So, I have to thank everybody so much for all the early feedback and support I've received. You guy are awesome, and your support is the reason I'm posting this chapter.

In all seriousness, I'm not super happy with this chapter. I knew what I wanted to happen, but writing it out made it look so... I don't know. Boring? Mundane? Something like that. I'm not happy with the way it turned out and I had a hard time writing it, but I think it's a chapter that has to exist. It's mostly about Eren's family and the aftermath of his first taste of the Other Side. My biggest issue with it is that Levi isn't here (in person), but don't worry - he'll be back next chapter, and then the ereri will start to happen and stuff. I promise.

But Izzy does pop in for this chapter, so that's good?

A pillow cushions my head and a down blanket cocoons my body. Above me, sunlight shines through the open window and paints the fan's shadow onto the ceiling.

Normally, I don't think about much of anything right after I wake up. It takes me a moment to start functioning. Then all I can think about is what might happen in the day ahead.

This morning, my first thought of the day is no.

Last night, I met a dream – several dreams, actually – and learned that I might have a chance against my FFI. I ended up in another dimension. The whole time, I wondered whether or not Eden was real, or if my brain was just cooking up everything I saw. Eden offered me a possible cure, and I desperately hoped that the opportunity was real.

Waking up in my own bed makes it far more likely that everything was just a cruel dream.

Last night, after Levi left and Eden emptied out, I just stepped outside the club and prayed that I could retrace my steps back home. I'm home now, but I don't remember walking back through the snow.

The snow! I bolt out of bed and swing the window open. The moment I stick my head outside, my heart drops. The morning sun shines down on our yard, where Mom's rose garden – Dad started to take care of it after she died, but lately he's neglected it – bursts with reds and whites blossoms in full bloom. Dew glistens on the roses climbing up the wall by my window, but there isn't a single snowflake on the petals. The lush grass

I sink back onto the bed. It definitely snowed outside of Eden last night. The snowflakes got all over my arms and in my hair.

I don't want Eden to be a dream. I don't care that I got some sleep if it means that everything that happened last night was a fantasy. I had a cure close enough to taste, but now it looks like it was never there to begin with.

I bury my face in my hands. God, I was so happy. So ready to be healthy again. Levi was going to take me to the Other Side for a cure. A tear slips down my cheek, and I wipe it away angrily (Why am I crying? It`s… yeah it's not good that Eden might not be real but there's no reason to cry).

There's a gentle knock on my door. "Eren?" Mikasa calls. "Are you awake?"

When I don't answer, Mikasa lets herself in. "Eren?" She asks, with alarm, behind me. "Are you okay?"

I turn to look at my older sister standing in the doorway. She's wearing an apron over her clothes, and when she sees my face, she produces a tissue from one of the apron pockets and hurries over. "What's wrong?" She asks as she reaches out to wipe my face. "Were you up all night?" Mikasa bites her lip worriedly. "I'm sorry."

I duck away from the hand wielding the Kleenex and pull the tissue away from it instead. Mikasa has always acted like the mother of the house, but I think she forgets that I'm not a little kid anymore. I can wipe my own face. "I'm fine," I insist.

"You're crying," She points out.

I wipe my face with the tissue to get rid of any lingering tears. "No, I'm not." Softening my tone, I add, "Thanks, but you don't need to worry. I just had a really lifelike dream, that's all."

I don't know if Mikasa buys it, but my explanation seems to relieve her a bit. She smiles softly. "So you did get some sleep? I'm glad."

"Yeah, me too." If Eden was just a dream, then I think it would have been better that I'd never fallen asleep in the first place. "I think I got a lot of sleep, actually."

Mikasa rests one hand lightly on my shoulder. "That's great, Eren. I have to get back downstairs, but come down soon, okay? I made breakfast."

"I'll be down in a minute," I promise. First, I need to clean up.

Mikasa goes back downstairs, and I go over to the bathroom. My bathroom is actually connected to my room, so I don't need to go across the hall or anything to get to it – just though the door by my closet. That might sound great, but the only reason I have it because of my FFI. If I didn't have an adjoining bathroom, I'd have to use the one downstairs, and I might wake the others up when I used the downstairs bathroom in the middle of the night.

In the bathroom, I splash come cold water on my face and brush my teeth. While I'm busy rinsing my mouth and cringing (Why does mint and cold water have to give my mouth that feeling?), my mind wanders back to Eden. I can't believe that the whole thing was just a dream.

Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and have to find a way to kill time for a few hours until I fall back asleep. When I wake up on the mornings after those nights, the time I spent awake always feels dreamlike and sort of vague. Everything I did before I fell back asleep seems foggy and blurry. The more I think about it, the more I always wonder if I woke up in the first place or if my time awake was a vivid dream.

Eden feels the same way. I want to say that I was awake, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I dreamt the whole thing.

I check myself over in the mirror. It definitely looks like I slept last night. The bags under my eyes haven't disappeared, but they're definitely a lot smaller than they were yesterday morning. There's also some color in my cheeks.

My hair is a mess, but that isn't anything new. Every day, I try to tame it with a wet comb, and every day, I fail miserably. At least it appeases Mikasa. I don't think I'll change before breakfast. I don't think my sweatpants and tee are that gross or offensive, and they're comfortable.

Just as I'm about to turn away from the mirror, something glitters gold on my collarbone.

I immediately turn back to my reflection. I pull down my collar to get a closer look, and my heart stops when I see the gold tattoo spread over my collarbone.

I don't have a tattoo. I've never gotten one. I thought about it once, but Armin stopped me before I could go through with my plan of getting a smiley face tattooed on my ass.

There's unmistakably a gold lily covering my collarbone and most of my shoulder. I tentatively touch the inked skin. It's not sore at all. It doesn't look like a new tattoo, but I know I didn't have it last night. Mikasa definitely would have noticed. That being said, there's no way it could have just spontaneously appeared.

It has something to do with Eden. That's the only explanation I can think of. The thought excites me. Eden is full of crazy things, so it's possible that the tattoo is another part of its general wackiness. Of course, that doesn't really explain where I got the tattoo. Nobody offered me one while I was at the club, and Levi never mentioned anything about tattoos.

If the tattoo is real, and it is from Eden, then Eden has to be real. On the other hand, I woke up in my bed this morning without a speck of snow on the ground. When I looked out the window this morning, it had never seemed so likely that Eden was one of my dreams.

I take a deep breath. I can't help but wonder about Eden, but there's nothing I can do right now. Mikasa and Dad will be wondering where I am. I quickly change into jeans and a turtleneck that will hide the flower before hurrying down the stairs and into the kitchen.

The moment I step inside the kitchen, I'm hit by a blast of warm air and the doughy, sweet smell of pancake batter. Mikasa and Dad are already seated and waiting for me when I come in, their plates full but untouched.

"Don't run down the stairs," Mikasa chides. "It would be easy to fall."

"Sorry," I slide into my seat and help myself to some pancakes with a small ocean of syrup. I don't cut my pancake stack so much as tear a chunk off and eagerly shove it into my mouth. I shut my eyes as the flavor bursts in my mouth and let out an appreciative "mmmmmm." Mikasa is an incredible chef, no matter what she's cooking.

I stuff another cube of pancake into my mouth and turn to watch Dad. My stomach twinges. He looks horrible. The bags under my eyes have never been as big as the bags he has now. He's gone through a couple mugs of coffee already, but it's not keeping his eyelids from sinking lower and lower. "Don't tell me you stayed up last night," I say.

He shakes his head. "I fell asleep. Did you sleep at all?"

"Yeah, I slept for a while," I throw some powdered sugar onto the pancakes for good measure. Dad manages to crack a weary smile. "Good. Do you feel rested?"

I shrug. "Yeah, I feel fine." How I feel is the last thing on my mind this morning, but now that I think about it, I'm not sore or sluggish the way I usually am in the mornings. I feel solid. Awake. "Did you… did you find anything last night? Did you make any progress?"

Dad shakes his head. Mikasa's eyes fall down to her plate.

Dad works for the city hospital. He met mom when she came in to get her genes tested, and then he tried to treat her when she got sick. He never found a treatment, let alone a cure, but now he's trying to cure me. He's working himself to the bone. I tell him over and over again not to try so hard, but he never listens.

"Are you going to go to class today?" Dad speaks up.

I frown, a forkful of pancake halfway to my mouth. "I want to, but can I still get to class? What time is it?"

Dad checks his watch. The telltale blue-black of pen ink smears his fingertips. "Your biology class starts at eleven. It's nine thirty-seven now. The next bus comes at ten, so you could probably make it."

Mikasa glances at me over her orange juice. "You should hurry up and go. It's fifteen minutes to the bus stop."

I shovel down a few more bites and pull my sneakers and a jacket. "Take care of yourself!" Mikasa calls as I close the front door.

I hurry down the sidewalk to the bus stop. I'm eager to go to class rested, since I can never remember or process anything when I haven't slept. It might be hard to catch up, but that's okay. Armin sent me the class notes, so those will help.

I make it to the bus stop without a moment to spare and settle down into a seat on the back of the bus. It's about a twenty-minute ride to the university, so I pull out my headphones and settle against the window.

Eden. I should be thinking about school, but my thoughts linger on the nightclub. I can't stop thinking about that titan of a moon and the painted wall. My brain keeps circling back to grey eyes and black hair.

I sigh and force the thoughts out of my head. It'll be the first time this week that I can go to class. I went every day last week, but man, it's impossible to take notes when you're too tired to think.

All of my notes look like something a toddler scribbled. My grades have been plummeting ever since I started showing symptoms, but I need to pass biology as a pre-med coursework requirement.

The seat shifts as someone sits down beside me, and a girl's voice chimes, "Hey, are you Eren?"

I turn around to see what she wants, but my vocal cords close up when my eyes land on the girl sitting next to me.

Her emerald eyes gleam even in the full daylight, and the sun reflects off of the silver butterfly inked over her jaw and the right side of her face. Scarlet hair falls around her face in a scruffy mane.

There are wings on her back. Real, velvety butterfly wings bent in on themselves against the seat.

"Does that hurt?" I blurt out. I saw stranger things than this girl at Eden last night, but we're not in the club now. Levi said that dreams can't manifest on my side of the club, so what is she?

She blinks. "What, this?" As I watch, she grabs a piece of her wing and rolls it up before pressing it flat in her palm. I wince. "Nah, they're too durable." She releases the wing and it unfurls back into its original shape. "See?" The girl offers me one hand. "I'm Isabel Magnolia. You're Eren, right?"

I nod and hesitantly shake her hand. She's definitely real. Eden's wall was real, too, and so was Levi. "Are you a dream?" I ask.

"Sort of, yeah." Isabel shrugs. "I'm a daydream. I'm weaker than the fantasies or the nightmares or the imperfects, but it's okay because I can leave Eden. Even though I can only be on your side during the day." She flashes me a quick grin. "It's cool that I get to see you. I wouldn't be able to find you in Eden."

I frown. "Have you been looking for me?"

Isabel nods. "You met my older brother last night, and he thought that you might not be doing too well this morning." Her expression darkens. "Eden isn't always kind to dreamers."

Before I can ask Isabel what she means, a woman seated across the aisle speaks up. "Honey, could you please keep it down?"

"What?" I glance up at the elderly woman frowning at me. "Me?"

"Yes, you. I'm sorry if you're not feeling well, but could you keep it down?"

"I…" What is she talking about? I don't think Isabel and I were speaking that loudly.

"Oh," Isabel breathes. Her eyes widen. "Oh shit, I completely forgot." She turns to me. "They can't see me, Eren."

My face flushes as the pieces click into place. She thinks that I'm talking to myself. "Oh, no! I'm not…." My voice trails off. The woman fixes me with a frown that can't decide whether it wants to be pitying or exasperated. All around me on the bus, people are trying very hard not to look at me.

They think I'm crazy.

I glance out the window. We still have a few more stops until the bus reaches campus. Great.

The old lady frowns at me for the rest of the ride while Isabel periodically murmurs "Sorry." I grit my teeth.

It makes sense that I'm the only one who can see Isabel. Of course nobody else can see her, or they would have said something about the girl with wings. I should have thought of that.

I burst out of the bus the moment it stops on campus, with Isabel hot on my heels. I still have some time before class starts, so I pull Isabel over to a secluded bench to continue our conversation.

"Okay," I say as we sit down, "what do you mean, Eden isn't always kind to dreamers?" Isabel's appearance proves that I didn't dream Eden up. I still don't understand why I woke up in my own bed, but it doesn't really matter. I still have a chance of finding a cure, and that's all that really matters.

Isabel grimaces. "You know how humans eat food, right? You need to survive. Dreams eat too, but we can't get any nutrition from salad or hot dogs. We need dreamers instead."

"The only reason dreams exist is because a dreamer made them, right?" Isabel continues. "Long story short, there's a hierarchy of dreams. Fulfilled dreams are the strongest dreams since they get the most attention from their dreamers. Forgotten dreams are the least powerful." Isabel frowns. "Forgotten dreams usually die."

"Anyways, a dream's position can change pretty quickly depending on how much attention it gets. Eden helps bring dreams and dreamers closer together and puts dreams right in front of dreamers' faces. It makes it hard for dreamers not to pay attention to us, and we get to feast. It also makes it easy for dreams that aren't doing so well to get something to eat. We don't feed off of you consciously. It's like breathing for you guys – we do it automatically. It's a survival mechanism. Sometimes we take a lot from our dreamers and it hurts them." Isabel fiddled with a loose screw on the bench. "That's not really the most dangerous part, though. Dreams also try to addict dreamers. It's so we can have a reliable food source or something like that. Basically we mess with your brain chemistry and your… what is it? The stuff your brain has when you get a reward?"

"Dopamine?" I supply.

"Yeah, dopamine. We mess with your dopamine until you're addicted to us." Isabel looks up at me guiltily. "We can't help it, but it's a big problem for dreamers."

"I'm not mad at you or anything," I assure her. "You can't help it." I'm okay with dreams feeding off me, as long as they only do it because they have to.

"It's still dangerous for you,"

I laugh it off. "Worse things could happen."

"I guess," Isabel leans back on the bench and studies me. "I volunteered to come after you because Levi was worried that going to the Other Side took a lot out of you. You spent a lot of time with him and you went through the doors, so he thought that you might already start getting hooked." Her eyes fall to me neck. "It definitely looks like Eden attached itself to you."

I glance down to my neck and realize with a jolt that my tattoo is uncovered. I quickly rearrange the collar and ask Isabel, "Did Eden give me a tattoo or something?"

"Yep," Isabel replies. "Eden likes to brand the dreamers that visit it."

"That doesn't make any sense," I complain. "It's inconvenient, and no dream is going to see it when I'm on my side. Except for daydreams," I amend. "And I don't know how much it really matters inside Eden."

"It doesn't do much," Isabel agrees. "Maybe it has some identification purpose? If I didn't see that tattoo, it would have been harder to find you." She looks me over. "Levi wasn't sure what going to the other side would do to a dreamer, but you seem to be doing alright. You're not obsessing over Eden, are you? Compelled to run to your nearest wall?"

I laugh. "I've been thinking about Eden a lot, but only because it's such a new idea, right? I never thought that I would be able to touch dreams."

Isabel nods. "It's weird to think about how dreamers never really think much about their dreams as people, even though we think about our dreamers as people all the time. You don't know our world exists, but we know all about yours."

"Speaking of which," Isabel adds, you came here for a college class, right? Shouldn't you go?"

I check my watch and scramble to my feet. Crap, she's right – class starts in five minutes. "

"Gotta go?" Isabel chirps from the bench.

"Yeah," I turn back to her sheepishly. "You don't want to wait for me out here."

Isabel waves a hand. "I can find my way back home. Just go."

I go.

"Hey Eren!" Armin beams as I slide into my seat next to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I assure him. "Hey, thanks for the notes. I looked the over earlier, so hopefully they'll help me out."

Armin nods. "No problem. Did you remember your paper?"

"My bio… oh, shit!" I dive into my bag, pushing aside old assignments and some random books out of the way in search of my biology paper.

I groan. Last night, I tried to work on the stupid paper and gave up because I didn't have the motor skills necessary for typing. I never even printed the assignment. I don't want to tell Mr. Hannes that I forgot my homework. Shit, and I need the grades, too. This is a disaster.

I turn to Armin. "I don't have it."

He winces sympathetically. "You know Eren, you're sick. If you explain to Hannes that you couldn't get your work done because of your condition, I'm sure he'll give you an extension."

I shook my head. "FFI already causes enough problems. It shouldn't keep me from doing my homework on top of everything else. I'll just tell him I didn't get it done and take the grade."

Professor Hannes comes in and scans the class to make sure everyone is here – Good to see you back, Eren, - and immediately says, "All right, hand in your papers." He surveys the class. "You had two months to complete this, so I don't want anyone to tell me that they aren't complete."

My ride on the bus this morning was pretty humiliating, but it's hard to say that it was worse than siting at your desk while everyone else turns their papers in.

Jean shoots me a puzzled look on the way back to his seat. "Jaeger, why aren't you up here?"

"Don't start," I warn him.

He raises both hands in surrender. "You know it's right there on your desk, right?"

"What the hell Jean? It's – " It is on my desk. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF GENETIC MUTATIONS IN HUMANS. Typed, neat, and – I flip through it quickly – complete.

I never completed it. I never even printed it, but it's siting on my desk. Eden was one thing, but this is a whole new level of unreal. I walk up to turn in my paper in a daze. Jean rolls his eyes.

I'm confident that the notes I take during class are readable, and it's a relief to hear information that doesn't go in one ear and out the other. Armin leans over and whispers information that I don't remember covering, and Jean is mercifully quiet.

I'm disappointed when I leave the building and stop for a minute to stare at the campus. Now that class is over, I don't know what to do with myself. I still have a good eight hours before I can settle down for the night, and visit Eden.

Jean slips up behind me and rests his elbow on my shoulder. "Hey Jaeger, I'm going to grab some coffee with Sasha and Connie. You're coming with us."

"We haven't seen you in forever," Connie's voice drifts over my shoulder.

"Plus we don't have any cash," Sasha chimes in, "and we're hungry."

I let them drag me away. "Is Armin coming?" I ask.

"He's got work to do," Jean shrugs. "Smart people never have any free time."

We end up in a little coffee shop on the west side of campus with Café Maria hand painted on a small sign out front.

We sip our drinks at a tiny corner table.

The four of us end up talking about pretty mundane crap, but it's nice to be distracted from everything for a while It's easy to drift in Sasha's monologue about how the lady at Chipotle robbed her, how dare she charge her for three orders of guacamole when she only got two. It's not mind-numbingly boring – I am paying attention – but it's simple. Uninteresting. We don't talk about sleep or dreams. Crazy nightclubs don't come up.

Halfway through Jean's rant about his last chemistry exam, I realize that I still have six hours before I can head back to Eden, and this is becoming nothing more than a way to kill time.

How will I get back? I could try to walk to the club, but I almost just want to sleep. I woke up in bed this morning, so it's possible that I can fall asleep in it tonight. I hope that's true and I can lie down.

Jean, Connie, and Sasha are still chattering away when I excuse myself and hurry through campus to catch the bus. The old lady isn't on the bus this time, your writing is flat. Add some senses. but neither is Isabel.

When I get home I say hi to Dad – Mikasa is out boxing with Annie – and head up to my room. I'm not sure how I'll get rid of the next… five and half hours? Yeah, well, I'll think of something.

I just really want Eden.