More. || Eric Coulter

Twenty one.

"Hello there, Eric."
The soldier shot up and rushed towards the woman, grabbing her around the neck and pinning her against the wall before she could react, still having a shit eating grin on her face.
"I'm surprised to see you here..." she rasped, "actually I'm not. I knew you would be this pathetic. It was only a matter of time until you would show up again."
"How the fuck did you get in here?" he snarled, tightening his grip around her neck, his gaze showing nothing but revulsion while hers turned into a deeper shade of red but it did nothing at stopping her from sniggering at him.
"Wouldn't you like to know, pretty boy?" she retaliated though she wished she hadn't when Eric released her neck and slammed her on the ground instead, her arms pinned to her back and her legs on the ground.
"I'm so close to snapping your neck so explain yourself! What is your fucking mission?"
Again she snickered devilishely. "Oh Eric, I really hoped that you would figure it out by yourself."
He twisted her arm even more, making her wince slighlty. "Stop talking shit. Explain yourself."
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"How about you tell me why you had the letter in the first place and what you did with it. Maybe I'll show mercy if you choose your words wisely."
"I don't think you want to kill me."
"Why?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
He flipped her around harshly, pinning her legs with his own and gripping her neck again.
"Ok fine, calm down! I'll tell you." she desperately inhaled after Eric eased the pressure a bit so she would be able to talk. "See, I couldn't help but read what was in there and I must say, I'm touched. Who would've thought that the great Vinnie would be able to show feelings? Anyway, it was too good to not do anything with it so I thought it would be an amazing idea to let the people know who she was, don't you think so, too?"
The realization that the looks he earned when he left the infirmary were because of the dooming information made his blood boil.
He contracted his hand around her throat again, desperately trying to tame his anger for he sensed that there was more to the story. Reluctantly, he let her breathe again after her face turned almost purple.
Her torso rose and sunk vigorously while gasping for air but continued; she knew that the next time he would kill her.
"It wasn't such a big secret. Her identity you know. Why do you think was she shot in the first war? Just like she wrote in the letter, there's a possibility that there's someone after her."
"How... how did it get out? Are you the killer?" his grip tightened again.
"No! Please! I'm not that good with snipers!" again she gasped desperately before he decided to handle this differently.
He hoisted her up by the back of her neck and lead her to his apartment. He couldn't stand her presence in Vinnie's apartment for one more minute. Once in his apartment he made quick work of roughly shoving her on a chair and tying her up.
"How do you know it was a sniper that hit her back then? This is not a coincidence, is it?"
She scoffed. "Of course not. I can't exactly tell you everything but you're not as big of a meathead as the others here. Surely you'll figure it out eventually. What I can tell you is that it was quiet a challenge to get her secret out but the way there was definitely a delight. Frank was the key to this and let me tell you, that man was not as smart as you thought. A little bit of flirting, a little bit of shagging and he became less carefull at work. What a mistake considering he was working in intelligence."
Eric expected several things but knowing that all of this dated back to way before the first war startled him more than he thought. Anger quickly washed over him and from pacing in front of her he turned and punched her straight across her nose. A crack was audible and shortly after, blood started trickling out of her nostrils. The nurse who's name Eric never bothered to remember yelped in pain but soon recovered, sensing Eric's shortening temper.
"Who's behind this?" he hissed. The woman eyed his clenched fists and breathed shallowly, fear setting in slowly.
"I don't know." another punch, this time giving her a black eye. "I'm telling the truth... please hear me out!" She huffed, carefully going through what she would say next. "It's way beyond my knowledge who's behind this. But I know that's it's bigger than it seems. I don't know who it is because I recieved the instructions anonymously. I was promised a higher position if I successfully retrieved the information."
An idea that didn't yet make itself clear crept up in Eric's head and something dawned on him as he thought everything through.
"This is way bigger." he thought out loud. For a few minutes no one said anything; the nurse being busy with trying to keep quiet as the pain in her nose radiated through her head and Eric being busy calculating the next moves.
In the blink of an eye, he ripped the restraints and pulled his hostage with him carelessly until they arrived at the desired destinaion. He barged in, shoved the woman towards Max's desk where she stumbled and landed with a whine.
Eric slammed the door shut, approaching the leader with menace in his eyes.
"What are you-" Max jolted at the sudden intrusion.
"Shut up!" He put a foot on the person laying on the ground in order to keep her still. Controlling her was easier now that she had to struggle with the pain as well as the exhaustion from being denied of oxygen earlier. "You need to explain RIGHT NOW what is going on because if you don't I swear I'll cut her throat."
"Eric, what are you doing? What is up with you, man?"
"Or maybe I need to shoot Tris?" he smiled devilishely.
Max stood up now but kept his distance and tried to glance at the sobbing mess on the ground. He wanted to say something though Eric interrupted him.
"If what she told me has anything to do with you..." Eric didn't dare say it out loud as this was still his mentor yet he huffed loudly from anger. "She said she had instructions to get information from Frank and deliver it to someone. She claims it was from someone anonymous but the first one that comes to my mind who would possibly want this information is you. Especially when she gets the chance to a higher working position."
"What are you talking about, Eric? What in the world has gotten into your head?" Max tried to act as if he knew nothing but it was as clear as day to Eric.
He sneered. "Oh don't act dumb, Max. You're the only one here who has that power. Tell me, was she ordered to kill Vinnie? Are you happy now? Has this done anything beneficial to you? You sacrificed her, Max, but for what? What was the damn price?"
"Eric, are you even listening to yourself?" It was Max's last attempt at de-escalating the situation though one glance at Eric and he knew that it was of no use. It was time to give him at least a little bit of what he wanted to hear. He collected himself and continued speaking, this time with a lot more composure. "Alright... I'll tell you what I know but before we proceed, you need to promise that you're going to listen to the whole story before you do anything. Especially to her."
Eric, still agitated, complied hesitantly. His shoulders visibly relaxed and he lifted his foot off of the woman who didn't dare move but thankfully took a handkerchief Max offered her.
The factions leader sat down again and then talked, carefully thinking of what he could reveal. "This woman has done some rather frowned upon things, like use Frank for example, and I can't deny that I found out about that. But it was not authorized by me. It wasn't me who she had to deliver the information to; I found out about Vinnie only shortly before this war though I had my suspicions a while back, to be honest." Eric tried to interfere but decided against it. Max silenced him with a gesture of his hand. "I'm absolutely not saying that I'm innocent either. What you need to know is, that there are things I'm not entirely proud of; my actions seemed to promise a positive outcome at that time but the curreent situation does not show any sign of improvement. Yes, I could've given Vinnie more protection but it wouldn't have been of any use, trust me. It would have happened one way or another. I've been getting instructions from a higher position. " Max said vaguely in order to keep the nurse on the floor in the blue. That woman didn't need to know more than she already does. "There are more things to the story than I could neither know nor tell you because it has only been a gut feeling that I was never able to confirm. Eric, you're a smart man, considering your past at Erudite. I believe in your ability to figure this out by yourself and my advice is to use your past to your advantage."
The speech left Eric even more confused than he was before; so confused in fact, that he couldn't even grasp one single question because they were swirling around his mind chaoticly.
"This is everything I can tell you now, believe me. For now, please do me a favor and bring her to the infirmary; by the looks of it, she might have a broken nose. And get ready, we already plan on returning to Erudite soon."

Both men stayed seated silently for a minute more. Max was simply watching Eric, having decided that everything else would just agitate him even more. Eric on the other hand already made up another plan but about something different from what Max had just told him to get ready for.
The woman, who just managed to calm down, got lifted up by her neck again. Several yelps were let out as they made their way to the infirmary and once there, Eric shoved her on a bed, tying her to it before another nurse could protest.
"Do what you have to do but don't let her get away. She's divergent and I need her by tomorrow."

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Over 2,600 words... I'm so sorry. My initial thought after finishing this chapter was: chonky. Anyway... OneInAMillionFandoms, you asked a great question. It was about the fact, that the Divergents had their own faction before the eradication and if they would've had their own bowl, how it would look like or if the initiates would just join the faction.
I said, that they would've had their own bowl made of concrete so it would be completely different from the rest and that there would be nothing in there to focus on the peoples blood as well as their unitiy.
What are your guys' thoughts? I'm curious so let me know!

See you in the next chapter!