Tris the trainer

My own power

Tobias pov:

I stare at the cold metal object in my hand. I know it is a gun, well obviously it's a gun and it looks exactly the same as the ones we used in training, but I can't process what I have to do.

I then look up at the women. She is wearing plain white, has plain brown hair, has plain eyes, and has a face that if you saw in a crowd you wouldn't remember, but I know I will never forget this women. I have to shoot her, and not just shoot but kill.

If I haven't had that talk with Six- I would have shot her already, not even thinking. But now I have to try to get through the the simulation without being to fast, but still faster than everyone else. It is hard but I know that it has to be done.

I look back down at my gun and take a deep breath. This isn't real Tobias! I remind my self as I set my feet shoulder length apart, lift the gun up in front of me with both hands. I look up at the girl again. She is staring at me with absolutely no emotion in her eyes. I look back down and breath in, put my finger on the trigger, breath out, and pull it. I look away immediately, but knowing I hit my mark by the slight gasp escaping her mouth and the sound of her body hitting the ground with a thump. I sit on the ground and put my head between my knees.

This was definitely the easiest fear by far. For the past couple days I have been repeating the same two fears but in slightly different situations: different boxes, some with water in them or maybe some with people watching me trying to escape. Or maybe different buildings with different times of the day- not much difference with that one, but it still scares the living crap out of me every time.

"Hey Stiff, are you alright?" I hear Six ask me. I realize I have probably been out of the simulation for a few minutes and I have just been sitting with my head between my legs for about five minutes.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I say standing up. I look at Six fast and see that's she is looking at me too. Our eyes meet and I try to look for something that will help me in her eyes, but they are as guarded as she is.

I quickly turn away and hurry out of the room. I walk silently down the halls until I reach the dormitory. Once I get into the room I expect to see what I've seen yesterday, and everyday before that: a few initiates lying on the beds, facing the wall and not speaking. Instead everyone Is surrounding Eric and a chock board.

"What's going on?" I whisper to Will, standing next to him.

"Rankings for stage two," he whispers back.

I am very stunned and not happy at all. "I thought there weren't any cuts after stage two," I hiss.

"There aren't. It's just like a progress report sort of thing." He says to me.

The sight of the board makes me feel uneasy , like something is swimming in my stomach. Eric lifts the board up his head and hangs it on a nail in the wall. Everyone crowds around it and I can barley see. But since I'm so tall, I can just see the first two people: Peter is second, and my name is in the first slot. Heads would have turned in my direction if I wasn't first last stage. I follow the list down and Christian and Will are seventh and ninth. That's pretty good.

Everyone separates and I walk to my bed. I want to go to bed early tonight, so I start to take of my shoes as Peter pushes me onto the bed. I stare at him in disbelief as his fist reaches down, grabs a fistful of my shirt, and yanks me back up. What the hell is happening? I think as Peter pushes me up against the wall and holds me there.

"I will not be outranked by a stiff," he hisses to me. I know I should punch him or kick him or use some self deffence, but all I can think is, did he have a talk like this with Edward? "How did you do it, huh? How the fricken hell do you do it?"