Villainous Love (A Divergent Fanfic)

Chapter 17

The next couple of days go by quickly. Eric and Four work through as many mentals as they can - it takes a while to get through all twenty-one of us - the average time is a lot longer than eight minutes, and most of the initiates react badly to the serum, throwing up and whatnot.

Those of us who finish the fear landscape do more physical training with Lauren and the Dauntless-borns. She works us so hard that by the time we're done, we barely have the energy to do anything after dinner except go to sleep and wait for the cycle to repeat itself the next day.

I also don't see as much of Eric during these times. We'd rendez-vous by the Chasm after hours or rest in his apartment sometimes but the both of us are too busy or exhausted for anything else.

Tomorrow is the day of the final fear landscape. The day after that is the ceremony held for the accepted initiates - ten of us will then choose our jobs, while eleven of us move out to join the factionless. I know Eric says I will make it, and I know I am a good initiate, but I am a nervous mess regardless.

"How are you feeling?" asks Avi, sweat dripping from his face like a damn waterfall. We just finished sparring in the ring and we are now hanging around the water fountain, taking a small break from the training room.

"Nervous," I reply. "You?"

"I'm cool. I know we're all going to make it. The transfers this year aren't as impressive as they've been in the past, and a couple of our own probably won't make it. Just because you're born Dauntless doesn't mean you are Dauntless."

"I guess that's true."

"Yeah, don't think about it."

"Thanks. That's solid advice. All I've been doing is thinking about it, and now I know not to."

He grins his boyish grin and drapes an arm around my shoulder.

"Any time. Hey, we should all go to the club tonight. Celebrate our last night as initiates."

"You have the energy for clubbing?"

"Definitely not. But a couple drinks in and I'll be dancing salsa like it's nobody's business."

"Fine, whatever," I say, rolling my eyes.

"That's the spirit! Viva el baile!"

-

It's hard to enjoy the night out. The club is energetic and beautiful, as per usual, but I am sore from head to toe thanks to Lauren's crazy training and on-edge because of tomorrow's finals. The fact that only ten of us will be made members is crazy - the girls and I along with Avi and Sophie, who I've grown to see as siblings, and even Keith, quiet and often moody but still kind, already make six. Assuming we all make it, which I hope we do, who will be the remaining lucky four? And what if we don't all make it?

My leg bounces up and down rapidly as I wait on Avi to bring our drinks, and I chew on my bottom lip.

"Why so nervous?" asks Luna, before shaking her head and saying "stupid question."

"Most of the Dauntless-borns crushed the transfers during physicals," offers Keith in a rare moment of speech. A quite unhelpful one, might I add. "But you guys balanced things out in the fear landscape." Well, maybe not all that unhelpful.

"What do you mean?" asks Kali.

"Well if Eric and Four had to rank us according to physicals only, I'd say someone like Elix could easily take most of the transfers and rank first. But she did completely average in the fear landscape, most of us did, and the transfers generally did better. So it's almost tied overall, I'd say. Plus, I don't know if you guys heard, but Max and Lauren are overseeing the finals. You know what that means."

"The Divergents," says Luna with an air of uncomfortable finality. This doesn't help my nerves in the slightest, and I shift in my seat. Where the hell is Avi with those drinks?

"Bingo," mutters Keith before withdrawing back into himself, as though he'd caught himself being too involved and wanted to regress.

"The whole thing is so messy," says Luna. "My old faction leader, Jeanine Matthews, was caught up in a whole lot of shit because of her interest in... them. No one ever knew whether she wanted them dead or not because she never addressed any of it. Something about a top secret project. I'd always wanted to know what the hell that was about."

"Max and Lauren do for sure," I add. "They're like hunters."

"Huh?" choruses the table.

"How do you know that?" asks Sophie.

"Uh- I... what were we talking about?" I reply stupidly. "Ugh, I'm going to go look for Avi. I need to drink." I get up hastily and they resume talking among themselves, having changed the topic to something unrelated.

I make my way through the crowd and check the bar, and Avi is nowhere in sight. I roll my eyes and decide to take a walk, get away from the crowd, and maybe find him. I look towards the stairs and see Eric coming down, looking around. I head towards him and wave.

"Hi," I say, reaching out. But he holds me firmly in place, and I feel a sense of professionalism radiating from him that I usually don't when it's just the two of us.

"How long have you been here?" he asks.

"Basically since after training, why?" I ask and squint my eyes at him.

"Who else are you with?"

"Kali, Luna, Sophie, Keith and Avi is off somewhere getting our drinks. Are you alright? Why are you being so cold?" He tenses his jaw at the mention of Avi getting drinks.

"There's a little problem."

"Alright, then, what is it?"

"Do you know if any of the other initiates are here tonight?" he asks without answering me.

"No, I haven't been keeping track." My nerves begin to slow, but have been replaced with a growing pit in my stomach. I no longer feel anxious, per se, but somehow sick. And Eric behaving strangely isn't helping. Noticing my change in demeanor, Eric puts both hands on either side of my face and gently caresses me.

"Four and I-" he begins before I cut him off.

"I gotta go. I gotta go look for my friend. Can we talk later?" I break from his grasp and head towards the stairs.

"Selene," he says. He sounds so unaggressive, yet so demanding and urgent that I stop dead in my tracks and turn to face him. I sense I already know what's coming.

"Four and I just found him at the bottom of the Chasm."