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Chapter Seven

Everyone had been deadly silent as they left the training room, not daring to utter a word as Keres stood behind, remembering her punishment she had to do.

For the first half hour, she was alone, simply cleaning the blood off the mat. That was until Eric came in, carrying a plastic box filled with god knows what, probably to be ready for tomorrows session.

Eric eyed her curiously, "What are you still doing here initiate?" He asked, seeming to have forgotten the little fork incident.

Keres sighed as she looked up, feeling slightly humiliated being caught cleaning the mat like she was the janitor, "Punishment." She said shortly.

Eric chuckled as he recalled what had happened, finding it quite humorous that a small girl from Amity had managed to inflict so much damage in such a short amount of time.

He frowned as he sorted the knives for tomorrows activity for the initiates. A wild initiate is a disobedient one, and boy was she wild. She was impulsive and reckless. With her, the lines between bravery and stupidity, recklessness and fearlessness were blurred.

"By the time I get back, I want targets set up in a row." Eric commanded, walking away to leave when Keres spoke up defiantly, making him stop.

"My punishment here is practically over, I don't need to do anything for you. You're perfectly capable of setting up those targets yourself." She said. This time, she knew what she had said was stupid and far from brave, but she still felt that anger from the fight lingering, not yet completely washed away.

Eric turned around, giving her a sharp glare. "I am your leader. Talk to me like that again and I'll hang you from the chasm, now set up the targets." Eric commanded more forcefully, his whole body tense as if he were about to pounce and attack her.

Keres clenched her fists. He's a Dauntless Leader, not God, she thought to herself. She took a deep breath, before hesitantly following his orders. Throughout, the whole process of her setting up the targets, Eric stood back and watched with his arms crossed and a small smirk on his face.

Keres gritted her teeth in annoyance, clenching her jaw. Asshole, she thought. After she set up the targets, she stood to the side with a sarcastic smile. "There. All done. Can I leave now?" She asked, impatiently.

The smirk on Eric's lips only widened, a plan sparking up in his cold eyes. "No. Stand in front of one of the targets." He said, grabbing and playing around with a throwing knife as his smirk only turned even more malicious.

Keres immediately glared at him, "What? No. I was supposed to be out around half an hour ago." She almost growled out, forgetting that she was talking to a Dauntless leader.

Eric raised his pierced eyebrow, "Am I supposed to care? GET. IN FRONT. THE TARGET. NOW." Eric growled at her, eyes blazing with anger at her reluctance to obey him. Daring her to even think about leaving.

For a moment, Keres stood still, not wanting to go against her nature and actually do as she was told. But this was Dauntless. She would have to learn to adapt to order, which she was dreading. So, reluctantly, she did as she was told, keeping her head high in an attempt to soothe her wounded pride and ego.

Eric replaced his smirk with a toothy grin that looked even more malicious than his smirk as he got into his knife-throwing stance. "A warning for you; my aim is a little rusty." He said, with a taunting wink.

Before Keres could prepare for what was about to happen, Eric threw the knife, landing just by her neck. An inch to the side more and she was sure it would have hit her, making her clench her hands into fists in anger.

He threw another that landed on the other side of her neck, and another that nicked her cheek and ear. She moved her head away from the knife, eyes narrowed at him with anger that burned like wildfire. "You fucking cut me." She growled, teeth clenched.

He remained indifferent, if anything, he only smiled more. "I warned you." He simply said, amusement swirling in his eyes and he crossed his muscular arms.

An idea popped into Keres' heading, making her slowly smirk as she said, "Maybe that's why you couldn't get first place in your initiation. Or was it that you just couldn't beat Four?" She was happy that she managed to remember the rumour, because the look on Eric's face only made her smirk wider.

Eric's facial expression darkened, and he watched as the smirk on Keres' face dropped as she saw him march up to her angrily in long strides, making her stance turn defensive. He stopped when they were chest to chest, looking down at her as he grabbed her chin harshly, and threateningly.

"Watch what your say, initiate. Otherwise next time, I won't miss hitting that pretty, small neck of yours." He said darkly as they stood nose to nose.

Keres stayed silent this time, not moving an inch as they stood close to each other. The grip on her chin loosened, but remained as the tension between them became thick. She clenched her jaw, looking down at the floor before looking back up at him again and said, "Yes, sir."

He smirked again at the 'sir'. He definitely enjoyed this initiate, and he would enjoy playing around with her. He leaned in even closer, and surprisingly said, "Call me Eric."

Keres raised an eyebrow slightly, "If you'll call me Keres. I don't particularly like being called initiate." She said, making him chuckle.

He took a step back, crossed his arms and said, "Fine, you can go. You're done here." Making Keres nod, still processing what had happened.

"I'll see you later, Keres."