Fire and Ice

Now we choose you

After dinner was over for everyone else, Max called me to help Eric escort the initiates to their sleeping compound. I resisted but obeyed because he told me we'd get alone time and plus he needs Eric kept in check so I agreed. I was still pissed though.

We followed Eric through hallways dimly lit causing the initiates to trip everywhere getting me to giggle at them and I swear I see Eric smirk at me but it disappears quickly. He stops in front of a wooden door and folds his arms. We gather around him. "For those of you who don't know, my name is Eric," he says. "I am one of five leaders of the Dauntless as well as Jade here, she's Max's right hand." I grin at the praise he's giving me as I look at the initiates. "We take the initiation process very seriously here, so we volunteered to oversee most of your training."

I step forward to gain their attention as I still have my arms crossed across my chest "Some ground rules,You have to be in the training room by eight o'clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation."

"You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Dauntless," Eric adds. "Behind this door is the room where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks. You will notice that there are ten beds and only nine of you. We anticipated that a higher proportion of you would make it this far."

"But we started with twelve," protests Christina. Tris closes her eyes as if waiting for her reprimand making me smirk, smart girl.

"There is always at least one transfer who doesn't make it to the compound," says Eric, picking at his cuticles. He shrugs. "Anyway, in the first stage of initiation, we keep transfers and Dauntless-born initiates separate, but that doesn't mean you are evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be determined in comparison with the Dauntless-born initiates. And they are better than you are already. So I expect—"

"Rankings?" asks the mousy-haired Erudite girl to my right. "Why are we ranked?" Eric smiles, I take over as I elbow check him to let him know he needs to chill out. "Your ranking serves two purposes,The first is that it determines the order in which you will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available. The second purpose, is that only the top ten initiates are made members."

Everyone's heads popped to stare at us, "What?" Christina squeaks out

"There are eleven Dauntless-borns, and nine of you," Eric continues. "Four initiates will be cut at the end of stage one. The remainder will be cut after the final test."

"What do we do if we're cut?" Peter the douchebag asks.

"You leave the Dauntless compound," says Eric indifferently, "and there's no going back home ot your families, so you'd live factionless." The mousy-haired girl clamps her hand over her mouth and stifles a sob. "But that's...not fair!" the broad-shouldered Candor girl, Molly, says. Even though she sounds angry, she looks terrified. Eric and I stare at each other, our eyes speaking words their selves, we gotta toughen them up. "If we had known—"

"Are you saying that if you had known this before the Choosing Ceremony, you wouldn't have chosen Dauntless?" I snap. "Because if that's the case, you should get out now. If you are really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward."

Eric pushes the door to the dormitory open. "You chose us, Now we get to choose you."

++++++++

After we leave them in their compound, Eric walks beside me quietly, as if he's contemplating on what to say to me. Half of me wants to grab his jacket and pull him to me so I can feel his lips on mine again but then my other half wants to punch him for not sticking up for us like he should have. I sigh causing him to look at me as we stopped. I shake my head as I look at him "Eric, you should've stuck up to Max to show that we are just fine as we were. This is going to tear us apart. You're going to be turned into her mindless puppet and I will hate you" He shook his head at me as he grabbed my face, "Jade, it's not going to, you're too important for me to lose. I can't be without you. I'm my own person and I live and breathe for you baby" I smiled as I grabbed his hand and headed back to our apartment but he wouldn't budge causing my smile to falter as I seen the pain in his face as he looked at me "I moved into a different apartment" My breath hitched and I dropped his hand "What? You're kidding right?" I whispered as my eyes burned he wouldn't look at me now "It's temporary Jade so they won't hound us" I nod my head as I feel the pain seeping in.

"Jade, we need to do this right, Jeanine was right about that" he finally looked at me as a tear slipped from my eye, Eric went to touch me as sympathy was all over his face but I backed up and hugged myself as I looked at the ground, my wall was coming up. "Well I guess good night then" "Jadence" "Goodbye Eric" I looked at him briefly to see pain all over his face now and i put my head back down as I sprinted into my apartment before anyone could see me crying, ignoring Eric yelling for me.

I was able to lock the door before I collapsed on the floor and started bawling. I made myself get up eventually where I noticed Eric's jacket was on the couch where he always left it and i put it on as I made my way to our/my bed and laid on my side, cuddling with his jacket to comfort myself, Ignoring the knocking at the door.