Love, Lies, Secrets and Manipulation (Divergent/Eric OC)

15. Natalie VS. Eric

After what seems like forever, my body and mind finally grow valiant enough for me to step up onto the ring with The King of Dauntless.

Jesse has now sprinted his way over to Four. It looks like he's trying to convince Four to stop this fight before it even happens, but even I know that there's no getting out of this. I've put myself in this unfortunate predicament all on my own. Nobody besides myself is at fault to blame here.

Eric stands straight across from me in the ring. He looks more intimidating than ever now that his arm muscles are flexed and he's cracking his knuckles, all the while staring me down like a madman.

In this moment, this is not the man who thinks I'm beautiful. This is not the man who enjoys having his mouth and hands all over my body. This is not the man who likes having me in his arms and likes to call me 'baby.' No. This is the cruel, ruthless, sadistic monster who wants nothing more than to inflict pain on me. Come to think of it, this is the exact man who Uriah and Nathan warned me about my first day here.

I stretch my arms out behind me and roll my neck around once. I crack my knuckles too, but I'm aware that I most likely look ridiculous doing so. I look nowhere near as threatening and malicious as Eric does right this second.

By now, all of the Dauntless-borns - including their instructor, Lauren - have invited themselves over to watch this fight match. They're supposed to be working on their knife-throwing skills on the far end of the training room, but I guess a fight between an initiate and a Dauntless leader is much more entertaining. Especially, when that Dauntless leader is Eric.

While stretching his muscular arms behind his head, Eric looks me in the eye and smirks. "Bet you're wishing right about now that you'd kept your mouth shut," he sneers.

His mocking tone seems to have set off a dangerous spark in me, because I now feel every single muscle in my body start to tense, and the blood flowing through my vessels starts to slowly boil.

I quickly glance over at Four and Jesse. The both of them are standing with their arms crossed against their chests. I can tell that Jesse doesn't like this one bit. His green eyes glare over at Eric with such cold hostility. Four, on the other hand, is looking directly at me with his eyes half squinted and his mouth open. It's as if he's trying to tell me something. He then clenches his right fist and subtly places it in front of his chest. He carefully mouths the word 'rage.'

His words from earlier start to echo loudly in my head.

'For the past hour and a half, I've watched you beat the life out of that punching bag. No one accomplishes that unless they're full of rage.'

'Whatever it is, keep your emotions under control.'

'Save all that rage and anger for the ring.'

Like a sudden flashback, all bad memories with Eric come overwhelmingly swarming in all at once. I remember now, the reason why I was so hostile and bitchy this morning. The reason why I was viciously attacking that punching with such ferocious force all morning.