At Peace: A Tobias and Tris Fanfiction ®

Chapter 5: Eric

Today we continue stage one of initiation. Four and I will be teaching the initiates how to fire a gun. To be honest, I'm really not enjoying this new job. The only thing that keeps me going in the morning is the constant reminder that i'm engaged.

I slip on my Dauntless clothes and take a quick shower. Four is waiting for me in the training room already. I put my hair in a messy ponytail and head out. As I approach the target room, I hear a familiar, intimidating and evil voice. Eric. I had hoped to never see him again. I had almost pushed all the memories of that idiot from my mind, and now he's back.

I walk into the room and Eric quits talking. His permanently twisted expression remains the same as he glares at me.

"Six? You call yourself Six now?" He asks.

I just nod. He raises his eyebrows, unimpressed.

"Eric is going to be observing us today." Four adds.

"Okay." I say

"Well, I'll let you two get to work then. I can see how busy you must be with the initiates that havent come yet. Did you not instruct them to arrive in the training room, lets see, five minutes ago?" Eric snaps.

"They should be here anytime." I explain.

"Yes, but 'anytime' is not when the initiates were told to arrive. Should we blame the instructors or the initiates? Hmm.." He barks.

"I'll just... Go get them." I turn to leave.

"Hold up." Eric shouts. "This will be a few points counted off of your score, Stiff. You got that?"

"Score.. What score?" I question

Eric sighs, annoyed. "I will be scoring you two on a rubric to give to Max. If your score gets too low, he'll chose new trainers, and you two will be.. Out."

An unconvinced expression crosses my face. Why, of all people, was Eric chosen for this?

"And what's on the rubric?" I ask.

"That's my business." He smirks.

"Tris, lets go get the Initiates." Four motions for me to follow him. I grab his hand and leave Eric. As soon as I'm sure he cant hear me anymore, I say, "We're done, he's going to get us fired, Tobias."

"Just let him think he has all the power. That's all he wants." I nod.

I find the initiates still asleep. I cant be seen as a weak instructor. Especially with Eric around. "Were you not told to get up ten minutes ago!" I yell. Some of the initiates stand, other remain asleep.

"GET UP." Four shouts. This time everyone stands.

"Get dressed and be in the training room in two." I request, again. Four and I jog back to where Eric waits.

"Don't worry about Eric, okay?" He whispers as we near the room.

"Okay."

"So who have we decided to blame?" Eric snarls as we enter the room. There are only two people in this world that I truly hate. And that would include Eric.

"The initiates. Can we move on?" Four snaps.

Eric shrugs. The initiates walk in and stand in their rigid line. Four walks in front of them, exaggerating his anger, and the initiates look terrified. Except for Sage. She keeps her slight smile, making her look like shes above all of this. Four notices it as well.

"Sage? Are you able to explain why you were late?" He asks.

"No." Is all she replies with.

"Well there must be a reason, Sage. But you are unwilling to tell me?" Four questions. The smile leaves her face, and her eyes shift to the ground.

"Everyone back up!" He yells. "I will give you all one minute to nominate one initiate to shoot this gun. If he or she can hit the center of the target, I will forgive you. If the person you nominate fails, their rank will go down by five levels. Go."

The group gathers into a circle to chose one initiate. As for me, I hope it's Sage. I glance over at Eric, who seems to be smirking. The fear that others feel improves his mood. But then I see him glare at me. I know why, I haven't said anything. I haven't threatened anyone, caused a fight, or made anyone cry.

When the minute is up, I can see Dalton standing tall before me, nominated by his friends. I choose the largest, heaviest gun I can find in the room, and push it into his arms. "Stand here." I point to a spot about 30 yards away from the target. He wont make it. I'm sure of it. We haven't even practiced with weapons before, and Dalton is Candor-born.

Dalton aims, he holds his breath and closes his eye. Bad idea. The bullet hits the white part of the target. Dalton sighs and slams the gun down on the table. Minus five ranks.

"Now everyone pick up a gun and begin shooting!" I yell.

The initiates are horrible. Sage cant even hit the target. John is the closest, hitting the blue outer ring. My focus isnt on the initiates though. My gaze lies on Eric, who's expression changes every few minutes. By the time we release the initiates to their dorms, Eric's expression is unreadable. He walks up to Four and I and holds up the rubric.He says, "Good work, interesting way to intimidate them."

"Thanks." I reply with.

"I'll go give this to Max." Eric exits the room, leaving Tobias and I alone. He frowns, probably as a result of spending five hours with Eric. We walk back to the apartment we share slowly and silently. When we get inside, I lay on the bed next to Tobias. Only after ten minutes does he speak.

"I just want to know what he wrote on that paper."

"Yeah." I say

"I almost feel bad"

"For who?"

"Dalton."

"Yeah, but you had to do that. Eric wouldn't have been satisfied unless you threatened the initiates in some way." I explain

"I guess."

I'm afraid that this training job is separating us. We arent ourselves when we are instructors. We are vicious, meriless, copies of Eric. We don't speak again tonight.

1k reads! That has never happened before. Thank you guys so much for reading this book! By the way, comments are more appreciated than you would think, so thank you so much for your comments! I'm trying to update frequently, but I can't all the time, so be patient! Thank you :D