Hey, I'm a new author who loves Divergent. I know you guys hate author's notes so I'm gonna keep em' short. I update once or twice a day.

*REVISED 7/7/14*

Chapter I. The Closet and the Aptitude Test

BEATRICE

I stay in my fetal position as my back is being slashed with excruciating waves of pain. I feel the blood drip onto the floor from my body, which is more of torn flesh than human skin.

I don't flinch, I don't move, I don't make a sound. It just fuels him more. He abruptly stops hitting my back, and pulls me up with so much force, my arm is torn out of my socket. "This is for your own good." Those six words changed my life.

My father, I mean, Marcus, I refuse to call him my father, drags me through the house, and I feel myself being hoisted up into something with a familiar scent. I am thrown against something made of wood. The closet. I am hit in the head with a bottle of water. I sit up and everything becomes black.

I am not unconscious, no. Marcus locks me in the closet for days, normally without food or water. He only gives me water on his good days or when I am stuck here longer for a week. I sigh.

The closet is discolored red with my dried blood. I scratch a line of the closet wall. Day one. I taste salty water running down my cheeks, toward my lip. How did I deserve this? This was never for my own good. I remember the first time Marcus said those words, and changed my life forever.

FLASHBACK BEGIN

I was seven.

Marcus used to love us. My mother and I. We were all one, happy family, just like it's supposed to be.

But the expectations changed one day.

My mother, Evelyn, started to be abused by Marcus. I remember the days I spent cowering in my room when she was pushed around the house, slamming into the walls.

And I couldn't do anything about it.

One day she died, and according to Marcus, she was caught having an affair with one of Marcus's co-workers. Evelyn died giving birth, then the child died.

We had a funeral at home, but there was no body; we had ashes, and I believed that it was her body.

That left me stuck with Marcus.

He began to grow into the monster that only I know of now. He started drinking, and bringing home random girls.

One day, he told me to stay home, instead of going out to the Factionless Sector to bring them food. He brought me to his room.

He then locked the door, pulled out his belt, and whispered, "This is for your own good."

The beatings became worse, of course. I was whipped hourly.

Later on, he'd lock me in the same closet I had been nearly killed in countless times for nine years. More than half the house is covered with my blood.

And guess who had to clean it, of course. If I did not tidy up the house before Marcus came home, I would have double, triple beatings. He started to hide me from society.

I would no longer be able to go to school, or help out at the Factionless Sector. I would be forced to stay home.

When Marcus was gone, I stared outside the window, how I long for fresh air again. I haven't been outside the house except when Marcus forces me to.

Sometimes he'd kick me out, or I'd go to dinner with his co-workers. He wears a mask of being a jolly, happy, and kind Abnegation leader.

He only takes it off for me.

FLASHBACK END

I close my eyes, curl up into a ball, hugging my knees. I am sitting on something wet; my blood. I quietly cry myself to sleep.

-o0o-

I don't know how many days it's been.

I make another mark in the circle. Hopefully, Marcus will let me out now. He seemed pretty pissed, more than his normal, cruel, self.

Once, after Evelyn died, I was locked in here for what seemed like years, but was only 3 weeks, without food. He only provided me water so he could continue abusing me. I make another scratch on the closet wall, marking a tally.

There are at least hundreds of tallies being surrounded by a circle.

Each circle represented each time I was locked in here, each tally, a day.

I turn my attention to the closet door creaking open, and I tense in fear. I am face to face with Marcus. He smiles his cold sneer.

"Get out, you worthless piece of shit." I obey his commands, limping as I step out of the closet. "You are going to school today. Tomorrow is the aptitude test. I expect you to get Abnegation, and I expect you to choose Abnegation. Understand me, bitch?" I nod.

He kicks me out of the house.

Literally.

I pick myself of off the rocky sidewalk and brush dust off of my pants. I look at my watch, which each Abnegation teen was given at age sixteen—and also one of the only things Marcus allows me to own.

I had been in the closet for eight days.

I am starving. Luckily, I kept myself hydrated with the water Marcus provided me. I walk to school. When I walk through the hall, everyone is staring and whispering. I haven't been seen by society for years.

The only other person I ever had contact with besides Marcus and Evelyn, is Andrew Prior, who had a son who was the first transfer to Dauntless from Abnegation. His son is a traitor. I admire him for that. I would probably choose Dauntless, to get away from Marcus.

I walk to the front office, where an Amity woman wearing a bright yellow pencil skirt and a dull red shirt sits at the counter.

"Um… Hi." I stammer.

She looks up from the computer and smiles a warm, caring smile at me, which I return with a small one. I have never received those types of smiles.

At least, not anymore.

"Hello! You must be Beatrice Eaton, correct?" I nod.

She types on the computer for a few seconds and collects a piece of paper from the printer.

"Here you go. Why haven't you gone to school before?" She asks me. I resist the urge to groan. I thought curiosity was for the Candors.

"I was homeschooled, ma'am." I say, using the excuse Marcus told me to use of my disappearance from the Faction school.

She hands me the paper and explains to me about my classes.

I zone out, but nod briefly several times so it looks like I'm paying attention.

"Bye!" She waves at me.

I wave back, while walking out of the office.

I keep my head held down and walk to my next class. I can see in the peripheral vision of my eye that most of the other Factions are whispering and stealing glances at me.

Erudite, especially.

I pass the classes throughout the day, ignoring the stares I get. My stomach starts to rumble, not from the lack of food—but of the sudden addition of it to my stomach earlier during lunch; which is the first time I had eaten since last week.

When I get home, I fill a cup with water and drink from it, the cool water refreshing my dry mouth. The door clicks open and I turn around.

Marcus stumbles in, steaming. I glance at the empty beer bottle in his hand and gulp.

This isn't going to turn out well.

"How was school?" He looks at me dead in the eye.

I gulp. "Good."

"Lie!" Marcus yells.

He never yells.

He normally uses that cold, quiet voice.

He only yells when he is out of control.

In this case, he is—he's drunk.

He throws the beer bottle at my head, and luckily, my reflexes act quick and I dodge it.

His fist aims at my face and I say, "Choosing Day, Dad!"

He draws his fist back. I don't feel happy; he's not going to just cancel my 'lesson' just because I'll attract attention with a bruised face. He'll just hit me some place where it's not noticeable.

"Up against the wall. Thirty lashes. NOW!" I take off my shirt and turn around, facing the wall. I stare at my feet and tears start to blur my vision, which is already so terrible thanks to my black eye.

I hear the metallic sound of the belt. "This is for your own good."

I count each slash.

One.

Two.

I black out after twenty-five.

And there it is; Chapter one of "Switched". This is intended to be a remake of the entire Divergent series; Divergent, Insurgent, and the life-ruiner, Allegiant. (UGH, I HATE EVEN TYPING IT!)

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~TrissyPoo