Free and Captured ~Eric love story

Chapter twenty-three- "Deal"

I hate this chapter! But I needed to do it so I can move on to the next chapter. I'm sorry you had to wait this long for this. 

The morning after the game we are woken up the usual way. Not that I can say I was woken up when I NEVER WENT TO SLEEP. I drag my feet out of bed and together my friends and I get ready and head to breakfast.

"I'm sooooo tired!" Cole whines.

I ignore him and rest my head on the table. I know it isn't his fault that I don't sleep, but hearing people complain about a few hours less when the last time I slept was days makes me annoyed.

"Hey Mer, are you ok?" Cassy asks

"Mhmm.... Why?" I mumbled into the table before looking up at her.

All of their eyes widened "Holy crow, when's the last time you slept, ate or drank?" Jace asks, shocked.

I take a bite or a croissant "right now" I say with a mouth fall.

"Mer are you sure-" Peyton started but I cut her off.

"I'm fine!" I hissed at her angrily.

She squeaks at my outburst and looks down at her fingers.

I sigh as my face softens "I-I'm sorry. I'm just going to go" I say. I leave the table and instantly head to the training room.

* * *

Christina explained to us that we would be knife throwing, unfortunately she can't teach us and Lauren is sick today, so instead we have Eric. Eric, the one who doesn't lose well, and is still mad about losing the game last night, is teaching us how to throw very sharp knives.

"My prediction is there will be one less person by the end of the day" I whisper to my friends. They all snicker in return.

After showing some different ways of throwing knives, Eric instructed us to grab some knives and start throwing them at one of the plastic body targets on the wall.

As we start throwing I can instantly tell that the dauntless born have been practicing for this day, because 85% of the people were throwing effortlessly and the other 15% were still decent just not as accurate.

My head is still foggy from all the lack of sleep and I can tell the pain meds are starting to wear off from the slight pain I'm starting to feel in my chest. I take shallow breaths as I pull back and let the knife fly at the target. The knife bounces off clanging to the ground. I injnore the pang of disappointment and try again but the same thing happens. I try again, and again, and again but to no avail. I'm still left with an unscratched target and no more knives since they are all on the ground by the target.

I place my hand on my chest trying to steady my heart and I breathe extremely hard. I didn't even do anything and yet my chest is killing me and I can't breathe. I look around and see Eric standing by the corner watching us throw. I start to make my way to him, stumbling on my way there from how little sleep I have had and from how it feels like there is literally no air in this room. When I finally make it to him he just quirks an eyebrow at me.

"Can I help you?" he asks, annoyed.

"I-I c-can't-t breath" I say, gasping and clutching my chest.

He quickly grabs a hold of me. "You need to get to the infirmary," he says as he holds me up.

I shake my head. "N-no! I n-need to get my pa-pain meds" I say, trying not to stubble but failing. I start to walk away from him but everything is a blur. I don't understand what is happening.

I start to stumble to the door when gravity decides to pull me to the ground. I hear my name called but everything is blurry. My body is lifted off the ground and I groan from the sudden change. I let my head fall on the person's shoulder and let my eyes flutter shut.

***

Beep Beep Beep.... I groan at the sound. Beep, Beep, Beep.... I let my eyes filter open but then squeeze shut at the sudden brightness. Beep, Beep, Beep... "I hate the noise" I groan, frustrated, not realizing that there was someone beside me.

"Then you should stop ending up in the infirmary." A deeper voice says.

I screech at the sudden voice, Beep beep beep beep... my heart beat speeds up from the shock.

I turn my head to see Eric sitting on a chair next to my bed. "What happened?" I whine

"Not sure. You passed out but the doctors won't tell me anything since I'm not related to you or some doctor patient confidentiality shit" he says running his hand over his shortcut hair.

I just stare at him admiring all of his small features that I never noticed before. Suddenly his eyes snap to mine and we just stare at each other. His eyes flicker to my lips and back up to my eyes, he slowly starts to move closer, but just as our four heads touch the curtain pulls back and Eric jumps away from me.

"Lovely, you're up." Olivia says with her hands on her hips. I chuckle.

"Hi"

"I didn't want to see you this soon, remember?" she says with a huff but a faint smile on her lips.

I smile at her. "Sorry" is all I can manage to come up with. "So what is the verdict?" I ask, sitting up. Eric grabs my arm to help me. "Thanks," you say, sending him a quick smile.

"Mer.. have you been sleeping, eating and drinking, and only taking 2 pills a day with the occasional lighter pain meds in between if needed?" Olivia asks.

"Ummm... No, kinda, kinda, and kinda" I murmur

Olivia closed her eyes and sighs "Eric leave please, I need to talk to Mer alone"

Eric looks confused at her before looking at me, when I nod for him to leave he stands up with a huff and leaves. Olivia doesn't start talking till she hears the infirmary door slam shut.

"Mer we did some tests. Your head is getting worse because you aren't getting the sleep you need. You aren't eating and drinking and you aren't taking the proper meds. If you want to live then you need to fight and take care of yourself. You can't ju-"

I cut her off "you dont think I'm trying! I can't fall asleep! And if I do I have horrible nightmares. I'm then too tired to even eat or drink, but I can't miss training so I take more pills then I should, to give me energy. I am living off of pills and I can seem to get my normal life back." As I finish, tears fall from my eyes.

"Listen to me. I get this is hard but you can fight it, you can get through this. Your friends can help you. You need to let people in. Your brother needs to know what's going on. But Mer if this keeps up we will have to take you off meds and you still need them for at least for another 2 weeks."

I wipe away the tears and shake my head. "No, no, no. I-I can't tell anyone" I say shaking my head. "I'll do better. I promise"

She sighs, "ok. You need to come back in a week, and if you are still like this then we need to change meds and I'm going to tell your brother."

I nod "Deal"......