The Thief - Drama for Life

The Festival of Persephone was in full swing by the time Levi stumbled into the main plaza, clutching his side as hot blood seeped through his fingers. He sagged against the wall of the alley, breathing hard and blinking furiously to clear his blurring vision. No one took notice of the thief, far too distracted by the carnival with its music and dancing. Through his struggle with lucidity, he could make out shadows as they passed before the hundreds of lanterns strung throughout the cavern. Party-goers in garishly colored clothes and lanterns assembled from cheap and highly flammable paper. A trio of children ran past him, shrieking with excitement, and the sound nearly made head split in two.

Shit…shit, shit. Levi felt himself beginning to slide into a heap on the ground. His leg and stomach throbbed as he collapsed. The bullet that had snagged his leg had passed through him, he was sure of it. It had taken a good chunk of him with it, and he didn't even want to think about the damage the second one had done to his organs. He was damned lucky for making it this far. Damn you, Fürst! Dammit!

That double-crossing shitbucket! Levi grit his teeth and hauled himself back to his feet. He couldn't die here, not in this cesspool, not after all the trouble he'd gone through tonight. Damned if he was going to let Fürst of all the scumbags in the Underground to have the satisfaction of killing him. Levi swiped his hand across his face, hurriedly wiping away the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, and forced himself back to his feet. Home. All he had to do was get home…and the rest…

He straightened, despite the screaming pain in his leg and stomach, and began to limp his way through the throng of people, hiding the blood stains beneath his long coat. If he drew attention to himself, there would be a panic and then the Military Police would come to investigate the man bleeding to death in the middle of the festival. They would ask questions. And he was not entirely innocent in this matter. Levi cursed under his breath, dodging a masked man twirling about in the street like a lunatic. He should've known better than to deal with Fürst anyway. Not while the Black Vale incident was still fresh in everyone's minds. Bastard had been high out of his mind, too. The whole situation had reeked and he'd walked right into it, as though he were a damned greenhorn. Thomas was going to kill him.

Levi grimaced at the thought of facing Thomas, then put it in the back of his mind. Home… How much further did he have to go now? Would anyone be looking for him? No…that was a foolish thought. Rat and Campbell were lying dead back in that abandoned storehouse, gunned down by Fürst and his thrice-damned thugs. Then there was Aust, who'd been missing since April. Most likely killed and disposed of by the Kouman Syndicate in Lower Reaping. And he'd made Tzipora promise not to look for him should he ever go missing. Levi coughed again and wiped his mouth. A little further…I've come this far… Just a bit further, he thought as he placed his hand on the walls of a familiar pub for support. A little further and he'd be home. And yet, the five minute walk from the plaza to his safe haven seemed an eternity now. Or a sea of glass shards. Levi bit back a cry as pain shot though his leg. Oh, Sina…

Where he found the strength to drag himself down Rambling and up those stairs he didn't know. As he staggered up to the door of his home, Levi threw himself against the wooden surface with a loud crash and fell to the ground. He heard running footsteps, then the door flung open, and Tzipora stood above his bleeding form, almost Persephone herself in the light of the room behind her. Upon seeing her, Levi closed his eyes in relief even as the woman fell to her knees beside him, crying out his name and demanding to know what happened. "God, are you bleeding? Levi!"

"Calm down." He coughed, tasting blood yet again. "Go get the Surgeon."

"What happened to the others?" She cried, noticing he'd returned alone. "Oh, Sina, did Fürst—"

"Never mind them." Levi spat out blood. "I've been shot, Tzipora. Go get the Surgeon."

"We have nothing to pay him with." Tzipora answered, her eyes frantic but her voice calm as she hauled him back to his feet and half-dragged, half-carried him inside, leaving a trail of blood on the floor. Levi grimaced, but she ignored it, "He won't come."

"Tell him that if I live, I'll score some of that damned Glass he likes so much. Ahh, easy!" Levi hissed in pain as she eased him onto the ugly, blue settee by the wall. He cracked his eyes open to look at her.

"I'm sorry." Tzipora took his arm off her shoulders and felt his perspiring forehead. "Where are you hurt?"

Levi grit his teeth and clutched at his side. "It doesn't matter, you can't dig the bullet out yourself. Go get—"

"No, we can't deal with him again!"

"Tzipora!" He yelled, grabbing her shoulder and fixing her with the fiercest glare he could muster given the circumstances. He understood her reluctance. In more way's than one, the Surgeon was a man far more despicable and cruel than Fürst. Where Fürst was simply a brute out for money and a competitor for the title of 'toughest bloke in the Underground'—Fürst's words, not his—the Surgeon was cold and calculating. An intelligent man, a student of medicine from the esteemed Einrich College from which he'd been expelled for malpractice and 'questionable morals'. Whatever parts of his brain hadn't been devoured by drink and drug, the Surgeon used to practice medicine in this hellish city. Levi had run afoul of him several times in the past, and each occasion he swore never again to seek the rogue doctor out. Yet this night, like all their encounters before, he had no choice. The Surgeon, like it or not, was likely the only man in the Underground who could save his life.

Gritting his teeth in both pain and frustration, Levi snarled in Tzipora's frightened face, "Go. Get. The Surgeon. Do it now, or you're going to be selling my fresh corpse to him." And as though to prove his point, a river of blood spilled from his mouth, dripping from his jaw and forever staining the settee.

That seemed to get the woman's attention, for she pulled herself out of his grasp, grabbed up her knife, and tucked it into her belt. Without another word, she fled the room, slamming the door behind her and he again heard her running footsteps. Levi closed his eyes and let out a long breath of air. Outside, he could hear the violin music of the Festival of Persephone. Today marked the last day of autumn, the end of the harvest and the time to celebrate the dead and pass along messages to departed loved ones by sending the Queen of the Underworld off in grand style. Fires and music and wine and sugar treats, colorful lanterns and bright clothes would reign within the Walls and in the City of Shadows, Candles, and Broken Things.

Levi coughed and was appalled by the horrid gurgling noise that escaped his throat. He recalled his mother during the festival. She used to sing and dance before the plaza's bonfire, a woman of extraordinary grace, her black as coal hair and tattered, grey dress twirling as she pirouetted with all the fluidity of water in the darkness. Levi hadn't written a message to her in years; it was only a custom observed by children. Like writing letters to St. Nicolas. A trifle. Blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth and his breathing came in shaking gasps. No matter. If the Surgeon didn't come soon…he would be seeing her again. Sooner rather than later.

The violin played on.

When Levi opened his eyes again, he found himself looking at a face that seem to suit a corpse more than a man. Its skin was pale as a bone picked clean and riddled with sores and pockmarks. The mouth was a thin slit curled into a grim smile that revealed rotting and missing teeth. The Surgeon had no hair, not even eyebrows, and his cheeks and eyes had sunken deep into his skull. And what eyes they were, sharp and blue and shining with malice. "Hello, there, Levi." The Surgeon whispered, drawing a vile syringe from his black satchel. "I see you've been caught in the jaws of Death yet again. I do hope I can deliver you this time."

Levi closed his eyes.

-0-0-0-

Author's Notes: Been awhile with this one, hasn't it? Happy Halloween!

Musical Inspiration: Drama for Life by Poets of the Fall

Shingeki no Kyojin belongs to Hajime Isayama.