Devious | Eric Coulter

14

UNEDITED

"Wake up, Lottie." I was suddenly shook awake by an unknown person, causing me to snap my eyes open. I tried to focus my eyes and after a few seconds, I recognized the face of Eric. I huffed loudly.

"What do you want? It's 5 in the morning!"

He made a 'shh' noise. "Keep your fúcking voice down. You'll wake up the other initiates. And it's not 5, it's 15 minutes before Four wakes you up."

I made a small grumbling noise. "Why are you here?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Don't tell me you forgot about what I said yesterday," He dropped his voice to a soft whisper, "I'll be training you for the second stage of initiation."

I sighed. "Right. Just let me get ready."

He straightened up and nodded. "I'll be outside. Make it quick, remember, 15 minutes before Four comes down."

As soon as Eric was out of the room, I immediately got out of bed and got dressed in my usual attire--some jeans and a long sleeved shirt.

I folded my blankets neatly and hastily wore my shoes. After tying my boots' shoelaces, I sprinted out the room.

I was unaware of Peter's eyes following my movements.

***************

"Alright," Eric walked ahead of me towards a corridor I haven't been before, "First, you need to know that the second and third stages are all about your mind."

"Do we have to answer a test or something?" I asked him as we entered a room with white walls, several metal chairs were pressed against the wall.

He chuckled at me, "No. You will be learning to deal with your fears."

I gave him a puzzled look. "Our fears? We'll be facing our fears? Geez, Dauntless  sure is brave."

Eric gave me a smug look and puffed his chest in pride. "Of course we are."

I rolled my eyes at him. "How do we do it? Will they let us see our fears in a screen or something?"

He shook his head. "It will be like your Aptitude Test. But this time, we will inject you with the serum instead of letting you drink it, it will enable you to see your fears. You can complete the test by either facing your fears or by calming your heart rate. Initiates will be ranked according to the time when they finish the simulation."

I whistled lowly. "That seems quite easy enough. How many fears are there?"

"There are different numbers of fears for every person. A normal person can have at least twenty fears, while others can have eight or less."

"Twenty? I have to go through twenty fears?!"

"You'll be fine."

I turned to him and asked. "What's the least number of fears recorded?" 

Eric's face suddenly turned hard, his expression dark. "Four."

I looked at him, wide-eyed. "Four? Does it have something to do with--"

"Sit down." He interrupted and pointed to a chair that looked like the chair in my Aptitude Test. I walked towards it, slightly confused about Eric's behavior. 

Was I right? Did it have something to do with my brother?

As I leaned back on the chair, Eric walked towards me with an injection-like object that looked like those that were used in Abnegation clinics. The needle on its tip disturbed me.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked almost shakily.

He patted my head, a gesture of his that I was quite accustomed to already. "Don't worry, Lottie. I won't hurt you."

I gave up trying to get Eric to call me Charlie, it was useless. He was all 'Lottie' this, 'Lottie' that.

He moved the hair resting on my neck and slowly pushed the needle in. I winced and tried to pull away, but he held my head tightly.

After a few seconds, he pulled the needle out. I glared at him.

"A little warning would have helped."

He rolled his eyes and brought up his hand to my cheek, caressing it gently. I felt my heartbeat go faster.

"Just remember what I told you. You can move on to your next fear by either finding a way to get out of it or by calming your heart rate. The sim will happen in a few seconds, get ready."

Everything started to get blurry, and the last thing I heard were the words, "Be brave."

***************

I was on top of a metal bridge, a very thin and narrow one. 

I quickly got down and held onto the railing tightly. I stared on what was underneath me. It was a hundred and something feet tall.

If I drop, I'd surely be dead. 

I quickly looked around me, trying to find a way out. My eyes traveled to a building with a small window, connected on the end of the bridge.

Without letting go of the railings, I walked towards the building. Everything seemed fine at first, but then it suddenly felt a lot windier, the air almost knocked me down. The railing also started disappearing, making my eyes go wide in fright.

Without hesitation, I ran towards the end of the bridge with all my might,  ignoring the bridge that somehow lost its railing. I puffed out a relieved breath when I was close enough to the other side, but the bridge started swinging, as if I was in a swing itself.

I cried loudly. How do I end this?!

While measuring the distance between where I was standing and the window of the building, I told myself to be calm. 

You can jump. I thought. Or do you prefer to fúcking fall?

Closing my eyes tightly, I bent my legs and jumped.

************

I gasped for air as I saw Eric's worried face in front of me.  He had his hands on my shoulders, a frown plastered on his face.

"Are you alright?" He questioned softly.

I nodded shakily. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine."

He gave me a few minutes to collect myself and then spoke, "You did good."

I looked at him from under my eyelashes. "Yeah? You're not going to ask what was my fear?"

"What I saw on your sim was pretty fúcking scary. I can understand the heights thing, but the swinging bridge with magically disappearing railings? No, thank you."

I furrowed my eyebrows at him, "You can see my fears?"

He muttered under his breath. "I forgot to tell you about that. Yeah, I can see your fears with that monitor over there." He gestured behind his back.

"But that's not important. I pulled you out of your sim, we don't have much time left before Four wakes the other initiates. We need to go."

"Before we go, how many minutes was I in the sim?"

The look he gave me was a bit scary. "You were in there for a fucking minute."