Born to be Dauntless

Chapter 47

What's the deal with Eric? Does he have a personality disorder or something?

I cautiously tiptoed after him, waiting for him to turn around and randomly punch me with some sort of vague explanation afterwards. It came as a surprise when he stopped in front of his office and pulled out some keys.

"I see that you're getting rid of your leftover Erudite traits." Eric commented as he opened the door and stepped aside to let me pass.

I didn't answer him as I waited for him to tell me what to do. He better not try to electrocute me again.

"Today you'll get a special training." he said as he closed the door behind him and locked it.

 Why does he keep calling it 'training'? Isn't this my punishment for not being on time?

He threw his keys on his desk and walked to the back of his office through a door. Am I supposed to follow him? 

I hesitated for a second but ended up walking after him anyway. It wasn't as if he'd said 'halt' or 'wait here' or anything, so I figured that I should follow him.

He guided me through some narrow halls. I was amazed. I'd never really thought about what was behind Eric's office but I'd never expected it to be this large. We passed some closed doors and ended up going all the way to the end of the hall.

At this moment I had no idea what to expect anymore. I half expected a room filled with knives when he opened the door but instead I was greeted by what looked like an empty room. As I followed Eric inside I noticed that some beat-up looking training dummies were placed along the side of the wall.

"Wait here." Eric ordered as he walked to the only other normal looking door.

I watched him as he disappeared in what looked like a storage closet. The rest of the room looked like our trainingsroom, but smaller. The middle of the room the floor was covered by a dark red gymnastics mat. 

Why would Eric bring me here? Why not just make me train in my normal trainingsroom? It doesn't make sense for me to see this room behind his office. Unless he's trying to show me something. But what?

Ah fuck it. He'll tell me if he planned something. Or not, and in that case I shouldn't even think about it in the first place.

I crossed my arms and waited for Eric to come out. It didn't take long for Eric to walk out dressed differently. Instead of his normal black attire, he now wore a black sleeveless shirt and some workout looking pants. 

So you brought me to a trainingsroom... to train... with you? I don't get it.

"Rogue. To the mat." he ordered.

I didn't question it and made my way over to the mat with Eric on my heels.

"Is this my punishment for being late?" I asked as he stood in front of me.

"Fighting position" he ordered "and sort of."

Sort of? What is that supposed to mean? 

"Focus." Eric said annoyed as he easily slapped my arms away.

I took a deep breath and decided to do as he says. I tensed my muscles and focused on my best fighting stance. Eric nodded once as he circled around me. Every second that ticked away, I got more nervous. 

Suddenly I felt Eric kick my right leg. I hadn't expected that so I stumbled, trying to regain my balance. Eric used this to his advantage and pushed me down with just one hand. My back hit the, not so soft, mat with a dull thud. Before I'd even had the time to react, he'd already pinned me down.

"Your leg was sticking out." Eric said with his familiar smug smirk.

I bit my lip to refrain myself from saying something stupid and got up. Eric repeated this thing a couple of times. Every time he'd pick something that normal people probably wouldn't even notice but he said that it was important to never stop judging your fighting style.

Honestly, I had no idea what the fuck was going on anymore. What did Eric see when he supervised my fear landscapes? It couldn't have been that interesting, right? You see my fear of bugs so you decide to help me become better at fighting?

So many questions floated around in my head but I was afraid that if I'd ask them, he'd call me out on leftover Erudite traits. In the end I decided to ask just one question.

We'd already 'sparred' for nearly an hour. My objective had been to get a hit on Eric but since he wasn't trying to hit me, his defence was way too solid. I'd only gotten one or two hits on him after all that time. And I'm quite sure that those were more lucky hits than skills.

I sat on the side of the dark red mat as Eric was preparing some things at the training dummies. I had no idea what but I wasn't going to ask him. Instead I decided to ask the question that had been bothering me for this entire time.

"So what did you see during my fear landscapes?" I asked him as I watched his back.

He stopped doing whatever he was doing for a second but didn't answer me directly. "Potential." he ended up answering without turning around.

"For what?"

"Well you haven't passed your second test yet." he answered.

"So you'll actually answer me if I pass?" I asked sarcastically.

"Perhaps." Eric said as he turned around and showed me a smirk.

Well even though I've asked multiple questions, at least he didn't call me out on acting Erudite.

"Okay for the next training..." Eric said as he walked to one of the light emitting white walls. He placed his hand on the wall and tapped it twice. For a second I thought that he'd lost his mind, until the wall split open and revealed four different closets. Eric started typing in some sort of code and not a second later, one of the closet's door rolled open revealing multiple knives all ordered and neatly stacked away.

It was almost as if I'd stepped back in the awesome store where I'd bought my knife but then with more weapons.

Eric grabbed a few throwing knives and handed me them.

He wouldn't want me to actually hit his targets, right? They look kind of... not really that replaceable. And seeing as I'll be throwing knives at them-

"What are you waiting for? Throw the knives." he said as if I was mentally challenged.

I huffed and threw one as I turned to the dummy. It didn't hit him in the center but it hit him in the chest nonetheless.

Just like the other things that Eric had made me do, I had to repeat this for a while with comments of Eric. I was starting to get hungrier and hungrier. 

Finally after what felt like hours, Eric ordered me to stop. As he placed the knives back in their spots and closed the closet I decided to ask another question.

"Why do you suddenly trust me? Not too long ago you beat me up because a rumor told you that I was planning an assassination on you... And now you're inviting me to a room, what I'm guessing not a lot of people know of, and give me some knives while we're completely alone?"

"Are you saying that you are planning to kill me then?" he asked as he glanced over to me.

"No. I'm just saying... that I wouldn't have done the same in your position."

"Well you don't know what I do." he commented as he walked back into the storage looking closet door.

This has definitely been the most confusing day since I've joined Dauntless.