesn't take it into consideration. 

"No it is just that I don't think it is fair that you get an advantage. We have to learn all of this within weeks but you lot have been here for your entire lives. It is just not right." Shayne says. Keira is about to stand up but Apsin puts his arm out. Instead she sits and shakes her head. "Listen, the fighting we may have an advantage on so that is why we are ranked separately from you. But the fear landscape, well we don't know what is going to be in there. I guess we are all just people going into their fears." Aspin quietly says. Shayne leans back against the wall but like us all he jumps back up to the sound of Bayley's screaming. My body  shudders as though my heart has been pierced by an iced dagger repeatedly. I tightly close my eyes until I see pitch black, but I am greeted by visions of what Bayley is going through, torture. I grip tightly onto Connor's hand until I can feel his bones are close together. He doesn't flinch instead he focuses the motto on the wall. 

"We believe in freedom from fear, in ordinary acts of bravery, in defending those who cannot defend themselves."   I guess that is what initiation is about. Finding your freedom from any fears you have so you can eventually become fearless. Tobias always told me that being fearless is impossible and that we should focus on being brave. The screaming eventually stops. After a painful seeming few hours. Bayley leaves the room covered in tears, shaking and leaning agaisnt the wall. I just want to hug them but I need to focus on initiation and making sure I survive. Which is why me and Connor have agreed to not tell anyone about our relationship after initiation. 

"Ruby you're up." Tobias says. I get up and just hope my fears aren't as terrible as I think they are. But hope is extremely rare for me. Tobias closes the door and without asking I sit on the big black chair. Tobias smiles as me as he fills the glass up with serum. "Hey Sonia are you ok?" he asks. 

"I'm good what about you?" I ask him. 

"Better now that this is nearly over with." He snuffs. Gently he injects me with the serum and I can barely hear him say 'be brave'. 

I am in a dense forest, the green trees only let the select few specs of sunlight through. As I turn around to look what is behind me, I see the metal skeleton of the fence which wraps around the city. A tingle runs down my side. 'I'm outside the city...alone."  My mouth dries and sweat makes my top wrap around my body tighter. But not at that, but at the sound of hissing in the bushes. Snakes.

Every second that passes by the hisses get more and more vicious sounding and more and more louder and prominent. Something wet is slung over to my cheek. It has a stagnant and foul smell to it and it has a burning sensation. I wipe the green skunk away but it is partly red. Blood. Acid. Dangerous. My brain triggers for me to run and I do. I head towards the fence of the city and I feel some bite and wrap around my legs. A burning pain causes me to collapse and shake. My vision turns grey as more of these red snakes wrap them selves around my arms and fingers. 

I feel a pinch from their bites in my body and face, a brown snake enters into my mouth causing me to suffocate and eventually scales cover my sight of the clouds and I am brought back into the room. Tobias runs away from his computer and he wraps his arms around my sweating body. I begin to cry as I can still hear the hisses, that I can still feel the scales on my skin, the bites in my legs and body and the acid on my face.  

I cry into his shoulder before I realize that I am safe.