After leading the transfers back to the Dauntless compound, my head is pounding. Although I had told Zeke I was free to hang out with him and his initiate brother tonight, it won't come as a surprise to him when I bail. The throbbing pulsates to the beat of my heart and I pick up the pace back to the dorm. Another Abnegation-instilled trait that has become useful: flicking my eyes down and away when passing others. Seven, eight, a few steps more and –
"How did it go today, Four?" the voice drips with a coldness that could only belong to Eric. He is leaning with his back to my door, oily hair matted down over the blanket of metal covering his sickly pale face. He has been approaching me out of trainings more frequently of late, and I can only presume it is due to Max's recent job offer to me. And while I have grown used to his calculating ways, his presence at my dorm sends a jolt of adrenaline through my core.
"Fine. It's a shame you couldn't have been there, Eric," I say. I am usually better at keeping my sarcasm in check, but I also do not usually have a mallet hammering the inside of my skull. My fingertips press deep, deeper into my temples.
"Yeah, well I've been a little busy," and the way his voice emphasizes the word busy puts me on guard. I drop my hands and fit them into my belt loops, shift my weight from my toes to the balls of my feet and wait for him to resume. "Your fieldtrip with the transfers was a good way to scare them, if you even took it upon yourself to do so." I let this slide down the hard exterior I have built up around myself, as smooth and cold and solid as titanium. "But I planned my own fieldtrip." His eyes are blue – not deep like mine or alive like hers, but frosted over – and they survey mine as he continues, "We leave now."
Not happy. At all. But typical, nonetheless. The one area of the Dauntless compound besides the chasm where I can let my guard down and Eric robs that from me today. My teeth shift back and forth over each other as I follow him down the hall. He makes a sharp left and then we are entering the dormitory of the Dauntless-born initiates. The lights are already out and a few let out a gasp as Eric's flashlight that materializes into his hand flashes across their field of vision.
"I'm glad to see most of you are still awake," he barks. Even the Dauntless-born have furrowed eyebrows locked in confusion at this turn of events. They are familiar with Lauren as their trainer. Apparently not even Dauntless-born can stamp out the initial anxiety that swarms your insides at the prospects of the unknown. "Put on your shoes and head to the train. We're going on a fun little field trip." And with that, he backs out of the room. I guess he told a few of his lackeys about – I don't even know what about… he hasn't informed me yet. But a small pack has formed as trench down toward the transfer dormitory.