Stoupající

8

I have successfully managed to avoid Eric for the entire week – outside of work stuff, at least. During work I tried to keep our conversations to a bare minimum. I am pretty sure he noticed that something is off. In fact, he asked to go for a coffee after a meeting with Amity – a thing we regularly did together after I became a leader in training but haven't done in a while now – but I knew that he was just going to try and get me to talk. So I told him I had plans.

I still cannot believe I actually forgot who Eric is. Who he is working for and what goals he wants to accomplish. That he would stop at nothing.

I don't think I have ever seen something as terrifying as Eric deciding to kill that guy without blinking, without remorse. He did not even say a word about it afterward. On the whole train ride back to Dauntless my heart was pounding like crazy, the image of the guy bleeding out replaying over and over in my head.

"Triiiissy," Uriah's voice breaks me out of my thoughts as he walks into my office. Across the hall, Eric lifts his head.

"Uri," I sigh, massaging my temples. "It's not a good time right now."

"I'll make it quick," he replies. "Chris's party is tonight and you still haven't told us whether you'll be coming."

Oh god. The party. I completely forgot about that.

"I know that Chris is going to kill me," I sigh. "But I'm not coming. I just want to spend my Friday evening on the couch doing nothing. I need some time for myself, to think."

"Are you okay?" Uriah asks, his face completely serious for a change. "You look more tired and stressed out than usual. Still got your hands full with factionless?"

"Among other things," I mutter before I can stop myself. Thankfully, Uriah doesn't push.

"I'll tell Chris you're not feeling well," he gives me a soft smile. "You know you can talk to me, right? If you need anything, I'm here for you. We all are."

"Thanks, Uri," I whisper, afraid I might start crying. I feel like my emotions are all over the place at the moment. What the hell is wrong with me?

Uriah waves me goodbye and I watch him leave. My gaze flies toward the other office and my eyes meet Eric's. He frowns and I immediately look down at the file on my desk again.

The file consists of images and names of more factionless that Zeke and Four found on the cameras. However, there is no video material whatsoever showing by whom or how the bomb was placed. Even though the guy at Erudite told us that he and Edward were the ones responsible for placing it we cannot not rely on his statement alone. All in all, we are still at square one.

I look up when Eric knocks on my open door.

"Max texted," he says. "He'll be here in about five minutes."

I nod and close the file before getting up and following Eric to the conference room for our weekly meeting. Since the attack on the leaders we have met up every Friday afternoon and discuss any new information regarding factionless before finally calling it a day.

The meeting is relatively short since there aren't any news regarding the bombing and otherwise nothing special happened this week. Eric keeps staring at me the entire time, his expression quizzical, like he is trying to figure me out.

The moment Max dismisses us I get up and almost sprint out of the room.

I make it around the corner and halfway down the next corridor when Eric catches up with me and grabs my upper arms, turning me around.

Before I can even blink he roughly pushes me against the wall, his face inches away from mine.

"What the hell, Stiff," he snaps angrily. "What's going on with you?"