Petra's heart dropped in fear as Eren once again tried to protect her by standing in front.
"Petra run!" Eren shouted. "I'll distract him!"
But they both knew he could not.
She would die. But why? Petra could not understand why Erwin was doing this. What could he possibly gain from this? She could only watch as the man began pulling the trigger as if in slow motion.
Suddenly the world erupted in sounds of sirens, screaming, and barking. The police. Petra turned around in shock as the police, armed heavily with guns came storming out of armored cars, guns raised and pointed towards Erwin. Dogs, barely restrained by their leashes were thrashing with teeth bared and snarls erupting from deep within their diaphragm followed by a line of slobber and drool.
Erwin frowned as a look of pure discontentment flashed across his eyes.
Petra could only watch in awe as renewed hope began to ebb its way through her heart. The police were shouting orders and demanding that Erwin not shoot least he trigger a full out armed attack. Suddenly, Eren let out a surprised gasp followed by a slight squeak of happiness much as a child would do on Christmas day. Turning to look where the other was, Petra stared in surprise as there stood black hair, gray eyes, frightening scowl and all, Levi.
"Levi!" Eren shouted out happily which caused the other to stare back fondly with a gentle smile gracing his lips. "Eren," he whispered back as the two stared at each other in admiration. Petra watched in amazement, the two finally reunited after so long but she was quickly pulled out of her daze when Levi walked towards her. His eyes back to the same steel, hard gray that promised grim news.
"Petra," he began gently but already she could feel the fear settle in as her eyes searched wildly for Oluo. Where was he? Surely he was the one that brought the police here?
"Petra, listen to me!" Levi continued which grabbed her attention, startling her out of her stupor. Upon receiving her attention, Levi continued. "Oluo got a note from Erwin less than an hour ago saying that you were kidnapped and that if he didn't go to the train station within the next hour, you would be killed. I brought the police here by giving the dogs a trail to follow, but you have get to Oluo. Knowing Erwin, he most likely sent someone to kill him. You have to go now!" Petra could only stare in shock as her knees began to buckle in fear and exhaustion. Levi, seeing this, grabbed her shoulders and roughly shook her. "Go!"
Petra, realizing the dire situation, immediately nodded her head, eyes alight with a new determination before she quickly ran off to the station. Adrenaline allowing her to ignore the pain of her broken ribs and the bruises and cuts that ached heavily against her flesh.
Levi watched her go before bending down to look into Eren's eyes. The police still running around them in a flurry of panic as they tried to restrain Erwin, ignoring the two ghosts that stood in the shallow light of the street lamp. "Follow her," Levi whispered quietly as he watch Eren's eyes dart nervously back and forth between Petra's retreating figure and Levi, torn between which action to take. "But … will I see you again?" Eren asked, his voice trembling with unshed tears.
Levi smiled back gently as he brought his hand fondly over Eren's head. He then bent down and placed his forehead against the others while whispering quietly "Not in this world. But in the next. Go home, and I'll follow you there, I promise, and I keep my promises." Eren stared back before reaching out to grab Levi's hand although all he could do was make a fist around the other's finger before nodding his head. "It's a promise," he declared determined before running after Petra in the distance.
Levi slowly got up and watched the boy quickly disappear though the darkness, leaving him under the fading light of the street lamp alone.
000
"Oluo! Oluo!" Petra shouted out in desperation which quickly earned her a few glares and surprised glances as she shoved past others. One hour, it had already been forty minutes by the time she had gotten the message and what would normally be a thirty minute casual walk to the station quickly became a eighteen minute sprint.
Where was he? Please be okay, she prayed internally as she continued to search wildly for the tall man. Anything, anything to indicate he was okay.
"Over there!" Eren shouted which startled Petra. What was Eren doing here?
"What are you doing here?" she yelled back at the boy not caring if others thought she was talking to herself in insanity. The boy ignored her and only grabbed her hand before hurriedly dragging her along where the many benches sat along the sides of the tracks, posters for upcoming movies and advertisements lining the pictured frames that hung in the dim lights of the lamps. Moths happily flitting around, drawn by the glow.
"You're supposed to be with Levi," she shouted. "If you don't go back now, you're going to disappear!"
Eren only shook his head in response. "I need to get you to Oluo before it's too late!"
Petra could only watch in shock as Eren insistently dragged her along. "Eren … ," she spoke quietly.
"Come on, come on! I saw him over there! Hurry!"
Petra nodded her head with more determination. "Thanks Eren," she whispered quietly before sprinting onward, leaving the other behind as he fought to catch up on shorter legs.
Petra continued to run, hair whipping her face frantically before she skidded to a stop in relief. There, sitting at a bench on the far end of the station was Oluo. The man sitting nervously as his eyes flitted around, searching for someone. "Oluo," Petra breathed out in relief.
Until her heart stopped.
Walking across the other side of the station was a man. Cloaked in black with a fedora pulled over his head and obscuring his eyes. Coat pulled over his neck as he hunched over heavily. A single gun in hand. "No," Petra whispered to herself before she suddenly, as if on instinct, began sprinting again. "Oluo!"
Oluo looked up in shock upon hearing his name, and his eyes immediately widened upon seeing Petra darting towards him in a dead run. "Petra!" he shouted in relief upon seeing her alive despite the many scratches that marred her skin and left bloody marks across her nurse uniform. But her eyes were not filled with joy but wild fear. She was screaming something at him but just at that moment, a train came screeching across the tracks creating a whirlwind that caused papers and fliers to scatter in the wind. Petra was still shouting while running towards him, yet even as he squinted, he could not quite decipher what was being said.
Suddenly Petra was in front of him, she had shoved him to the side in a strong tackle that left Oluo breathless and in shock. The man immediately falling to the ground from the impact. "What?" he spoke out in surprise just as a loud bang resounded through the air and the whole world stopped.
There was screaming, everyone was panicking as people began to retreat and run from the station towards the exits, but Oluo didn't notice. All he saw was blood. It soaked the ground staining the world red in its crimson hues. Thick, oozing blood, that spread through the cracks on the ground like growing spiderwebs, dripping along the cobblestones. Petra was on the ground.
"Petra?" Oluo asked in a shaky voice before quickly getting up and running towards her collapsed body that now lay where he had been standing not a few seconds before. "Petra, Petra," he cooed quietly as he gently lifted her head onto his lap. Petra's eyes briefly opened as she groaned in pain before spitting out mouthfuls of red. Her eyes, slightly fuzzy, began to refocus on Oluo where she gave him a weak smile. "Your okay," she whispered.
Oluo felt tears burn his eyes as they attempted to escape. "What about you?" he asked quietly. Petra lifted her hand slightly to gently rest it on Oluo's cheeks before replying, "I'm okay." Oluo couldn't stop the tears from flowing as he cradled her, blood still pooling beneath them.
Petra could feel the burning pain, it hurt, it hurt everywhere far worse than the eight story fall. However, all she cared about was Oluo, yet she was tired, so tired …
"Petra! You have to stay awake!" Eren shouted from beside her. The boy's hands gripping her arm tightly although he didn't dare shake her in fear of worsening her wounds. "Please! You have to live!" Petra could here the sound of Eren and Oluo screaming at her, but Petra couldn't stop the exhaustion from settling in. Her eyes dropping tiredly as she slowly allowed everything to numb from the cold or the pain, she could not tell.
Everything was beginning to grow quiet and fuzzy. Her vision blurring, Petra tried to open her eyes one last time to see Eren standing before her. The boy was watching her with those large, green eyes that she remembered had first caught her attention when she had first met him in the hallway. The boy staring at her sadly. "Live," he whispered quietly. Petra couldn't quite hear what he said but she could see the words on his lips as the boy's body slowly began to fade. The solidified flesh disintegrating into ash.
Petra tried to force her eyes open as she reached out to touch the boy one last time, but by then it was too late. The ashes scattered through the air and with the movement of her hand, Eren's body spread with the wind where it disappeared into the cold, night air.
He was gone.
Petra could only stare mutely at what had happened before her eyes slowly slipped close and she allowed the darkness to envelope her.
000
The first thing she could hear was the slight sound of buzzing in her ears. An irritating noise that she tried to push to the back of her mind while she slept, but the sound was persistent and refused to subside. Within minutes, it grew in momentum into a large wailing, like sirens. Petra opened her eyes but immediately closed them from the harsh lights, her eyes dimming as the colors of red and blue streaked across the sky and she slowly allowed the darkness to once again consume her amid the buzzing noises of shouting and screaming.
Deeply, within the voids of her mind, she could barely hear the sound of crying and sobbing right beside her.
The next time Petra woke up, she was immersed with the sudden feeling of pain. There was the slight constant ache that pounded against her head, the dull thrum of her heartbeat against her ribcage and the painful ragging breath that was forced out of her lungs and raked against her throat. With a pained groan, Petra arose, her eyes slowly adjusting to the light that penetrated from the window. Her fingers slightly twitched in irritation from the sudden onslaught of light before her hand reached upward to block and defend herself from the oncoming sunlight.
What had happened?
Blinking away the pain, Petra could feel a heavy weight settled against her side forcing her eyes to widen as she craned her neck slightly. She blinked back her surprise upon finding a man siting on the plastic chair near the bedside, his body leaning forward until his arms rested on the bed's railing, his head still buried within the mounds of a pillow that he was holding. Petra could hear the sound of snoring almost as much as she could feel it, the slight tremor of each breathe that came out sounding more like the snore of a carnivorous bear than that of a normal human.
Petra stared for a second before she allowed a small smile to grace her lips. Reaching out, she placed her hand gently on Oluo's head as she began to soothingly play with the curls of his hair. She remembered, of course she remembered.
Letting him sleep some more, Petra leaned back and tried to relax as the bullet wound continued to persist painfully against her side and her ribcage still screamed its protest. It was then that a shadow fell over her bedside causing Petra to quickly startle and look up. Standing before her was Levi.
The man's eyes watching her carefully, silver meeting amber.
"Is Eren … ?" she asked quietly, allowing her voice to fade as she remembered.
"Yes, he has passed on," Levi spoke quietly as Petra stared at her left hand where she had tried desperately to grab onto the boy. Gone, he was gone.
Finally, after a paused silence, Petra whispered quietly, "Thanks Levi, for everything." Levi nodded his head curtly, and after another slight pause, Petra asked, "Umm, do you-"
But before she could finish, Levi answered. "No, I do not hold a grudge against your husband." Petra smiled slightly at this before glancing down at Oluo's sleeping form. No doubt he had slept at her bedside twenty four seven, and she couldn't have been more grateful.
"Will you be okay?" Levi asked and Petra could easily tell it was not something he was familiar with saying.
"Yes, I'll be fine. We'll be fine."
Levi nodded his head slightly before adding, "I would like to thank you for helping Eren go home." His voice was gruff with embarrassment, obviously not used to thanking people either, but Petra ignored this and only smiled back.
"You should go. He's waiting for you."
Levi gave another curt nod before showing her a slight twitch of his lips that bordered along a smile and a smirk. Just as Eren had done, Levi's body slowly disintegrated. Ash flowing freely before it spread across the room in a glittering haze, and he too was gone.
AN- It's finally finished! Thank you for all who have read this story, and even more thanks to anyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. Your support is greatly appreciated.