Parker's POV
I get out of the room as quickly as possible and go down some random hallway. I stop when I get to a small, secluded alcove, where I sit in the corner, resting my head against the wall, trying to control my breathing, as I was starting to hyperventilate. My breathing still not calming down, I close my eyes and slam my head back against the wall, not caring about the pain. "Oi!" I hear someone call, and I know immediately that it is Eric, "Go the fuck away, Eric!" I shout at him, my eyes still closed, my breathing still fast and shallow. "I'm not going anywhere, and you need to breathe" he tells me, he isn't shouting but I am too angry and upset to notice, "What the fuck do you think I'm doing" I continue to shout at him. He grabs my arm, and I know he is trying to help but I still try to pull my arm out of his grip, "Get the fuck off of me!" I'm still shouting, which is making my breathing worse. "Just stop will you", he says to me, placing my hand on his chest so I can get my breathing back to normal. I stop hyperventilating eventually but, I've started to cry. Eric doesn't say anything and just pulls me into his lap, "You're okay" he whispers to me. "You are safe". Neither of us say anything, he just slowly rubs my back, as I drift off to sleep.
"Parker, hey", I hear someone call my name. I open my eyes and realise it is Eric. "It is lunch." I just nod and stand up, I turn round and I hold out my arm to help Eric up. "You, okay?" he asks me, I don't say anything and I hear him sigh.
When we get to the mess hall he tells me to go sit by my brother and that he will grab me lunch. I go over to the table where Tobias is sat and sit opposite him, "you alright Parker?" he asks me,
"I'm fine," I tell him.
"You sure?"
"I. said. I. Am. Fine. Tobias." I say irritably. I stand up in my seat and am about to leave when a hand on my shoulder, pushes me back into my seat. "You, need to sit and eat" I hear Eric tell me as he places a tray in front of me. I sigh heavily and look at the food. I eat some of it but mainly just push the food around my plate. I watch the food as I move it around my plate, so I miss the glances between Eric and Tobias. After a while, I feel Eric brush past me as he stands up from his seat, "Initiates, you have five minutes to finish and meet us in the training room", Eric calls out. I take my chance to leave and stand up taking my tray over to the bins, even though I have barely eaten anything. I exit the room quickly and make my way to the training room before anybody can stop me. It's not long till I hear Eric and Tobias talking as they enter, but I continue looking at the wooden floorboards below me. I see, out of the corner of my eye, them setting up the punching bags. They finish setting up just as the first few initiates come in. One of them is Brent, as soon as he sees me he has a smug look on his face, I want to punch the look of his face, but I ignore him instead. Once everyone is in the room, Tobias goes on to explain what we are going to do, "for the first half you are going to work on the punching bags and then we will continue fights until dinner".
"Parker, with me" I look up to see Eric beckoning me over to the punching bag in the corner, I make my way over to him. "I'm going to show you what you missed", he tells me and proceeds to show me the correct way to punch as well as various other moves and techniques. He then motions towards the punching bag. I approach it and take the stance is showed me and throw a few punches. The bag hardly moves. "You're nearly there you just need to rotate slightly," he tells me, holding my hips and turning my body slightly, so I am at a better angle to the bag, "And you need to remember to keep tension here" he continues, he places his hand on my stomach. I nod and punch again, trying to ignore the tingling sensation that ran through my body. This time the bag swings much more and I keep hitting the bag, it moving more and more every time until it swings so much that it nearly hits me as it comes back, "Good, but don't forget to protect your face as well." Eric says, moving one of my arms in front of my stomach and the other in front of my face. I hit the bag a few more times, keeping my hands where they were. "Impressive, you should start on practising your kicking, you have thirty minutes before the fights start" he tells me. I don't say anything and just kick the bag as hard as I can, the bag swings more than it had ever done when I was punching it. I hear Eric chuckle to himself before walking off and scrutinising the other initiates.
After a while, Tobias calls us over, "We are going to start the fights" he tells us, before showing us the board, it shows as follows:
Peter – Brent
Edward – Drew
Christina – Al
Myra – Molly
Will – Tris
Parker –
To say I am annoyed would be an understatement, I finally get my cast off and I not going to even be fighting. Sighing heavily, I go stand round the ring with the rest of the initiates, and watch as Peter and Brent step into the ring. The fight doesn't last long, Brent may be big but his punches are sloppy and Peter quickly defeats him. The rest of the fights pass in varying length of times, depending on whether the two who are fighting are friends or in Molly, Myra, Drew and Edward's case, one was far stronger than the other. By the time the fights are finished, only a few people are in the infirmary, those still in the room are; myself, Eric, Tobias, Edward, Peter, Molly, Tris and Al. I stand up from the bench I had sat on, thinking it was probably time dinner as everyone except me had fought. Eric must have seen me stand. "Not so fast, you've still got to fight" he calls out. I look at him confused, and am about to ask him what he means, everyone has fought, when he continues talking, "You get to pick who you want to fight," I nod and look at who is left in the room when I get an idea.
"You chosen yet?" Eric says again and I nod my head, I take one final look at those who are left in the room, most are looking at me apprehensively but a couple look ready to take on a fight. I look Eric directly in the eyes when I give him my answer, "Four." I hear several gasps, and my brother questions me quietly, but Eric doesn't look at all surprised. Either he has a really good poker face or he was expecting me to pick my brother. I have a feeling it's the latter, it's probably why he gave me the choice.
"Alright then, in the ring" he says before writing my brother's name next to mine. I make my way over to the ring and my brother does the same. We stand there, arms up, watching each other, waiting for Eric to tell us to start, "Okay, go". Tobias and circle each other for a bit before I take a punch at him, remembering what Eric said about protecting both my face and stomach. Tobias easily blocks the punch and sends one to my face, luckily I'm able to dodge it. I fake a punch at his face, he goes to block, leaving me to kick him in his undefended stomach. He doubles down from the kick before lunging at me, he gets a good couple of punches in before, I attack again. This time I go for his face, I hit him several times. I kick him again in the stomach, but this time he catches it and twists it round making me fall to the fall. He lets go of my foot to let my stand up and I take the opportunity to his him where it really hurts, I hear him groan loudly. I laugh a little and walk to the edge of the platform to allow him to stand up. Once he's up on his feet he lunges at me, but I jump quickly out of the way. I punch him hard in the face and I hear something crack, and there is a lot of blood coming out his nose. I lunge at him again, but Tobias punches me in the gut and flips me over onto my back, winding me. The next thing I know Tobias is standing above me, "Truce?" he asks, giving me a hand up, I take his hand, but don't say anything, I wait till he is facing me and then punch him twice and send a powerful kick to his stomach. I watch as he falls onto his back and I walk over to him, "Truce." I say to him laughing slightly whilst sticking out my arm and pulling my brother, who I am pleased to see is has a slight smile on his face. Eric tells us that we can all go to lunch and once all the other initiates have left I go check, on my brother, who is trying to get the blood to stop, "You sure you're okay? I didn't mean to hit you quite that hard" I tell him, feeling a bit guilty.
"Parks, I'm fine, don't feel guilty, I was a bit shocked you could punch that hard but no harm has been done. See, I'm okay" he tells me ruffling my hair, "I'm gonna head down to the infirmary, go get this sorted." Tobias says, heading towards the door, still chuckling, "Parks I mean it, stop worrying" he calls out to me one last time, before walking out the door. I sigh, still feeling bad for hitting him.
"You did good today," I hear Eric say from behind me.
"You don't seem surprised", I ask him but it comes out more of a statement.
"Why would I be, you are a very capable fighter, you need to believe in yourself more."
"Hmmm," I don't quite agree with him, "Even so, you didn't look surprised when I picked to fight my brother."
"Why do you think I gave you a choice?" is all he says to me before, pulling down the last of the punching bags and letting it drop to the floor. "Follow me." I look up confused, but follow him anyway, "Where are we going?" I ask him, he turns to me, an amused look on his face, "But that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Neither of us say anything, and after a while, he stops in front of some sort of shop and I realise it is a tattoo parlour. I raise my eyebrow at him, "I need to get one of mine finished, thought you might as well have a look round" he tells me before making his way over to the counter. I look around me, the walls are lined with different designs, I watch as Eric follows a tattooist into a back room but before he goes through he calls out, "Oh, by the way, initiates get their first tattoo free." I don't say anything and absentmindedly nod, I can't take my eyes away from the designs on the walls. I finally found one design that I like, it is a full sleeve and is a maze-like pattern. The maze is drawn to look 3D, and it starts at my shoulder and the maze is black, but once it get to my lower arm the colours change and the maze design continues but this time the background is black and the maze is the colour of my arm. I take the design over to a lady sitting at a chair and ask if she can do the design. "Sure I can," she tells me smiling, "if you want to just sit down on the chair" just as I sit down I see Eric immerge from the back room. "Now where would you like it?" Tori asks me.
"Uhhh, my right arm please"
"Alright, I'm going to warn you it will be painful at the start, and it will take a while, you might have to come back another day to finish, depending how quickly I can get it done." She tells me, I nod my head and she starts. She was right about one thing, it hurt like a mother-fucker. "My name's Tori by the way"
"Parker" I tell her through gritted teeth, that's when I hear Eric laugh at me, I look up and scowl at him, but he just laughs at me more, a big smirk plastered on his face. I shake my head and look away from him. I shake my head at him and look away.
I feel someone shake me, and I slowly open my eyes and seeit'ss Eric, "What do you want?" I ask not liking having been awoken so suddenly, "Tori has finished" he tells me.
"Oh right, yeah" I say and look over at the tattoo, I am really pleased with how it's turned out. "Thanks, Tori, it looks really good" I say stifling a yawn, "Sorry about falling asleep," I say through a yawn. She just chuckles at me, "It's fine" she tells me, "I'm not surprised, it's nearly ten o'clock". However I don't hear the rest of what she says, I lean my head back on the chair and start to fall asleep. "Right, come on, you better go to bed" I hear Eric say, and I shake my head sleepily, not wanting to move. I suddenly feel myself being picked up and carried somewhere, but I am too tired to care.
there's another chapter for you, thank you to everyone who has reviewed etc. hope to update again soon. but i wouldnt take my word for it looking at my track record. ha.
~depressedintrovert~