The choices you made | Eric Coulter (Under Reconstruction)

x3. Put that dagger in my heart

You could have never guessed, but this former Abnegation girl had more guts to speak her mind than Peter, Will, Christina, and herself together and they were the ones characterized as the loud ones in the group.

Ellie was only fighting fire with fire when provoked, which made the small difference between her and the rest of them.
Beatris was a lame fighter, but she did well the words, that's for sure.

"What's the problem, Erudite, you need anger issue management?", Eric approached her from behind.

Since he took her by surprise and she has lost her concentration, the knife slipped from her hand and fortunately, only scratched her before it fell to the ground.
She exhaled deeply looking annoyed and picked it up.

"No, I am doing just fine.", she muttered indifferently, tearing up the part of her shirt to cover up the wound and stop the bleeding.

"If you want to stop the bleeding, you need to tighten that thing up.", he nonchalantly took her hand and tied the cloth.

Without any problem, he just approached her after a week of literally trying to kill all of her friends. How rude was that?

Ellie looked at him for a second, his head was above hers.
It still felt weird.
His being here was weird but alleviating like his price somehow helped her shut the anger out.
Even though he was the one causing it.

"Feeling any better?", he woke her from her calming state, switching her back to reality.
"Are you going to throw me down the Chasm if I answer?", she couldn't contain herself.

Elie simply didn't know what was coming next. She wasn't the biggest fan of games and she needed to make sure he knew that.
Eric looked a bit surprised by her as if he didn't expect that kind of answer.

"I'd rather just say nothing.", Ellie retreated with a short smile, when she saw the look in his eyes and turned to put away the daggers.
Some people from the group stayed at the practice too, so they overlooked the situation. Again, it was very awkward as always.

"You are one of the top initiates. You don't need that kind of motivation to survive.", he told her, while she started walking away and made her stop. He was still talking?

Again, she smiled shortly and turned her back to look at him, without saying a single word.
She went to Uriah and his girlfriend in the next moment, avoiding successfully both of their questionable looks and Eric's following gaze that got stuck in her neck almost painfully as that dagger that cut her.

***

"Well, you do have a death wish.", Ellie said to Tris straight from the door, grinning.
Since Eric retained her after the training, she came to the Grounds as the last one. "I can't believe you said that to Eric.", she added, dismissing the fact she similarly approached him only a few minutes ago. That was something she decided not to talk about.

"You're the only one who's ever stood up to him. Look at your ear. Let's get you cleaned up.", Chris was fascinated.

"Hey, Tris. That was cool.", Molly came and said, and Tris thanked her.

"Impressive, stiff. Congrats.", Peter encountered them, hugging Ellie.

"Seriously, Peter?", Ellie creased her eyebrows, throwing his hand away rudely.

"What? Hey, you're friends with the famous now. I mean, not because of the thing with Eric. You're in the news.", Peter grinned hellishly, looking at Tris. "Yeah, listen: The recent transfers of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, children of Andrew Prior, call into question the soundness of Abnegation's
teachings and values. What prompted them to leave? Perhaps the answer lies in the corrupted ideal of an entire faction. The theft of resources, the general incompetence, the abuse of their children. Did they beat you, like Marcus Eaton's kid?", he asked at the end.

"They didn't beat anyone.", Tris retorted revoltingly. "They're good people."

"Right. And that's why you left?"

"Are you being real, Peter? Can you just go be annoying somewhere else?", Ellie stood up for Tris, being pretty irritated with him.

That was the first time she ever stood up to him like this for real here in Dauntless.
She wasn't afraid of him, because she knew him.
Peter would never hurt her for real, even now, when they were arch enemies. but he was brutal.
And no one wanted difficulties with cruel people.

"Was it something I said?", he was still being his sarcastic asshole-self.

"Yes, you moron, stop crashing the party.", she shouted. "Leave!"

People began cackling, deserting them. He didn't care. That was Peter.
He did it either way; He offended Tris, which was his main goal.
He smiled devilishly one more time and stepped away.

"He's an idiot.", Will said.

"Yeah....", they all agreed.