Riled up as he had been when the guards had left him, it had itched him to release some of the tension in hitting the wall, but he needed to keep his cool. For Teddy's sake. They had him under constant surveillance. So in order to take his mind off of this urge Eric had looked around, clenching his hands into fists. Once the walls must have been white but now they were greyish and stained. Without noticing it at first he had started counting the stains and now he was in the know: One hundred forty fife.

As much as he had wanted to ignore it Candor had a legal order to restrain him. He had doubted from the beginning that Kang knew anything about this as unbelievable as it may be. An arrest for a leader wasn't normally done by someone from the bottom of the food chain. This one was. Apparently someone was eager to make himself known by going against a Dauntless leader. The signature under his arrest wasn't any he recognized from previous encounters with Candor: Nathanael Nolan. A name he would remember.

Three days had passed. His guard were split in their way of treating him. There were those who thought of him not guilty-mostly to the improper way the case had been handled-who treated him with respect. Then there were those who believed the accusations to be true. All of them would show their opinion as open as only a candor could. Who ever thought that telling another person everything that went through your head was a good thing? That went way beyond honesty or being franc. Eric shuddered in disgust at this faction's mannerism.

At the second day Kang had turned up. His skin pallid and his eyes without the usual keen glimmer in it. It turned out the man had been ill and it only now had come to his attention what had occurred during his absence. Kang had apologized since Nolan hadn't followed the proper procedure. For a spilt moment Eric had thought everything was solved but he had soon learned otherwise: Since there was an open case against him he had to be put on trial. Kang, of cause holding onto his factions credo, had told him it would be better to have it cleared in front of everyone, so his trial would not only be public but in front of every fraction, meaning anyone who wanted could attend the trial. Eric hated it. He would have preferred to solve this as quietly as the last time. The worst though, was when Kang had told him they would put Teddy through a witness interview. A public one! Just to think of his little guy being questioned on front of everyone... Fuck! Eric tossed the cutlery from his empty lunch tray across his cell. He was helpless. There wasn't anything he could do to shield his boy from this procedure. Kang hadn't disclosed who had accused him. He wouldn't learn that until after the Trial. Apparently that was part of the witness protection detail whenever a leader was accused. The young leader snorted. Cowardice that's what this all was. Instead of bringing it face to face with him whoever was behind this had run to Candor. That wasn't the Dauntless way. He wasn't surprised though. Since there wasn't anything to complain about to begin with somebody apparently had made things up and of cause couldn't confront him directly. All this reeked of Marcus, only thing was the man had no connections into Dauntless. The only former Abnegations Eric knew of were Tris and Four. Tris was upfront and would have spoken her mind. She had shown this since the beginning. As pesky as she could be, she wasn't a backstabber. As for Four, Four hated his father for obvious reasons. Four! Realization hit him. It was likely that Four had-as usual-construed the worst of everything he could have seen on the security cameras. Misusing his access to the control room in a misguided righteously mission in his unwavering dislike for the other man. A new wave of anger curse through Eric at this mental picture letting him leap to his feet. "Fuck!" Eric exclaimed, kicking the wall. He was beyond furious. That ignorant asshole!

"What? Can't take it anymore Dauntless? This soon?" The guard who had come to retrieve his tray taunted him as he witnessed the outburst.

With now practiced skill Eric quickly tried to reign in his temper as he glared at the guard. He ignored him otherwise. That low life wasn't worth it. He simply tossed his tray out under the bars with maybe a little more force than necessary. It wasn't his fault if some of the more liquid leftovers splashed against the guard in the process. Eric suppressed a smirk.

"What the..." The guard cried out caught off guard and began to tell him in probably great detail what he thought of it, but Eric had already tuned him out. He had his little come back at this annoying piece of candor trash but he couldn't risk to flip at him completely. So he forced himself to sit down on his cot. Starring at the walls he turned his mind to Teddy and Mia. Happy thoughts in order not to give the impression of a mad maniac able of child abuse.

________________________________________


Which cover do you like more? 

The old one? (It's a little rough at this size.)

Or the new one?

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Or the new one?

Personally I like how Eric looks in this one

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Personally I like how Eric looks in this one.

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