Originally written in Filipino so if you happen to understand Filipino I suggest you read "Isang Lagusan" instead of this. I think that one is better since I'm not that good at English.
Disclaimer: Shingeki No Kyojin is not mine.
It was my first day as an official member of the Special Operations Squad. We were assigned to stay at an old castle located at the heart of a forest. The old castle used to be the headquarters of the Survey Corps. It was abandoned five years ago and now the castle that used to be so elegant resembles a haunted house.
"This is so filthy," Levi Heichou muttered as soon as we opened the main door of the castle.
Vines were crawling on its wall, insects were happily playing tag on the floor, cobwebs can also be seen on almost every corner of the castle.
I was assigned to clean a small room at the basement since it will serve as my room as well. And because Levi Heichou's more meticulous than any girl that I met in my life, I cleaned the basement for like three times and he's still not satisfied with my work.
"Eren, I can still see cobwebs on the ceiling. Eren, take that bed out of this room so you can clean the floor underneath it. It smells like sewer in here."
"I can't see any cobwebs, Heichou. Also, it doesn't matter if the floor underneath the bed is dirty."
"You're disobeying my orders?" He turned to me with his right eyebrow raised.
"But, sir, this is my room and it won't really affect you if this room is a little dirty."
Levi Heichou moved forward towards me, I stepped back and felt the wall against my back. I was cornered. He put his right hand on my shoulder and moved his face a few inches from mine.
"It will affect me," he said that with conviction.
"Ahh, how?" I asked dryly. I was trying to act cool although I think I didn't look like it. I even think that I was blushing a little.
"How?" He bit his lower lip and grinned at me. "Eren, I don't want to visit this room every night and be welcomed by cobwebs and dust."
"You're going to visit me uhhm every night?"
"You know what I mean." He laughed. It was the first time that I saw him laugh. He turned his back and went for the door.
"I'll be back to check on you later," he waved his hand and closed the door behind him.
I was left on the room with my mouth hanging open. I didn't know what just happened. I thought that Levi Heichou was just messing with me. Like what he might just did was some kind of a test for new members of his squad. I know it's a ridiculous test but I just couldn't find any logical explanation as to why he acted that way towards me. Actually, I thought of another possibility but it was so creepy that I immediately erased it the moment it crossed my mind.
I shrugged the thought of Levi Heichou's lip biting moment on my mind and instead focused on cleaning the room for the fourth time. Like what he asked me to do, I pushed the bed out of the room. The floor underneath the bed was so dusty, centipedes and cockroaches were swimming on the dust. I took the mop on the side of the room and soaked it into the pail of water beside it. While mopping the dusty floor, the mop suddenly bumped into something. I knelt to get a closer look at the object. It was a steel handle. I mopped the area surrounding the steel handle and from there a wooden door surfaced. The door might lead me into another basement. It's funny because the basement has a basement of its own.
I tried pulling the steel handle but with no luck, the wooden door did not even rose for even an inch. I think the wooden door got stuck because it might have been years since the last time the door was opened. I tried pulling the steel handle again but with no luck again.
"What on earth are you doing there?"
I turned my face on the direction of the voice and saw Levi Heichou standing outside the door, his hands were on his hips and his right eyebrow was slightly raised.
"Why are you kneeling there? You only kneel to me."
I had no idea what he meant by that so I just pretended that I did not hear him.
"Check this out, Heichou." I pointed at the wooden door beside me.
"I never knew that there's a hidden door in here. Interesting," he said while rubbing his chin. "Open it," he ordered.
Again, I tried pulling the steel handle with every ounce of my energy but the door would not even bulge.
"Tsk," he said, rolling his eyes to me. He went towards me and I swear I felt a little scared that time because I thought he might kick me again but instead he knelt beside me and I felt his hands covered mine that were still gripping the handle. His hands were warm unlike mine that were cold and sticky with sweat. It was so not like him to touch something that's covered with sweat so I waited for him to retrieve his hands from gripping my hands. He did not so I was surprised.
"You worthless brat." I felt his hands tightened its grip.
"On the count of three we pull this shit, okay?" He looked at me waiting for an answer. I just stared at him.
"Eren?"
"Uhmm, yeah, sorry."
"You piece of shit." For the second time that day he rolled his eyes to me.
"Okay, one, two, three!"
Using our combined energy, we pulled the steel handle. I could hear the sound of woods rubbing at each other. Also, for the first time ever since I tried pulling the handle, I felt that the wooden door was loosening up. I looked at Levi Heichou's face and saw grains of sweat coming out from his forehead down to his cheeks. His face was as red as a ripe tomato.
"Ereen, full force," he said.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
I pulled harder and I could feel that he did the same.
BLARRGGH!
The room was slightly covered with dust after we successfully opened the wooden door.
"You better clean this mess, Eren," he said that as if he's threatening me.
After the dust subsided, a hole surfaced. Levi Heichou stood up to dust his clothes. He looked so irritated maybe due to the fact that he's covered with sweat and dust.
"Filthy," he whispered.
"Stairs."
Levi Heichou took one of the lamps on the room and lowered himself into the stairs.
"Follow me," he ordered.
"Wait a minute!" I took the broom lying on the floor and hurriedly went back in front of him. "Okay, I'm ready."
"And what are you supposed to do with that? Clean the basement? You really love to clean, ah? I liked that," he grinned at me and that grin suddenly gave me chills.
"Uhm, we don't know what we might see there so I thought I should get something that we could use to defend ourselves," I said.
"Whatever." He descended the stairs while I closely followed him behind.
