AN: Im having fun writing this, I've been out of the game for a long time and I am happy to connect with writing again! Its always been a passion of mine. Anyways! This story is going by the movie version of Divergent so every bodies favorite characters look like the actors that portrayed them. I'll also warn that I've never read the books, I caught the movie one night and then that was it, I got hooked lol. Hope you guys enjoy! Feedback is encouraging and good incentive to continue.
Her body burned while she twisted in her sheets, cold sweat coating her skin in a sheen. She sat abruptly, her breath shallow, her heart racing in her chest. She knew right away she was hot with fever. On shaking legs Ava crosses her darkened room into a bathroom, fingers automatically finding the switch to the light. White light slowly grew to a nearly blinding capacity, tired green eyes staring themselves down in a mirror propped above the sink. Her long red hair was a damp mess, strands clinging to her forehead, neck, and shoulders. Almost robotically she fills a clear glass with water from the facuet, never breaking the gaze she holds with herself even as she brings the drink to her lips, hand trembling with the effort.
Her head pounded as she recalled her nightmare. Always the same, not so much a dream as a recollection. Memories of her father - always a stern man but kind hearted beneathe a hardened facade - but most importantly the memory of losing him. The confusion it had wrought. She hadn't even been ten yet, a wide eyed ambitious child. Back then it was impossible for her to understand, no one would talk to her about it. Not her mother, not her older sister, not her aunts, or her uncles, not even the damn psychotherapist would say a word. It took many years for Ava to understand the choice Johnathan Storm had made. It was not an easy one, he left behind everything for nothing because he couldn't be okay with what his research was used for.
Nor could he have been okay with his family seeing him executed. And that was why he chose what he chose. Erudite had befallen corruption that dated back before Jeanine Matthew's power trip, but it was the election of the current Erudite leader that had set her father down the path that led to his choice. And now, more then ever, Ava wanted to follow in his footsteps. Looking into her own eyes, tired, emptier then she could have ever imagined, she realizes she is killing herself. Slowly syphoning out every bit of her own will, twisting and warping herself to conform to a way she far from agreed with.
The drum in her head echoed and she slid open a drawer, a pill bottle containing aspirin was her reasoning for doing so, plucking three round pills out she takes them in one swallow. Her eyes return to her reflection and suddenly she realizes the pounding isn't coming entirely from inside her head. A deep feeling of dread sets in, an unwelcome echo of Eric's voice from a few nights prior in the back of her mind. Had he turned her in? Was Erudite under attack? She played through every possible scenario as she crossed into a small living area to the door. She jumped when a heavy hand smacked against the otherside once more.
"Wait, hold on." She urges, retrieving a slender knife from the top shelf of a bookcase, it was small, but sharp, cold in her warmed skin. The pounding became more insistant, "Who is it?" She demands, now pressed against the door, the hand free of the knife pressed behind her back flicks on the ceiling light.
"Open the fucking door."
Eric. Ice ran through her viens, her color already paled with illness turned an ashen grey, mimicking the color of death. She opens the door despite herself, greeted with the sight of the one man in the entire city Ava could honestly say she hated as much as Jeanine, and that was only after meeting him once. "Eric, what are-" he pushes passed her with little regard, as if he were walking into his own home. She stumbles from the impact, a surprised yelp escaping her lips, "What the hell are you doing?!" This time nothing stops her from speaking, green eyes wild with anger and fear.
Eric turns to face the enraged woman, his eyes scanning every inch of her while she stood in the still open doorway. She looked sick, he realized, her skin pale and aglow with sweat, dressed in white shorts, a white tank top. She had dark rings under her eyes, and upon closer inspection was clutching a knife in her hand. Maybe she wasn't an idiot after all, "Planning on using that?" He inquires, raising his pierced brow, "If not, shut the damn door and put it down."
He watches her expectantly, she doesn't move for a long while, processing the situation at hand, brain muddled by fever. She wisely chooses to close her door, carefully placing her knife down on the stand closest to her. Eric was standing in the space that separated her living quarters from the kitchen, every bit as pompous as he had been three nights ago, "What is this?"
His lips curl upwards in a devious smirk, his hands clasped in front of him in a resting stance, "I suppose we'll just get right to it then," he starts, watching Ava sway a bit on her feet, "What was your aptitude test result?" His smirk widens when her color instantly worsens, panic entering her eyes.
"Those results are confidential, I don't need to tell you." Her voice is hard despite the terror she felt grabbing at her from every direction. She had done this, if she had left when she still had the chance, if she had just let go of her ridiculous fears, this wouldn't be happening. She tries to stand straight, her head swimming. She had to sit, dark edges were swarming her vision. As afraid of Eric as she is, she moves passed him to the small dining table.
"You're right, you don't have to tell me." His voice is calm, she feels him move more then she sees him, unable to focus. He comes up behind her chair, leaning down over her, palms flat on the surface of the tabletop, "I already know it anyways. A manual entry, hm?" He prods, face directly beside her own, almost cheek to cheek. He could feel the heat radiating off of her, it was searing, seeping into his own flesh, "Erudite makes perfect sense. Your father was a coward, but a brilliant scientist, your mother is one of the best surgeons of her time. Its easy for you to fit in here. But you don't belong, do you Ava?"
"If I am meant to die, please get it over with. Your games are not worth playing." Her voice trembles, "My fear is not for you to feast on any longer."
"Are you confessing Ms. Storm?" He turns his head, their skin now in full contact. He was enjoying himself, maybe a little to much, but he needed to hear it from her mouth. Eric had known Johnathon Storm, many years ago before he was Dauntless, just a boy being conditioned for a soilders mission. The doctor that would slide a lollipop out from the inside of his lab coat sleeve and press it under the single pillow he had been allowed on his cot.
"I..." Ava shakes, pressing her cheek further against his, almost taking comfort in the cool feel of his skin on her enflamed skin, even the scratch of his stubble served to distract her from the heat that threatened to consume her. It takes her time to get a grasp on herself again, her back stiffening as she set her face in stone, green eyes staring straight ahead. She would not go out a coward, "Erudite." She says sharply, "And Dauntless." The faction name falls off her tongue in a disgusted drawl, "And Amity."
Eric moves away from her then, he knows she expects him to shoot her, just the way she stares ahead, her posture straight. Dauntless indeed, he thinks to himself, "You need to get in the shower, cold, your temperature is at an unsafe level."
To say Ava is surprised is an understatement, but she doesn't embrace his words. There was an ulterior motive, Eric was just playing with her, he liked to toy with the head. She shifts in the chair to find his form leaning against a kitchen counter, arms crossed, watching her with something unrecognizable in his eyes, "I know how to treat a fever." she says numbly, trying to get a read on the Dauntless leader, malice, anger, cruelty, anything, but he remains unreadable until his eyes darken.
"Exercising those talents isn't your strong suit is it?" He seems to hiss, "Get in that shower, Ava, or I'll make you." Promise overlaid his words.
She is dumbfounded, but she doesn't protest. He watches her like a hawk when she retreats into her bedroom, even when she knows she is out of sight, behind her locked bathroom door she still feels like his eyes are on her. Nothing was making any sense at the time, but she was to tired and to hot to even care anymore. The cold spray is a jolt to alertness and an instant relief on her burning skin. She stays in until she can no longer bare the cold, and is before long trudging back into her kitchen where Eric now sat at her table, having helped himself to the wine in her fridge, "Are you going to tell me what is going on?"
"Take the damn pills on the counter and shut up. Go to sleep, we're leaving in the morning."
"Excuse me?" Ava's tone is incredulous as she advances towards the table, "Leave? Where? Why?"
His gaze is dark when it finds hers, but he is both pleased and angered that it didn't make her backdown. He was going to have to explain himself, she was confused and wouldn't be compliant unless she had some understanding. It was a Erudite trait that Eric himself could never shake, "Look, you aren't dumb, you know what the fuck is going on out there and you are not safe here."
"Why would you care? If this is some sort of elaborate ploy that will end in my death, skip it. I am divergent, you are my enemy, its your job to put a bullet in my head."
"Stop being so damn dramatic, Ava. I know what I am, I know what I have done, and I know what I have to do now. It starts with getting you out from under Jeanine's nose."
"By putting me directly under it?" She snorts, earning her a scathing look from Eric that unsettles her greatly, "Let's pretend like I believe you for a second, where the hell are we going to go? You're going to become a walking target the second Jeanine realizes you've turned coat."
"Doesn't make me all that much different from you then, now does it?" Eric bites back, daring her to continue challenging him with his eyes, "I told you all I'm willing to give tonight. Take the fucking pills and go to bed."
She eyes him for only a moment longer, realizing she would get nothing else from him now, and no longer possessing the energy to pry. With a sigh Ava takes the fever reducers and starts towards her bedroom, "There are pillows and a blanket in the closet. Couch is all yours."