Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to "Shinjitsu no Uta". The song belongs to Do As Infinity.

Armin woke up as daylight filled his room to the brim. He could feel tears drying on his cheeks, and, with a pang of sadness, he felt the echo of his mother's embrace still holding him tight. In the back of his mind, Armin could hear her gentle voice still whispering "My baby…my baby…" and fading away.

"Mom…Dad…Grandma…I'm not alone. I was never alone."

His phone lit up, and Armin grimaced as he recognized his reminder to meet with his RHD, Levi. Though Armin had never met him, he knew that Levi was an extremely intimidating person who didn't put up with any crap.

"I have to get down to his office. I can't stay here and be afraid of Kayla."

It took him less time than usual to get ready, due to his nervousness. After what seemed like only a few minutes, Armin had his hand gripping the door handle, urging himself to go downstairs.

He took a deep breath, and walked out the door.

"A-Armin?"

He was sitting on the floor of his room, cradling himself as tears began to spill down his cheeks. Annie could hear an ominous voice echoing around the room as Armin's composure quickly crumbled.

"…now, I've had enough!" she heard him snarl, as the voice rose to a horrible roar.

His head snapped back, and Annie recoiled as Armin let out a demonic shriek that filled the entire room with its awful sound.

Before she could make a move, a tall woman shrouded in an ebony robe appeared before her, wearing a look of hatred so intense that Annie nearly collapsed from fright. The woman seized her arms with a death-like grip, and bellowed in Annie's face as Armin's shriek went on and on.

"THEY WILL BURN!"

Annie snapped up in bed, her heart pounding as her three roommates looked at her in confusion, Mikasa in the bed next to hers, and the two lovers almost out the door. Once again, Annie was the last girl in the room to get up, her reputation as the deepest sleeper being known in their whole dorm.

"Well damn" Ymir said snidely. "And I thought my nightmares were intense."

They left, Krista sending Annie a worried look over her shoulder as they departed.

Mikasa looked quietly at Annie as the other girl tried to calm down, Armin's scream and what the terrifying woman had bellowed still echoing. Her attempts to calm herself down were failing, the knowledge that she had been face-to-face with an otherworldly being shaking her to the core.

"What happened to Armin?" she thought. "It sounded like he snapped!"

"That…that was way too vivid to be a dream!"

"Annie?" Mikasa asked her as Annie continued to breathe heavily, "What's wrong?"

Annie made herself slow down, and look Mikasa dead in the eye.

"Something's happened to Armin."

Mikasa gave her a confused look, and Annie repeated herself with much more ferocity "Something's happened to Armin!"

"How do you know that?"

"Don't ask me how I know, just help him!"

Her roommate grabbed her phone and called Armin, but to no avail. After calling him several times, Mikasa began to panic. Annie watched as she dialed Eren's number next, beginning to sweat as terror took ahold of her.

"Eren! I need you to go find Armin! Annie told me that…that something's happened to him, but Armin won't answer his phone."

Annie heard Eren's startled mumbling, and thought "I need to find him too."

"I don't know, go look for him at the bookstore, he might be working. And hurry, Eren!"

She ended the call, and told Annie "Eren's going to look for him. But Annie, what on earth did you see in that nightmare?"

Annie shuddered and said "You really don't want to know. I can't confidently say that I had a dream…I really think that what I saw was real, it was so vivid."

"But I will tell you this: we need to get Armin out of that dorm."

Armin shifted around in his chair uncomfortably as Levi's cold eyes bored into him, seizing him up as the two guys and Hannah sat together in the RHD office. This meeting had been delayed for far too long, and there was a palpable sensation of anxiety choking the air in the room.

"Tell me what's going on, kid" Levi commanded. "I want to know every last detail of what these girls have done to you. Hold nothing back."

Armin gulped, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye how sad Hannah looked.

"Guess I shouldn't be so shocked" he mused. "She's probably thinking that this is all her fault…"

He took a deep breath before speaking.

"There are these girls on my dorm floor who've been deliberately mistreating me" he began, watching Levi's gaze harden. "Two girls have been leaving awful messages about me around the floor, and have been stalking me outside the restroom too. I didn't understand why they were doing what they did until recently, when they got openly homophobic."

"I'm only now reporting this because I thought that being quiet would make it stop."

Levi groaned and muttered "That's what they all think."

"Kid, you should've reported this the instant it happened. I'm not saying that this is your fault, but something could've been done sooner if you had just spoken up."

"Sorry" Armin muttered sheepishly.

"What do I do now?"

Levi leaned back in his chair and told him "Your best option would be to change dorms. I can't imagine why you'd want to stay here any longer."

Hannah looked at Armin despondently as they waited for him to reply. Armin was getting even more flustered as Levi's gaze bore into him. Even though he knew that Sansburg Hall could no longer be called "home", the very idea of leaving and admitting that to everybody around him was vile.

"I really don't want to leave" he told them. "I'm certain that if this gets resolved, staying here won't be an issue."

There was dead silence as Levi gave him a look of near disdain.

"You really want to stay here that badly? There's nothing for you here, only more crap."

"No, really, I don't mind staying."

Levi sighed and told him "Fine. But let me know if you change your mind."

Armin beamed and said "Will do."

He got up and left, leaving Hannah and Levi to themselves. Hannah looked at Levi as the RHD ruffled his hair, gritting his teeth in frustration. The anxious feeling in the room was still present, and had now increased with Levi's sudden aggravation.

"Er…Levi?" she asked him. "Why do you look so pissed?"

"Either that kid's delusional or he was downright lying" he spat.

"Assuming that everything he told me is accurate, this shit will only get worse. Him staying here is dangerous."

Hannah blinked in confusion.

"How is that dangerous?"

Levi looked her in the eye and asked "Didn't you see the look in his eyes?"

"N-no! All I saw was him being nervous."

"That's not nervousness, that's paranoia. That kid is too on edge to be here anymore."

"What are you saying?" Hannah asked him, bewildered at the direction the talk was going.

Levi looked at where Armin had been sitting, and shook his head. The RHD was giving off an air of reminiscence.

"You don't understand, Hannah. I know that look. That's the look of somebody who's been hurt so much that they've gone completely over the edge. If those girls hurt him again…no, if they even lay a finger on him, the way he is now…

"…there's no doubt that he'll try to kill them."

Armin rummaged around the front desk of the bookstore, trying to keep calm after his meeting with Levi. His RHD had seemed so intent on him leaving the dorm. Armin knew that Levi had good intentions, but he couldn't help being shaken by how near-desperate his tone had been.

"Did he go through something similar to my issue?"

At that moment, the doors to the bookstore banged open, and Eren came dashing towards him, exhausted and sweaty. It looked like he had ran as fast as he could.

"Armin!" he shouted, panting and trying to get a hold of himself. "What happened to you? Mikasa told me that Annie had a horrible nightmare about something bad happening to you! Why didn't you tell us something was wrong?"

Armin gulped, and was about to say something when his manager came clomping towards the two friends, anger etched all over her features.

"How dare you come storming in here like that!" she snarled at Eren. "What is your problem, young man?"

"My problem…" Eren hissed, his own anger flashing, "is that somebody's hurt Armin!"

"What?"

She looked at Armin, her anger turning to horror. "What is he talking about, Armin?"

"Oh crap. The cat's really out of the bag now."

With his best friend and manager watching him, Armin shuddered and looked away from them, feeling intense shame for not speaking to them sooner.

"Those girls I told you about…they got worse. A lot worse. I tried to ignore it as long as I could, but recently, just a few days ago, this one girl's boyfriend called me…he called me…"

The eyes of Eren and Armin's manager narrowed ominously, and Armin barely managed to make himself finish.

"…he called me a 'cock-sucking faggot'…"

Eren let out an animalistic shriek of rage, and for the first time ever, Armin heard his manager swear violently.

The other patrons in the store whirled around and gawked at the sight before them. Armin was trembling with anxiety, knowing that the anger he was seeing was inevitable. Eren's notoriously hot temper was now blazing for the whole store to see, and his manager's equally cold contempt was seething along with it.

"I wanted to avoid calling them homophobes because I didn't think I had proof, but now, it's obvious that yeah, they really do hate me because I'm gay. After that happened, I heard the girl screaming awful things like…like God won't protect me because I'm gay, that I deserve to die, and…"

Eren reached over the desk, yanked Armin out of his chair and crushed him in an intense bear hug that nearly cracked Armin's rib cage. Armin could feel Eren shaking with a terrible anger, and could hear his manager starting to weep behind him.

"I'll kill them!" Eren spat, freaking out the other customers even more. "I'll find them and tear them limb-from-limb for what they've done to you!"

"Armin" he heard his manager whisper, "I'm so sorry."

In Eren's arms, Armin lay still, wiped out and without the energy to do anything else. He hugged Eren back and let his friend keep him in the tight embrace until his manager spoke up.

"Have you told anybody about this?"

Armin gently separated himself from Eren, who was on the verge of angry tears, and told her "I talked to my RHD this morning. There's a possibility that I might be moving out, but I'd rather not do that unless absolutely necessary."

Eren grabbed him and said "Armin, don't be ridiculous! You stay there any longer, you'll just get hurt again!"

Armin looked up at him and said "Eren, it could take a whole week for the paperwork to get finished before I can move out. And besides, we're ¾ done with the year now. I don't think there's any rooms left."

His manager told him sharply "No. You can't possibly know about that unless you ask them to move you out."

Armin looked at her and muttered "But-"

"No 'buts'! Get rid of your pride and admit that you need to get out of there! Look, sweetie, I get it, you're nervous about the possible barriers. But even so, you know as well as we do that if you stay there any longer, things will only get worse."

Armin groaned, knowing that she was right. His manager had hit the nail on the head perfectly. Even though he wasn't the most stubborn of people, Armin didn't want to leave because he felt that in a way, he would be admitting a defeat of sorts to everybody that hated him.

Eren said to him "I'll let Mikasa know that I found you. Armin, you know that me, Mikasa and the others have your back, don't you? You know that we'll easily get you out of there, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then stop being wishy-washy! Tell your RHD that you need to get out of there!"

"Please, Armin!" his manager joined in, looking incredibly anxious. "You can't let this go on any longer!"

Finally, their words got to him. Armin gritted his teeth and told them "Ok. I'll do it. I just can't help feeling so scared about all of this."

"What are you afraid of?" Eren asked him.

"That somebody will try to stop me from leaving. I don't even think that I'm being irrational here. You two can't possibly understand how insane these people are!"

His manager scoffed and told him "If they try to stop you, then you'd better believe that I'll report them to the campus police."

Eren snarled and shouted "I'll never let them touch you! They try to lay one finger on you, they're dead meat!"

Armin managed to smile and said "Ok then. I'll let Levi know I want to move out."

Both Eren and his manager breathed a huge sigh of relief, and Eren told him "Good. I'll let Mikasa know. I gotta go Armin, but you need to see me and Mikasa tonight. She's worried sick about you."

Armin nodded, and watched as Eren walked out of the shop, with several customers looking at him with terror. His manager patted him on the shoulder and steered him towards the back of the store, away from the ensuing gossip.

"Go ahead and email him now before you forget" she said to Armin, clearly not wanting him to back out.

He took out his phone, and gulped when he saw how many missed calls he had from Mikasa.

"Eren wasn't kidding…"

Within a few minutes, he had sent an email to RHD Levi, and Armin felt a strange sense of confidence fill him up.

"Levi,

I've decided that yes, I would like to leave Sansburg Hall. You were right, it isn't good for me to stay here any longer.

If possible, I would prefer being moved to Wickson Hall, my old hall from last year. I never had to put up with any cruelty over there.

I'm sorry that I held off on this request. Thank you again for helping me.

Sincerely,

Armin Arlert"

Armin watched Annie stumble into their Japanese class late, looking just as stressed as he had been last night. When she sat down next to him, he watched her fidget nonstop, constantly tapping her fingers impatiently as the class dragged on. None of their classmates seemed to be aware of his exhaustion or her agitation.

After what seemed like multiple hours of waiting, the two friends darted off to the side hallway, and Annie grabbed his arm, desperate for Armin to talk to her.

"What happened to you this weekend, Armin?" she began, her nerves still on edge. "Helen told me that you never called her back a few nights ago! On top of that, I had…the worst nightmare about you screaming in rage and-"

The instant Annie mentioned that scene, Armin gulped and mumbled "How did you dream about that? And I'm really sorry…I didn't want her or anybody else to freak out."

Annie gasped and asked him "You mean that was real?"

"Y-yeah. I, uh, lost my temper I guess."

"But what pushed you that far, Armin? Please, tell me!"

He shuddered and looked away from her, feeling anxious at finally unveiling what he had been hiding for days.

"A few weeks ago, everything started to escalate. Kayla and her friend stalked me while I was in the bathroom cleaning my face, saying horrible things about me and my…habits. After that, I couldn't walk around the floor peacefully because that whole group was singling me out, with multiple girls screaming insults and taunting me."

Annie's face slowly transformed into a hideous mask of malice as Armin continued.

"The next night, when I walked out of the restroom, Kayla was watching me from within her room. When I saw her shadow under her door, she stood in the doorway, laughing at me and showing me to a guy on her video chat. He…called me a…'cock-sucking'…"

Armin couldn't bring himself to finish the insult. Annie snarled "This is the excuse I needed to massacre those c-ts. Did anything else happen?"

Ignoring the ugly emotions rising up in him at the memory, Armin muttered "When I got inside, Kayla was screaming loud enough for me to hear that God doesn't protect gay guys, that He would never love scum like me, that...I'll go to Hell once she's finished with me."

"She's mine" Annie spat, and Armin knew that his best friend was already plotting how to kill Kayla and the others.

"You are notgoing to Hell, Armin" she told him, "and while I might not be big on God like you are…I know that He loves you. Don't believe her lies."

"I know that. Just…why…"

"She's a sicko. That's all there is to it."

He nodded, and felt a new wave of exhaustion hit him. Armin steadied himself against the wall, and Annie gave him a look of intense pity and worry.

"Armin, you look…it's obvious that this has been draining on you."

"I feel like everything's been blowing up in just the last few days…and…"

Annie watched him closely, as Armin barely managed to raise his head back up to look at her.

"…Annie, I'm so tired..."

There was a pause of silence as Armin's words registered with Annie. An instant later, Annie's face became contorted with a look of horror and agony that Armin had never seen. Her jaw had dropped wide open, and Armin watched in shock as tears began to pool at the edges of her eyes.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, Annie grabbed his hand, wailed "Never-again!" and yanked him along the hall, nearly running towards the exit of their building. As he tried to keep up with her, Armin heard her breathing rapidly, and realized that whatever he had said was making her remember something awful.

"But all I said was that I'm tired. So why…why does she look so horrified?"

"Annie?! What's-"

"I made a promise, Armin" she nearly snapped at him, not looking back. "And I'll be damned if this monster named Kayla makes me break it."

She said nothing else, and all Armin could do was struggle to match her pace.

The door at the end of the hall opened, and to Armin's horror, Shane appeared. To his chagrin, the traitor immediately recognized him, snarled, and started rapidly advancing towards him and Annie. Armin shuddered, already picturing what would happen if a guy with Shane's strength got his hands on a petite frame like his.

Annie whipped her head around, saw the terror written all over Armin's features, and hissed in hatred. She let go of Armin's hand, and broke into a dash towards the incoming threat.

"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH HIM, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" she shrieked, flying through the air and landing a powerful kick to Shane's crotch.

He instantly crumpled and yelled in agony, and Annie took the chance to spit on his face.

"Let's go, Armin!" she shouted, seeing that Armin had frozen in surprise. "You'll stay with me until Eren and Mikasa find us!"

Armin darted up to her, pausing to glare into Shane's eyes, remembering the malice with which the bigger guy had said that awful insult.

"Serves you right, jerk" Armin thought, letting himself sneer down at the guy who had broken his heart so badly.

He and Annie continued to walk briskly out of the building, taking a moment to breathe once they were far enough away.

"I need you-to text them both. Tell them that you're with me-that you're safe" Annie said between breathes, still shaking with rage after that encounter. "And tell them to meet us at the library. We need to make a plan to get you out of Sansburg Hall."

"Ok" he said meekly, scared at how quickly Annie had taken Shane down, who was easily twice their size. Armin sent Eren and Mikasa a quick message, and hoped that they wouldn't run into any other scumbags.

The four friends were seated together in the uppermost floor of their school's library, whispering among themselves as they planned their counterattack. Eren, Mikasa and Annie were all seething with an intense bloodlust, frightening the people around them. Armin shuddered, knowing that all three were ready to commit atrocities in revenge for what had happened to him. Once his friends had heard him describe the details of what had happened to him, all three of them were aching to find Kayla and end her.

"Armin, did your RHD email you back?" Mikasa asked him, her fists clenched.

"Let me look" he told her, with worry over a potential stalling of his freedom blocking out all other thoughts.

A new email from Levi was at the top of his inbox.

"Armin,

It's about time. Wickson Hall, huh? Fine. There are actually plenty of openings, probably from all the drunkards who got kicked off campus. Come to my office tomorrow morning so we can choose a room and take care of the paperwork. I'm moving you out of Sansburg tomorrow.

And for goodness' sake, if anything happens, call the police and don't be silent.

Levi"

Armin read out the message, relief filling him up as his friends sighed together.

"Good" Annie muttered, looking tired herself from her outbursts earlier that day. "I'm happy for you Armin. But jeez, that usually doesn't happen so fast."

"Levi must've pushed my request to the top" he replied, reminding himself to thank his RHD in the morning.

Eren growled low in his throat and said to him "I'm going with you! And when I see these girls, I'll slaughter them!"

Mikasa joined in before Armin could say anything and spat "I'm going too! I'll bash their bigoted heads in!"

"Not good!" Armin thought, already picturing their rampage in his mind, knowing how much of a berserker Eren was in a fight, and the terrifying skills that Mikasa had hidden up her sleeve.

"Guys, wait! You can't kill anybody, that would be-"

"That would be the wrong thing to do right now."

Everybody turned to Annie, who had seemingly gone back on her previous death threats.

"Let me go instead" she said to Eren and Mikasa, who was watching her roommate warily. "It's clear to me that you two aren't thinking rationally right now."

"Rationally? What the hell does that have to do with anything?!" Eren snapped at her. "And you want to kill them as much as we do!"

"Don't you remember the dorm rules? Any resident who lets in people who damage the building or hurt other residents receives the same punishment as the perpetrators."

A groan came out of Mikasa, who was already realizing what Annie was getting at.

"If any of us go to Sansburg with Armin and kill these girls, then he'll get punished with us" Annie said to Eren. "Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to destroy them, but that can't happen while Armin still lives there."

"It's true. I didn't even consider that…"

There was a moment of silence as the other three considered Annie's warning. Mikasa was still glaring at Annie, who was looking at Armin with empty eyes. Eren seemed sheepish after being told about the hall rules. All 4 of them vaguely knew the dorm rules that warned of automatic punishment if a resident aided a criminal in carrying out an offense.

"No, Mikasa…I'm not trying to take Armin for myself." Annie sighed in exasperation after seeing the irritation in her roommate's eyes.

"What? I didn't say-"

"It's written all over your face. I promise you that I won't let anything happen to Armin while I'm with him. If anybody doestry to hurt him while I help him move out…"

Her face darkened, and the rest of the group shuddered in unison as Annie's bloodlust suddenly surged.

"…then I won't hesitate to obliterate them from the face of the earth."

After the talk was over, Eren and Mikasa headed off to their halls, giving Armin warm embraces and assuring him that they would help him through his transition.

"Please don't hesitate to tell me if anything happens, ok?" Mikasa begged Armin, gritting her teeth at the thought of him getting hurt again.

"I'll let you know" Armin assured her. "…and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you and Eren sooner."

Annie and Armin stood together outside the library, watching the other two fade into the distance.

"Let's go, Armin. Tell me everything about this Kayla while we walk."

Armin gulped and began to describe the girl who had caused him so much agony.

"I first thought that Kayla didn't like my appearance. She wouldn't stop giving me this weird look, like I was a freak. When that whole group turned on me, she seemed focused on expressing her 'superiority' to me."

Armin watched Annie's face harden as they walked.

"Initially, I was confused because she had all the markings of a college Christian…she wears religious stuff, I heard her say that she went to a Christian high school-"

"Wearing a cross and attending a religious school doesn't make you a Christian, Armin."

"I-I know" he said sheepishly, averting his gaze.

Annie looked at him with pity and gently asked him "Did you believe the same about that blonde guy we ran into earlier today?"

He nodded, and sighed bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Armin."

"No, I'm sorry. You warned me not to chase after guys like him, just because he looks like that guy from my dream. I should've known better than to have feelings for somebody like him."

She shook her head and told him "You can't help having feelings for somebody, Armin. Crushes are only human. You just let yourself get carried away, that's all."

Night had fallen on campus, and the air had frozen up. In mid-February, the snow had reached ridiculous heights, and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees entirely. The two of them were shivering against the cold, and they could see around them that other students were all bundled up too.

"Now go on."

"This girl…Annie, I think there's something wrong with her. In her head, I mean. She was obsessed with me! It was like she had made it her mission to make me unhappy..."

"She does sound like she has issues. That's disgusting, though."

Annie's brow furrowed for a moment and she said "You know, this girl you're describing…she sounds too much like the trash at my high school. You see, I actually went to a Christian high school. Dad thought it would be better for me. But those halls were swarming with horrible people who, shall we say, were always looking for somebody to devour."

She shook her head and told Armin "For her sake, I hope she isn't from my school. Because if she's at all related to the c—t I'm thinking of, then I won't show her any mercy."

Armin looked up with dread to see that they were back at Sansburg Hall, the building looming up into the gloom of the evening. It no longer felt like his home, but rather a prison, with Kayla and the other girls as his jail keepers.

"Don't be afraid, Armin. I swear I won't let them hurt you."

They ascended the stairs together, Armin's heart pounding as they drew closer to the fourth floor. When they reached the door to his floor, Armin felt himself quaking. Annie placed her hand on his shoulder, and nodded at him. He opened the door, and they stepped into the main hallway.

Not a single person was in sight, and both of them looked at each other warily.

"This doesn't feel right" Annie muttered, looking around her for any signs of movement. "It's not that late out. Why aren't there people walking around here?"

Armin shuddered, the scene reminding him of his move in day. Once again, his floor had become a ghost town.

They were about to round the corner when Armin froze, remembering when Kayla had shown up in her doorframe, laughing at him and allowing her boyfriend to say what he had. Annie noticed his nervousness and nodded.

"Her room…it's just down the hall, isn't it?"

"Yep. Ugh…"

"Don't worry, Armin. You're with me."

They walked towards Armin's room, and Annie asked him "Which room is hers?"

At that moment, a shadow appeared under Kayla's door at the far end of the hall. The two of them stiffened, and Annie growled low in her throat. Armin was filled with an intense contempt, and he slowly pointed his finger at Kayla's door, glaring where the peephole was.

"That's her" he told Annie, livid at the thought of Kayla coming out to harass him again.

Annie snarled and spat "Godless pig!"

Armin knew that Kayla had heard Annie. A moment later, the shadow under the door disappeared. He breathed a sigh of relief, and Annie hissed "Keep away from him, you damned bitch!"

The two of them stood in the hallway, waiting to see if Kayla's shadow would appear again. After a few minutes, it was apparent that they were safe.

Armin turned to Annie and told her "Thanks for escorting me back. I'll be ok now."

"You sure?" Annie's face was etched with worry again.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry about me, Annie. I'm not alone here."

To his shock, a flash of terror showed on Annie's face for a brief moment, before vanishing the next moment. Armin brushed it off, thinking that she was just anxious for him.

"All right, Armin. Anything happens, text me, and I'll descend on this floor like a fire-breathing dragon."

"Thank you, Annie."

They hugged, and Annie walked back down the stairs out of sight. Armin went to his room, and mentally prepared himself for a long night of packing.

In her room, Kayla sat on her bed, still terrified at the sight of the woman in black.

When she had heard the footsteps in the hall, she had assumed that the gay boy had returned, and she had reveled in the chance to spook him again. But when she pressed her eye to the peephole, she instead saw that disturbing woman robed in black pointing right at her, with raw malice somehow emanating from her.

To make matters worse, she was with the woman. The girl from high school whom Kayla and everybody else had feared so much, because of that girl's constant rage at everything they tried to do.

"Why the hell is she here? And who was that woman?" Kayla thought, sweat trickling down her cheeks. "Where is that freak? I swear I heard him open his door! So why couldn't I see him in the hall?"

Her anger flared when she heard loud movements in his room down the hall. The sound of bags rustling and clothes being folded filled her with irritation.

"What?! Is he packing his things?"

"No! He can't possibly be leaving this dorm! I WON'T LET HIM!"

Kayla moved to her door, and gripped the handle, ready to yank it open and terrorize Armin outside his room. After knowing how shaken he had been after haunting him outside of the restroom, she knew that hissing threats outside of his own room would frighten the boy out of his skin.

"Just where do you think you're going, whelp?"

She froze, her hand still on the handle.

"Who the hell-"

"Do you really think that you can stop that boy from leaving?"

Kayla's nostrils flared, and she spat "Shut it! There's no way that I'm letting him get out of here! He's mine!"

The voice laughed lowly, and Kayla felt shudders running up and down her spine.

"You stupid girl. You really do believe that you have the power to prevent this escape plan from unfolding. How utterly PITIFUL."

"What do you know about me?!" Kayla retorted, trying to fight off her rising terror.

"I know that you're responsible for the loss of three innocents, three children who were sent your way to free you from your own darkness. I know that your heart is ruled by fear, and that in your fear, you had these children exterminated to soothe your pathetic pride. I know that you aimed to have this boy end his own life, so that his immense light would no longer agitate your pathetic darkness. You are the ultimate coward, and now, you will pay the price!"

There was nobody in the room with her, and Kayla couldn't stop herself from quaking with fear. She knew that there wasn't somebody on the other side of the door whispering to her. This voice was entirely inside her head, and no thoughts she conjured could silence it.

"I won't listen to you! You're trying to fill me with doubt, and I won't let you!" Kayla fumbled around her pockets, and whipped out her cross chain, gripping it tight and wishing desperately for her next actions to banish her tormentor.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I command you to disappear, demon!" she intoned, closing her eyes and willing for the command to work.

Instead, she was answered with more horrible laughter, and Kayla felt the hairs on the back of her neck stiffening.

"You think that I am a demon, do you? You poor creature. Don't waste your breath asking the One who sent me to take me away. You lost the integrity to call on that name a long time ago."

"No! That's not possible! I'm one of the most faithful Christians I know of!"

"This is bad…why isn't the voice going away?!"

More rustling could be heard from Armin's room, and Kayla gritted her teeth in frustration. She couldn't move any part of her body; it seemed that she wasn't just paralyzed from fear. There was nothing in sight that could've been the culprit, and Kayla knew that something hidden was holding her back.

"You? Faithful? You call your bloodlust and murderous intentions FAITH?"

In the back of her mind, Kayla saw images of the people that she had successfully wiped from the face of the earth: the two gay boys and that girl who had so vainly believed that she had had the right to be so open about her sexuality.

Kayla snarled and spat back "They deserved to die! All freaks like them deserve to be purged from the Earth! That's what the Word says!"

Suddenly, Kayla was thrown across the room, hitting her bedframe and instantly bruising half of her body. She cried aloud in pain as the voice's tone became a roar.

"LIAR! YOU TWISTED THE CREEDS FOR YOUR OWN SICK PURPOSES! EACH OF THOSE POOR CHILDREN WERE BELOVED, AND IN YOUR JEALOUSY, YOU MURDERED THEM WHILE HIDING BEHIND YOUR 'FAITH'! YOU MADE YOUR MOTHER'S HATRED YOUR OWN, GLEEFULLY WATCHING AS THEY SUFFERED AND PERISHED! YOU HAVE NO REMORSE, NO PITY FOR THE DEATH YOU'VE CAUSED, AND FOR THAT, YOU SHALL PAY THE PRICE!"

Even though there was visibly nobody in the room with her, Kayla could feel the terrifying force pressing on her whole body, preventing her from moving a muscle. All she could do was whimper as the voice, which sounded womanly but sinister, continue to shriek at her.

"WRETCHED WORM! DON'T BOTHER DENYING THIS TRUTH! NOW, YOUR MISERABLE LIES WON'T SAVE YOU! YOUR DOOM BEGAN THE INSTANT YOU PUSHED THAT BOY OVER THE EDGE!"

The image of Armin shrieking in rage returned at that threat, and Kayla shuddered violently.

"No…no! This can't be happening…"

All around her, the woman's cold laughter echoed.

"All you can do now is watch as Armin Arlert is freed from the prison you tried so hard to create. Isn't it a pity? Isn't it a shame that in all your supposed terror, nothing can faze that boy? Poor little girl. Poor little wretch with nobody to turn to!"

All Kayla could do was scream in anger as the noises in Armin's room gradually died down.

After hours of rummaging through his belongings and filling multiple trash bags, Armin was finally finished with packing up his room, besides a few toiletries and sheets that could wait for the morning.

"It's still hard to believe that I'm getting out of here so fast…but I'm grateful. God is good. And there's nothing that Kayla can do to me now!"

His computer was open, playing Shinjitsu no Uta as his background while he packed up. Armin yawned, and realized that it was past 3 in the morning.

"Wow! Well, time does fly by when you're having fun. Or packing your room up."

As the song continued to play, Armin thought back to that time months ago, when Annie had slyly asked him if he really understood what the song was about. Armin glanced at his computer, knowing that it would take just one search to find the lyrics.

When he typed the song into his search engine, a website with the lyrics quickly popped up. For some reason, Armin felt incredibly nervous about discovering what his favorite song was about.

"Well, no time like the present."

After he clicked on the link, he read through the translation slowly, gradually realizing that he had been listening to far deeper a song than he had originally thought.

"If eternity knows what manner of darkness

and when pain will disappear,

then that way, you will taint me.

In the past, I always looked to the castle in the clouds.

When can I finally follow them?

This song of truth will be my guide."

Armin gawked at the screen, shock filling him as the accuracy of the lyrics hit him like a truck.

"I…I needed this so badly. It's true, no pain will last forever. I wish I had looked this up sooner."

"And I need to go to sleep. I'll need plenty of rest for what happens tomorrow."

He shut off his laptop and clambered into bed, gripping the sheets and aching to be freed from Sansburg Hall at last.

The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was his mother's tearful embrace from the previous night's dream, and Armin's resolve flared once more.