Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent.
Eric has no clue what ruptured in his brain. But something did, because his ability to tune out the distractions in the background is just… gone. He's able to hear the gentlest rustle of fabric against skin, the hum of machinery turned on at the lowest setting. Those sounds, normally soft and calming, jangle through his ear canals with an unusual intensity. He wants to plug both ears with his hands, but he can't.
He's splayed out on a white cot with his arms at his sides, his fingers stiff as dried plaster, his numb lips puffing up with every attempt at conversation. One of his eyes won't open, the lids glued to each other by his blood. His face is badly bruised and swelling up everywhere.
Jason broke… what, again? Eric's nose, his jaw, a lot of his teeth. When exactly did Jason stomp on his rib cage when he was down? Eric doesn't really know, but hey, he's sure there are breaks there, too.
Tobias is at his bedside. He's rambling on about something that went down late last night. "And then Amar ran into the lobby and pulled his pants down. Like, he was mooning them. It was so funny, oh, my God."
"Wait, did I hear that right?" Eric has to force the words out, they refuse to move past his swollen lips. "He was mooning the Erudite?"
"Yeah, he was." Tobias' grin spreads wide. "I almost choked, I was laughing so hard."
Eric can't stop the smirk from forming on his face, and it hurts. But less than he expected. "Wish I could've seen it," he complains to Tobias. "Why'd they make me stay in bed the whole day? The concussion wasn't that bad." Or perhaps it was, he just doesn't want to give Jason another reason to target him. The multiple blows to his head affected him greatly. He never said anything to Tobias, but he thinks his best friend's voice might make his head explode, it's so overly loud.
"You seriously can't remember?" Tobias asks him. "This morning you took, like, two steps and fell over. Then you puked all over yourself. They brought you here for your own safety."
Eric doesn't want to be reminded. He knows what Tobias said is true, but he can't recall much else from that morning. God forbid, did either Jason or Sean see him fall? Did they… point and laugh at him? Jesus, he sounds more insecure than Megan comparing herself to her ex's new girl.
"Really?" Eric gets out. "So why didn't they do the same to Amy?" He might as well ask that question out loud, because no one has.
Tobias' face reveals he wasn't expecting that. He appears to hesitate. "I don't know," he says at last.
One of the few sentences a person can utter with confidence, Eric thinks.
Tobias' visiting hours are up, and so are Mia's. Eric had to hand it to the ex-Amity, she did brilliantly against the much larger Sean. She actually got close enough to knee him in the nuts! Eric wants to laugh picturing it, but he knows he'll soon start wincing instead.
The light of the evening sun has faded. The long night's begun. There'll be no sleep for Eric, not when the nurses keep popping in to "monitor" his symptoms and shine bright lights in his eyes. Later in the night he'll go through a procedure to repair his shattered face and ribs. But for now, the minutes ahead will be filled with eye-watering, debilitating pain.
It only stops - temporarily - when Eric spots Amar striding through the doors into his room.
His instructor's face is devoid of his usual cheer, his approachable demeanor. Now he looks like a drill sergeant about to hand down a punishment to a lazy recruit. "Erudite," he greets Eric. "What happened out there? You forget how to defend yourself?"
Eric shakes his head. "No," he manages, hating that he's struggling to talk. "Why the hell are you blaming me? That Candor sonofabitch cheated. He got me ten seconds after he already lost."
"Well, did you anticipate that move?" Amar interrogates him.
"Even if I did, so what?" Eric shoots back. "He shouldn't have done that."
"I know!" Amar's quiet mutters turn into a shout. He narrows his eyes at his young charge. "For an Erudite, you're seriously ignorant. The point is, in real life, some people won't follow the rules, no matter what. With those folks, you can't ever play nice. Let them gain the upper hand, and they'll fight dirty. They'll gouge out your eyeballs. Stomp on your skull when you're down. Cut off your balls, even."
Eric is silent, and it's because he knows he's lost the argument.
Amar keeps going. "Now, are you prepared to do all that to those people? If your answer's no, just remember, they're prepared to do it to you."
He leaves Eric to contemplate these last words. He moves away from his student's bedside almost noiselessly, drifting like a restless phantom into the hall. But he still has a couple more thoughts to express. "Training's only gonna get harder from here on out," he warns Eric. "In the end, it'll make you do one of two things. Bend, or break. And I don't wanna see you break."
Then Amar's gone, too soon for Eric to find out whether he sees the latter as a hopeless case, or somebody worth fighting for.
I didn't get to see my best friend in the morning. The nurses said they put him in another room, so he'd recover after his surgery. Mia and I didn't manage to find that room, and soon after, we were leaving to go on a field trip with the other initiates. To "explore" the various job options in Dauntless, Amar said.
We're back now. I'm itching to tell someone what happened today at the fence. Jason thought he was being a tough guy when he picked a fight with a Dauntless policeman. He ended up learning the effectiveness of a good choke hold. The hard way.
The memory puts a shit-eating grin on my face. I weave through the corridors in the infirmary until I finally locate the room Eric's in.
He seems to be asleep, so I move closer, thinking I'll grab his arm and shake him awake. I pause when I get a good look at his face. Jeez, how can somebody's skin change color that fast? The layers of bandages obscure it somewhat, but I can still tell. Earlier Eric's face was its usual shade of light brown, now it's a chalky gray. The color of a two-day-old corpse.
Panic prickles at my insides. I pick up Eric's wrist to feel for a pulse. A second later I let his hand drop. No way something's not terribly wrong, when his skin's that cool to the touch.
"Hey… Toby," Eric wheezes. I look at him, his eyes are only partially open. "What'd you… just say?"
"Huh? I wasn't talking." Okay, he's in worse condition than I thought.
"Yeah… you were," Eric insists. "You said… something about… getting choked out…"
"No, I didn't," I tell him, fighting to keep my voice calm. "I'll go and tell a nurse about you. You're in serious need of help. I don't care if the Dauntless think it makes you weak."
I turn and rush out of the room. I'm looking out for anyone who might be able to assist us, but surprisingly, I don't see many. A pair of Dauntless nurses stand next to a drinking fountain, one of them in the middle of refilling her water bottle. They're both laughing over something, namely, the fact that the girl on the left just ignored a lady's call button going off.
Disgusted, I hurry past them. No use asking for assistance from people like that.
But I don't have much better luck with the next person. He's seated in front of a computer screen and scribbling some words on a pad of paper. Taking notes? Listing patient information? I have no idea. I just give him a cautious tap on the shoulder, then I tell him about the trouble my friend's in.
He seems to gaze right past me as he monotones, "Thank you. I'll be with you in just a moment."
Are you fucking kidding me right now?
Unable to fully work out what to do, I just turn around and stumble back in the direction I came. I'm not exactly looking, so it makes my heart jump in my chest when I crash into someone.
Feeling a little dizzy, I glance up. I bumped into a woman. A lady from Erudite, given her huge spectacles and squeaky-clean clothes.
She's Jeanine Matthews. The current council representative from Erudite, who used to teach Eric in elementary school.
"Ms. Matthews," I blurt out. "Can you… can you give us some help, please?"
A couple minutes and one rushed explanation later, Jeanine's starting to get it. She tells me with alarm that if Eric isn't given treatment soon, he'll go into septic shock. I have no clue what that means, but I trust that Jeanine knows what she's saying.
I leave it to her to convince the mostly Dauntless staff to take action. Within minutes, they're all snapping to attention and obeying her commands, even those two badly behaving nurses. How does Jeanine do it? The amount of influence she has outside of Erudite is unexpected. But I'm not about to complain.
Jeanine assures me that Eric'll live. We weren't too late, and that's the one silver lining in this mess.
Thank God for you, Ms. Matthews. Thank you. Marcus was dead wrong, the Erudite can be kind, too.
AN: Obviously this chapter wasn't as fun to write as the last, but it is definitely bringing the drama. Rating WILL change in the next chapter! Review please!