《︎𝘈𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘯》︎
"First fight. Peter versus Tris." My head snaps up at the sound of this. There's no way. I look over and see Peter tap the mat before hopping up on it. This is definitely happening.
"It's Eric. He's just trying to get back at you." I hear Christina tell Tris.
That seems about right. Eric being a jerk per usual. I walk over to the mat. Four stops Tris to talk. I pull my eyes away and try to mind my own business.
"You going to cheer me on, Ghost? How nice of you." Peter teases as he stretches.
"I'm not taking sides." I mumble as I cross my arms.
"But who do you think will win?" He questions.
I bite my lip as I look at Tris. "Please don't kill her." I whisper.
Tris steps onto the mat. Peter winks at me before turning away. They both get in their fighting stance.
"All right there, stiff?" Peter asks. "Looks like you're about to cry. Might take it easy on you if you cry." He teases, before throwing the first punch. Tris manages to back up, she punches him in the throat making him choke. They both throw a few punches but none of them were hard enough to knock the other out. At one point Tris had Peter's arm behind his back, kicking him in the stomach. I guess Peter got fed up with it eventually because he grabbed her and threw her to the ground.
"Come on. Stop playin' with each other." Eric mumbles. Tris stands but Peter socks her in the face. I see Four shake his head and walk off. Eric nods at Peter making him stomp her head, knocking her out.
I think everyone in the room winced at that moment. Eric walks up and nudges her with his foot. She doesn't budge. "Christina and Will, take her to the infirmary. She's out." He shakes his head walking away. Poor Tris.
Peter walks up to me. He didn't look too proud. He hissed as he looked between Me and Tris' weak body. "I think I might've killed her."
"Don't say that, jerk!" I whisper as I punch his arm. "Why would you beat up a girl like that?"
"I was doing what I was told. I'm submissive when it comes to Er-Bear." I grimace at the nickname Peter has assigned to Eric.
"You didn't have to knock her out though. She's out now thanks to you." I cross my arms.
"Just be thankful it wasn't you." I roll my eyes. "Look I'm sorry I beat up your girlfriend. There, you happy?" He says sarcastically. I say nothing and continue on my way. "Silent treatment? Seriously." I stay silent. "Fine. Go back to being invisible then." He spits knocking shoulders with me.
Jerk.
*******************************************
It was the next day. We were all getting ready for war games. Will, Christina, and I decided to go check on Tris. She still hasn't woken up since Peter knocked her out. Peter and I haven't said a word to each other since then. I want to talk, but I'm too stubborn and I don't want to break first. I guess I'm competitive in that way.
We arrived at the infirmary. Yikes. She looks rough. She starts to stir in her sleep. She slowly opens her eyes, squinting immediately at the bright light above the bed.
"Wow. You look..." Christina hesitates.
"Bad." I finish.
"How long have I been here?" She whispers.
"About a day." Christina answers.
"A day?" Her eyes widen. "Have you seen the scoreboard? Where am I?"
We all look at each other, silently deciding who will tell her. "You got below the line." I quickly say.
She says nothing, but you can see the disappointment on her fragile face. "Why are you wearing those vests?"
"War games." Will speaks up.
Tris sits up making Christina jump up. "Whoa. What are you doing?"
"I'm coming." She says, as if it's obvious.
"You can't. Eric says you're done." I scratch my neck.
Now she looks really upset. "What?"
"He said you're out." Will confirms. She shakes her head. "Your father's on the council, Tris. Maybe they'll make an exception and let you go home." She shakes her head and lays back down.
"We're sorry, Tris. But we gotta go." I stated. The train will leave without us if we don't hurry. "We're gonna miss the train." We say our goodbyes and leave, heading to the train.
Will sighs. "That was-"
"Uncomfortable. Awkward." I cut him off. He nods in response.
We make it to the train, on time might I add. Once everyone was on we started heading towards our destination. I look to the opposite side of the wall, Peter stood with Molly and Drew, arms crossed, frown prominent on his face. I suppose he felt my stare because he looked up and made eye contact with me. I didn't look away.
That is until I heard clattering from the end of the train. Tris. She came. That was brave of her.
"Who let you out?" Eric inquired.
"I did." Tris shrugs.
He gives her a long stare. "You did?" She nods. "Okay." He nods.
I walk up and fist bump her. "That was awesome."
"I had to be here." She huffs, out of breath.
Four and Eric drop some bags. "The game's simple. It's like Capture the Flag."
"Weapon of choice." Eric shows off the guns.
Molly scoffs and whispers to Peter. "You call that a gun?"
Eric cocks it and aims for her leg. A small dart shoots out, nailing her in the thigh. She groans and slides down the wall. It's what she gets.
He leans down and pulls it out, blood trickles down it. "Neuro-stim dart. Simulates the pain of a real gunshot wound. Only lasts a couple minutes."Hard pass from me. "Two teams. Four and I are captains."
"You pick first."
Eric smirks. "Okay. Edward."
Four's eyes land on Tris. "I'll take the stiff."
"Oh. Picking the weak ones so you've got someone to blame when you lose."
"Something like that." Four shrugs.
*******************************************
"Where did Eric's team go?" Christina yelled as we started to slow down.
Four picked me to be on his team. Thank God. Eric scares me. I think it's the haircut— or the piercings.
"They must have gone to the end." Will says.
I look around, Astro Cars, the Ferris wheel, this place used to be so cool. It's still cool, even though this stuff hasn't been running in years.
"All right. Lights off. Gather around." I look down and click my light off. "Okay. What's your strategy?" He asks.
"We can hide the flag well enough so they can't find it." Al speaks up.
"That's not a strategy. That's the point of the whole game, nitwit." I roll my eyes. He throws a glare my way.
"Let's send out a team to scout their location. See if we can find their flag." Will suggests.
"I say we blitz them." That's probably the best one I've heard so far. The boys all start talking over each other.
"Okay, we split into two groups, defense and offense." Chris starts.
"I'm sorry. Who put you in charge?" Ezra cuts her off.
"Someone has to make a decision." She snapped. They continue to argue. We haven't even hidden our flag yet and these Bozos want to somehow safely blow up the place.
You know. If I was to start looking, I might be able to see Eric's team hide their flag.
Would I be abandoning my team? Yes. Would doing so possibly help us win? Yes again. Could I get shot by a stupid Neuro-stim dart in the process? Also yes. But it's a risk I'm willing to take. Plus if I don't see anything then I can just hide for the rest of the game and pray that no one finds me. But then again I'm often overlooked. Perks of being invisible I guess.
While my team continues to argue I swiftly sneak away and head towards the end since that's where Will thinks they're hiding. I check over my shoulder, no one's noticed. I sneak around all the buildings and the old junk they have piled up. This place is like a maze.
I find the old carousel. The memories of this definitely brings a smile to my face.
Before my dad died he brought Adrien and I here. Being Dauntless meant that he couldn't be around too often, he was always busy. After being in Dauntless I understand why now. I remember his big smile. He was truly happy. That made me happy.
I guess you could say this old carousel also puts a frown on my face.
Thinking about Dad hurts. Not because he was a bad person. But because he was a good person. A genuine, selfless, loving, caring person.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Although I'm thankful for his sacrifice, it also angers me. Why him? And why'd my mom have to leave me here? Alone, with that monster.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I come up on some of Eric's team. I slide in between the walls of two brick buildings. I look back. Nothing. No one to see. I take a step out, right as I do Eric and a few other initiates walk past with their guns. I slowly walk back behind the wall before they can see me. I peak around, they start walking in the opposite direction. Thank God.
I sigh and walk out of hiding but I run into a trash can making it fall over. I turn and run back where I came and hide under the carousel. The dusty fabric from the underskirt makes it hard to breathe.
"I can see 'em." I hear someone yell.
Crap I'm dead.
"Light 'em up!" I look out and see about 100 yards off my team has emerged and is now going at it with Eric's team.
Hiding seems like a pretty good idea now.
I crawl to the opposite side of the carousel and crawl out. I hear a gun cock making me freeze. I look up and see Peter. Of course. He turns his gun and shoots the ground beside me, making me flinch.
I hear footsteps from the opposite direction. "Got someone Peter?"
"Nah, just a snake." He lies, looking back at them. I grab my gun and aim at him.
"No time for that. We're trying to win, man." I hear them run off.
He turns back to me and widens his eyes at the gun. "Seriously? I just saved your-"
"Shut up!" I sneer. "I'm trying to hide."
"That's pretty obvious, Ghost. But you can stand out in the open and no one would notice you anyway." He teases, I give him a cold stare and cock my gun as I ease out.
"Why'd you spare me?" I question him.
"Can't I do something out of the kindness of my heart?" He avoids my question, aiming his gun back at me.
"You're the "Eye For An Eye" type. You're not just kind to people." I state as we circle around each other.
"Maybe I've turned over a new leaf." He shrugs.
"Tell that to Tris and everyone else you pester."
"Dang you really can't let stuff go can you?" He shakes his head. Before I can answer Tris and Chris appear behind Peter. They're not in earshot yet.
"Forgive me." I whisper.
He lowers his gun, a confused expression on his face. "What?" I quickly shoot him in the arm. He hisses and drops to the ground. "Why did you do that?!"
The girls run up and high five me. "Nice shot!" Tris laughs.
"I was ready to put a bullet in his back." Christina adds. "We found the flag. It's in the tower over there."
"You coming?" Tris asks.
I shake my head. "No I'm gonna stay down here and make sure no one goes near our flag." I smile. They nod and run off. I check my surroundings before sitting beside Peter.
"So this was all a ruse? You hide and distract me while you're team finds my flag." He tries to catch his breath.
"I don't even know where our flag is." I say truthfully. His serious expression turns into a silly one. Soon enough we're both laughing as quietly as we can.
"You have a cute laugh." Peter giggles.
I roll my eyes and shove his injured arm, making him wince. "Quit being dumb, Hayes." I look back at his arm and pull the bullet out.
"Geez!" He groans.
"Sorry." I hold my hands up in defense. "You need a doctor?"
He shakes his head. "I probably just need a band-aid." He smirks at me. "Why? Do you want to fix me up yourself?" My heart thumps in my chest.
"Sure. Got any alcohol on you?" I ask sarcastically.
"You're pretty witty."
"Only with you." I tease. He looked like he was blushing. Then again, it is dark outside.
A rupture of cheers can be heard. I stand up and see Tris waving the flag. We won. Peter stands to his feet and sighs. He turns to me and holds a hand out. "GGG."
I hesitantly shake his hand. "What does that mean?"
"Good game, Ghost." He joked.
Clever.
I shake my head. "Let's go, loser."
*******************************************
"If you're ranked above the red line, you'll move on to the second stage of training." Max's voice boomed in the pit as we sat anxiously awaiting the results. "If you're below it, we'll waste no more time on you. Here are your rankings."
I'm 9th! Thank goodness. Tris was above the line so she's still in as well.
I feel an arm wrap around my shoulders. I look up to see Peter. "Congrats, Ghost. You almost did as good as I did." He says cockily. He got 2nd so I'd say he has the right to brag. I glance at his arm then back at him. "Oh sorry I just need a place to rest my arm." He pulls me closer to him, making my stomach flip and flop.
I smirk. "Peter." He looks down at me, smirking as well. "I shot the other arm."