I shot up in bed with a searing pain in my backside. My head had been thrust into the pillow and I had been sound asleep. Of course sleeping at Eric's apartment usually came with consequences. I shot up and groaned at the pain that was radiating through my lower half. I hadn't even meant to fall asleep here last night. I had been supposed to come back to the dorms.

Unfortunately Eric and I had spent a little too much time in his bed. I really had meant to be back to the dorms by eleven last night but it had been well past two in the morning by the time that we had finally fallen into bed. And by that time I had decided that I was not walking back to the dorms. It helped that Eric wasn't one to argue with me as long as it meant that he could get in one more round. He really was a pain in the ass.

And now it was literal as well. As I sat up in the bed the sheets pooled around my bare waist. No clothes were anywhere near me. I had a feeling that they were scattered all throughout the apartment and I knew that it was going to take forever to find them this morning. It always took me forever to find them. Mostly because we didn't really pay attention at night when we started throwing our clothes everywhere. At least he had his clean stuff in the drawers.

I really needed to leave a spare pair of clothes in the drawer or something. But I wasn't sure how Eric would feel about me leaving even one little thing in his apartment. I shook my head and my hair out around me and gave a soft groan. Eric was leaning at the edge of the bed and giving me a small smirk. He was such a dick. He smacked me in the ass as hard as possible to wake me up. I knew that I needed to leave before he decided to do it again.

"Get going, initiate," he snarled.

There was a teasing note in his voice and I rolled my eyes. He was such an ass about everything. I was already sore from last night and now he had made it a little worse. If it wasn't so much to smack me in the ass to wake me up, he also had to call me initiate and pretend that he hadn't done anything.

"Almost time for training," he continued.

"You're such an asshole," I groaned, rubbed my hands over my sore, and now rather pink, ass.

"I just wanted to wake you up," Eric explained.

"Oh, thanks for that."

There was a clear mark of Eric's hand and I scoffed. That damned mark would be there for a number of days. Now I realized that he had hit me a little harder than I'd actually thought that he did. He was laughing softly at me and I watched as he came to stand. He was wearing his work pants and his hair seemed to be done and ready for the day. How much longer had he been awake than me? Evidently long enough to get bored.

The only thing that he was lacking was a shirt. Of course. He liked to flaunt himself in front of me. He was such a woman sometimes. I rolled over in the bed and yawned. We were up far too late for me to be up this early to get to training. I just wanted to go back to bed. But I perked up slightly as I remembered that Eric had mentioned something about it getting close to being time for training. Was he being serious or was it a joke?

"What time is it?" I asked him slowly.

It was almost like I hadn't said anything. Eric ignored me for a good minute or two and I sighed, sitting upright in the bed and wrapping myself in the sheets. Eric walked around the room before grabbing a cup of coffee off of the counter and holding it to his mouth. He leaned back against the counter and smiled at me.

"Seven forty-eight," Eric answered.

His tone was extremely blasé and he acted like I was almost boring him. Asshole! He knew that it was because I was late. I had to be down to training at eight and I had been planning to run by the dorms to get some new clothes. I should have figured that he wouldn't wake me up. He enjoyed watching me being late. More like he enjoyed watching me struggle. He enjoyed watching me being frantic, and this was a frantic moment.

I shot up at his words and launched myself out of the bed. He was smirking at me over his cup of coffee. I knew that he was absolutely thrilled with himself. But damn him, I had to be at training down in the fear landscape room at eight o'clock without exceptions, as Four had told me more than once. I had twelve minutes left to be down there. This was the first time that we were going to be practicing the fear landscape and I was set to be late. Four was going to kill me.

"Why the hell didn't you wake me up earlier?" I snapped.

"I thought that you knew what time it was."

"How would I know what time it was? I was asleep!"

"Relax, Amity. I'm a leader. I'll just tell Four that you were busy."

"Doing what?" I sneered.

"Me."

Despite my panic and irritation towards Eric, I glanced up and snorted. "That'll go over well. Telling Four that I'm in a relationship that's explicitly against Dauntless rules and that's why I'm late. I had sex with him last night and fell asleep and he didn't wake me up this morning so I'm late to training," I groaned.

Eric glanced over at me. "Relationship?" he asked.

My heart lodged itself in my throat. Why the hell had I said that? "Uh..."

"Nice to see that you finally said it," Eric said, walking over to me.

He leaned over me and I felt my heart thumping in my chest. Had he really just been waiting to hear me say it? "You were just waiting for me to say it?" I asked dumbly.

Eric grinned and pressed a small kiss against my lips. "And you did it," he teased.

He walked away from me and my jaw dropped. "You -" I growled before cutting myself off. A soft blush fell over my face. He might have done it in an unconventional way, but he'd finally told me that we were in a relationship.

"You only have ten minutes left," Eric said blankly.

Eric was thumbing through his tablet as I jumped out of bed, flaunting everything. Even though he appeared to be in the middle of reading something riveting I knew that he was getting a kick out of watching me run around. I was trying to grab my clothes but they all seemed to be hidden from me. My cheeks were still flaming slightly from what Eric had just told me... Or I had told him. I really did like knowing that we were in a relationship together. It was something that I never thought that I would get from him.

Apparently he was waiting for this the entire time. The corners of his lips were turned up in a smirk. I had already found my underwear and bra, which was a miracle as usually they were the last things that I could find, but my shirt and pants were nowhere to be found. I awkwardly climbed into my bra and underwear as I dashed through the apartment. I finally found my shirt and tossed it on over my head. I was pretty sure that it was inside-out.

"Where the hell are my pants?" I muttered to myself.

Why was always either my underwear or pants that I could never find? Eric's apartment seemed to eat all of my clothes. "Here. I found these the other day," Eric said.

I turned to him to see that he was holding a pair of black shorts, clearly mine. He was enjoying himself too. He was holding my pants with one finger caught in the belt loop. I thanked him softly as he tossed them to me and caught them. Like the rest of my clothes I awkwardly climbed into them and tripped a few times.

"Or you could go without them," he said.

For once he wasn't pretending to be engrossed in something else. He was standing against his counter, staring at me. His eyes were following every curve on my body and he was giving me a suggestive smile. Of course that was what he would be thinking about. He wasn't going to get raked over the coals if he was late to something. I knew that if I was late Four would let me have it later. Especially because he would know exactly the reason that I was late.

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" I snarled.

He walked over to me and I groaned, knowing exactly what it was that he wanted. "I would," Eric growled against my throat.

"Eric -" I whined.

"That'll only make it worse."

He was right about that. He had always liked hearing me say his name. He pinned me against the wall and I groaned, knowing that I needed to leave. Four was going to kill me if I was late. I had been late to training a few times before and I knew that he hated me being late. Especially because it was Eric that always made me late.

"Eric, I have to go. I'm going to be late," I told him softly.

"I don't care."

"I do. I need to be there for the fear landscape!"

My words didn't mean a thing to him. Instead he walked up closer to me and gave me a deep kiss. I groaned against him and let him wrap his arms around my waist. Our hips moved together and I wanted nothing more than to drag him back to bed. But I had shit to do. And I was sure that he did too.

"Since when did you care about being late?" he asked against my lips.

He had a point. I had been blatantly late to training a few times because I'd wanted one more round with him. "Since I had that nice shiny number one spot," I said.

"You'll still have it."

Would I? I wasn't so sure about that. Eric leaned over to kiss me again and I let him shove me back against the wall. I sighed as he placed his mouth against mine and kissed me roughly. I wanted him more than anything but I knew that it was time to leave. As much as it pained me to have to walk away.

Shoving Eric back away from me I pulled my mouth away from his. He looked upset that I had bothered to break the kiss but he knew that I had to leave. That didn't mean that he wanted me to leave. As I turned to walk away from him he tried to grab me back. For once I was able to pull away from him. I ripped my arm away and headed over to the door. He was following me and I felt his arms swinging, each time brushing against my thighs softly. I only had another three minutes until training started. At least the fear landscape room was close.

"I gotta go, Eric. I'll come back later tonight, alright?" I offered.

He stared at me for a moment before scoffing and shoving me away from him. "Fine. Go to your stupid training," he growled.

I stumbled for a moment before straightening back up. "You're so sweet," I said under my breath.

I turned back for a moment to see that Eric was giving me a sideways grin. "Try not to go too slow during your fear landscape," Eric warned.

I knew that they were still evaluating us with times. There was still the slightest chance that I could be knocked from the number one spot. "I won't," I said.

"You're only going to be doing it once, alright?" he informed me, coming to stand at my side.

That was news to me. We were only doing the fear landscape once as practice. As far as I had been led to believe it was just like the fear sims. We practiced them every day until we made it to the end of Phase Three. No one had bothered to tell us that we would only be getting to try them only once. That would make the final fear landscape much more difficult. We might have already seen our fears but we wouldn't get the same practice that we had gotten for Phase Two.

"What? What do you mean that I'm only going to be doing it once?" I asked.

Naturally Eric wasn't going to tell me anything. He liked to watch me panic. "Four and Lauren will explain. Out," he said.

I rolled my eyes but stopped short as I realized that he had said Lauren. I wasn't aware that we were going to be working with Lauren. In fact I hadn't seen her since the first day in Dauntless. And I was pretty sure that I'd only heard her speak the once to tell everyone to go with her.

Eric walked up to me once more and I smiled as he gave me a deep kiss. A little sigh escaped my lips as his hands trailed up my waist and caught around the edge of my shirt. He pushed me back against the doorway and I smiled into the kiss. He was trying to get me to stay. As much as I wanted to I knew that I had to leave. There was no way that I was going to get away with being late to training again. So I pulled away from him and gave him a gentle nudge backwards. He smirked at me.

"Two minutes. Run fast," Eric said with a bright grin.

He gave me a quick wink and I rolled my eyes at him. What was it with him and constantly trying to make me look like a fool? "I hate you," I snapped.

Eric was grinning from ear to ear when I leaned in and kissed him once more. "No you don't," he said against my lips.

"You're right. Later!" I shouted before turning and dashing from the apartment.

It gave him no chance to say anything back to me. I was headed straight out of the hall when I saw Cameron. He was headed straight for me but I had no time to stop. Besides he was probably only here to head to Eric's apartment. He opened his mouth to speak to me but I yelled over him.

"Late to training. Have a good day, Cameron!" I yelled as I brushed by him.

"Good luck!" he shouted back, through a laugh.

As I dashed through the halls of the Dauntless compound a few members jumped out of my way, all smiling at me. I had become a fan favorite among the Dauntless members and they all seemed to know that I was notorious for being late. I wondered if any of them knew the reason why.

My mind flashed back to the past few days and everything that had been going on. It seemed that I was stuck with six fears. It was rather odd considering that everyone else seemed to have at least eight. But Four was still under the assumption that if I did have more fears they would reveal themselves during the fear landscape. Something that I would evidently only be allowed to practice once.

I wished that Eric or Four would have told me more about what to expect from the fear landscape. But I knew that they couldn't. They still had to be impartial. No matter what they both felt for me. Even though I was with Eric and like a sister to Four they still had to treat me the same as the other initiates. All that they had told me was that it was pretty terrifying. They had both told me that it was intimidating to have to face all of your fears back-to-back without having a break.

Some people took apparently close to half an hour. I had even heard of it bordering on an hour. I knew that it was going to take a long time for me to get out of the fear landscape, especially since I would have to be concerned with people watching other than Four. Even though Jeanine and Max knew what I was, I still had to keep it a secret.

It had been two weeks since I had seen my last fear. The fear of Eric trying to kill me. It was not a fear that I enjoyed dealing with. It still bothered me to have to go in there and have him beat the hell out of me but I was able to beat him every time. Other than being able to complete my final fear sim nothing much else had happened over the past two weeks.

I'd faced a few of my fears over again and Four had told me more than once that I might really only have six fears. He was impressed with me either way. I was impressed with myself. It seemed that most of my friends had around ten fears. A few nights over the past two weeks I had spent the night with Eric as well. I spent a lot of time around him these days. I enjoyed spending time with him even though he annoyed me more than anything else.

More than once when I had been with him I wondered just how close I was to the end of my relationship with Eric. There were only two weeks left until the end of initiation and that meant that I was going to have to deal with it. There was a chance that I could deal with it before then but I wasn't sure what I could possibly say to Eric. I wasn't sure how to go about it. And I especially wasn't sure that I wanted to know what he was going to do once he found out the secret that I'd kept from him for months.

Despite all of my thoughts about what was going on with Eric I was still ensuring that I kept up my times in training. I still had to make sure that I sat at the top of the leader board. I wasn't sure if my rank dropping would make things even worse with Jeanine than they already were. I knew that unless I started seriously fucking up during training no one would be able to take over the number one spot.

A few months ago I would have been thrilled to see that I was totally safe in the number one spot only two weeks out from the end of training. It meant that I was going to be eligible for leadership. But right now the only thing that I could think about was what was going to happen with Jeanine in two weeks. It was the one of the few things on my mind these days. It was the day that I would have to see what it was that Jeanine wanted. It might be the last day of my life.

Over the past two weeks Four and I had been trying to plan something to stop Jeanine. We had to do something to stop her and her plan to destroy the Divergent's. It wasn't just Four and I. I didn't know any others but there were plenty. It hadn't been going well for us so far. The only plans that we were coming up with were ones that were going to end with one of us dying. The only thing that I knew right now was that I had to go to Candor with Four before the end of training. We would be going the night before the final fear landscape. If Candor worked out the way that I wanted it to I might be able to stop Jeanine.

Once more my mind flitted back to what I wanted to tell Eric as I turned back from a wrong turn to the fear landscape room. Eric had shown me it once but I didn't remember the route very well. All of the halls looked the same. But that wasn't what was on my mind. I wanted to tell Eric that I was a Divergent before that night. I wanted everything to be less of a shock to him. I had done enough to nearly give him a heart attack over the past few months. I could spare him on this one. But I wasn't sure how to do it.

Honestly I was afraid that he was going to break my heart. I knew that he would in some way or another. I thought that maybe it would be a better idea to tell him the truth; in fact I was sure that it was a better idea, but I was afraid. I didn't know what to do. I had no clue how to start that conversation.

But this was the wrong time for me to be thinking about something like that. I had better things to be thinking about. I might be able to get around to tell him before my two weeks were up but I also might not. Either way, I was eventually going to have to reveal my secret to Eric. I sprinted through the last hallway that looked a little familiar before running through the door. Thankfully Eric had already shown me the room or else I could only imagine how late I would have been.

I walked into the room awkwardly to see all of my friends turning and staring at me. I looked around the room and saw that it looked just like the fear sim room but larger. It could easily hold at least twenty people. Or at least whoever would come to watch our fear landscapes. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I remembered that Jeanine would be one of those people.

All heads in the room turned around to look at me and I let a small blush cover my face. I knew that I was already a little red from the running and it didn't help that it was clear that everyone in the room knew that I had been coming from somewhere not so decent. I took a deep breath and shook my head, trying desperately to avoid Heather's smirk. I was panting slightly as I looked over everyone else in the room and leaned over.

Four was glaring at me and I smiled bashfully at him. All of my friends were trying desperately not to laugh. I knew that I looked a little frazzled and my hair was ruffled on top of my head. Damn Eric, he should have woken me up earlier. Lauren was there too and she smiled at me. I gave her a weak one back. I glanced up at the clock and smirked. I was two seconds late. That meant that Four couldn't yell at me.

"Still made it on time," I muttered to Heather.

She turned to me and laughed softly under her breath. She looked extremely proud of herself. She was never late. Cole was sure to keep himself respectable around Heather. I was sure that Eric didn't even know what the word respectable meant. All of my friends were snickering at me as I took a spot next to Heather and turned to look at Four and Lauren. They were speaking softly with each other.

"Barely," she laughed.

"Still counts."

"Eric didn't want you to leave?

I nodded, still trying to pretend like I was interested in what Lauren and Four had to say. "He didn't wake me up," I said.

"Did he forget about training?" she asked.

"No. He probably wanted to watch me scramble. He thinks it's funny to mess with me. You know?"

"Sounds like an Eric thing to do," she said.

We both leaned back against the boys and smiled at each other. I glanced over at Lauren once more to get a good look at her. I had only seen her on the first day and a few times since then. I had really never gotten a good look at her. She had long hair that was extremely dark. She seemed to be one of the few people that didn't have dyed hair. She had piercings in her eyebrow, lower lip, and all throughout her ears. Despite her hard-ass look she was smiling sweetly at us. She seemed much happier than Four, who was still glaring at me.

Lauren shifted for a few moment before shouting over us. "Alright! Listen up!" Lauren yelled.

"That's the first time I've heard her talk," Buck said, surprised.

The rest of us nodded at him. We all silenced ourselves and those who were facing away from the pair turned to look at them. Even I glanced back to see what they wanted to talk about. They were standing on the raised platform that held the chair that we would sit in for our fear landscape.

"For some of you, you haven't seen me since the first day here in Dauntless. The transfers. Glad to see that you've all made it. Welcome to Phase Three of initiation. This is the fear landscape room. You'll be getting familiar with it over the next two weeks. Now, you're going to be alternating days. Phase Three goes in the reverse of Phase Two. The highest ranked transfers go first. Today those of you in the number one spot up until the tenth spot, you will be going today," she explained.

I groaned softly, well aware that it meant that I was going to be the first one to have to deal with the fear landscape. At least it meant that I would be able to get it done with first. But that also meant that no one else was going before me. It meant that no one else was going to be able to tell me what to expect.

"Those of you in the eleventh spot and lower, you'll be going to the training room. We are still the warrior Faction and you all have to keep up your physical strength. We will alternate it. Tomorrow, those of you ranked number one through ten will be in the training room," Four explained. That meant that I was going to be in the training room tomorrow. "We will alternate every day."

I gave a soft yawn but snapped my jaws shut when I saw the glare that Four was giving me. He had no sympathy that I hadn't slept. Especially not because Eric was the only reason that I hadn't been sleeping. My jaws tightened as I gave Four a guilty smile. He looked like he would rather kick my head off of my shoulders.

"You won't be watching the others go. Like the fear sims you're going to sit outside and wait for it to be your turn. Once you're done you'll be going to the training room," Lauren said. I would be spending the majority of the day in the training room. "Let's talk about the fear landscape. You won't be seeing your own until the fear landscape in two weeks. You'll be seeing mine."

All eyes in the room shot over to her as jaws nearly dropped to the floor. They were all thinking the same things that I had been thinking earlier. We had all thought that we would be practicing our own fear landscapes like we had in Phase Two. We would be practicing, but not our own fear landscapes. At least we were allowed to practice something.

"What?" Jade sneered from behind me.

"What?" Lauren parroted.

"Why aren't we seeing our own fear landscape? That's not fair! We should be able to practice."

Just like when we had asked about the people on the bottom of the ranking boards having to leave Dauntless, Four looked pissed. "Do you think that in the real world you're going to get a chance to practice? It's like the fights. You won't get to fight someone that's fair. You could get someone larger, smarter, and stronger," Four snarled. Colt and Hunter had been larger than me. "You might not always know what you're afraid of. You won't be prepared to confront a fear when you're out in the real world. Sometimes things just happen."

Lauren was nodding along with him but I could see a little hint of concern in the back of her eyes. She had no idea what he meant. I did. The chill that fled over my spine proved it. I knew that he was partially referring to what was happening with us. The room had gone silent as we all stared awkwardly at the ground. Lauren shook her head and cleared her throat, drawing the attention away from himself and Jade.

"Four is right. This is fair. We let you practice seeing your fears. That's fair enough. We aren't going to let you practice your own fear landscape," she said definitively. It was fair enough. It just sucked. "You're practicing mine from two years ago. That's how it's going to work. Now, the fear landscape is different from the fear sims. In the landscape you're aware that you are in a sim. It will feel different. But the rules are no different. Get in and out of there as fast as possible. We're still timing you. And we're still ranking you."

"Seems so weird," Heather muttered to me.

"It might not be too bad," I whispered back.

There wasn't much of a chance that anyone else could rise to the number one spot. "A little advice. The final fear landscape will be your last chance to dramatically raise your ranking," Lauren continued.

The final fear landscape was the only chance that I had to drop out of the number one ranking. But there was no way that they were going to take over my spot. "Now we're going to get this started. Alex, you'll be up first," Four said, motioning to me with an even face.

"Okay," I called back, shifting forward.

"Aaron, you'll be following her. Lauren and I will be watching you guys go. Alex, Aaron, Draven, Dante, Michael, Jax, Greg, Buck, and Heather. You'll all be going today. The rest of you will go tomorrow. Head to the training room. The rest of you, outside in the waiting area," Four snapped.

"See you guys later," I called to everyone that was leaving.

Everyone ran to their respective waiting areas as I stood and waited for my instructions. They didn't take long. "Alex, come here," Four motioned.

"Good luck girl. You got it," Heather said.

"Thanks."

She was lingering behind the rest of our friends. Cole was waiting for her at the edge of the doors. I turned back and smiled, walking over to her and grabbing her in a hug. "Out, Heather," Four barked.

Startled slightly, she turned to sprint away from me. The doors slammed shut behind her and I was left with Lauren and Four. I turned back and headed into the center of the room. This room was about twenty times as creepy as the sim room. I took a seat in the chair that Lauren was motioning me towards. It was just like the one in the fear sim room.

Lauren headed back to the computer behind the chair and I leaned back. "Remember you can be aware that you're in the sim this time. But still get out of it like a Dauntless. Try not to die, okay?" Four asked.

Four was close to my ear and whispering as Lauren typed something into the computer. She was mumbling softly to herself. "Got it," I whispered back.

"Good luck. This isn't as bad as it seems. And Lauren's fears aren't too bad."

"That's a relief," I said.

I was sure that they couldn't be worse than mine. "I had to do hers when I was an initiate too," Four explained.

"As long as she isn't afraid of heights," I teased.

Four's hand tightened almost painfully on my shoulder and I groaned. That was a little harder than was completely necessary. He let up on my shoulder slightly as Lauren came to stand with us. Four backed away from me slightly as Lauren walked over to stand next to my head.

"Just treat it like you're in a fear sim and you'll be fine. This isn't about slowing your heart rate down. Keep that in mind. The only thing that you need to do is conquer my fears," Lauren explained.

The only reason we had done the fear sims was to practice how to conquer a fear. "Okay," I said.

"Here's hoping that we don't share any of them," she said as she held the needle to my neck.

I smiled and nodded, leaning back completely into the chair. "I hope not," I laughed.

"Take a deep breath," she said.

I nodded again. She brushed my hair off of my neck and I cringed as the needle sank into my neck and the world began to spin. It was faster than the beat of a drum that I came back to. I wasn't in the fear landscape room anymore. It seemed like I was actually in the same pit where I had my fear of snakes. A lump formed in my throat as I waited for her first fear to reveal itself to me. I was down in a dark cave and my heart was pumping quickly. This didn't look like a good thing.

There was a soft scuttling in the corner of the cave and I turned back to see a large creature come out. I knew what this thing was. It seemed like nearly half of the people that I knew were afraid of this. Spiders. I turned back to run but the spider was faster. It was larger than normal ones were. Much larger.

The damn thing looked like it was at least six feet tall and each of the legs were at least three feet long. Its eyes were black and beady and its fangs were dripping in what I assumed was venom. The spider pounced on top of me and I yelled out, thrashing around. I swung myself out from underneath the spider that was trying to catch me again. More were crawling out of the caves and I knew that if I didn't kill this spider soon I was going to have to fight off the rest. The spider lunged at me again and I reached for something. I only had a pocket knife.

Eric had one that I borrowed from time to time and I recognized that the one that I had on me was actually his. I flicked it open and gulped when I realized that the spider wasn't going to die from just one stab. So I dashed underneath the spider as it tried to swipe out at me again. It narrowly missed and I watched as it tripped over its own legs.

It let out an awkward growl and I cried out again when I grabbed the knife in my hand and jammed it into the eye of the spider. It let out a horrible scream and I fell back from it. All of the other spiders began to advance on me quickly and I took in a breath, knowing that there was nothing else that I could do. I had lost my one weapon.

But before I could do anything else or run, the scene changed. My heart was pounding in my chest as I glanced around at my new surroundings. I wasn't afraid of spiders but I certainly didn't want to meet one that large in real life. I was now out of the strange cave and instead standing in a room. A room that I was well aware of. I was in the Chasm. Was Lauren afraid of the Chasm? I had seen her out by it before and she hadn't looked the least bit concerned about it. Maybe it was something else.

I hung back by the railings and turned slightly, gasping loudly when I saw that there was a man standing behind me. I couldn't see who it was as he had a black mask over his face and wore long clothes over his body. He seemed weaponless but that didn't change the fact that he made me nervous.

The man gave no indication that he was going to do anything before darting towards me and knocking me onto my back. I gasped at the sudden weight before kicking him in the stomach. He let out a loud roar that almost sounded like something animalistic. He hit me across the cheek and I gasped at the sudden pain. He wrapped a hand around my neck and I screamed as the other wrapped around the other half of my neck.

The man was angry with me for no reason and now he was going to choke me to death. Lauren was afraid of suffocating. Not that I blamed her. I had almost been suffocated before - more than once - and I knew how terrifying it was. His hands were tight around my throat as I thrashed and kicked out at him. Bile was rising in my throat that was coming close to being completely closed off. I twisted again and kicked out roughly into his stomach. He roared again and I gasped as his grip loosened slightly. I threw out my fist and watched as the man fell from me. He was panting heavily as I jammed my booted foot up into his throat.

He coughed a few times as I leaned over to get my breath back. I felt him grab my back again before kicking out at him, once, twice, and a third time. He growled at me again before I kicked out to his head and he smashed his head on the railing. He fell to the ground and I noticed a pool of blood forming around him, dripping into the churning Chasm waters.

I attempted to stand up but I had almost no time to actually get my wits together. The scene changed once more and I glanced around at myself. The room was nothing that I had seen before. It seemed like I was down in the furnace of Dauntless. The one where we had been forced to burn the clothes of our old Factions. But this was odd. There was trash all around me and the room was extremely narrow. There was only about ten feet of space between two extraordinarily tall walls.

There was a small crawl space at the tops of the walls and I stared at them. It was at least thirty feet up and the walls were too far apart to scale. Was there a chance that Lauren was afraid of being trapped in small spaces? No. That couldn't be it. Why was the room shaped like this if the fear was enclosed spaces?

There was a horrible screeching noise that came from behind the walls and I took in a deep breath. That wasn't good. I noticed that the trash that I was standing on was raising slightly and I let out a little yell. What the hell was happening? I looked over and saw that the walls were closing in slowly. They'd already closed a few inches and I knew that with every passing second they were closing in a little more. It wasn't going to be long before I was crushed to death in between the walls. Not good.

"Lauren, damn it! Crushed to death by closing walls? Come on!" I yelled to myself and Lauren.

This was insane. I'd rather be in my own fear landscape. The walls were closing in fast and I knew that I was running out of time. There was only about another nine feet to go before I was crushed to death. I tried searching through the trash for a way out of the bottom of the trash but there was nothing on either end of the walls. No matter how hard I tried to push against them they wouldn't stop. They were too heavy. No matter how fast I ran back and forth there was nothing I could do to get out. The only thing I could do was try and make it to the crawl space at the top of the wall and fast. I only had about five feet of wiggle room.

I placed one foot on each side of the wall and used my hands to help me walk up them. It was hard and my thighs were burning with the strain. I was in a hell of a lot of pain as I made it about halfway up the wall. The walls were only about three feet apart and I was at least fifteen feet from the top. I began to move faster, practically dying with anticipation. I was going to make it.

But it was hard and the walls weren't stopping, no matter how close I got to the top. I was about ten feet away from the top and barely able to wiggle through the closing walls. There was only about two feet separating the walls from each other and me. I dashed upwards until I was only three feet from the crawl space and the walls were a foot apart. It was squeezing my thighs against my chest and my arms were burning with pain as I struggled back over the tops of the wall.

My entire body to my torso was out of the tops of the walls and I was able to pull one leg completely out of the quickly closing walls. My left foot was caught in the walls and I screamed out loudly. My ankle was throbbing as I ripped it from between the walls and fell to the tops of the walls that had finally closed. Thankfully I'd made it.

The scene changed quickly and I was back to standing, my chest still heaving with the exertion from the previous scene. My heart was pounding in my chest as I glanced around at my surroundings. I was inside Dauntless again. At least I recognized this place. And at this point anything was better than being back with the closing walls. That was the worst one that I had seen in Lauren's fear landscape so far. The halls were bustling with people and I watched as some headed straight towards me. Among them were Max, Eric, and the other Dauntless leaders. Four was with them too.

I let out a little yell as Max wrapped his arms around me. His hands were tight on my arms as he dragged me out of the hall that we were in. He dragged me out of the compound despite my protests and I kicked out at him as he shoved me outdoors. The sun was bright as I turned back to see that Max was standing with his arms folded, watching me with beady eyes. They all were.

"You've been removed from Dauntless on accounts of rule-breaking and weakness. Cowardliness. Best of luck in the Factionless district," Max said with a little smirk.

Lauren was afraid of being kicked out? She was one of the best female fighters that Dauntless had. They weren't going to throw her out. "What?" I asked dumbly.

"There is one way for you to earn your way back. Fight me."

Fight Max? Okay... Nodding at him, I leaned down to get into a fighting stance. Max followed and I realized that he was going to fight with a much stronger stance than Eric and Four. It was probably because he had been here longer. He was older. He would be slower and his vision wasn't as good. He was faster than I had thought that he was going to be. He ran at me and I dodged a punch just barely in time. He threw another one out quickly and I ducked from that one too.

He threw another fist out at me and I dashed backwards once more before raising my fist and throwing it out at him. He managed to dodge my first punch but the second one connected with his nose. He stumbled back and I raised my foot to kick him directly in the stomach. He coughed loudly and I kicked out again, this one hitting his head. I risked a quick glance over to see that Four and Eric, along with the rest of the leaders, were all nodding at me. I would do it.

Trying to finish the fight I flipped over myself to kick him in the nose once more. But the moment that I flipped over myself I hit the ground. No one was here. Not Max and not the rest of them. I was alone again. I hit the ground roughly and rolled over, coughing a few times, trying to get the air back into my lungs. That hurt. My chest was throbbing as I rolled over again.

"Damn it," I groaned. I was sure that Four was laughing his ass off right now. He enjoyed watching when I hurt myself. Not that I blamed him. I enjoyed watching when Four hurt himself. "Shut up, Four. I know you're laughing."

I stood up to look around myself and noticed that I had changed rooms again. It seemed that I was in Dauntless still but I wasn't sure what the room was. It looked like I was in an empty version of the dorms. I turned a few times but nothing looked familiar or dangerous. It sure as hell felt dangerous. I had only been standing for a few seconds when a searing pain shot through my back. I gasped and leaned down onto my knees. What the hell was happening to me?

I reached around to my spine where the pain was and brought my hand back at the sticky feel that came with it. My eyes bulged when I saw that it was blood. And lots of it. It was slicking down my back and pooling onto the floor. I turned desperately to try and search out the culprit behind the attack but no one else was in the room.

There were no doors or windows in the room and I knew that it meant that there was nothing that I could do. Lauren had to be afraid of bleeding to death. Another searing pain shot through my arm as I saw a large split shoot down my right arm. The one on my left followed a moment later and two more on my legs appeared within the next thirty seconds. My heart was pounding as another pain shot through my stomach and more blood began to seep out. I was going to die. What the hell could I do?

I got up weakly and limped over to the cabinets that lined the back wall. I had to find something. Material. Anything that I could use to cover the wounds. I was barely able to stand as I grabbed the drawers and ripped them out of the chests. There was a small band of gauze in the furthest one and I grabbed my shirt and pants, ripping them off of my body.

The bleeding hadn't stopped as it flooded the floor around me. My face was an ashen and I was weakly limping as I grabbed the gauze and began to wrap it around my torso. My hands were shaking and I was barely able to keep myself standing. I tied off the gauze before tying it around my arms. My hands were shaking pathetically as I began to work on my thighs. I was barely able to see straight as I tied the gauze off and turned to look at myself. The wraps were already bleeding through but I knew that I had done all that I could, even though I was drenched in blood and the bleeding still hadn't stopped.

It seemed that the sim agreed with me. The sim changed again and I saw that I was still in Dauntless. It was strange seeing so many fears that were in Dauntless. A vast majority of mine took place in Erudite. It was something that I was hoping would go past Jeanine when she saw my fears. Not that it mattered. She already knew what I was. I saw a man that looked to be about thirty walking over near a Factionless man who was tied up and I raised my eyebrow at him.

He was speaking to the Factionless man and I saw that Lauren was standing in the background. She looked much younger. She was staring at her father as he stared at the Factionless man. He was speaking but I couldn't hear any of the words that he was saying. I wondered if this was a memory that she couldn't completely remember. She clearly remembered it well enough.

I watched closely and my heart jumped into my throat as I stared at him. He was speaking with an even tone. He looked pissed but it seemed that his voice was strong and steady. I was impressed with him. But it changed before I could realize it. I saw it just out of the corner of my eye. The Factionless man was holding a butter knife and it glinted in the sun for a moment. He was going to kill her father. This was her next fear. Her father's death. She had lost her father to a Factionless man.

I was not going to let that happen in my version of her fear. The man leaped over to her father with knife in hand but I was faster. I launched myself after the man and knocked him off of his feet. The knife sliced through my arm but went clattering to the floor. The pain in my arm was searing but at least I had saved her father.

The screams echoed for a moment before they were cut off and the pain faded from my arm. I was still down on my knees from tackling the man but I was no longer in Dauntless. I was pretty sure that this was the same place where I had my fear of losing my sister. It was in the plaza right in between Erudite and Candor. What was it that she was afraid of out here? It didn't take me long to find out.

The breeze blew softly and I shivered under it. How was I that cold? I glanced up and saw that a crowd was drawn around me. There were Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, Amity, and many Dauntless scattered around, all laughing at me. I saw Eric, Four, Max, the leaders, and a few others whose names I didn't know. I recognized them as her friends.

It only took me a moment to realize what her fear was. It was absolutely mortifying. Lauren had some of the strangest fears I'd ever seen. I was standing in the middle of the plaza buck ass naked with most of the residents of Chicago standing around and laughing at me. Damn it. Stupid fucking Lauren. My face went bright red as the others in the plaza all laughed and pointed at me. For once I was thrilled that I had the tattoos. I knew that it was drawing some of the attention away from my other extremities.

There was no way out of here other than swallowing my pride and dealing with it. I stood up completely straight and blushed softly as I headed over to the people that were watching me. I grabbed a jacket from a man that was standing near me and throwing it over my form, zipping it up. He was smirking at me but one hit to the eye and his smile had faded. I pulled the jacket down my thighs a little ways and headed out of the plaza with my head held high.

It was odd hearing Eric laugh and jeer at me. But this was Lauren's fear, not mine. And Eric wasn't attracted to her, he was attracted to me. I knew that if it was my fear he would have been pissed that everyone else was looking at me. As I strode away from the plaza I found myself back in the Dauntless halls once more, thankfully this time I was fully clothed.

Once more I was back in my training clothes and in the back halls of Dauntless. There was no one else around me as I began to walk back and forth down the hall. Something had to be back here waiting for me. I was striding slowly when a hand clapped itself over my mouth and I fought to let out a piercing scream. I kicked out but another figure caught me by my legs. One was holding one of my legs and one was holding the other, with another wrapped around my torso. The people that were holding me had no faces and I screamed again. One figure covered my face to make sure that no one could hear it.

The figure that was standing behind me wrapped an arm around my torso before dragging me away from the hall. I screamed and cried out as the others kept me from moving. I thrashed out again and felt my boot connect with the face of one of my kidnappers. The one that had been holding my left foot dropped to the ground and I used the propulsion I got from my feet on the ground to push myself back up and throw my foot into the eye of the man that was holding my other leg.

He too dropped me and I tried to thrash away from the two men that were still holding me. The one that was around my torso dropped me and threw a punch to my face, which I was unable to avoid. But I still had the upper hand in the fight. My vision was blurry as I pushed my legs to swing up and roundhouse kick the man against the skull, twice. He groaned and dropped to the ground as I stomped down on his face.

He gave a soft groan and I turned to face my last attacker. His hand was still over my mouth and I bit down on his fingers. He screamed in pain and I spit out the blood that filled my mouth. I punched him in the face before he got a chance to regain himself and swung his fist across my nose. It crunched under the weight of my fist and I kicked him in the stomach.

He hit the ground roughly and I stepped down on his ribs. I heard them crack under my booted feet as I kicked him in the stomach again. He cried out and rolled over as I leaned down, hitting him in the face again. He got a few good hits in on my face but it was nothing compared to the damage that I was doing to him.

I leaned back once more to regain my breath but it was all that the sim needed to push me out. After nine fears of Lauren's I was pushed back into the fear landscape room and I shot up in the chair. My breathing was coming in heavy gasps as I sat bolt upright in the chair and dropped my head into my hands.

Most of her fears weren't too bad but the last one about being kidnapped was completely awful. My throat was rattling softly as I leaned back and nodded at Lauren and Four, both of whom were watching me normally. I wasn't afraid of any of the things that Lauren was but that didn't mean that I enjoyed having to face them. I could only imagine what it was going to be like when I had to do this with my own fears.

"Lauren, you have the weirdest fears," I told her softly.

Lauren gave a soft laugh as she nodded. "Sorry about that," she chirped.

"It's okay."

Four was standing behind her and typing something into the computer. I noticed that he wore a smirk on his face. He was probably still enjoying my fall. Lauren gave me her hand and I took it to let her help me out of the chair. It was a little further back than the chair that was in the fear sim room was.

"I've had people tell me that I have pretty crazy fears before. But everyone has at least one they're embarrassed of. You did well though," she said.

I perked up. "Thank you. How long did I take?" I asked. It felt like I had been in there forever.

"Ten minutes and twenty-three seconds. That's one of the best time I've ever seen. Even better than Four the first time that he did it."

"Thanks," I said happily.

"You earned it."

A smile graced my face. I was glad to hear just how fast I had managed to get the fear sim done. I had heard that the average times were about twenty minutes. I was taking about half of the time. Four moved to stand at the side of my chair as Lauren turned and headed into the waiting area. I was sure that she was going to get Aaron to bring him in. I hoped that he would do well in the fear landscape. I knew that he wanted to stay in the second spot if he couldn't take over the number one spot.

"Thanks, Lauren," Four said as she walked away.

She smiled and moved to open the door. "Not a problem. Aaron! You're up," she called.

"Alright, you did well. If you can do that in your fear landscape and remember to not give anyone a chance to say what you are you'll do well in the end," Four told me.

"I'll definitely work on it," I said.

"Get to the training room," he snapped.

Clearly something was wrong with him this morning. He seemed more distracted and he looked a little less happy than he normally was. I couldn't help but to wonder if he was thinking about what was coming in two weeks. I knew that it was as big of a deal for him as it was for me. It could very well be the end of both of our lives. He was helping me out of the kindness of his heart. He didn't have to. Jeanine didn't know who he was.

"Thanks Four. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about the timing thing," I teased.

"Get out," Four snapped.

We smiled at each other as I hopped out of the chair, giving him a quick hug before parting ways and heading towards the door. "I'll see you later," I yelled back to him.

"Bye, Alex."

I turned to leave and brushed past the door. Lauren was standing and moved out of the way for me. I said hello to a few of my friends and patted Aaron on the back before heading straight for the training room. My friends all called to me once the door was closed and Lauren had disappeared once more, asking me what it was like to do the fear landscape. I was honest in telling them that it wasn't nearly as bad as having to deal with the fear sims.

As long as someone didn't share any fears with her. They were all going to be aware that it wasn't real and that was a positive for them. Although I knew a few of my friends were afraid of spiders. At least it was the first fear that they would see. They could get it over with first. It would only get better from there.

It was only a few minute until I got to the training room and walked straight in. There was no one in the training room other than a few members and I smiled to myself. I had never been in here without Eric, Four, or the other initiates. I headed straight to the punching bag and hit the thing as hard as I could, over and over again. I was there for nearly half an hour. The only other person that had since joined me was Aaron, and he was lifting weights.

My hands and knees were both bleeding from the heavy impacts. I was taking out all of my stress on the bag. It was killing my hands as I continued to rain hits down onto the bag but I ignored the pain. I wanted to be angry about everything. The war. Jeanine Matthews. Eric. Having to drag Four into this. Divergence. Everything that I could think of.

A hand wrapped around the back of the back and I jumped. As far as I had been concerned, no one was around me. I thought that everyone else was around the weight lifting areas. I ignored the hand and threw another hit at the bag but it didn't do anything. It stayed completely still. All it did was make me retract my hand and hiss in pain. I looked around to see that Eric was standing behind the bag. I was glad that everyone else was nowhere near me.

"Move, Eric," I hissed.

"Your hits aren't going to the center of mass. It's throwing you off," he said.

Wiping off a bead of sweat, I nodded. He was right about that. I wasn't throwing my hits carefully, I was just hitting to release pent-up anger. I shook my head at him and threw out another punch. It wasn't as hard as the others considering I really didn't want to hurt my hand again.

"Thanks, but I've got stuff on my mind. I wasn't exactly thinking about where to hit with the center of mass or whatever the hell you're on about. I just want to take some anger out," I said.

Eric nodded at me before letting go of the bag. He turned back and walked to stand behind me. I wanted to reach out and hit the bag again but decided against it. Eric placed his hands on my arms and I sucked in a deep breath. There were people around. Part of me wanted to tell him that but I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to open my mouth and admit it to him. For whatever reason my mouth seemed to have completely sealed itself and I was at his mercy.

"I taught you better than that," Eric growled.

"Like I said, I'm not going on what I learned."

"What do you have to be stressed about, initiate?" Eric asked, his mouth pressed against the side of my ear.

"Lots... You," I growled, trying to ignore him.

His breath fanned over my neck and I shivered. I rolled my eyes at myself and his actions before punching the bag again. Eric's hands slipped down my arms to come and land on my hips. They were soft on me and I felt his hands tense as he shoved my hips to the side. I knew that he was roughly correcting my stance. I had never been very good about keeping the correct stance.

"Ouch. Watch your damn hands," I snapped.

"You never complained before."

"Since there's not a bed anywhere in sight, I don't exactly want you to be rough with me," I moaned.

Eric rolled his eyes, probably thinking that I was being a baby. "Turn and face me," Eric said in my ear darkly.

I turned and took a step back. He was being way too risky. Someone could see us. We were already tempting fate here. "There are people in here, Eric," I sneered.

He seemed to be unconcerned. "So?" he asked.

I couldn't believe that he was being so open and standing so close to me. I hated that we had to keep this a secret but I knew that we had to continue keeping this a secret. We had done a good job so far. And we only had to do it for another two weeks. Only two more weeks and I knew that we would no longer have a secret relationship to keep.

"So, there are people watching," I said.

"What?" Eric asked.

"People are watching. Leave."

He had a teasing lilt to his voice and I had to push to keep the blush on my face down. I had a feeling that nothing good was going to come. Not when he was looking at me the way that he was. It said that I was asking for it and I was going to get it later. Eric moved closer to me to put his mouth over my ear.

"Do you think that I'm going to bend you over?" he asked.

A huge blush spread over my face and neck. Not right here. Not right now. "Stop!" I hissed.

"Or maybe throw you down against the ground? Be as rough as possible. I thought that was how you liked it. Push your legs apart? Lean in between and slip my -" he prattled before I cut him off.

"Eric!" I snarled.

He was smirking at me as I slapped a hand over his mouth. I wanted to back away from him but I didn't believe that he was going to not keep talking if I took my hand off of his mouth. A few people turned back to us and I awkwardly shifted behind the bag so that no one else could see us.

"Shut up! Please. People will hear you," I told him desperately.

He smiled and backed away from me. I was hesitant to take my hand off of his mouth but I let him go slowly. Thankfully no one was looking our way. They all seemed to be so caught up in their own thoughts and training. I assumed that everyone else was thinking about their jobs or something else that made them angry. I wondered what it would be like to be able to only think about something like that. Not a damned war that I was only fighting with one other person.

Finally Eric decided to let the conversation go as a smirk faded back onto his face and he leaned against the bag. The chain that was holding it creaked and I reached out to kick it gently. I was practicing my stance, knowing that Eric would throw me off balance if it wasn't correct. As he replaced my foot properly on the bag, his fingers gently trailed up my leg, making me shiver slightly.

"How did you like Lauren's fear landscape?" Eric asked.

"Loved it," I teased.

"It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Just a little bit. Well, a lot. I didn't know Lauren was older than you," I commented.

"Just a year," Eric said.

We stood together for a moment as Eric readjusted my stance. "So you had to do it, too?" I asked.

Eric nodded blankly. "Yeah. She was bigger in the training process during my initiation. She's still afraid of spiders and the walls closing in, right?" he asked.

"She is. I hated the walls closing in."

He nodded, probably remembering going through it himself. "My favorite was the public humiliation. How was that?" he asked.

A blush rose on my face and I dropped my head to the ground as I kicked out, missing the bag. Eric laughed as I grabbed his arm to steady myself. Aaron glanced over to us and I let go of him quickly, putting a stern glare on my face. Aaron nodded at me before turning away and I turned back to Eric, placing an awkward smile on my face.

"Please tell me that yours was about having to be naked out in the center of the square? Or right in front of the Hub?" I asked.

Eric was smirking at me. "No," he said.

"Something like that?" I asked desperately.

Eric was still shaking his head. "No. Mine was not about being naked," he said.

There was something on his face that told me that he would have loved to watch me go through that fear. The whole thing was especially awkward if I would ever have to do that fear landscape in front of someone else. Doing it in front of Four and Lauren was bad enough.

"I do look forward to watching your fear landscape and seeing you like that," he told me, hissing it in my ear.

He leaned into me and I blushed as his front rubbed against mine. "Shut up," I mumbled.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," he said.

I blushed again and shook my head, trying to push him away from me. "Thanks," I said softly.

"Come on, spar with me. I won't throw you around the training room this time. Or at least I won't try," he said.

I laughed softly as I shook my head. "Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Come on, Amity," he goaded.

I wasn't so sure that I wanted to spar with Eric. We were together but that didn't mean that he ever took it easy on me. In fact I was sure that it made him go harder on me. I knew that he meant that he was going to try me even harder to throw me off of the mats. We walked over to the mats and I stood in front of Eric, well aware that everyone was staring at me. They were all curious what was going to happen. The last time that we had fought together Eric had nearly killed me.

It turned out that we managed to spar together for hours on end and I was well aware that we had missed lunch because we had been so into the fight. I knew that we were drawing a large crowd. Everyone was curious to watch the ruthless Dauntless leader and the number one ranked Amity transfer. Although they looked shocked that Eric wasn't actually trying to kill me.

Throughout the entire fight I knew that Eric wasn't taking it easy on me. It meant that I was fighting him as hard as I possibly could. The fight was brutal but I liked it. He was leaving lots of bruises on me and I knew that I had a split in my lip from a hit at the beginning of the fight. It hurt like hell but I'd gotten him back. He had one ugly bruise on the side of his neck from a kick from me. It was the only mark that I had put there. It was more of an accident than anything else but at least I'd done something.

It was getting close to dinner and Eric and I were still fighting. I was dead tired since we had only taken a few breaks for water and breathers. We both looked awful, drenched in sweat and ready to keel over and die. Eric was still stronger than me. But I knew that he was ready to end this. I was too. We both wanted to get to dinner.

It only took him a moment to completely disable me. It wasn't a problem either. I knew that he could beat me without trying. He was only taking it easy on me because he wanted to continue fighting me. He could have hospitalized me in a few minutes. I wondered if he would once he found out what I was. It was a serious possibility. I wouldn't be shocked either.

He grabbed me in a bone crushing hold and I felt my shoulder pop a few times. It was shooting pain through my entire shoulder and I cried out softly. But I didn't want to tap out. I hated having to lose to him. I heard another trainer yelling at us to quit it and get to dinner but Eric silenced them with a glare. Eric was not going to let me go until I tapped out. I tried to roll away from him but his grip was way too tight on me. My shoulder was killing me and I knew that he was going to dislocate it if I kept it up.

So I finally raised my hand to his knee and tapped it a few times. I also made sure to send my shoulder back weakly into his groin when I stood up. He groaned and yanked on my hair roughly as he stood. I knew that he was pissed about the elbow to the groin. But I was pissed about the shoulder.

We both popped up and faced each other. We both sighed a few times before moving a little closer to each other. We were exhausted. Eric was breathing a little heavier than normal but nothing else. On the other hand I looked half-dead. My hair was everywhere, sweat was beading over me, and I was panting heavily. It looked like I had been run over by a truck. I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Eric was smirking at me and I rolled my eyes. I was exhausted. I wanted to go to dinner. I was starving.

"Nice try, initiate. I don't think so. You'll never beat me," he snarled.

"Damn you."

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. I had to fight to keep the smile off of my face. A few of my friends were watching me out of the corner of their eyes and I had to keep up the pretense that I hated him. Smirking at him, I moved forward and took a few steps off of the mat away from him.

"You're still weak," Eric growled lowly.

I turned back and gave him a long smirk. "And I know how to make you weak," I said, brushing by Eric.

He watched curiously as I walked close to him and gently let my hand brush across his lower half. He tensed slightly and fought to keep a straight face. "Let go, or the rules will be damned," Eric hissed.

The two of us grinned at each other as I released him and stepped back. "See you tonight, asshole," I told Eric under my breath.

No one needed to know that I was going back to visit Eric later tonight. Eric chuckled under his breath as he brushed past me. He slammed into my shoulder and I laughed, fighting to keep an angry glare on my face. I followed him at a safe distance as we headed into the dining room. I was about ten feet behind him and avoiding looking anywhere near him.

As we walked into the dining room Eric walked away without saying anything to me. Not that I had been expecting him to say anything. I knew that he would catch my eye when he was ready to go and I would leave a few minutes after him so to not raise suspicion. I walked into the food area and grabbed myself a burger before heading out to sit with my friends. Everyone was in the same spot as normal and most of them were laughing.

"Hey, guys," I called as I walked over.

Heather and Buck sprung apart slightly to make room for me to sit next to them. "There you are," Heather chirped.

Dante was sitting across from me and I grabbed a fry off of his plate. He smirked and stabbed at me with his fork to get me away from his plate. "Hey. How'd the fear landscape go for you?" he asked.

For once I wasn't bothered. Only one of Lauren's fears had bothered me. The kidnapping one. "Fantastic as always," I teased.

Everyone laughed. "You were out of there faster than anyone else. It took me over twenty minutes to get out of there," Dante said.

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

He was normally really fast. "Yeah. Lauren has some weird fucking fears," Dante said.

We all laughed. Dante was right. Lauren had some of the strangest fears that I had ever seen. The walls closing in on her was completely odd. I wasn't sure where a fear like that came from. "It was creepy but thankfully we don't share any of the same fears. I hate the kidnapping fear," I said.

Dante nodded at me. "That one freaked me out," Dante admitted.

The ones that hadn't been through Lauren's fear landscape yet all looked a little startled. "I don't really blame her for being afraid of it. I wonder if someone tried to kidnap her or something like that?" I asked more myself than anyone else.

"Do you think that really happened?" Heather asked.

"Maybe. That's the only reason that I could think that something like that would happen," I continued.

"She's afraid of being kidnapped?" Jet asked.

Everyone that had been in the fear landscape nodded. Draven, Dante, Jax, Buck, and Heather had all been through it already of the transfers. The only ones that hadn't seen it were Cole and Jet. A few of them were laughing and I shook my head. I knew that Lauren's fear landscape was a little silly to them but it wasn't just that. Our fears seemed silly to others but that didn't mean that their fears weren't scary to themselves. Our fears were our own and we had our own reasons for being afraid of them.

"What else is she afraid of?" Jet asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

A scoff came from the other side of the table and I turned to see Draven digging the tip of his knife into the wood of the table. I smiled at him, knowing that it was a habit. He did it when he was nervous. I had figured that out months ago. He looked annoyed at something and I couldn't help but to wonder why.

"How is it fair that we had to go in blind and now we're going to tell you what happened?" Draven asked.

Everyone turned to him and gave a dark glare so that he would admit what they should be expecting. "We would do the same thing for you," I pointed out.

He rolled his eyes and let a deep yawn out. I loved Draven. It was funny how he was so blasé about everything. "She's afraid of spiders, suffocation, being crushed between walls that are slowly closing in, being thrown out of Dauntless, uncontrollable bleeding, her father's death, public humiliation, and being kidnapped by faceless men," Draven admitted.

Both Cole and Jet looked completely thrown by his admission of her fears. "That's quite the menagerie of fears she has," Cole said.

"Menagerie? Nice word," I teased.

He grinned at me. He was right. She had a wide variation of fears. "Is it bad?" Cole asked.

"Not really. Some of them are scary but you have to wonder how she got the other fears," I said.

"I hate to think about the spiders. I hate spiders. They're in my fear sim," Cole admitted.

Sighing softly, I frowned at him. I was pretty sure at least five of the initiates were afraid of spiders. I knew that Lisa and Serena were. I was pretty sure that they had both had to face them in their fear sims. It was his girlfriend to the rescue and I smiled at her. Heather wrapped her arm around Cole and leaned into him. We were all staring at them and some of us, myself included, were making vomiting faces.

"Hey, at least you know that someone else is afraid of them too," Heather said.

"Lots of people are afraid of them," I said.

"Cole, sweetheart, Alex is right."

I smiled at her again. I liked watching the way that she consoled her boyfriend. I knew that he hated lots of animals. Cole was from Erudite. They were an extremely clean and sterile Faction. They tended not to like animals. They thought that they were dirty. Very few of them had pets. Only some, like the blind and deaf, had service dogs and cats trained to care for their owners.

"The spiders weren't the worst ones," Jax interrupted.

Of course not. I had never known Jax to get freaked out about any kind of animal. He hated things like enclosed spaces and family deaths. "Walls closing in?" I asked.

"That was bad too. No, I thought that the kidnapping was the worst," he said.

"Me too," I said.

That was probably the worst. Especially considering that they shrieked like banshees and didn't have faces. "It was like once you got rid of one of them another ten would take their place. It was the worst thing," Jax said.

I shifted slightly and raised my eyebrows. I didn't have them replace each other once they were taken down. "You had more take their place?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Me too," Buck said.

"I didn't either," Heather agreed with me.

There must have just been lots of differences in the fear sims. I thought about mentioning the public humiliation but decided to pass on it. "Well everyone that hasn't gone yet, you certainly have something to look forward to now," Jax said.

We all laughed at him. The topic of the fear landscapes were dropped and we all went to speaking about typical things. Of course everyone was throwing food within minutes and trying to wrestle on top of the table. It was a disaster, just the way that I liked it. I glanced up to see that Eric was standing in the Wolf's Den with Cameron and a few of his other friends. All of my friends were distracted with each other. He turned to me for a moment and gave me a quick wink.

It was the first time that I'd seen him amused since coming into the dining room. I blushed before turning back to my abandoned food. My time with Eric was coming to an end soon enough. My time with everyone was coming to an end. My time being normal was coming to an end. Everything was coming to an end. But for now I was going to enjoy it.

Eric's P.O.V.

Eric was up in the Wolf's Den leaning against the railing that was overlooking the rest of the dining room. His eyes were slipping closed and he was certain that he had never been so bored in his entire life. Cameron and his other friends had to go finish some paperwork that Eric had no part of so he was stuck up here by himself. Everyone was busy with work right now. But Cameron would be done with work soon enough and they would be able to hang out for a while until he decided to pull his Amity away.

Right now he was supposed to be going over plans for new additions to the Hub. He had no clue why this was his job. He never overlooked construction. He had no idea why he was doing this but Max had seemed rather out there lately. Eric had a feeling that it had to do with the Divergent's. It meant that he had been forced to pick up Max's slack.

The work could wait for another day. He was currently leaning over the edge of the railing listening to the conversations below him. It was a habit that he had always had. Not that the conversations were anything to be heard. They were almost always boring. He was about twenty feet higher than the people at the tables below him but he could hear them perfectly.

He was trying to listen to all sorts of conversations but nothing was worthwhile to hear. Some were talking about work, others about hooking up, and even more about heading to the Pit. Nothing worth investing time into. He had recently switched over to listening to the conversation that his Amity was in. They were talking about the Aptitude Test. It seemed that they were all wondering if they had done the same thing to get the same results.

Eric shook his head as he dropped his head back and tilted back a small sip of his beer. He was on his third but he wasn't concerned. Beer had never affected him. It was just something to drink as they passed the time. He just knew as well as anyone else that there weren't many things that someone could do to get Dauntless. Taking the knife was one of the easiest ways. So was killing the dog. If a person didn't kill the dog that usually took out Dauntless and instead would go through Candor or Erudite, depending on how the person acted when the little girl came out.

Eric yawned and leaned back against the bars again as he began to flip through the file on the Hub. Built and finished ninety-one years ago and all sorts of other technical things that he could have cared less about. Damn Max. This was his job. Eric just wished that he was doing anything else.

"Well I didn't kill the dog, actually," Heather said.

Eric raised a pierced eyebrow as he turned to listen to the conversation. He still kept his body facing mostly away from the initiates. Finally something that could catch his attention. He had been bored all night. But one comment from her best friend, the ex-Candor, had piqued his interest. She hadn't killed the dog?

"You didn't?" Cole asked.

"No."

"So how did you get Dauntless?"

"I didn't actually score Dauntless on my Aptitude Test. I got Candor," she said.

He wondered what had made her leave. Either way, it was a good choice. Being in the top ten was a good ranking for someone that hadn't even scored Dauntless on their Aptitude Test. "Why did you leave?" Buck asked.

"I couldn't stay. I had to get out of there. So I picked the Faction that I thought was the closest. Anyways, when the dog came out I pet it. I'd heard that dogs weren't violent if you could make yourself seem smaller than them," she said.

The Erudite part of Eric's brain had him nodding along with her. The smaller you made yourself the less threatening that an animal assumed that you were. And the dog really wasn't going to attack. Eric had attacked the dog before it had come anywhere towards him. But he knew that he had to be Dauntless. There had been no other choice for himself.

"I'm shocked that you didn't get Erudite then," Cole teased her.

Eric rolled his eyes. She wasn't smart enough. "Well considering I asked what was going on at least twenty times I'm sure that they didn't want to put me in Erudite," she said.

He knew that plenty of people taking the Aptitude Test asked what was going on when they went in. He hadn't been one of them. "You didn't want to be there anyways," Cole said.

"Trust me, I didn't act very smart, just rationally. That's the way that a Candor thinks. I figured that if I was brave enough to grab the knife I would be brave enough to make it in Dauntless. I was right," she stated proudly.

Eric snorted and shook his head. It seemed that the ex-Candor and his Amity shared a fair amount of personality traits, like being proud. But he was rather intrigued to see that someone who had not scored Dauntless on their Aptitude Test had actually done rather well. Tenth place wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. It would be good enough for patrols or weaponry. She would have to prove herself if that was what she wanted to be. It didn't matter. He had always felt like someone should go where the Aptitude Test told them to go. Although if it had told him to go to Erudite he still would have gone to Dauntless.

"I felt awful when I killed the dog. I love dogs," Eric heard Buck say.

His face turned sour. He had never liked the ex-Candor. He was always too close to his Amity. "No one did," Jax said.

"Hell, we had a few dogs," Buck continued.

It seemed that everyone at the table was nodding their heads and Eric turned towards them. They were the only ones having a halfway decent conversation. Even though Eric didn't like the cowardice that they were showing over the dog he did understand. He was rather fond of animals. He hadn't enjoyed killing the dog either. But if it was his life or the dog's he would chose his own every time.

"Well it made us Dauntless, right?" Jax asked the table.

They all nodded again and Eric found himself nodding with them. It wasn't always fun to be brave, but the point of Dauntless was that you always had to be brave. Eric found himself a little curious as to why he hadn't heard his Amity speak up yet. She was rarely this silent. But he did know that her story never seemed to fall in line. She claimed to him that she had scored Amity. But her parents had told him that she hadn't taken the test because the serum had made her sick. Eric scowled. Someone was lying. If they got her to talk it would be the one chance that he had to hear the truth.

"Alex?" Draven spoke up.

He gave a quick turn to the table and saw her perk up slightly. Her eyebrows were knitted. "Yeah?" she asked.

Eric himself perked up a little and he glanced down to see if he could hear what she had to say for herself. It was killing him that he didn't know the entire truth. He always knew the truth about everything. Except for this one matter. She looked like she had been rather out of it for this conversation.

"Didn't you say once before that you scored Amity on the test?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, nodding.

Her head was moving slowly and her eyes seemed a little glazed over. Eric didn't miss the funny way that she was acting. "So you didn't kill the dog?" Draven asked.

This time Eric turned completely around. He didn't care that it wasn't a good thing to eavesdrop on someone. He wanted to know the truth about what was going on. He deserved to know the truth. He was a little glad that she hadn't noticed that he was now blatantly staring at her.

"Uh, no. No I - I didn't kill the dog. When the knife and meat came out I actually didn't take either," she admitted.

So she had taken the test. All of her friends were laughing but Eric knitted his eyebrows as he tried to put the pieces together. He had never heard of someone doing something like that before. When given a choice it was better to grab something rather than stand with nothing.

"You didn't?" Heather asked.

"No. I don't really know why I didn't. When the dog came out I just let it sniff me. It was adorable," she said softly.

Eric snorted at her. Of course she thought that it was adorable. Maybe that was why she had scored Amity. Maybe she had really taken the test. Maybe she'd just told that lie to her parents so that she didn't have to tell them that she had scored Amity but was still leaving. Either way Eric had a feeling that the whole story still wasn't being told. She hadn't done anything that would prove that she was Amity. All that seemed to do was edge out Dauntless. He had no clue how sparing the dog had led her to earn the Amity result.

"What about when the little girl came out?" Dante asked.

For once she was going to answer the truth. Mostly because she thought that he wasn't listening. "What?" she asked dumbly.

"That's when you were supposed to kill the dog if you hadn't yet. But you didn't kill the dog if you got Amity. How the hell did you get Amity?" Dante asked.

There was no rational reason that she had gotten Amity. Eric didn't understand how the hell she had gotten that result. "Oh I, uh, I saved the little girl. I just jumped on top of the dog to save her," she admitted.

Everyone was nodding at her but a nasty scowl had fallen over Eric's face. No matter how much she talked he didn't understand how she had gotten the Amity result. If she really had taken the Aptitude Test in the first place. It only sounded like she could have gotten either Dauntless of Erudite the way that she was speaking. Amity didn't make any sense. She would have needed to avoid the little girl if she had wanted to get Amity.

"Hey, have you guys ever heard of a back-up sim?" she asked.

They all turned to stare at her as Eric's heart plummeted down into his stomach. "A what?" Heather asked.

"Like, if the computer didn't eradicate four of the Factions then you would have to go into a second one to actually get you one result," she clarified.

The table was silent as strange looks were thrown back and forth. Eric was now watching the table carefully. He thought that someone might have been speaking to him but he wasn't listening. She still didn't notice that he was watching her. She was too busy looking at her other friends.

"I've never heard of that, Alex. Did that happen to you?" Heather asked.

Eric didn't bother to listen to the answer. He took a seat at the nearest table up in the Wolf's Den and ground his fists against the metal table. He could see Cameron coming up from the corner of his eyes with his other friends in tow. They were currently speaking with Zeke. But Eric didn't care. He cared about the conversation that he had just overheard. He was now hearing three different ideas behind her Aptitude Test.

She either hadn't taken it, had taken it and had gotten Amity, or she was lying about everything. He knew which one it was. He was trying to think of anything else, anything but what he knew was the truth. But nothing else worked out. She had taken the test. And Amity had not been her result.

He was steaming in his own fury at the table. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know whether to be angry and kill her or stop and speak to her calmly about it. He didn't know what to do. He had never been forced into this spot before. And never with someone like her. Never with someone that he cared for. He just knew that he had to talk to her. But it would not be a calm discussion. He was shaking with anger.

She had to be one of them. He couldn't imagine that she wasn't. There was only one reason that the computer gave a back-up simulation. Eric had only seen it happen twice before. Both times the tester had been Divergent. The only reason that the computer gave one was because it couldn't determine which single Faction that someone was suited for. Jeanine had claimed that Divergent's were no longer being captured during the Aptitude Test. She was right. They weren't. People were helping hide them. Someone was helping to hide her.

But it still made no sense to him. There were plenty of people that hated the Divergent's. That didn't trust them. How was she managing to get away with it? How had Four not noticed during Phase Two? Maybe he had noticed. After all, Eric had watched her go through her fear sim of him hurting her for a few days while Four had recovered from the food poisoning. Maybe someone was teaching her. After all, Eric hadn't noticed anything wrong with her fear sim.

She must have been training herself to get through a fear sim like a normal Dauntless would. Maybe it was Four that had helped her. Or maybe someone else would. Or maybe there was a chance that he was wrong. But he knew that he wasn't. He knew for a fact that he was right. She was one. She had to be one. It was the only thing that made sense.

"Eric? Eric?" He heard Cameron call to him.

He assumed that he had been calling to him for a few minutes beforehand. Eric didn't want to hear him say anything. All he wanted was to knock her head off. She was going to tell him the truth. Eric pushed Cameron to the side as he stood, heading downstairs straight for the bench that she was sitting at with her friends. They were all trying to question her and Eric could see that she looked frazzled. Because she was trying to continue to lie. She was trapping herself in the web of lies. They were all unwinding in front of her. She was digging herself deeper and deeper into the hole.

"Eric, where the hell are you going? We have work to do!" Cameron yelled after Eric.

He didn't give a damn. He had better things to take care of. "Get it done yourself. I'll look over it later. I have something that I need to do," he snarled as he walked by.

He shoved Cameron out of the way, who he heard scoff. "What the hell, man?" Cameron asked.

"He okay?" another one of their friends, Woody, asked.

"He'll be fine," Cameron said, sounding in between worried and annoyed.

He knew that Cameron was going to question him on it later but leave him alone for now. That was the way that they worked. Instead of getting to work on the project that he had promised Max that he would do he marched down the stairs. He was seeing red. That was the only thing that he could see. Everyone was jumping out of the way as he stormed over to her table. It was clear to see that he was angry and no one wanted to make it even worse. The initiates immediately ceased talking to each other as Eric stood over her small form.

"Amity," he snarled. He couldn't help the cruel note in his voice. She turned to him with a bored look in her eyes but he could see that they held some worry at the strong and cold glare he was giving her. "With me. Now."

For once, she didn't argue. It was clear that she didn't have a choice in the matter. He knew that she wouldn't say no anyways. She didn't bother saying goodbye to her friends as she stood and followed him out of the dining room. He didn't bother waiting for her. She was fighting to keep up with him as he nearly trampled everyone out of the way. He was furious. He just wanted to get to speak with her. He didn't even know what he wanted to say.

She couldn't be one of them. How could the one person that he had ever cared about, other than Cameron, be one of them? He grabbed her by the arm and forced her into the apartment, shoving her inside. She stumbled slightly as she walked further into the apartment. There was a hint of fear in her eyes. He pushed her a few steps forward before slamming the door shut behind him. For once in her life, she was going to tell him the truth.

Alex's P.O.V.

I was nervous beyond belief. If Eric was just giving me an act he was damn good at it. If it wasn't an act this wasn't good. I had no clue what he could possibly be angry with me for. I had never seen him look as angry as he looked right now. It made me extremely uncomfortable. I was afraid that he was really going to hurt me. He looked like he was about to tear my head off. I was shaking slightly as I leaned back against the counter. I had thought that he might drop the angry look once we got back to the apartment but now he only looked even angrier.

So I decided to try a joke. Anything possible to lighten the mood. I wasn't okay watching Eric like this. "You know, if you had wanted to bring me back here all you had to do was ask. You know that I'd come back here with you any time," I told him softly.

He didn't give the slightest clue that he had found what I had said funny. He clearly didn't think that it was funny. I moved forward and grabbed his hand. He didn't let me get my fingers intertwined with his. He moved quickly so that he could grab my wrist in a bone-crunching hold. It was strong enough that it felt like he could have broken my wrists. It hurt like hell.

"Ow, Eric. Let go," I warned him. It was horribly painful. "Eric seriously, that fucking hurts."

He was standing close to me with his hands wrapped so tightly around my wrist I was sure that the bone would snap. "From the moment that I saw you I knew that there was something up," he growled.

"What?"

"Why would an Amity transfer to Dauntless? Especially an Amity that scored Amity on her Aptitude Test," he snarled.

My heart began to race, faster than I thought was humanly possible. Was there some chance that he had found out the truth? How could he? "I..."

My voice trailed off when I realized that I didn't know what to say. "But I liked you. Always did. From the moment that I saw you. I knew that I wanted you. No matter how angry you made me," he said.

Some part of me was slightly pleased that he had said those words but I knew that something bad was following. "I know that. I felt the same way," I told him somewhat honestly.

I knew that physically I wanted him but I had really hated him personally since I had met him. Only recently had I actually come to like his personality. "Did you?" Eric asked darkly.

"From the moment that I saw you I knew that I wanted you. I tried to fight it but I never could. You were the one thing that I could never fight," I admitted. It was the complete truth. From the moment that I had seen him the first time I had thought that I knew that he was the one that I wanted. "I've told you why I came to Dauntless. I knew that I couldn't be Amity. I did it for too long. Screw what the test said, I'm Dauntless. You've seen that. I've proven it."

He couldn't find out the lie. My life depended on it. It seemed that none of my words had moved him the way that his had moved me. "You know I had a strange conversation with your parents when they were here," he said.

Once more my heart beat began to speed up. "Did you?" I asked weakly.

I was beyond nervous at his words. At any moment I thought that my knees might give out underneath me. He had to know the truth. It was the only reason that he would be saying these things. He had never before brought up what he had talked about with my parents. He had always made it sound like the conversation was completely innocent.

"I asked them why you came to Dauntless when you had scored Amity on your Aptitude Test," he said.

I wanted to scream until my lungs burst. I had told my parents that I hadn't taken the Aptitude Test. My lies were coming unraveled before me. "And they said?" I asked softly.

"They told me this funny thing that you hadn't taken your Aptitude Test," he said, clearly passing the ball to me.

That meant that he knew what the truth was. "I - I..." I began to stutter. I had no idea what to say. Especially not having him leaning over me like this. Like he was about to rip my heart out. Maybe he was. "Please let go of me."

It was so soft that it was barely anything over a whisper. He didn't let go. He was still towering over me. "No," he growled.

"Eric, I told them the truth. I lied to you. All of you. I'm sorry," I said softly. This was my one chance to fix this. I could get my lie back in order. "I never took the Aptitude Test. The serum made me sick. I threw it back up and the woman that was administering my test told me to leave. That she was just going to program Amity into the computer. She told me that the choice would be mine to make."

It was horribly difficult to keep my voice as steady as I could. I had wanted to tell Eric the truth but seeing him like this made me think once more that maybe telling him the truth was the wrong idea. Eric hummed and gave me something in between a smirk and grimace.

"That's interesting. You know that I'm from Erudite," he said.

"I know."

"They make all of the serums that they use in every Faction. Also the one that they make for the Aptitude Test. It's similar but not the same to the one that they use for the fear sim. Neither one has any known toxins or allergens," he said. I knew that the day would come that I would rue Eric being Erudite born. "It's designed that way. So that it doesn't make anyone sick."

His eyes never once strayed from mine. I straightened my spine out so that I stood a little closer to the same height as Eric. Not that it made much of a difference. I was still about a foot shorter than him. "Think what you want, Eric, but that's the truth. Okay?" I asked.

"Is it?" Eric asked.

"I didn't take the test because the serum made me sick. I know it sounds funny. I couldn't believe that it happened," I told him. It was a half-truth. I couldn't believe that I was Divergent. "I was terrified when I heard that I had to choose based on my own thoughts."

That part was the truth. Even though I had gotten an answer I had still been forced to make the choice from my own mind. After all, only Candor had been eliminated. He nodded but I knew that Eric didn't believe me. The thought sent waves down my spine. Nothing good was going to be said tonight. I wanted him to drop it but I knew that he wouldn't.

"For a long time I thought that it might be the entire truth. A strange story but I thought that there was a chance that it could have been true," he said.

Nerves were tingling through my entire body. How had he figured out that it was a lie? "It is the truth," I whispered.

"I thought that it was the truth until today. You might want to be careful what you talk about in public," he warned, leaning into me slightly.

But it didn't turn me on like it normally did. It made me want to run for my life. My eyes were watering as I shook my head at him. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't know the truth. He'd overheard me. I didn't know what was happening and I didn't want to have to turn around and deal with it. I was terrified. This was not the way that I wanted this conversation to happen. I had never known what to say if this conversation did happen. It was even worse now that it really was happening. I could only pray that there was still a way that I could fix this.

"Eric, I don't know what you're talking about," I said softly.

The only thing that I could think to do was play dumb, which I knew that Eric would hate. "What did you score on your Aptitude Test? Tell me the truth," he hissed.

My back was pressed into the counter and I was sure that I could have melted into the granite under his intense stare. "I didn't take it," I answered him weakly.

It wasn't the truth but I prayed that he couldn't see through the lie. He was much smarter than me. He knew when I was lying. He always had. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and I cried out as he dragged me across the kitchen. My feet were dragging against the floor and I was stumbling as he slammed me into the wall next to the counter. My head rolled back and smacked into the drywall as Eric pressed himself tightly against me. His hand was pressed against my throat and it felt like at any moment I might pass out. I could tell that he was absolutely furious. He was shaking in anger. Or maybe it was me shaking in fear.

"Stop," I begged.

"Don't lie to me. I heard you talking at the table with your little friends," he said darkly. I really thought that we were being quiet enough. "How is it that you knew exactly what was in the Aptitude Test?"

There had to be something that I could say to make him believe that I really wasn't lying to him. "They were already talking. I've known them for months. They talked about the test enough for me to know what was in it. Everyone sees the same things," I said.

And that was the truth. Everyone had the same things happen to them. It was their choices that changed the test. "Not good enough," Eric snarled.

"My two best friends back in Amity talked about it too. I've known enough to know what happens during the test," I tried to add confidently.

"Really?" Eric asked with a teasing snarl.

"Yes," I said weakly.

He didn't believe me. "You didn't take the knife or the meat? You didn't kill the little dog? You thought that the dog was adorable? You jumped on top of the dog? That would give you Dauntless or Erudite. If you took the test," he continued.

"Y - Yes," I stuttered.

This couldn't be happening. He was right. My answers would have only given Dauntless or Erudite. I hadn't thought that part out. Maybe I had been too in-depth with telling my friends about my version of the test. I should have just shut my damn mouth and told them that I didn't want to talk about it.

"I have heard about your last comment. A back-up sim." No, damn it. He heard me. "Very rarely used. In fact, I've only seen it happen twice," he said.

There was a smile on his face but he wasn't happy. He hated me. He hated that I wasn't going to stop lying to him. "I don't know what you want me to say, Eric. I didn't do anything," I told him softly.

That was the first truth that I had told him. I hadn't done anything wrong here. It wasn't my fault that I was Divergent. I hadn't wanted it. I hadn't asked for it. It had just happened. "I think you did," he growled.

"What's going on?" I asked.

My voice was shaking as I tried to keep my lie up. Not that it was working on anyone. We both knew that I was caught in my lie but I didn't want to say anything about it. He did not like that I hadn't dropped the lie yet. He shoved me back into the wall once more and I cried out softly. I had forgotten how much he could hurt me.

"Don't act like an idiot. Tell me the truth. For once in your life, tell me the entire truth," Eric snarled. He couldn't know. "You took your fear sim and that's what happened. You didn't take either the knife or the meat. You questioned it. And the computer took away your choices. When the dog came you realized that it would be friendly. You used reason, intelligence. When the little girl came out you showed selflessness to protect her. Bravery too." He was right. He had already gotten three of them. "I assume that the computer then put you in a back-up sim. What did you get on the Aptitude Test?"

He was right about everything. There wasn't one thing that he was wrong about it. I couldn't believe what was happening. I couldn't tell him. He couldn't know. I now knew the truth. He wasn't going to be the hero and save me from danger. He was going to kill me. He hated me, just as I had feared.

"Eric, I can't. I can't... Amity. I got Amity," I lied again. He had to believe me. There had to be some way to trick him into the lie. "I lied to my parents because I couldn't stand for them to know that I got Amity on the test and still defected. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I lied to you and everyone else. I should have told the truth from the beginning."

None of them could know the truth. Not even Eric. He couldn't know that I was Divergent. He couldn't know that I was the kind of person that he was hunting down. "Yeah. You should have. You should tell the truth. And you should be telling me the truth right now," he snarled.

"I am."

"Stop lying to me!" he shouted.

His shout was so loud that I was sure that the mirror in the bathroom shattered. My body was shaking as he grabbed the glass off of the counter next to us and tossed it against the wall. It shattered at the impact and I glanced down at the floor, the first of my tears finally falling. My head came up slightly and I prayed that Eric's face would have softened when he saw my tears. But he wasn't looking at me with anything other than pure, seething, hatred.

"Please. Eric, please. I -" I tried again.

"Shut up," he cut me off.

Until I told him the truth I was sure that he didn't want to hear me say anything else. We would be here all night until I told Eric what he wanted to hear. He knew the truth now. He just wanted to hear me say it. He would hold me down or chain me to the bed until I told him the truth. This time neither one of us would like it.

"Tell me the truth. For once in your damn life tell me the truth. I've never lied to you," he said.

"That's a lie. You have lied to me," I said.

He shook his head at me. "No matter what you think, I've never lied to you," he said.

His voice had softened slightly. He sounded almost kind, almost like he was as heartbroken as I was. The snarl in his voice had gone down and I knew that for one moment the anger had faded from him. But it came back quickly. And it came back not just in him, but in me too.

"Damn you, you've lied to me plenty of times!" I shouted. The shock went through Eric's eyes for a moment but it faded quickly, anger replacing it. I was furious. Not just with him. With everything. I was angry that I had to hide myself. "How many times have you told me that I meant nothing to you? How many times have you called me weak? Those are both lies. You know that I'm strong. I do mean something to you. I know that I do."

There was something a little soft in his eyes. He looked almost pained by the way that he was looking at me. Tears were flowing and I tried to wipe them from my eyes. This whole conversation hurt me more than anything else ever had. Every time that I wiped away the old tears the new ones would form.

"If I mean anything to you, you'll drop this conversation. Right now," I told him.

He clearly hadn't been expecting that one. He leaned into me and I tried to back into the wall as far as I could. "That's exactly the reason that I'm not dropping this," he said.

Despite the tears that were flowing I was able to keep my sobs silent. I was already basically screaming to him the truth. But he still wanted to hear me say it. We both knew that saying it would finally make the whole thing a reality. And Eric had to know that it was the truth. I had no clue what to say to him.

"Tell me the truth. What did you score on your Aptitude Test?" he repeated.

It seemed that he wasn't going to let this go until I told him the truth. Not that I hadn't seen that one coming. There was no chance that he was going to let this go. I just wished that I could go back to dinner and never answer my friend's questions. It was my own damn fault that Eric not knew the truth.

"Amity," I answered softly.

My eyes were diverted to the ground but one shake from Eric and I glanced back up at him. His eyes were strong and beady. They were harder than I had ever seen them. I had always seen some emotion flit through his eyes when he looked at me. Except for right now. They were stone cold.

"One last time. What did you score on your Aptitude Test?" he asked.

"Amity," I said weakly.

It was so soft that I thought that he might not have even heard me. But he had. And he made it loud and clear. Without giving me a moment to compose myself he reeled his hand back and sent it flying forward. His hand came hard across my face and my head was thrown back, my temple smacking against the side of the wall. I cried out softly, mostly in shock.

Eric had only ever hit me once before this. And I knew that this time was about twenty times harder. The last time had only been a little slap. This time he had hit me with full force. It hurt like hell. I leaned back away from him and let my tears fall steadily. Screw him calling me a coward, I couldn't believe that he had hit me. But actually I could. I had seen it coming. He had hit me before. He had beaten the hell out of me. He had thrown me over the Chasm. None of those had been in malice.

This was the first time that he had done it and meant it. "Don't you dare think that I wanted to do that," he mumbled.

Some emotion had come back into his voice as his hands came up to trace the sides of my face. I flinched slightly at the sudden pain that went through my cheek from the hard hit and I noticed his hands shy away from me slightly. Was he sorry that he had hit me? No. He couldn't have been. I had the hit coming.

"Divergent," he growled. Just hearing him say the word hurt. "For a long time I didn't know what they were. I didn't know who they were. Jeanine always made them out to be monsters. Maybe they are. I don't know since you won't tell me truth. Do I know anything about you? Is anything that you told me the truth?"

Another burst of anger shot through me as I shoved him back from me. He hadn't been expecting it as he took half a step backwards. I had told him the truth. Almost everything had been the truth. The only thing that I had lied about was this. It was the only lie that I had ever told him.

"Yes!" I yelled. "Everything that I told you was the truth."

He didn't budge as he took another step towards me. He was staring at me like he had never seen me before. Even though I wanted to curl in on myself and either cry or die, I knew that I had to be strong about this. It was time to face my demons. It had finally come out in the open and we would have to talk about it.

"So what happens now? You kill me? You bring me to her? I know that she wants to kill all of them. So you make your choice. I won't blame you," I told him.

Another tear fell and I shied away once more as Eric came to wipe the tear away. It sent a wave of pain through my cheek. That hit would definitely leave a bruise in the morning. "You think that after everything, everything that I've ever told you, I would just hand you over to her like that? Take care of you myself?" he asked.

It felt like all of the ice in my veins had melted. "What?" I asked softly.

Honestly I couldn't understand what was happening right now. Was he telling me that he wasn't going to kill me? That he cared for me enough to keep me alive? I wasn't sure. So I shook my head. I wasn't sure what the truth was. I knew that I didn't want him to kill me but I wouldn't blame him if he did. "

Why did you never tell me?" he asked.

He was Jeanine's right hand man. He was hunting people just like me. "Look at who you are, Eric!" I yelled.

His eyes hardened but I saw the storm of emotion flitting behind his eyes. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You work for her. She wants all of them dead. She wants me dead," I told him, essentially admitting to him what I was. "Why the hell are you working for her?" He stayed silent. It killed me. I wanted to know why he worked for her. Especially since he hated her. "If you aren't going to turn me in then what's the point? Do you genuinely believe that there's something bad about me? Look at me. Have you ever been afraid of me? Have you ever thought that I was that different?"

"Of course not," he said.

He was never afraid of me. He never would be afraid of me. I was nothing compared to him. "I know," I muttered.

"The only thing that scares me right now is how you've managed to keep this a secret," Eric said, making me sigh.

It wasn't a secret. But not for everyone. Jeanine knew. So did Max, Tori, and Four. And now Eric. But that didn't matter. People weren't supposed to know. No one was supposed to know. Eric couldn't know. There was one last secret that I had to keep with him. For two weeks I had to keep this secret.

"If you took the Aptitude Test you know that someone else knows what you are. And Four. He monitors the sims. People like you can tell that it's not real. I didn't catch you when I was monitoring the sims. Someone's taught you to keep it a secret," he said.

"Yes," I muttered, even though he knew the truth.

"More than one person," he added.

It was an afterthought but that didn't make it untrue. He was right. There was more than one person involved in this. But I had to keep Four out of this. Maybe there was a chance that Eric would protect me. But there was no chance that he would protect Four. He would look for a way to get him killed.

"Four has nothing to do with this. Someone else taught me," I said softly.

Not that I would know a name to give if Eric wanted one. I supposed that I could have thrown Damien under the bus. He was already out at the Fence. There was nothing more that could be done to him at this point. But Eric probably wouldn't actually believe that it was the truth.

"Keeping him safe?" Eric asked.

"No," I said, shaking my head quickly.

He couldn't know that Four was helping me. I was not going to kill him. I was not going to get him killed because I was in hot water here. "I don't give a damn whether or not Four's keeping your secret. If I wanted to sell him out it means that I have to say which one of you... is," he told me slowly.

"You can't even say it," I muttered.

It was like a bad word to him. He stared at me for a moment more before shaking his head. "Stay here," he instructed. I nodded again and watched as he backed away.

He headed straight back into the room that I had always assumed was his office and he walked in, swinging the door shut behind him. Almost immediately I let out a deep breath and fell back against the counter. I hadn't realized it but I had mostly been holding my breath. My heart was pounding as I waited for him. Was he going to call someone to take care of me because he couldn't do it himself?

My entire body shook with nerves as I took a seat in one of the chairs at the counter. He knew the truth. Eric actually knew the truth of what I was. The one person that I had tried the hardest to hide it from was now privy to my secret. And I was confused beyond belief. I didn't know what was going to happen. I couldn't tell whether or not he was going to hurt me. He wasn't an easy man to read. He never had been. That was part of why I had liked him in the first place.

I glanced over into the sparkling counter and saw the slightly blue mark beginning to form on my cheek. Damn him. I heard the door to the office open again and I glanced up to see that Eric was holding a strange looking object. It had an odd metal spike with three pegs coming off of it, and a blue hologram popping up in front of them. It looked like some type of torture device. I felt my heart lodge itself in my throat.

"Come here," he said.

I nodded and jumped off of the seat, walking over to him as he pointed at the machine. "What is that?" I asked.

"This is a scanner. It will tell me everything that I need to know," he said.

"Okay."

In all honesty I'd just wanted to say something to break the silence. I had already known what this was. It told the Divergent percentage. Buck had told us about it months ago. I watched as he placed the scanner over my face. It gave a small ding and I looked at the number. One hundred percent.

"No. Damn it!" Eric yelled.

It really wasn't a good thing. I'd already known that it wasn't a good thing. I jumped as he slammed his fist against the wall behind my head. Tears began to form in my eyes again and it only took a moment before they began to fall. I turned to see a slight dent in the wall behind me and I gave a soft shiver. His slap was nothing.

"Has Jeanine Matthews said anything to you? Has she spoken to you since Amity?" he asked.

"No," I lied.

Eric couldn't know the truth. He deserved that much. This was one lie that I needed to tell him. He didn't need to spend the next two weeks worrying just as much as I was. I knew that my face was steady enough that he would buy into the lie. The only thing that I wanted or needed him to believe was that he could keep me safe. He deserved to know that much.

"You haven't seen her?" Eric asked.

"I haven't seen her," I told him softly.

The relief flooded in his eyes. I wished that I was telling him the truth. "Good. You keep away from her, you understand me?" he half-asked and half-ordered.

"Okay," I said, nodding at him.

He deserved to not have to know the truth. He deserved some ounce of peace of mind. "She doesn't know about you. Not yet. During the fear landscape you say nothing to her. When Max offers you a job you deny leadership. Tell him that it's too much," he continued.

"Okay," I repeated.

He was going to protect me. He was always going to protect me. "They watch those on leadership too closely. They'll watch you like a hawk," he said almost bitterly.

Weakly I nodded at him again. What he didn't know was that he was already too late. They were watching me like a hawk. And the moment that he found out the truth, that Jeanine already knew what I was, he was going to explode. I was sure that he was already only seconds from exploding. Eric leaned into me slowly and I winced as he brushed over my cheek once more. He wiped a tear from my eye and came to let his hand fall on my shoulder.

"Why don't you turn me in?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"What?" Eric asked blankly.

"It's your job to kill anyone Divergent and hand them to Jeanine Matthews. So why don't you do something?" I asked.

He shifted slightly and grabbed my hand, walking me over to the edge of the couch. His arms were slightly tighter around me than they needed to be. It almost made me feel a little bit better. It helped just to know that he was going to be there for me. I took a seat next to him and turned to lean into him slightly.

"Do you remember that fear sim that you just had?" Eric asked.

"Yes," I said, knowing that he meant the one where he had attacked me.

"Everything that you said to me? I told you things that no one else knows. You know more than my best friend. You know everything. And I will protect you," he said.

His voice was strong and confident. It was even stronger than I had ever heard him before. He was so sure that he could protect me from everything. But he was too late. He leaned in to kiss me and as our lips met I felt a tear fall, tracing in between our cheeks. He leaned away from me and I nodded at him.

"Really?" I asked weakly.

"Of course. She'll never lay a hand on you. Not while I'm around," he said determinedly.

It hurt me more than he could ever know. I wished that I could tell him the entire truth about myself but I had to hide this. I reached up slowly and wound my hands around the back of his neck. My cheek was throbbing painfully as he traced the outline of it, probably feeling a little bad for hitting me. He kissed me again and wiped a few tears away from my eyes. I was sure that this was the softest that I had ever seen him.

"Amity," I said quickly, in between kisses.

He broke away from me and glanced down at me. "What?" he asked.

"Abnegation. Erudite. Dauntless. All of them but Candor," I admitted.

He stared at me for a moment and I waited to see what his reaction was. It took him a moment longer than I had been expecting and I waited for him to say something. I was shaking slightly as I waited for his answer. The corners of his lips turned upwards, making me smile awkwardly.

"I see why you didn't get Candor," he said. I laughed under my breath and shook my head. This was my Eric. He kissed me again before leaning away from me. "You should have told me. This is a secret bigger than you. There are so many more than you. You're all in danger."

But I knew that it was only me that he cared about. Not Four. Not any of the rest of them. I was the only one that he cared for. And as much as that warmed my heart, I knew that it wasn't enough. I needed someone that cared about us all. I was the only one that had the chance to convince Eric to turn around and do that right thing.

"Eric, you can change this," I told him.

He leaned away from me and arched his pierced brow. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You can never go back to her. You can tell everyone what's happening. You can change whatever it is that she's doing. Eric, you are a good man. I believe that. This is your chance to show me. Show me what a good man you can be," I told him.

He stared at me and I grabbed his hands, bringing them into my lap. He shook his head and I felt my heart shatter slightly. He could have done something. I knew that he could. He was not my white knight, but he had the potential to be a good man. I would believe that until the day that I died.

"You overestimate me. I'm not as good as you think that I am. I promise you that," he said and I shook my head.

"That's not the truth. You're a good man. I'll always believe that," I said.

"It's nice but not the truth. I promise you that I will protect you. I won't hurt you. I won't let her hurt you," he said.

I nodded and let a few tears slip out of my eyes. He didn't understand that my lies still hadn't stopped. He didn't know that I was going to die. Maybe not at his hands, but I was going to die. He didn't understand that something was still happening with Jeanine and I. He never would.

"Don't cry. I don't deal with crying girls well," he said.

I laughed softly under my breath and shook my head as he wiped the tears away from my eyes. He kissed me again and leaned me back against the couch as I settled in between his legs. He cared. He cared more than I had ever thought that he did. He cared enough to not kill me. He cared enough to try and save my life. It was more than I had thought that he was going to do for me. And that was enough for me.

"Thank you," I said softly, breaking the kiss.

His pierced brow raised at my words and I knew that he didn't understand what I meant. He leaned into me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I leaned into him, trying to savor every last moment of the two weeks that I had with him. His lips gently brushed across my temple and I smiled at him.

"For what?" Eric asked.

Once more I shook my head and smiled at him again. I grabbed his hands and drug my nails over the palm of his hands. I wanted him. More than I ever had. Maybe it was the knowledge that he had saved me for another two weeks. Or maybe it was just because I was always attracted to him. Maybe it was because, just for this moment, he was my white knight.

"Everything. For being the man that I know you are. For not telling the truth about what I am," I said.

"I'll always keep your secret."

"And I'm sorry for lying to you," I told him.

I'm sorry for continuing to lie to you. He grinned and pulled me to my feet. I laughed softly and let him walk me back to the bed. We fell back as our knees hit the edge of the bed and I laughed as we fell together. I leaned over Eric and kissed him deeply. He pulled away from me and tugged on my hair, brushing it back behind my ears. Although he did keep a tight hold on it. That was the way that he had always liked it.

"Don't thank me. Don't ever thank me," he said.

My head tilted to the side. "Why not?" I asked. I had so much to thank him for.

"Alex, I'm not as good as you think I am," he said.

"You are."

"I'm not. But I'm working on it. I've heard your friends tell you that I'm not worthy enough for you. I am," he said.

Grabbing his hand again, I nodded at him. "You are. I know that you are," I whispered.

I couldn't help it. I smiled softly. He never spoke like this. He was worthy of me. "I'll prove that to you. This one thing, this is how it starts," he said.

"I think you're better than you think you are," I told him.

"I'm not."

"You are. Stop arguing with me."

For once he actually nodded at me as I leaned in to kiss him. It was nice to see that for once he was just going to listen to me and let me boss him around. We tangled together as Eric pushed me back into the bed, probably savoring me. It made it easier that he knew the truth now but it still hurt in two weeks Eric was going to know that I had still lied to him. He would know that I was lying to him right now. I would always lie to him. Because that was just the type of person that I was.

He was a better person than me. No matter what he thought, he would always be the better person. I leaned into him and pulled the shirt free from his shoulders. He watched as I smiled, trying to ignore the sense of impending doom that had sunken into my chest. I hated having to lie to him. I hated knowing that in two weeks I was still going to be stuck with Jeanine. But at least I now knew one thing for sure. Eric was not going to be the one to kill me.

I grabbed Eric's hand and pulled him up from off of the bed. He stared at me with a raised eyebrow as I pulled him over to the couch. He looked a little confused as I shoved him back onto it and climbed onto his lap. He was laughing softly as I straddled him and attached my lips to his. He smirked into the kiss as my hands dropped down and fiddled with the buttons on his pants. He was clearly enjoying that for once I was the one that wanted to take control. There wasn't much more time that we had left so I wanted to make the most out of it.

"What are you doing?" Eric growled.

"Shut up or I stop."

That was enough to silence him as I grinned against his lips. I wanted to enjoy the time that I had left with him. The button on his pants popped open and I shoved them over his hips. He rose up from the couch for a moment and I laughed as he took my entire weight with him. He was always stronger than I wanted to credit him for. They went down over his legs and I felt him kick them off, shoving them into the corner of the room.

I laughed softly as his hands went around my upper back and dug into my shoulder blades. His hands slithered down over my back and I shivered as he grabbed the bottom of my shirt to pull it over my head. I detached my mouth from his long enough to let it slip over my head and watch as he tossed it into the corner of the room.

Honestly I was sure that I was never going to be getting that shirt back but I wasn't so sure that I could bring myself to care. His room was hiding plenty of clothes discarded in late night hastes. I leaned in to Eric once more and pressed our bodies together. My hands wound around his shoulders and I dug them into his hair. It was soft in between my fingers. It was always softer than I thought that it would be.

His hands wound themselves into my hair and I moaned as they caught against the roots of my hair and tugged. It sent a cold chill up my spine and I smiled into the kiss. He grabbed my head and tilted it back as his mouth ran down from my mouth to my chin down my neck and landed at my shoulder.

It only took him a moment to pull the strap off of my shoulder and I smiled as it landed on my upper bicep. He pulled the cup of the bra over my chest and I laughed as it slipped down my front. He leaned down and I felt him rub against my core. I shivered slightly and tried to rub myself against him again. I really wanted the friction. But of course he wasn't going to give it to me. Not yet. Not until he was good and ready. He was that type of man.

His mouth attached itself to my chest and I sighed as his tongue swirled over my nipple. A sharp roll of my hips came with the sudden intrusion of his mouth around my nipple and he groaned as I rubbed myself against him. For a brief moment he pulled himself off of me and lifted me up, making me cry out softly. For some reason I had thought that he might throw me to the floor. Instead he ripped off my underwear and pants in one quick swoop.

He dropped me back on top of him and I laughed, feeling suddenly a little ashamed. Eric was not one for subtlety and he was not one for shame. He was going to do whatever he wanted to me without asking if it was alright. And that was perfectly fine with me. Eric grabbed my legs and wrenched them apart so that I was sitting over his lap again. My head fell back slightly and it made me jump as he gave no warning before shoving a finger into me.

That made me throw my head back as his tongue lapped over my nipple and his teeth clenched around it. I cried out softly as his finger curled inside of me and I reached up to wrap my fingers in his hair. I grabbed on tightly but it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He merely slipped another finger inside of me, stretching my walls slightly.

My voice went slightly hoarse as the thrusts of his fingers were so hard that they shoved my entire body upwards with them. I was quaking under him slightly and he knew it as he gave one last sharp tug on my nipple before backing away from me again and attacking my mouth. That was all that I wanted. I laughed softly as my hands wrapped around the back of his neck and my legs began to shake with anticipation.

His thumb was rubbing circles on my clit and his fingers were going in between pumping and curling inside of me. I began to bob with his thrusts so that I could meet them and I shivered under his touch. I wanted all of him in me but I knew that he wasn't going to give it to me until he was ready. In the meantime I was so close. I was right there. But I wasn't sure whether or not he was going to actually let me come undone. Probably not.

He didn't tend to like me get all the way there without him in me. Just as the stars started to flood into my vision he pulled himself away. I knew it. I should have figured that he wasn't going to let me get off. He always thought that it was funny to make me wait. He pulled away and I moaned at the sudden loss of him.

"Shut up. You'll get it."

Eric was smirking at me and I shook my head as I shifted off of his lap for a moment to rip the underwear off of him. He kicked them off quickly before shoving them into the far corner of the apartment. I laughed as he sprang free of the confines of his underwear. It was almost like a cartoon. My hand wrapped around his length and I gave a few pumps before leaning down and licking over his entire length. My back was curved and his hands were tight over my ribs as I ran my tongue over his head.

His entire body shivered and his legs gave a small quake. His grip on me tightened and I knew that it was going to leave bruises in the morning. But it was all well worth it. I liked feeling like even for a brief moment I could be in control of him. My tongue swirled over his head and I glanced up, meeting his eyes for a moment as I closed my mouth over his head. His eyes rolled back into his head for a moment and I smirked. Making eye contact always turned them on.

For a little while I went to his base and licked my way all the way up to his tip, moving my tongue from side to side. Judging by Eric's grunts I assumed that he really liked it. I pushed him as far into my mouth as I could go and began swirling my tongue around him. I could feel him jerking underneath me slightly, his grunts becoming more strained. For a while I rolled my mouth up and down his impressive length, taking nearly all of him into my mouth. He was slightly too large but I was close.

With the length that I was missing I grabbed him with my hand and began to pump softly. I began quickly moving up and down his length before drastically slowing down, allowing him to revel in the slow pace. His groan became almost pathetic and I smirked. As I continued to run up and down his length I took my hands and gently scratched my nails over his hips. He bucked slightly at the feeling.

It wasn't long before he got sick of me being in control. He hated being out of control. He knew as well as I did that he was always in control. Today it didn't bother me. He lifted me up and I sat back on my heels, leaning down onto him. His head hit my entrance and I groaned as my walls stretched as I sank down on top of him. He slipped into me and I gave a soft hiss as I sank the entire way onto him. He gave a groan as well as he let me tighten my thighs around him.

His mouth came down on mine and I smiled into the kiss as I began to slowly bob up and down on him. For a moment we moved together but I quickly realized that I wanted something more. I wanted to do something different. I grabbed Eric and pulled him off of me. He watched as I pulled him to jump over the back of the couch. He watched me with a smirk as I sat on the top of the couch and spread my legs. Eric smirked as he walked over to me and pushed my legs apart.

He shoved himself into me and I threw my head back, leaning back far enough to have him enter me as deeply as he could without making me fall back onto the couch. The two of us rocked together as he pushed himself roughly into me. I groaned and spread my legs a little bit more, positioning my feet on the top of the couch. Eric kept the two of us together as he continued to rock into me, muttering profanities into my ear as I grabbed my hair and pulled me towards him.

The two of us rocked together for a while before he gave me a rough shove. I laughed as he fell out of me and I fell back onto the couch. Eric jumped over the back of the couch before placing himself in between my legs and laying back. Our legs crossed over each others as we laid on opposite ends of the couch and lifted up our hips to meet each others. I grunted as our hips ground together and we continued to meet our thrusts.

Eric's hands were wrapped around my ass to repetitively pull me into him and I knew that it was so that he could control the pace. He was actually going relatively slow and I moaned as the pleasure began to build in my stomach. All I wanted him to do was pound into me. But he had already done that and now he was relying on teasing and torturing me. I wanted him more than anything. I always wanted him. I would want him for the rest of my life. But tonight was the last night. And I was going to enjoy it.

Not waiting for him anymore I began to pick up the pace to make it slightly more frantic as I began to lift my hips up to meet his thrusts frantically. His hands were bruising against my ass. He chuckled under his breath and his pants became shorter as we rocked together. To my surprise Eric grabbed me around the hips and lifted me up, pulling me straight into his lap. I laughed softly as we met chest-to-chest and Eric began bouncing me upwards, entering me even deeper than before.

My chest was bouncing in his face and Eric was quick to press a hot kiss against my mouth. Our tongues traced together as Eric's hands wrapped into my hair, tangling the strands around his fingers and pushing the slightly sweaty ends off of my forehead. I was pretty sure that he was going to let me continue rocking my hips against him, grinding my clit against his pelvic bone, only adding to my pleasure, but he took over before I got the chance.

He grabbed me tightly underneath my ass and I cried out loudly, wrapping my thighs tightly against him as he began to pump into me at a pace that only Eric could. He was the only man that I knew that could go quite as fast as he could, and I reveled in it as the pace went from somewhere between painful and a bliss that I'd never felt before. I let my head fall back and I yelled out. There was the familiar bundle in my stomach and I felt like it was about to explode. And I was right. It did.

Just at the same time that he came undone, I did as well. We both fell together as the stars exploded behind my eyes. I could barely see anything as Eric gave a few last desperate pumps into me and I felt the familiar sticky substance slide down my thighs. I shivered and leaned into him. My head fell against his as we both took a few desperate breaths, almost like we had been forgetting to breathe. I groaned as he grabbed me and lifted me up without pulling out of me. To my surprise, instead of bringing us over to the bed, he merely leaned us over to the side and laid us on the couch.

A small smile fell over my face. Eric had never done this before. His couch wasn't that big so we were almost forced to cuddle. He still hadn't pulled out of me when he pressed his front against my back, wrapping an arm over my hips and tossing a blanket that had been laid over the back of the couch over me. I smiled when I realized that it was the same blanket that he normally let me use. I tucked it underneath my chin and placed my foot over his.

Eric placed a pillow underneath his head and allowed me to use his bicep as a pillow. As our breathing went back to normal Eric finally pulled out of me. I shook slightly at the loss of him and I smiled, turning back around and leaning into him for a kiss. He grabbed the back of my head and kept my mouth against his for a moment, the two of our tongues tangling together. It was a few minutes before we separated and laid back together.

It was probably the most romantic night that we had ever had together. Although it was a little annoying that even Eric's couch was more comfortable than the beds that were in the dorms. As we laid on the couch I smiled at the heat that was radiating off of him. Eric wrapped an arm a little tighter around me and I smiled. His hand pressed roughly on my hip and we both smiled. I leaned in to give him one last kiss before we both settled down. My hair was over my shoulder and I grinned as he kissed me on the back of the neck, making me laugh softly.

"So... Have you ever let another woman sleep on your couch?" I asked teasingly.

"No. Only you."

"Aren't I special?"

Eric's lips traced over the back of my neck again, making me shiver. I could tell that he was smiling. "You are," he said lowly.

A small blush fell over my face. "Goodnight Eric," I said softly.

He didn't say anything back but he did nip the bare skin of my shoulder, making me shiver slightly. My leg fell back over his and he grabbed me tightly against him like it was the last night that he would ever spend with me. Maybe this was the last night that we were going to be together. But it was a perfect one.

A/N: Here's another fully edited chapter! Let me know what you think! Until next time -A

Debbydq: Well I hope this was good for letting Eric find out about her Divergence! I wanted him to be sort of okay with it, but also be completely pissed at her for hiding it. I'm glad that you're loving it!

mmelody6: Here's hoping that you liked this one too! :)

Derbygirl63: Thanks! I get a little worried that people like the original story so much that they hate it when author's make big changes. I agree, the Bureau part was really strange for me. I thought it made no sense. Oh he's going to lose his mind when he finds out that she's the one coming to check out the Box. I don't think he likes surprises either, but as for this one, she's going to still keep part of it a secret. I hope you enjoy the next one!

Guest: Thanks so much! I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Guest: Thanks! Well he knows that she's Divergent and he somewhat accepts it. About as much as he possibly can.