Panting, that's the only thing that flooded Eren's ears, aside from the excruciating pounding of the blood rushing through his head.
He was running, running as if he was a prey attempting to escape his predator, struggling for any last hope of a thin thread that was about to snap.
"Eren~.", a male's voice called out, snapping Eren to struggle to regain his senses.
He couldn't think, all he could process was that something, no, someone, was chasing him, and he needed to get away. Everything was a blur, but he saw mixtures of brown, green, and kept running, faster, and faster, puffing to attempt to ease the ache in his chest.
"Calm down", he thought to himself, "I need to understand where I am or else running won't get me anywhere." He began to slow down and saw something, something tall and sturdy. Vision still blurred, he took his chance and hid behind the unidentified object. He leaned on it, inhaling and exhaling painfully while clutching the violent drum pulsating and lacerating at his chest. His legs, no, his whole body, began to ache. He wished he had kept running so that everything would be numb again.
Slowly, his vision began to fixate. He now noticed that he was in a forest and that the thing currently supporting him was a tree. It was dark, really dark, so he concluded that it must have been around midnight.
Once the pounding in his head and chest became bearable, and his breaths steadied, he tried to recall what it was he was doing that caused him to be in such a place at such a time.
He heard the cracking of sticks or branches, whichever it was didn't matter, the thing that mattered was what was snapping the wood.
"Why are you trying to escape me? You're the one who decided to confront me in the first place, Eren". The way his name was articulated pierced his ears and caused shivers down his spine.
"Think Eren, think!", he thought as he clutched his head. "What does he mean that I confronted him? What am I even doing here?".
"Do you like this, Eren~? You always say how you despise us vampires, yet you always come back for more."
"What?", Eren thought to himself, "Vam—", and then it hit him like a train. He came here to slay another disgusting leech of humanity.
"You won't escape from me this time, third time's a charm." The great fiend cheerfully chirped, once again emphasizing a word, and once again sending disgusting shivers down Eren's spine.
The steps neared.
"Third time…?" , Eren contemplated, "I've met this daemon more than once?"
"I can't wait to see your fear-stricken face. To feel your body struggle with no avail as you beg for my mercy.", the vampire exclaimed, followed by a deep, sadistic, spine-chilling laugh.
"I wonder what your blood will taste like? Will it be as sweet as your mother's?"
"Mother's." " Blood sweet as your mother's.", Those words rang through his head like tinnitus.
At first, the words confused him, they seemed foreign, a jarble of some sort. And then he understood. The whole situation sucked him in like a vortex. Eren came here to not only rid the world of another disgusting leech, but to avenge the horrid event of this monster murdering, and draining his mother.
These vampires have came and overtaken mankind a century ago. At the age of 9, he lost his mother to one of these disgusting beasts. It was a calm, perfect day, and then vampires broke into Wall Maria, draining humanity's blood, and hope. Once news of the outbreak reached the people inside Wall Maria, it was far past too late, especially for Eren. The Jaegers were greeted of the news by one of the monsters crashing through a window, falsely assuring that there is nothing to worry about, that all of this will end soon enough.
Eren clenched his fists and jaw as he recalled the horrid ordeal. He remembered the horrid look on his mother's face as she pleaded Eren to run, while the repulsing fiend drained his mother of life.
"Do you remember the day we first met?" The vampire questioned, "How I loved watching the hope drain from your innocent eyes. The sight was absolutely gratifying."
That's it, Eren had enough. He grabbed a silver knife from his sheath, took a deep breath, and revealed himself from behind the tree. Quickly scanning his environment, Eren located the sadistic beast about a mile North from where he was standing. "Not as gratifying as the sight of you withering away by the force of my hands.", Eren retorted, gravely. "Levi".
With that, the monster quickly turned to face the hateful voice of his prey, smirking. "My, my, how I love to see that pain and determination on your face.", Levi replied, taking a few steps forward. " As much as I would love to see that pain and determination die and fade from your face!"
The monster charged at Eren with an unimaginable speed.
"Shit", Eren thought, "Do not back down now". Eren clenched his blade with as much force as he could and readied himself for the attack.
Soon enough, Levi lunged at Eren, forcing an immense blow that almost lost Eren his balance. Eren struggled to point the knife at the monster's heart (if one even existed, anyway) but the way the monster clutched Eren's arms made it onerous. The struggling continued as Eren's blade was still a good 5 inches away from the target.
"You've grown stronger from the last time you've challenged me", Levi praised, "But it's still not good enough.", Levi smirked and gave an extra forceful push. Eren gasped as he fell backward, body painfully striking the forest's cold, hard ground. Eren hoped that the sound of the crunching leaves and sticks covered his pained whine. Levi grinned as he got the upper hand and now had full control of Eren. "Well, well, well, point one for me, ne~?" Levi teased as he snatched the no-longer threatening blade out of the young boy's hand.