Danger is Near

Chapter 18

As I stood with Amy, Al, Matisse, Edward, Peter and Will I couldn't help but think about Eric smiling at me. It was so strange.

Why would he smile at me? In fact why would he smile, ever!? I'm not special to him. I thought. Until a loud, booming voice cut through my thoughts. It was him announcing the next two jumpers to fight. They were two boys I recognised but didn't know. There was a big group of us initiates, and we hadn't even spent much time 'together', so I hardly knew anyone. Except for my circle of friends.

The day went on and on. It felt like ages. But finally training ended. Eric left without saying a word, as Four told us to go relax and eat. It was about six o'clock.

I was quite surprised though. Most people fought at least twice. But me? No. I only got to hop in the ring once, but, then again. That was a good thing. There was no way I wanted to get beaten up any more. I may have beat 'tough girl' but it wasn't fun.

Our whole group headed towards the Hall for dinner. Except for Christina, Tris, Amy, Jem and Al. They had injured themselves really badly.

I couldn't wait to dig into the food and then go back to the dorm to sleep. I was so sore and tired.

That night I had strange dreams. So strange I can't even explain them. But they were mainly about Eric. But he was completely different. He looked different, sounded different and talked different.

It was about five in the morning. It would only be another hour until Four came to wake us up. So I thought it would be a good idea to get ready early and slip down to the Infirmary.

After I finished seeing Christina, Al, Tris, Amy and Jem I noticed 'tough girl' was still there. She seemed to be awake so I approached the bed she lay in.

"Hey" I said softly.

She just looked at me, you could tell she was angry at me. Probably annoyed that I beat her.

I looked down at the ground. I felt really bad for bashing her up, she had bruises all over her face, and I was guessing she had bruises on her bum and basically everywhere else. But then again so did I. In fact, I think she got more punches in than I did.

"Listen, I'm really, really sorry about yesterday" I said, all of a sudden feeling really embarrassed, for I never usually beat people up.

"Na, it's fine. You did what you had to do. And plus, you fought really well, so you deserved to win" she replied hoarsely.

I looked down at her. I could almost feel her physical and emotional pain. "So no hard feelings?" I uttered.

"No hard feelings" she said with a weak smile.

"What's your name?" I asked her, curiously. For all I knew her by was 'tough girl'.

"Molly" she replied. "And you?"

"Oh, my name is Eliza" I answered. "And I'm not sure if this will make you feel any better but before I knew your real name I just referred to you as 'tough girl'".

She chuckled slightly, saying a thank you as well. This was obviously a compliment in her mind.

"Anyways, I should probably get going. Four will probably wake the others up soon" I said, as I slowly began to walk away.

"Cya" she said lightly. I could tell she was tired.

Before I walked out of the door I asked her another question. "Will you be training today?"

"No, sadly I won't be. I'll just be lying in this comfortable bed all day" she said sarcastically.

"Well, get better soon" I finished, as I popped out of the door and ran down the hallways back to the dorm. Everyone was still asleep. It was about five forty. Four would probably come to wake us up soon.

I just lay on top of my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Waiting. I had a strong feeling we would be fighting again today, which meant Eric would be there.

For some reason I actually wasn't tired. Running through the hallways really woke me up.

As I expected, Four woke us up early. We all headed down to the Training Arena and as I predicted, Eric was there. He didn't look too happy though, he looked extremely tired and fed up.

"Alright" Four said. "We'll be fighting again today so take the next hour to practice before we start calling you up".

"This is also your last training before your final rankings are announced. Five people will be leaving us tomorrow, so for those of you who are below that red line, you better use today's training to redeem yourselves" Eric said while pointing towards the ranking panel.

As he said this many people started murmuring and complaining quietly.

I didn't complain though, because I knew the people complaining would get a mean lecture. I just watched Eric, knowing he would burst anytime soon. I could see his face through the crowd. He was judging everyone who looked scared or worried. After a while of having to wait and listen to people whining to their friends he spoke up. I knew it would come.

"You're all fuckin' wimps" he voiced. There it is. Everyone's expressions changed from worried to shocked. I guess, seeing as we were all initiates from different factions, we weren't used to being sworn at.

"You see, if you were truly Dauntless, it wouldn't matter to you whether you might be cut. Because if you were a true Dauntless you would stop at nothing to show us that you belong here. By whining and worrying, you are showing us that you aren't cut out for anything we do here. It's as simple as that" he continued calmly. And with that he turned around slowly, grabbing out a notebook. It was most likely the notebook he took notes in about the initiates he had to rank.

As everyone began to break off into groups, heading for the punching bags. I chose to head for the punching bag closest to Eric. I had a little comment I wanted to share with him.

As I walked past him he looked me up and down. Then went back to studying his notebook.

"That was a nice speech you gave there. I'm sure it motivated everyone" I said cockily.

"Oh would you quit it Eliza!" he sighed. He was obviously stressed out about something. I could tell. But I didn't want to get involved, especially not with everyone around to see Eric cracked the shits with me. So I just continued along towards the punching bags.

I practiced for half an hour, taking short breaks in between each little practise session.

And as I had just finished up having a drink Four called everyone over. The fights were about to begin, again. Super!