You and your sister have both been so busy with life lately that you've barely seen each other for more than a minute. So when you both happened to get off an off day on the same day you decided to spend some quality time together. Which just meant you and her spent the day out shopping together. And you stopped for lunch before returning home. Once inside you plugged your phone and mp3 up to charge and kicked your shoes off. Then your sister suggested you both watch some anime together. She started gushing about this new anime series she'd been really into as of late. She said it was called iShingeki no Kyojin/I, or Attack on Titan. You vaguely recall seeing that name written on Tumblr. But from the few pictures you'd seen of it you couldn't say it looked terribly interesting to you.
But you grinned when you thought of you thought of your current anime obsession. It was a swimming anime called iFree!/i It was an anime centered around five hot guys who like swimming. You know it doesn't sound like much but it had a good story plot and lots of angst. Plus, come on, hot and muscular men who were almost constantly wet? Sounds like a win to you. And you showed your sister but she said it was just fanservice! You and her argued for a bit before deciding to just watch both. But then you started arguing over which series you would be watching first. Finally you ended up just flipping a coin to see which series went first. You won and cheered as you put in the first disc of Free!
You watched about half of the episodes and then ordered pizza. You watched the rest of that series and ate the pizza once it arrived. And when it was over your sister even said how much she liked it. She wouldn't shut up about how cute she thought that one boy, Seijuro Mikoshiba, was. His crush on G Matsuoka was so adorable that you two giggled over it for at least five full minutes. But once the main menu came back on you got up and took the DVD out and put it back in the case. Then your sister jumped from her seat and practically threw the first disc of Attack on Titan in the DVD player before getting back on the couch. She was almost vibrating with excitement.
She pressed play and almost instantly you were hit by the loud, and unbelievably dramatic, opening intro of the anime. There was a loud chorus of people singing in Japanese while exploding stone, fire, and running chains encompassed the screen. Then it showed a lot of different characters in a black and white setting. Though bright red blood and mutilated bodies were splashed here and there. Then it showed giant monster looking people attacking an old fashioned city. Then suddenly there was a military setting with soldiers doing some kind of odd, two handed salute. And there was one boy in the center of the screen, obviously the main character, or at least one of them. Then boom! The soldiers were leaping into the air while wielding giant box cutters. And then lots more overly dramatic singing and kanji written across the screen.
And suddenly the military people were being flung through the air on what looked like grappling gear. And there was a huge attack on a shit ton of the giant monster people. Some soldiers in high towers and on the huge wall were shooting guns and canons. Then that main character boy was lunging for a gargantuan monster that had no skin. And suddenly the scene shifted to a flag waving in the air. It had two wings on it, one was black and the other white. Then a guy slow motion flips through the air. And then you watched as more and more soldiers jumped and hovered in the air. Then they were going down and killing all the monsters with their giant box cutters. The screen was flashing image after image of humans, monsters, more kanji, fire, smoke, and all out war.
You weren't entirely sure what to think. But you will give whoever made that intro props. It was dramatic as Hell.
But then the actual first episode came on. And at first you didn't think it was going to live up to the craziness of the intro scene. But soon you were enthralled with the series. It really was intense. It had a beautiful art style and lots of cool characters. Your heart went out to Eren and his sister. Having your mom eaten in front of you had to have sucked big time. And their blonde friend was in an almost constant state of horror from the world around him. And the other characters had realistic reactions to everything around them. Unlike most anime these days where people acted like the F'd up shit going on around them was normal. Which was a refreshing change of pace in your own humble opinion.
And then you and your sister flew through the episodes. You felt like they should have been longer. Or maybe have more than only 25 of them. But at least there were a pretty good amount of bonus episodes to watch. But then afterwards you sighed. No more to watch. You asked your sister if there were any other seasons but she said not yet. But they were releasing a second season soon. You huffed in annoyance before glancing at the clock on your phone. It was getting pretty late. And you had work tomorrow morning. So you stretched your back before getting up. Your sister did the same and went to gather her things. And just as she was getting her purse you both heard yelling from outside. Being curious you both peeked out the side window blinds.
You saw the screaming was coming from the house to the left of yours. A man in a white lab coat, who you knew as Mr. Herbert, was following a woman, his wife Mrs. Herbert, outside. It looked like she was leaving. She had two suitcases in hand and was heading for the car in the driveway. She looked pretty haggard. Her dress was nice but it looked like it had been scorched oddly enough. And Mr. Herbert looked like a stereotypical mad scientist in the making. He had the coat, the glasses, and the messy hair. You were surprised to see the older man outside. You'd heard around town that after he lost his job at the university he sort of became a hermit. People gossiped that he'd locked himself in his basement. And he kept himself busy by doing odd experiments.
And before now you hadn't believed any of it but...it looks like they'd been right all along. You and your sister watched the two argue on their lawn for a couple minutes more before Mrs. Herbert got in the car and sped off. Sadly neither of you could understand what they were saying through the window. And neither of you were nosy enough to go outside to hear them better lest they see you. So you both waited until Mr. Herbert went back inside before going outside. You walked your sister to her car and hugged her goodbye. She drove off and you went back into your house. You cleaned up the movies and pizza boxes before getting ready for bed. But it was still relatively early enough for you to watch a little bit of tv so you switched it on and plopped onto the couch.
You were half way through watching some horrible tv drama when you heard it. It was an odd noise. At first it blended with the hum of your air conditioner so it was unnoticeable. But it began to get progressively louder. You got up to see what the noise was and the closer you got to the side of your house the louder it became. You looked out of your window that was facing the Herbert's house and saw bright light seeping through their window curtains. Your phone rang and you rushed to answer it. It was your neighbor to the right, Mrs. Baxter. You could just make out the sound of her baby crying in the background.
"Oh my god! (_)! What is that awful noise? It's coming from your house and it woke up Brendan!" You walked into the bathroom and closed the door so you could hear better. "No it's not coming from my house. It's coming from Mr. Herbert's! I don't know what it is! I think we need to call the cops!" Mrs. Baxter agreed and you both hung up to call 911. Your call was directed to the police station and you told them an ungodly, and not to mention deafening noise, was coming from your neighbor's home. And it was waking everybody on the street up. They said they would send a squad car out to check it out and then hung up.
You opened the bathroom door and winced when your eyes and ears were assaulted with a combination of a bright light and loud noise. You squinted and felt your stomach drop when you saw the light was coming from Mr. Herbert's now shaking house. And you yelped when you felt your house start quaking. Books and odds & ends started falling from their shelves from the force of the shaking. You were jolted to the left and fell against the wall, almost hitting your head on the windowsill. You gripped said windowsill for purchase and looked through the glass of the window and felt your panic rise. Pieces of Mr. Herbert's house were getting sucked inside of it. Almost like the house was...imploding in on itself!
"Just what the hell was that psycho doing?!" You screamed to yourself. You watched in horror as more and more of the house disappeared into the ball of light. Soon it was gone. But the ball of light didn't stop growing or shaking the foundations of your house. It was getting steadily closer to you and your home. You screamed in terror and tried to stand up and run away. But with the floors shaking you couldn't stay upright. You managed to half crawl half stumble to the door before blinding white light overwhelmed you. You screwed your eyes shut to block out the light. But a sudden and sharp pain to the side of your skull knocked you unconscious. And blessed darkness took over your vision.
You lay there on your living room floor as the light enveloped your entire home. But once your house was devoured the light dissipated. Leaving nothing but a huge crater in the place of where your and Mr. Herbert's houses used to be. The cops arrived and were shocked speechless to see the barren hole in the ground. One officer somehow gathered himself enough to radio in the news.
"Officer 443 to dispatch. You are not going to believe this."