Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

eight

With nothing else to do for today, as well as being highly disturbed by my interaction with Eric earlier, I turn in for the night a good couple of hours before the day is even over. It's crazy to me how eventful things have already been within such a short period of time.

My eyes are sealed shut as I will sleep to claim me when there's a tap on my shoulder.

"Nessie!" My eyes shot open at the familiar voice.

"Uriah?" I rubbed at my lids, keeping my voice down to not disturb the few others who are also already in bed. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"

Uriah flashes what I'm starting to label as his signature grin at me, "I'm here to bring some fun into your boring ass life, Nessie. What else would I be here for?" He claps his hand, sparing the rest of my roommates no regard with the amount of noise that he's making. "Come on, Ness. Up and at 'em."

Shoving my blanket off of me, I roll out of bed and stuff my feet into my shoes.

"Where are we going?"

Uriah shakes his head and wags a finger at me, "So many questions, Nessie. Just come along and you'll find out."

"That sounds exactly like what a serial killer would say. Have you been reading Ted Bundy's handbook recently, Uriah?"

Uriah throws his head back in laughter, throwing an arm over my shoulders as he leads me towards the door.

"I like you too much to want to kill you, Nessie." He says, "Let's go. The others are waiting."

Instead of asking more questions like I want to, I follow Uriah out the door without complaint. Mostly because we're starting to get dirty looks shot our way by the people who were trying to sleep.

Once we've made it out of the dormitory, I continue my line of questioning.

"Where are we going?" I asked again.

With his hand still draped over my shoulder, he guides me through a long hallway.

"It's a surprise, Nessie. Trust me, you're going to love it." He answers, "But I should warn you. Once you've seen this place, you're one of us for good. There's no going back."

"You're making it sound like I'm about to join a cult." I pause at the thought, "You're not in a cult, are you?" It was a fair question if you asked me. We just met this morning, so I wouldn't know if he was.

Uriah cackles so loudly that his laughter echoes through the hallway, drawing eyes towards us as we turn into another path.

I curse under my breath as a pair of familiar blue eyes swing our way, bringing the conversation Uriah and I walked into between Eric and an older Dauntless member I've never seen before to a halt.

"Hey, Gus. What's up?" Uriah greets the older guy.

Gus offers Uriah a wordless nod in greeting and I keep my focus on him as we draw nearer to the pair, even though I could feel Eric's burning gaze on me.

Just when I think we're going to make it past them, Eric speaks up. "Going somewhere, initiate?" Eric demands- because god knows the guy can't ask for anything nicely.

He eyes Uriah's arm- which suddenly felt like a million pounds over my shoulder- looking none too happy.

"A few of us were just going to celebrate our first day-"

"I wasn't speaking to you," Eric cuts Uriah's explanation off curtly.

I glare at the blue-eyed leader, "That was rude."