Previously...

Unexpectedly, Eric leans towards me so that his lips are by my ear. I can feel his breath, hot and tingly against my skin. I can smell him too: aftershave, hair gel, and mint. He whispers deeply, in a tone of voice I do not recognize, "Good." He steps back and turns away, with a lopsided smirk gracing his lips.

I sit there dumbfounded. What the hell was that about? Then it hits me. He saw me checking him out this morning and now he's getting me back. But then again, he could have just been trying to intimidate me. I dunno. He was less cold this morning but then he has shouted at me a lot today. But he shouted at everyone. Just now he said that it was good that I wanted to train with him. I seriously do not know. I guess I'll see what happens tomorrow.

Chapter 3

Lies and Power

Eric walks toward the Pit, staring at the report in his hands. He masterfully hides his nervousness for meeting her this morning. Eddi. He shouldn't have done that last night. He was going to tell her that she mustn't be late, but somehow he ended up saying 'good'. That action last night has now probably made her think that he's perverted. Eric's free hand clenches a little and his eyes harden even more. Admittedly, he doesn't want to help train her, he wants to turn around and go back to his apartment. But, she wants to train and even though she is allowed to train alone, he knows that he should help her. It's his duty as a leader and trainer to make sure the initiates get the training that they need to get into Dauntless, so helping the Candor transfer is his responsibility. He sighs and turns into the Pit. He stops in the doorway to watch her. Eddi paces around the center of the Pit, her hands clenched and her body stiff. He smirks; she's just as nervous as he is. He watches, from the dark doorway in which he is standing, the Candor transfer work herself up. He smirks at little more, knowing the power that he has over this girl. All he said was one, simple word: 'good'. He loves it how she rakes her thin hands through her dark brown hair in apprehension because he made her feel insecure. He loves how he has power over Eddi, loves it more than the power rush he gets when he trains the initiates. He loves how he knows he can make her do whatever he wants. He loves it so much because before transferring to Dauntless, he never had power over anyone. He smirks again to himself, before walking down into the Pit to meet the girl.

She stops pacing as soon as she sees him walking towards her. Eric smirks at her and she gives a small smile back. He laughs internally at her insecureness. "Initiate." he addresses her, hiding the pleasure in his voice.

"Eric," she replies, much like yesterday. He smirks at her again to see how she reacts. This time, she only furrows her eyebrows and doesn't respond.

"You're early," Eric states, adding a harsh tone to his voice.

"Or you're late." she quips back.

"You're early." Eric snaps back, now a little angry.

Eddi nods her head quickly, now wary of her leader. Eric's mood lightens again as she submits to his power again, but he keeps up his angry demeanor to keep her under his control. "Go," he says, motioning for the girl to move. She does, opting to walk just ahead of him. They walk in silence to the training room; Eric knows the girl feels awkward, but he prefers it this way. The walk to the training room is quick and soon Eric is watching Eddi throw punches at the orange bag. The girl has got a little better since yesterday, but that's only because he was there to help her. If he wasn't there then she'd be just like the other transfers. He's already improved her to be better than them, even if it was not by much. Then and there, watching Eddi punch the bags, he silently makes a bet on himself to get her to be in the top three rankings at the end of training. It means that she going to be in his debt for making him help her get to the top. It means that she's going to have to do what he tells her. Eric smirks to himself, watching Eddi punch her way into his control.

I poke at my lunch , not hungry for the disgusting looking sausages that I've been served. My friends, however, seem to like the sausages, so they must be edible. Still, I don't want to eat them. It's probably because my day has been crap so far and it's only now lunchtime. Mostly my day has been crap because of Eric. He seems to have made me his personal target. During our morning training, he wouldn't stop harassing me by telling me I'm too slow or I'm too weak. And he kept watching me, probably judging me silently. When we went jogging, he purposely ran behind me, telling me to run faster, even though I was in the middle of the group. Then during rifle training, he kept coming over, saying that my stance was wrong or my arms were too shaky or anything else that was barely wrong, as I was actually hitting the target, unlike some of the other transfers, including Tris. And to think last night that he might have liked me is absurd. He hates me, but he's only nice so that it makes me feel worse when he's mean to me. I really don't wanna go to afternoon training, but if I don't then Eric will probably find me and make me do it, or worse kick me out. Actually, the second option seems more like him.

"Hey, Eddi," Chris says, pulling me into the conversation. I mumble an apology quickly, turning my complete attention to the conversation my friends are having. But I'd rather not talk now. "Do you wanna come with us to the Dauntless-born's room tonight? This guy called Uriah invited us."

"No," I say flat out.

"Aww, why not?" Chris smiles.

A quick anger fills me. "I don't want to, okay!" I snap.

Everyone on our table silences, watching me. I quickly go back to poking at my food, trying to ignore the eyes on me. "Are you okay, Eddi? You seem a bit moody today." Tris asks, her abnegation showing.

"I'm okay," I state, firmly.

"Are you sure?" Tris asks.

"She said she was fine." the deep voice of a leader says from behind me. Oh, fuck. I shrink downwards and eat quicker, hoping to get away from him. He's been harassing me all day and now he's 'protecting' me in front of my friends. "We're her friends, we can ask if she's okay." Chris opposes.

"But, I'm your leader." he says, obviously smirking even though I can't see him.

"That gives you no right to her feelings." Christina snaps, her voice rising.

"Quiet, initiate. If you talk to me like that again then you're out, got it?" Eric growls, his voice quieting. Now he's really fucking pissed. Not knowing what to do, I grab my plate and jump up from the table. I quickly put my plate away and leave, turning to see Eric grinning in my direction as I exit. I walk down the corridor for a minute before stopping and just sitting on the floor. I don't cry, but instead, I just stare at the wall. Not thinking about it helps and soon I'm feeling better. That's when Chris finds me. I look up to see her running towards me, a worried expression plastered across her face. "Eddi!" she calls.

"Hey, Chris," I say rather dully.

"Hey, how you feeling?" she says, sitting down on the cold, concrete floor next to me.

"Better."

"Eric's an ass, ain't he?"

"Yeah. He's been an ass to me all day."

Chris nods, "I know how you feel. He's been coming up to me to try and intimidate me, but I can stand up to him."

"Yeah, me too and it's been literally all morning. I mean, I wanted to go to the training room to practice early and he let me and it was okay and I thought that he sorta liked me because of what he said last night and now he's being mean to me and I don't know what to do." I say quickly, worry slipping into my tone. I quickly calm myself, not wanting to have an emotional breakdown in front of my friend in an empty corridor.

Chris looks more worried now, but I am in fact keeping quite calm, though inside am very stressed. "What did Eric say last night?" she asks, picking up on that part of my long sentence.

"He came up to me and asked if I wanted to train in the training room this morning; I'd done it yesterday and he was the one who let me in the room. Then he whispered in my ear, 'good' when I'd told him that I'd like to. The way he said it was weird. Like when a guy is flirting with you but slightly more intense."

I look over at Chris, who has her eyebrows raised. "Ignore him," she advises, looking slightly perplexed. I nod soundlessly. "But, hey," Chris smiles, pulling something out of her pocket, "I've got you cake!"

I laugh and take the cake, quickly removing it from the paper covering. I rip off a piece and hand it over to Chris, "Sorry for snapping at you earlier."

She laughs and takes the piece, saying, "I forgive you, Eddi. Eric being mean to you is definitely a good excuse."

I nod my head, unable to speak because of the chocolate cake now in my mouth. I quickly eat it, then say, "There's only one thing that could make this better. Candor ice cream."

We both smile at each other and continue to eat the cake. Hopefully, the rest of the day will remain like this, being happy with my friends.

We all watch in awe as Four flips his opponent onto the mat. The smack of flesh against plastic makes most of us transfers cringe. I have to admit, seeing Four fight, that we are a long way from becoming the perfect Dauntless soldiers. Though I'd rather remain different from the rest of Dauntless, I know that I need to become another soldier for Dauntless if I don't want to become Factionless, and that's something I'd rather not do. After Four's demo, we are allowed to have a quick break.

My friends decide to sit on one of the mats, whereas I decide to go get a drink before we start practicing. As I turn to walk back to my friends, after having a drink, I spot Eric standing, almost hidden, alone reading something on his tablet. Anger, much like when I punched the mirror, pulses through me. How could he treat me like that? I storm over to Eric, who looks up at my appearance. "What do you want, initiate?" he growls, "I'm busy, can't you see? Or are you blind or something?"

That makes me explode. I clench my fists and snarl quietly, so not to bring attention to this confrontation, "Shut up, Eric. How and why are you treating me like this?" Eric's eyes narrow instantly, their usual coldness now erupting in a hot fury. He put his tablet down on a sill behind him and walks over towards me, glaring intensely. I do not break his gaze, sending thousands of silent messages to him and him to me. He walks closer, trying to invade my personal space. I step back, but he continues to come closer. Then I hit a wall. Crap. This means that Eric can as close as he wants. Oh boy, he does get in close. He grabs the collar of my tank top and steps in even closer so that our bodies are millimeters apart. Oh God help me, I'm gonna die. "Don't talk to me like that again, initiate." he spits. I nod quickly. Oh, I am so going to die. I look away, not wanting to witness my imminent demise...

"Eddi." His voice is calm and soft and oh my God, he knows my name! "Eddi, look at me," Eric says, stepping back so that he is not so close. I look up with caution, only to see a somewhat calm expression on his face. "Eddi, I have to treat you, and the others, like I do so that you learn to follow orders."

I try to speak a reply but instead my mouth keeps popping open like a fish. Finally, I manage to say, "Yes, okay. But why are you so mean to me and my friends?"

Eric raises his eyebrows as if the answer is obvious. "Because there are other Dauntless who will treat you worse than I have. I want all my initiates prepared for life in Dauntless."

All I can this to say is, "So people here like to give each other verbal beatings. That's not new for me, I'm from Candor and everyone is openly mean there."

Eric glowers slightly at my response and responds, "But in Candor everyone tells the truth, so you probably already know it yourself. In Dauntless, people lie and that makes you doubt yourself. That's much worse than any insult a Candor could give."

That sorta stumps me, "I guess that's worse."

"Yes." he replies bluntly, "Now get back to your friends, training is about to begin again."

I obey and walk past Eric but, before I can get away, he grabs my wrist to stop me. I turn back towards him, feeling slightly controlled. "Eddi, I will never hurt you, I promise," he says softly, with a smile on his lips.

"Okay," I smile unconfidently back. He lets my arm go and I walk back towards my friends in the center of the room. Now I feel just like I did last night: unsure. Though now I think I'm a little more sure but still unsure, if that makes any sense. I can get why Eric is treating us all unfairly, now that he's explained his reasons. But why is he taking a special interest in me? He seems to hate me more than any of the others, but he also seems to like me more as well. He makes me want to cry but he also makes me want to smile. That makes me really unsure. He just told me that the Dauntless lie, which is to be expected, but it also tells me a few things about himself. However, it's all questions. He could be lying about everything he just told me or is he lying about how he acts to me. The second option is very complicated in itself. He could be lying when he's mean to me when he actually likes me or he could be lying when he's nice to me when he actually hates me. It's hard to tell which is the truth. Though I have left Candor, I feel that I want to learn the truth about this man and the truth about how he feels towards me.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Please follow, favorite and review. Sorry, it's a day late but my dog passed away yesterday and his death was very upsetting for me and my family. Also, expect the next few chapters to come a little late as I'm going on holiday and I don't know when I'll be able to get the internet. Visit me on instagram at either totallynotdeadyet or totallynotalivenow. Thanks again for reading.

Thank you to all who followed and favorited me, I'm very grateful.

mmelody6: Thank you :D

musicluver246: Thanks, this has been an interesting story to write and I love to hear what you think of it.

Oncer15: I know you didn't review but I just wanted to say that I'm really happy that you followed and favorited this. I love your Eric/OC fics so much and so happy (and amazed) that such a brilliant writer like you is interested in my fic. Guys, if you have not read any of Oncer15's stories, please go check them out, they are brilliant.

And thank you to iremainsilent for putting this onto her community, Eric-Centric Stories.

Buh-bye.