Fourtris Now and Forever: Divergent No War

| c h a p t e r 57 |

"First up!" Tobias shouts as the initiates gather around anticipating their matchups. Sophie nervously bites at her fingertips waiting for who she'll verse. "Tamani and Blade," he announces.

Tamani raises his eyebrows and he steps up, standing tall. Blade smirks easily, a hint of malice in his eyes as he cracks his fingers. His shaggy blond hair whips above his eyes as he bounces on the balls of his feet.

The two of them got some good punches in the beginning. Blade thrust his knee up, giving Tamani a low blow. I cringed as Blade slammed his fists over and over again onto Tamani's face.

"Stop!" I called, wanting to cease the fight before it got any more bloody. He didn't though. I ran up and yelled, "Stop!"

I catch his hand in the air with one hand and deliver a punch right to his nose. He shrieks and looks up at me with rage. "When I say stop, you stop," I say firmly.

He nods, but doesn't seem to get the memo. There's splatters of blood on the floor that we'll have to clean up later. The next pairing is Luke against Bill. Bill easily wins, knocking Luke to the floor with one solid punch.

"Madison and Cassandra," I sneer. "Go."

Cassandra looks stricken. "What?!"

"Come on," Madison says impatiently. "Let's go, Cass." She walks around the long way around to get to her side, just so she could brush past Tobias.

Cassandra's foggy green eyes dart between Madison and me. Then she stands up in the ring. She raises her arms reluctantly and Madison raises hers with bad positioning.

"Go," Four tells them.

Madison steps forward and Cassandra backs away. Cassandra throws a weak punch to Madison's gut, most likely on purpose as to not hurt her. Madison coldly throws a determined punch to the side of Cassandra's head and she falls to the floor.

Madison sends heartless kicks to her gut and chest and Four pulls her away. She goes away easily and asks him, "That was good, right Four?"

"More or less," he responds, still holding her arm.

"Four. Is that a nickname?" she asks tilting her head and smiling.

He steps away, not answering her question. Extending his arm to help Cassandra up, Madison says, "No hard feelings, right Cass?"

Her tone is heavily laced with lies and deception. "Sure," Cass responds, teary eyed and in pain. I take her from Four, walking over to the bench and applying an ice pack to her jaw.

"Abigail and Sophie," I call from the bench. Their heads dart up to me as they register what I said. "You're up."

They exchange a glance. "But we're friends," Abigail protests.

Sophie looks worriedly at the floor.

"That doesn't mean anything," Four says. "You walk in as friends and you go out as friends. Some instances call for you to defend yourself even against the people you care for. You need to be ready for anything. That goes for all of you," he says, looking around.

Abigail drops her eyes and takes a deep breath. They look over at one another and nod reluctantly.

"Friends," Sophie whispers.

Abigail nods. "Friends. Forever."

Stepping up onto the ring, both girls look extremely hesitant. The round begins supple with light hits. Then, Sophie throws a solid uppercut that hits her square in the cheek. Abigail responds by ducking away from the second and sending one to her stomach.