Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

thirty-three

I shoot up in my seat, "Hold on, you can see inside my mind?"

"Yes," He answers before narrowing his eyes at me, "Why? What don't you want me to see?"

"Nothing," I fold my arms over my chest, "I have absolutely nothing to hide."

"Perfect," He raises a brow at me suspiciously, "You should have nothing to worry about, then." He nudges me back until I'm laying down, "And stay still, would you? You're just going to feel a little pinch."

Just as I feel the tip of the needle bite into my skin, the door bursts open and Tobias jerks back.

"Don't you ever knock?" Tobias snaps at Eric who stands in the doorway.

Eric doesn't even bother to reply him and steps into the room, closing the door behind him.

"Max wants to see you," Eric informs curtly, "I'll take over here."

Tobias's door clenches in irritation, "Can't he wait."

"No, now." Eric grunts, "He says it's urgent."

"Fine," Tobias huffs angrily, pushing the syringe into Eric's hand. He hesitates at the door for a minute, peering over his shoulder at me worriedly.

"Move along, Tobias." Eric smirks, "We're good here."

My brother glowers at him, glancing at me with concerned eyes again.

"Alright, now you're just wasting my time," Eric grumbles. Before Tobias could get another word in, he slams the door shut right in my brother's face.

As Eric approaches me, I smack him in the chest with the back of my hand, but the move only makes my hand hurt.

"Would you be nicer to him?" I rebuked.

Leaning in, Eric chuckles. "Where's the fun in that?"

I roll my eyes at him and he simply leans in further and kisses me on the lips.

"Did your brother explain the process to you?" He asks, taking a seat on a stool by the monitors and rolling himself over to my side.

I nod, "He did."

"Good," Eric replies, "Ready?"

Taking a deep breath, I nod again. "Let's just get this over with."

He presses another kiss to my forehead, "You'll be fine," He tells me, interlacing our fingers. "Just stay calm, make sure to keep your heartbeat and breathing steady. You'll get through it. I'll be right here with you, okay?"

"Okay," I give his fingers a little squeeze, "Let's do this."

"Relax for me," He says gently, pushing my hair away from my neck.

Like before, I feel the needle against the tender skin of my neck, followed my a pinch as Tobias had said.

I shift in my seat, feeling my lids grow heavier by the second before my eyes finally drift shut.

I opened my eyes again to find myself in one of the fighting rings in the Pit and frowned.

I fight the urge to call out to Eric, keeping in mind that this is all a stimulation when out of nowhere, a body slams into mine.

My body is thrown across the ring and pain flares up my side as I crash to the ground.

Pushing myself up onto my elbows, I see Drew crowding into me and I scurry to my feet and got ready to defend myself.

When Drew throws his next punch, I snatch him by the wrist and brought my leg up to kick in him the stomach twice and then a third time before rearing back my fist and socking him right in the face.

A nasty sounding crunch echos in my ears as blood spills from his nose and he collapses onto the ground.

Memories of the night he attacked me filters into my mind. I could still see the rage in his eyes and how he never showed an ounce of mercy as he wrapped his hands around my neck and tried to kill me.

I lower myself onto my knees, but still, I tower over him. I punch him one more time for good measure before wrapping my fingers around his throat just like he had done to me that night in the tower and squeezed.

Drew struggles under me, his bloodshot panic-filled eyes staring back at me as I tighten my grip, watching as he desperately fights for air.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a part of me knows that this isn't me. The last thing I ever wanted was to become a monster like my father.

But rage was like a leech. It feeds off of you.

As I release my hold around his neck, hearing how he gasps for air and how relief practically pours out of him, I realise how close I was to killing him...and how unsatisfied I felt that I didn't.

Raising my fist again, I bring it down on his face over and over again until it feels like all the fight has left his body.

When the rage finally wears off, I look down to see Drew lying lifeless beneath me and the reality of what I've done slams into me.

I crawl away from his body in a fit of panic. Oh god, what have I done? What have I done?

"Compose yourself," A hand grabs ahold of my chin and roughly jerks my eyes up to meet their face.

I look up to see myself staring back at me, "Wake up. This isn't real."

One minute, I'm staring at my doppelgänger and the next, it's like she explodes right before my very eyes.

With a gasp, I stumble back only to feel an intense heat against my back.

Whirling around, I jerk back as flames lash at me, burning dangerously close to my form.

I scanned my surroundings, noticing a door on the far end of the room.

The fire spreads at rapid speed and I rush forward toward the door, desperate to get out before I get burned alive, but the flames engulf the doorway before I could reach it.

I search the room again for another way out. This time, spotting a window. I dashed towards it, trying to push the glass open, but to no avail.

"Help!" I scream at the top of my lungs, "Help! I'm stuck!"

My lungs were starting to ache as thick, dark smoke filled the air, sucking every last bit of oxygen from the room.

"Help!" I choked, banging my fist against the glass, hoping to break it...or something. Anything.

"It can't kill you if it's not real," My voice rings in my head.

My eyes widened as my reflection in the glass started to move freely as if it was its own person.

"Wake up, Nessa. It isn't real." It presses itself up against the glass, slamming its palm down. "Wake up!"

I jerk awake, gasping for air. Cold sweat trickled down my face and I find myself sitting in the examination and not in another stimulation like I'd expected.

Looking around the room, my eyes find Eric sitting before the monitors and staring right back at me with furrowed brows.