Hello, everyone! I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and those who answered my question at the end. I am actually 16, in case you were curious. Anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review!
Disclaimer: I only own Liss.
When I reach the training room, I see that Eric is waiting outside.
"Hey," I say when I reach him.
"Hey."
"So, are we going to go in?"
"No, I'm taking you somewhere else today."
"Okay? Are you going to tell me where or is it a surprise?"
"Nowhere too special," he says.
He then proceeds to throw his arm around my shoulders and leads me down the hall. After several turns, I notice that we're taking the path to the Dauntless living corridors. Finally we stop in front of a black door that, if I remember correctly, is only a few rooms down from Tobias'. He quickly slides his arm off of my shoulders and unlocks the door before ushering me in.
His room is larger than Tobias'. He has a couch, a coffee table, and two bookshelves as well as a larger kitchen; a pair of double doors lead to what I assume is the bedroom. I walk over to the bookshelf and begin looking over some of the titles; I don't know the majority of them, but some that we were required to read for school stick out.
"Recognize any of them?" Eric asks me.
"A few, where'd you get them all? They can't all have come from here; I don't think I've even seen any book shops."
"Some of them are from here, but the majority are from Erudite. We're allowed to trade with other factions."
I nod. In Abnegation we never traded anything, we didn't have anything to trade since no luxurious were allowed.
"Which one is your favorite?" I question.
He bites down on one of his lip piercings before saying, "That's a tie between these three."
He brings down three different books and I ask, "What are they about?"
Eric begins to explain the plot to each and before I know it we're sitting on the couch and he's reading out some of his favorite parts in each one. If it was anyone else I probably would have fallen asleep, but the way his eyes light up and the way he speaks about each book makes it so I can't tear my eyes away from him. His voice is quiet and rough as he speaks into my ear. We had started off sitting at least six inches away from each other, but as the time passed, we ended up getting closer so that I was now curled up next to him, with my head resting on his shoulder.
It's been at least an hour and half since we arrived and I'm having to stifle my yawns. Unfortunately he notices.
"Tired?"
"No," I say, as I attempt to stifle another yawn. "Maybe."
"Let's get you back to the dorm. It's late anyway."
"You haven't even showed me your tattoos yet."
"Guess you'll have to come back tomorrow."
"I suppose I can live with that."
"Come on," he says, getting up and dragging me with him.
We walk back to the dormitory quickly and before we turn the last corner we stop.
"Congratulations, by the way, being ranked third is good for the first round."
"Well, you helped. Sort of."
His lips twitch slightly before he says, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
I can't have been asleep for more than half an hour when I'm woken by a blood curdling scream. I stiffen and for a moment it feels as if I'm back in my bedroom in Abnegation. Another scream pierces through the room and I remember that I'm in the Dauntless compound. I shoot upwards in my bed and quickly stand up.
"Turn on the lights!" someone exclaims.
I remain frozen as the screams continue. Finally, the lights turn on. The first thing I see is Edward, lying on the ground, his head is surrounded by blood, and his hands are clawing at his eye. Morbid curiosity makes me take a step closer and I see that a butter knife is lodged into his eye. Myra stands near him, but she makes a point of not stepping in any of his blood. Tris however, settles down next to him and tries to calm him.
When I look around I see that Peter and Drew are missing. I feel my stomach sink. That could have been me, if I had ranked above him. It could still be me, if Peter wants me out. A feeling of outrage consumes me for a moment, he is a coward.
Soon, a nurse arrives and takes Edward away. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn to see Will. He tilts his head towards the door and I nod, the smell of Edward's blood fills the room and it makes breathing almost unbearable. When we get outside, he says,
"You know who did it, right?"
"Peter and Drew."
"They're such cowards," Will states.
"I thought Dauntless was supposed to be for the brave and the heroes, not for people who want to stab each other in the back or the eye," I rant.
He nods before looking over me.
"Are you okay, Liss?"
"Of course I am; Edward got stabbed, not me."
"Yeah, but it could have been you."
"But it wasn't."
"But what about the next time that Peter loses to someone, are we just all supposed to wait until he gets caught?"
"Well, we can't say anything. They won't care."
I yawn loudly.
"Still want to sleep after all that?"
"Yeah, I hadn't slept much before it happened. Would you mind if I went back to sleep? Right now's probably the best time; everyone's on edge so I doubt Peter will try anything again tonight."
"You go ahead; I think I'm just going to walk around."
I can feel my eyes drooping as I nod and walk into the room. As I fall onto my bed, I notice that all the blood has been cleared from the floor. Sleep comes easy, but it's plagued with images of blood and feelings of pain.
When I wake up again, it's past noon. Half of the beds in the dormitory are filled with people snoozing, and I notice that Edward's and Myra's beds have been stripped and their drawers hang open, empty. My gaze lands on the board that holds our ranks and I see that their names have been crossed out and the numbers have been changed. I am now second.
I shower and get ready for the day. When I finish I leave the dormitory by myself and start walking down random corridors. Eventually I end up in the Pit; it's crowded as usual, so I move over to the chasm. The loud noise it creates is a nice distraction; I still can't get the image of the knife stuck in Edward's eye out of my head.
"Have you had lunch yet?" a rough voice, that I know to be Eric's, says into my ear.
"No," I answer, turning around to look at him. "I'm not quite sure if I'm hungry
His hands are planted on either side of me and I have to lean back against the railing in order to see his face.
"Because of Edward?"
"Sort of."
"Don't worry about it; I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
"You're going to look out for all of the initiates?" I ask in disbelief
"No, but Peter and Drew won't touch you unless they want to deal with me." Then, as an afterthought, he adds, "Or your brother."
"So you know it was them? Why are they still here then?"
"There's no proof."
I sigh and he says, "Come on, let's go eat."
He wraps his arm around my waist before leading us into the cafeteria. Even though we've walked around like this before, people still stare and point; I even hear a few whispers. I ignore them for the most part while we eat. We're sitting next to each other and I sit sideways with my feet on the chair. When we're both almost finished, I ask,
"Does it ever bother you?"
"Does what ever bother me?"
"That almost everyone is afraid of you."
"Everyone isn't afraid of me."
"Yes they are. It always gets quiet when you walk into rooms and people act more cautious."
He looks me over. "Are you afraid of me?"
"No."
"Then no, it doesn't bother me."
Once we're out of the cafeteria Eric and I walk around talking, his arm is around my waist again.
"Did you clean your tattoo this morning?"
"Well, I would have but, uh, I wasn't exactly listening when Tori explained how I was supposed to do it."
"I'll show you how to do it tonight," he says and I feel butterflies fill my stomach.
"And you're going to show me your tattoo's right?"
Before he can answer we're interrupted by a man in his late twenties, he's dressed in Erudite clothing and carries pencil and paper.
"Excuse me, Alyssa Eaton?"
I stiffen as he shoves his glasses up on his nose.
"I'd like to ask you some questions about your time in Abnegation. Now is it true that you and your brother switched factions because of your abusive father? And do you know if Beatrice Prior switched for the same reasons?"
"Excuse me?" I say, annoyance beginning to bubble up in me.
"Could you give me your opinion on our corrupt government?"
"I think that you need to find better things to do with your time, and if I wanted to spend my free time thinking of Abnegation I would have stayed in that faction. I don't care about them, and if you don't get out of my face in the next ten seconds, I'll break your nose."
The man stumbles backwards while scribbling on his notepad before disappearing from sight. Eric, who's standing behind me, glares at the spot where the Erudite had been.
"He shouldn't have been here."
"As long as he doesn't bother me again, I don't care," I reply, turning to look at him.
"I have to get back to work," he tells me.
"Okay."
He runs his hand along my covered tattoo and says, "Don't bother bringing anything for your tattoo tonight, I'll have it covered. I'll see you later."
"I'll see you tonight."
I watch as he walks off and I can't help but grin.
"What the hell was that?" I hear a voice ask.
I spin around and see Christina.
"I mean I knew you weren't hanging out with Four all the time, but I didn't expect you to be ditching us for Eric. You're lucky Will and Al didn't see."
"Christina, it's not like that."
"Really?"
"Can I explain?"
"Not in here, come on," she says grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the room. I stumble along after her. Once we've walked a bit, she releases my wrist. "Talk."
"Eric and I have been hanging out, sort of. I mean at first it was just for training but then, since it's ended, we've continued to hang out. It's not that big of a deal. He's really not that bad of a guy, and yes, I know he made you hang over the chasm, but he's - he's just not like that to me. He's nice-ish and he's interesting and smart and when he talks about things that he likes his eyes light up making him not seem so cruel and cold. He's attractive too and whenever he touches me, I feel like he's lighting my skin on fire, in a good way. And I just . . ."
I trail off once I realize I've said more than I meant to.
"So, you like him?"
"I, yeah, I guess I do, and I know he can be a bit of a jerk, but I can't help it."
She looks torn for a moment before she says, "Okay, I get it. From what I've seen he is nicer towards you, but don't expect me or any of the others to start liking him just because you do"
"Of course."
"So, is he your first boyfriend?"
"We're not dating, but if we were he would be. I didn't really talk to anyone back in Abnegation."
"If I didn't hate his guts, I might find the situation cute." She pauses before saying, "Does Will like me?"
The question catches me off guard and it takes me a moment to answer, "I don't know, I mean we don't usually talk about that stuff."
"In Candor it was easy to tell if someone liked you back because they just said it, but Will hasn't mentioned it. Sometimes he acts like he does, and then other times it seems like he doesn't."
I pause, unsure what to do. "Do you . . . want me to ask if he likes you?"
"No, I'll do it."
Dinner comes and goes quickly; Tris appears halfway through her eyes bright and her hair windblown. Christina, Al, and Will didn't seem too pleased that Tris got to go somewhere with the other Dauntless but I didn't mind too much. When dinner's over Will looks like he's going to ask me to do something, but Christina swoops in and drags him off elsewhere. I make a mental note to thank her later before heading to Eric's room.