Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

forty-two

    "Useless girl!" Marcus snarls as he stumbles towards me and in turn, I take two steps back. "You're just like your stupid brother!"

My heart stutters as he starts to advance on me, moving twice as fast as I remember him ever doing.

In a blink of an eye, Marcus is in my face, muttering the words I remember him saying to me once before.

"I told you what would happen if you transferred, didn't I?"

Instead of giving in to the fear that thunders in my chest, I straighten up and meet his eyes as he takes another step closer to me.

I eye the beer bottle in his hand warily resisting the urge to flinch when he swings his hand out to smash the bottle against the wall.

His grip tightens around the neck of the broken bottle, and I shudder at the sight of the jagged pieces on what's left on it.

Marcus raises the bottle, ready to bring it down on me when my fight-or-flight instincts start to kick in and I grab his arm, disarming him quickly.

Disoriented from all his drinking, Marcus stumbles back from my attack and I toss the bottle to the side.

Memories of how he'd treated Tobias and I when we were younger come flooding back, and before I even comprehend what I was about to do, I'm grabbing him back his collar and reading my fist back.

However, before my fist even collides with his face, the room around me starts to fade away and I'm left standing out on the streets of Abnegation.

I whirl around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on when my eyes land on a house at the end of the street with its door wide open.

For some reason, my guy was urging me to enter, and so I do.

"Hello?" I called out as I stepped through the door.

I jump when I hear a gunshot sounds through the house. Then, another.

A chill runs down my spine as I linger by the front door, my mind at odds with itself on whether or not it was the smartest idea to wander further into the place.

"Ah, fuck it." I breathe before taking another step into the room.

Immediately, my eyes land on two familiar figures lying motionless on the floor and my heart drops.

I spin around until they're out of sight before any of the people who I knew were watching my stimulation could identify them instead of running to their side like my instincts tell me to.

But my first thought goes to Jeanine and how she'll be able to tell how much Tobias and Eric meant to me if she'd recognised them. There was no chance that I would give her the opportunity to use the people I love against me.

Panic wells in my chest as I try to figure out how in the world I was going to get myself out of this landscape without actually getting to it.

I swallow, taking a deep breath as I reach up to run a hand across my face. And when I drop my hand back to my side, my eyes fly wide open with a gasp.

"Come on, we have to get out of here. Now," Tobias whispers as he ushers me out of the seat.

"What's going on?" I ask in confusion as I hurry to stand.

"There was an error," He answers, keeping his voice low so no one could hear us.

Before my feet even touch the ground, Jeanine is already in front of us with a smile.

"My apologies, Vanessa." She says, "I'm not sure what went wrong, but we'll get to the bottom of it."

I don't miss the way she uses my given name instead of the one I've been insisting she called me by- an obvious power play on her part- but my mind was too much in a frenzy for me to care right now.

"It'll be nice to know what went wrong," I say, feigning confusion, "Do you need me to retake the test?"

"I don't believe we do," She replies, much to my relief.

I nod, "Alright, then. If you don't mind, I'll like to get some rest."

Without waiting for a reply, I head out of the room, making a conscious effort not to rush and end up alarming Jeanine.

I don't even realise that I've been holding my breath until Tobias and I make it out into the hallway.

"Do you think she's planning something?"

Tobias grunts, pacing nervously, "We can assume so." He frowns, "After they announce the final rankings tonight, you'll go straight back to Eric's room. Keep your eyes out for anything out of the ordinary."

"About that..." I start, "Eric and I...we aren't really..."

Tobias pauses his pacing and raises a brow at me, "Aren't really what?"

"Together...right now."

My brother pauses for a second as if he's still trying to process what I'd just said to him, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory. He broke up with me," I sigh, "Therefore, we're not together anymore."

Tobias groans, "V, we don't have time for jokes right now-"

"I'm not joking!" I fold my arms over my chest, "I'm serious, okay? He broke up with me because he thinks it will protect me."

"Damn it, Eric." He mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. You'll room with me, then. I'm going to have a quick chat with Eric."

I snort, "Good luck. I've already tried to talk to him. He's so goddamn stubborn!"

Tobias rolls his eyes at me, "Just...let me worry about it. Watch your back today, alright. Stick with Uriah and the rest of your friends. And don't wander off on your own, got it?"

"Got it," I tell him, contemplating for a moment before adding. "Let me know how it goes with Eric?"

Tobias doesn't reply me. Instead, he accompanied me down to the Pit where I spot Uriah, Marlene and Lynn.

"V," Tobias stops me before I could leave to join them, "He really loves you, you know?"

My heart leaps at his words and then squeezes at the reminder that Eric has never said them to me.

But I see it in the way he looks at me, or the sweet little things he does for me. That was the reason I didn't buy when he tried to kick me out of his life so ruthlessly.

"I know," I say, and I love him, too.