Halloween. A holiday for small children to dress up and ask for candy on doorsteps and for the young adult youth to throw parties filled with food, alcohol, and God knows what else. A holiday reserved for scary movie marathons, ghost stories, and superstitions. However, for a different kind of world, Halloween is the night of the annual ball hosted by a man known only as the King in the inner district of Sina.
For over a hundred years the children of the night have tormented their human counterpart, sparking a bloody and stalemate war between the two. The three districts of Maria, Rose, and Sina soon became the only safe havens for the remaining, and slowly dying, human race. Anyone who ventures outside of these districts risked their lives, by walking into their territory. Humanity was surely fated to slowly die out behind the walls of such safe havens until a few unlikely supporters joined The Alliance.
"Fucking hell," A short man raved in front of a bathroom mirror. The artificial light emphasized the dark blue and purple bruises and bite marks scattered all over his neck and chest. "You know these things bruise. Tch. I bet you're pretty fucking proud of yourself."
The short man yawned and glared at the, considerably, taller man standing behind him. The perfectly styled, blond hair of the taller man irritated the shorter man down to the off center part. The tall man smirked and glanced at the watch on his wrist before fixing his tuxedo.
"Hurry up, Levi. We're already late."
The short man, Levi, glared at the taller man who was leaning casually against the bathroom doorway before he begrudgingly fixed his tousled hair, aside from the undercut, and nursing his bruises. The bruises and the bite marks would heal, surely. Though, it wasn't inflicted by just some normal creature, or human being for that matter, it was inflicted by a fellow vampire. Might as well be human. After a couple of minutes, Levi clicked his tongue and tossed the rag he was using back into the sink.
"You're such a pain in the ass, Erwin."
There was a smirk and a chuckle from Erwin, an elongated point glinting slightly, reflecting the light above them.
"I'll give you ten minutes," He said simply, before turning away from the door, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.
Just as Erwin expected, in ten minutes exactly, Levi walked down the stairs, fixing the cravat he picked out for the evening—a particularly lacy one to which Levi responded with, "shut the fuck up" to Erwin's comment—and pulling on the jacket, smoothing it over with his hands. Levi put his hands in his pockets and looked up at Erwin.
"Let's get this stupid party over with. I'm starving, I haven't had anything for a week," Levi spat out.
"Calm down. There's a bar, you can spend your time there."
"Tch. Better than talking up the bourgeois. It's a waste of our time, they think we'll turn around and suck them dry anyway. Sometimes I think we should to make a statement."
"Levi…"
"I'm joking," Levi deadpanned.
A harsh knock echoed through the massive house, cutting the conversation short. Erwin opened the massive, oak doors to reveal a man in a suit. A nonchalant expression veiled the man's face as he tipped his hat toward the two men. He opened the door to the car, closed it after the two slid in, and moved back to his position in the driver's seat. Erwin didn't need to tell the man the destination. Not today. The car jerked slightly as it took a moment to start again. As they cruised through the streets of the outer areas of Sina, Levi leaned back onto the leather car seat and crossed one leg over the other, tapping his fingernails impatiently against the armrest by the door.
"I don't understand why you drag me there every year. We never meet the King, anyway. He just Gatsby's his own party."
"Careful. You'll show your age if you keep that up," Erwin commented, casting a sidelong glance at Levi.
"That occult groupie can mention something ancient, but I can't. How ironic," Levi scoffed.
Erwin sighed and fixed his cufflinks in mild annoyance.
"She's a researcher," He reminded. "Everyone knows she's a human."
Levi scoffed again, glancing out the tinted windows. "Might as well be one of us going by her fucked up sleeping pattern."
Erwin laughed at this.
The rest of the car ride was filed with silence. Levi wore his perpetual scowl as he watched the city lights go by. Once in a while he would catch the glimpse of a group of children in costume. Erwin, as always, looked like the perfect model of the Commander, the position The Alliance granted him, sitting straight against the back of the car seat despite it's shaky movement, holding a flawless posture, hair smoothed down, tuxedo free of any kind of dust, and hands folded neatly on his lap.
The car began to slow down after another twenty minutes on the road, finally stopping in front of a castle-like home, the well-known residence of the King and the head quarters of the Police. The very best of what The Alliance had to offer, all put beside the King. Levi's scowl turned into a look of disdain.
I'm wasting my fucking time here.
The two men waited for the doors to open and stepped out onto the gravel of the driveway leading up to the stairs, which then led to the doors. Already Levi could smell the blood circulating through the human bodies that attended the ball. As soon as Levi and Erwin passed the threshold, the sound of a string quartet floated into their ears.
Such a sweet sound soon overpowered by someone else.
"Erwin Smith!" A woman called—no. Shouted.
Levi immediately groaned and felt Erwin elbow him.
"Hanji Zoe," Erwin greeted politely, his voice smooth as silk. "How nice to see you."
"I'll say the same to you!" Hanji said, laughing, to the two of them.
Levi glared at the woman. She had the same shitty pair of eyeglasses hanging on her nose, but her dark brown hair was let down—going just past her shoulders—and Levi at least appreciated the fact that the woman took the time to bathe before arriving. Hanji Zoe, on the other hand, smiled brightly at the two men and joined them as they continued to make their way toward the heart of the party.
"You found us quite quickly, Hanji."
"Well," Hanji began enthusiastically. "I only just got here myself. I arrived with Mike Zakarius and his squad. Though one cannot miss the contrast of Levi's incredibly dark hair and porcelain skin—"
"I would enjoy," Levi interrupted harshly. "If you didn't talk about me as if I'm not standing right here and especially like some kind of doll. I am not your play thing, Four Eyes."
Hanji moved her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and a different kind of smirk quirked at the edge of her lips.
"Ah, but you people are so interesting! And to think that the two of your would join The Alliance willingly… Well, I can't seem to help myself."
Hanji brought her hands up to her chin, incredibly excited, bringing her dress up along with them. This caused her to reveal much more skin than was appropriate. Of course the woman had no shame.
"All of the hypotheses that I would like to experiment on…" Hanji said, bright eyed. "It's incredibly difficult to catch a vampire out on the battlefield. It's hard enough to kill them. Even then, they're hard to experiment on. It has to be precise since it's against their will. But if I got to experiment on perfectly healthy specimen who willingly came to The Alliance, I would be completely insane not to jump at the opportunity—"
"Wouldn't that be going against the Truce?" Levi eyed her suspiciously.
Hanji, herself, chuckled. A vampire is talking about legalities.
"Are you assuming people don't already go against the Truce? There's a war right outside of these boundaries, Levi. The Truce is nothing but a piece of paper and trust. Every day we get new cases of abductions and murders—"
"What's your point?" Levi growled.
"Mm. I'm saying that it wouldn't matter if I was going against the Truce. The Police are too wrapped up in their black market handlings to care in the first place. Not to worry, though, my scientific needs are excused in the Truce. Though there aren't a lot of experiments that I can run through. Most of the ancient beliefs have either been proven right or wrong out in the battlefield."
"What's the point, then? Living the life long dream of an occult groupie?"
Hanji chuckled again, but later shook her head.
"Efficiency," was all she said.
Levi looked at her curiously before turning back to the party. Hanji had brought her hands back down by her sides and watched as new recruits awkwardly socialized with themselves and veterans danced. Erwin immediately began to greet the aristocracy of Sina. After hearing Hanji blabber about for another five minutes, Levi excused himself and went searching for the reason he was staying at this dreadful party. The bar. Within two hours, Levi successfully drank all of the alcohol available, gaining disgusted looks from the Sina aristocrats and worried looks from the bartenders. Now that his mind was muddled with the expected effects of alcohol, Levi can only think of how incredibly hungry he was.
"Erwin, we seem to be missing someone," Hanji whispered into the Commander's ear.
Erwin excused himself from the conversation he was in and turned to face Hanji, putting a hand on her back, leading her closer to the string quartet, the music drowning out any external noise.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Erwin reassured her as he scanned the room. The woman smirked and crossed her arms.
"Erwin Smith, you are a terrible liar outside the battlefield."
Erwin frowned at this. He distinctly remembered what Levi told him before they departed for this party. Just as he opened his mouth to mention this to Hanji, a blood-curdling scream cut through the music. The dancers stopped and the musicians fell out of their harmony into discord shortly before stopping altogether. All movement stopped and Erwin immediately made their way towards the direction the scream came from, Hanji following closely behind. Smelling the blood, Erwin immediately knew the level of the situation.
Hanji's eyes widened as she saw blood pooling around a young recruit on the marble floor. She got down on her knees, not caring about the blood staining the fabric of her dress, and reached to the side of the boy's neck.
"There's a pulse," Hanji said after a moment, relieved. "But barely. Erwin—"
Hanji turned to face the Commander, but only faced the distraught crowd that had formed. She can see the head of blond hair push and weave through the crowd. Standing up, Hanji asked the crowd to make way.
"Are you a friend of this boy?" She asked as soon as the boy made his way to the front. He nodded.
"Armin Arlert, from the 104th."
"And he is…?" Hanji asked, pointing to the floor.
"Eren Jager. Also from the 104th."
Erwin found Levi laying on the leather couch in what he assumed to be the cigar room. Feeling his presence, Levi held up a bloody hand, pointing at the high ceiling lazily before he spoke.
"One," Levi slurred. "Found the bar."
Erwin watched, furious and irritated, as Levi struggled with remembering what comes after one, while trying to stay awake.
"Th…T… Two," Levi mumbled, holding up two fingers now. "Drank the bar... Three… May or may not have bitten one of the new recruits… I can't remember their name…"
Levi brought the hand to his face to wipe off the bit of blood trickling out of the left corner of his lips and raised it in front of his face, inspecting it. Judging by his expression, Erwin would say that Levi realized just what stained his hand red. The man simply clicked his tongue and mumbled a comment about the blood being filthy and needing to clean. Erwin was about to pull Levi back up to a standing position and essentially carry the man back to the care, leaving the party before anyone could point fingers—but a heavy silence fell upon the party, the faint sound of rushing water from the fountain outside filling the void. Back in the ballroom, Hanji Zoe suddenly found it difficult to breathe. A slow wave of murmurs hit the crowd and she caught the word "kind" among them. Despite being rooms away from the ballroom, Levi and Erwin knew exactly what caused such a silence.
"Well," Levi said. "You said you wanted to see the King."