Devious | Eric Coulter

29

UNEDITED

T H I R D   P E R S O N

Eric laid the sleeping Charlotte on his bed softly and smoothed back the strands that had fallen on her face. Guilt swirled in his stomach as he gazed at her sleeping form, but he shook the feeling away.

He did it to keep her safe. It was the right thing to do.

Was it?

Eric cursed loudly, his deep husky voice emitting a reaction from the resting Charlotte. The leader stilled, not moving until her eyebrows creased back and she was calm again. He breathed a sigh of relief and carefully draped a blanket over Charlotte. Adding a few more pillows at her side for good measure, he finally moved back and left the room as quietly as he could.

He drugged her, but in his defence he did it to keep her safe. The only thing the serum would do was to make Charlotte forget everything that happened, make her oblivious to what's happening around her, and make her compliant to everything he wanted her to do.

"Eric!" He turned at the sound of his name and faced a furious Max.

"What did I do, now?" He asked, although his voice sounded like he could care less.

"You were meant to help in injecting the serums," Max snapped, "And yet you were nowhere to be seen. Where were you the past hour?"

Eric rolled his eyes, "I was gone for an hour, Max. Surely nothing big happened--"

"Jeanine was looking for you and was asking for the little girl you were with, too."

"Charlotte's doing something important." Eric kept his voice bland and his face neutral, "Where is Jeanine?"

"In The Pit. Make sure to apologise for your absence, throw in a couple of praises and compliments if you have to. If we lose our ties with Erudite because of your lack of professionalism, I'll personally see to it that your--"

"Yeah, yeah." Eric rolled his eyes, "I'll be going, now so..."

Max waved him off before sauntering off to the cafeteria. Eric muttered under his breath, "Fúcking fat ass."

He continued down the hall and turned to The Pit, carelessly shoving Dauntless members aside as he walked through them. A man with dyed red hair stopped his angry rambling when he saw that it was the blue-eyed man that pushed him. Eric smirked at his reaction, perks of being a leader.

When he reached Jeanine, he coughed slightly to gain her attention, "Jeanine, I--"

"Was with the little Eaton girl. Yes, I know." She interrupted.

Eric gritted his teeth, "We were doing a paperwork."

"Right," Jeanine looked down on the clipboard she was holding, "We are almost done with injecting the serum. So far, only one man resisted. He was quickly dealt with."

Eric kept silent. He knew the man she was talking about was dead.

"Where is Charlotte? She should be here, too." Jeanine asked and looked around.

"She's doing something for me." Eric said as he thought of ways to divert Jeanine's attention from the girl that was currently lying in his apartment, "Do you have something for me to do?"

"Yes, actually. I need you to assist my men in making the last batch of the serum. Surely you still work that brilliant mind of yours like you were in Erudite, don't you?"

Eric resisted the urge to punch the her in the face. Pretentious bitch, He thought but kept an expressionless face, "Of course. I'll see to it right now."

"Good." Jeanine strutted to the side to converse with a black-haired woman.

The blue-eyed leader rolled his eyes before walking off to the Erudite men who were scurrying around and clicking on keyboards like there was no tomorrow.

Which for the whole Abnegation faction, it was.

➖➖➖➖➖

Charlotte groaned as she awoke in an unfamiliar place. She rubbed her head as her eyes scanned the room she was in, which was hard considering it was dark.

Squinting, she tried to remember what happened and how did she got there. She rattled her brain for answers, but it was blank. Charlotte moved her fingers around and felt soft, fluffy cloth surrounding her.

She didn't have a blanket this soft back at the initiates' room, and the Infirmary's blankets weren't this thick. Where was she?

"Are you feeling alright?"

Startled, Charlotte flapped her arms wildly and tried to locate where the voice came from. "Who are you? Why am I here? What--"

"It's me, Lottie." Eric appeared in her view. "I uh-took you here after your simulation. You... passed out a short while after your talk with Jeanine."

She talked to Jeanine? She didn't even remember doing her final fear landscape. 

Shrugging, she sat upright and yawned. "Is this your apartment? It's so dark and gloomy."

Eric mentally applauded himself. The serum worked, she didn't remember their talk about Abnegation. "Yes, this is my place."

"Is there any light or window here? I can't see anything." Charlotte had stood up and was now wandering off into the direction of a wall.

"Stop walking or you'll hurt yourself." Eric quickly walked towards her and pulled her back to him. The youngest Eaton turned around and buried her face in his chest.

She's so fúcking out of it, He thought, That works just fine.

As Charlotte continued to hug him, he lifted her up in his arms and walked back to his bed. "Let's just stay here for the moment, yeah? I'll open a few windows later."

"I'm very sleepy." She suddenly announced, "Are you sleepy? Well, I am. We should all be sleepy, because sleep is great. We should all sleep for eternity, don't you think? I think we should, because--"

"Lottie, sleep."

The babbling initiate stopped talking as Eric pulled her with him on his bed. She wiggled in his arms until finally placing her head in the crook of his neck, "Nighty night, Eric."

"Nighty night, Lottie."