Initiate [ERIC/JAI]

5

I decided to stay in the emergency room overnight to stay away from all the other initiates, I didn’t want to face the guy who’d knocked me out or anyone else in fact. I slept peacefully through the night but waking up and getting ready was a struggle, I didn’t want to go back to training as I knew I was bound to fight again. My legs were still weak but luckily I could stand properly now. I pulled on a jacket that was laid on the chair next to me, Apollo must’ve brought it around for me as it was too big for me. I walked to the mirror to look at my beaten, discoloured face. The guy I fought had given me a black eye, I could hardly even remember the fight. 

“Cass, you up for training?” I hear the door open and Apollo's distinctive voice. I turn around to face him. “Snazzy jacket darling.” He chuckles and my eyebrows furrow.

“You didn’t bring this for me?” I question, confused at where it had come from.

“Cassia, it says Leader on the chest of it.” I swat my hair out of the way and turn back to the mirror, noticing the embroidery on the chest. Leader..Eric?

Why would Eric come to leave me a jacket, did he come to see me? Why would he come to see me? Maybe he felt sorry for me after seeing me at the chasm last night. But Eric? Feeling sorry for people wasn’t exactly the Eric everyone knew. I’d just have to question him when I saw him. 

“I’m ready for training.” I turn and walk past Apollo and open the door, him following behind me. 

                                                                    *

Apollo opens the door to the training room for me, allowing me to walk in first. As I stumble in, everyone stares at me. I wait for Apollo to get into the room before covering the embroidery on my chest with my hair and walking past the other initiates. “You’d think they’d know what a black eye looked like.” I chuckle to Apollo and he laughs with me.

“They do, they're scared of you Cass.” He continues to laugh and I stop.

“Huh?” I pause, “What do you mean scared of me?” I question him and he stops to answer me. He brings his lips to my ear in order to whisper.

“They saw the smallest girl in this room get absolutely broken by a guy twice her size yesterday and now you're walking back in as though it never happened.” He whispers, a smile on his lips. “They’re scared because you’re stronger than all of them mentally.” He continues to add. I then glance at everyone else, their eyes darting off me as soon as I gaze upon them. A small smile creeps up on my lips. I felt strong for once, felt as though I was actually worth worrying about. I wasn’t just the small, fragile girl anymore. My eyes scan the room and land on Eric, he looks at me then away quickly. 

“Apollo, I’ll be right back.” I tap him on the back and walk towards the daunting man standing opposite me. His eyes landed back onto me, I noticed his lips curve into a smile. I stop in front of him and swipe my hair over my shoulder. “Is this yours?” I question and his eyes glance at the embroidery. He shrugs and chuckles. “Why did you leave it for me? Did you come see me last night while I was sleeping or something?” I fold my arms in front of my chest and question him.

“I left you a jacket, what’s wrong with that?” He smiles wider. “Besides I thought you might need it to keep warm, you were pretty fragile when I saw you yesterday.” He taunts and I scoff, noticing Four listening to our conversation behind him with a smile on his face.

“Oh I see, does something nice for someone but plays it off. Wouldn’t want to ruin that tough guy image right?” I sigh at him and turn away, stopping in place whilst taking the jacket off. I throw the jacket on the floor and look down at my arms. “Sometimes it pays to be genuinely nice to people.” I add and begin to walk away before an arm pulls me back.

Eric pulls me closer to him and brings his head to my ear.

“You’re fighting Dan next, he steps before he punches so trip him up while you can and don’t think you’ll get away with not telling me about the scars on your arms.” He whispers softly into my ear then lets go of his grasp on me. 

Something about his breath on my neck made me shiver, but not in the worst of ways. He made me feel something in myself, I believed it to be confidence. His pressure made me want to better myself. I return back to Apollo who has a confused look upon his face.

"What's with Eric?" He questions me, I shrug it off as though he never asked and walked over to the punching bags. 

As I raised my arm to punch the bag, I noticed the bruising and scars, they were so noticeable. I never thought I'd be confident enough to show my bare arms however here I was, surrounded by complete strangers and not caring what they thought about me. Their opinions didn't matter anymore as I knew not to let anyone get to me. Some of the things my father used to call me lead me to not listen to people like him. I guess I was thankful in that way, as I built my own shield around me. 

"Cassia, Dan, in the ring." The familiar voice called out across the room and snapped me out of my trance. I turn on my heel and walk towards the ring in the centre of the room, everyone crowding around shortly after. I look at Dan, he's a few inches taller than me yet quite skinny. I then glance over to Eric who gives me a slight smile before I snap back onto Dan.

"Well, this shouldn't be hard." Dan chuckles to himself and another boy laughs behind him, who I was assuming was his friend. I stood still with my arms blocking my chest and he followed suit. 

"What are you waiting for?" I hear Four behind me.

Dan steps towards me and it all happened so fast, I hooked my foot around his and pulled it off the ground, causing him to lose his balance. Taking advantage of this, I push him down onto the floor with my full force. He's not slow to get back up and try again. He swing for my jaw yet I duck and use my fist to slam right into his chin, pushing his whole head up to look st the ceiling. 

"Shit." He curses, walking to the side clenching his chin with his hand. "That's it, I'm done." He growls, blood now flowing from the injury. "Just leave me the hell alone." He spits onto the floor, splattering blood onto the white mat below us. 

A part of me felt horrified that I'd just done that, however a part of me was glad. If I hadn't, I'd be kicked out this instant. I was just hoping that fight would be enough. Out of breath, I walk out of the ring and sit on one of the benches beside it. Apollo begins to walk over to me however Eric steps in his way, his eyes cast down on me.

"You should've knocked him out, it would've improved your score." Eric told me, however all I could think of was a cup of cold water. 

"I'm not going to knock anyone out in exchange for a place up on the board." I pause. "I still have some decency unlike you, Eric." I spit.

"I helped you." He growls.

"Yes thank you for your help, but I don't want or need it. I'm more than capable of doing things for myself." I retort, the look in his eyes was pure anger. He grunts and begins to turn away. Don't say it Cassia. "But thank you for the jacket." I softly speak, his body stiffens and his head looks at me over his shoulder, causing me to look at the floor. 

"You're welcome, Cass." My name sounded different coming from his lips, as though it was the smoothest part of the sentence. "If you ever want it again, just ask." He returns to walking off again then, away from me and Apollo who was still stood watching. 

"Helped you? How?" Apollo questions me and I just shake my head.

"Don't worry." 

I push myself up from the bench and Apollo and I walk towards the exit of the training room, not before my eyes caught the scoreboard refreshing. I pulled back Apollo's arm for us both to see it. My eyes didn't have to search for long.

Thomas

Kyle

Hannah

Joshua

Peter

Damon

Cassia

Leah

Apollo

Nathan

The voice inside my head screams like a little girl, out of everything I'd never expected to be in the top ten after a terrible first fight.

Now for top 3.