Going Back in Time!
(Carla's POV)
It was already getting late, and Grisha was gone again. This time to some city on the other side of the world. Not a surprise. Eren had just gone to sleep and I finally got some moments of silence. Which was interrupted with the sound of scratching coming from the walls. Great, rats again. Deciding to call the exterminator tomorrow I walked to the bedroom and got ready to go to sleep. Just as my head touched the pillow a piercing scream made me jump. On instinct I ran to Eren's room. He was curled up in his bed crying.
"What happened sweetheart?" I asked as I sped across his room. There were spots on his bed, and as I approached I noticed it was blood; increasing my concern.
"There was a monster under my bed." He managed to say between sobs. Oh god, that cut is deep. It stretched from his wrist to his elbow. I quickly did a check of his bed and found nothing.
"Come on sweety I'm going to take you to the hospital." I picked him up and carried him out the door.
I was stuck in the waiting room of the ER for an excruciatingly long time. I knew he was going to need stitches, but I didn't think it was going to be this bad.
"Mrs. Jaeger?" A nurse walked out of the double doors leading to the rooms.
"Yes." I stood up, ready for whatever news she was going to have for me.
"Your son's starting to wake up now, so you can visit him." She told me and lead me down the hallway. We stopped at a room with a small figure under the covers of the bed. The bed looked almost three times his size. "He had to get quite a few stitches. Do you know what happened?" She asked me. Of course the first thing the doctors thought was abuse, but I don't really know what caused it.
"I don't know, one second he was sound asleep and the next time I found him he was bleeding and screaming." I could feel tears resurfacing. The judgmental looks I was getting from everyone made it evident that they blamed me, and I blamed myself too. I should have checked on him. Finally he started stirring under the covers and looked in my direction. He was on pain medication and would probably have to be on it for a few days.
"He's not going to be able to get his stitches wet for twenty-four hours, so baths and showers are going to be a little troublesome for a little while." The nurse informed me. I already knew that because I have had a few stitches myself, but didn't make any move to say anything. There were a few chairs in the room; I moved one to the bedside and sat there for a while. Eren wasn't the type to talk about monsters; I never had a problem with him waking up from nightmares and claiming a monster was in his room, so why did he tell me there was a monster under his bed?
Once we made it back to the house I did a thorough check of Eren's room before I let him go in there, and found nothing that he could have accidentally cut himself on. If he did it it would have to have been intentional. His screams last night kicked that out the window though. I was about to look under his bed when there was a knock on the door.
I opened the door to find two teenagers. What are they doing here? though most kids their age wore unseenly clothing they seemed to be dressed up for some reason. The shorter of the two was a boy with black hair carefully parted in the middle and the taller one was a brown haired girl with glasses.
"Hello ma'am we were wondering if we could talk to you? We are writing a story for our journalism class and were wondering if you could tell us about the history of this town." The brown haired girl said. Her friend mumbled something to her before speaking.
"I'm sorry about my friend, she's gets a little excited. My name's Levi and my friend is Hanji." He replied nicely. Their appearance was a little untimely, but Eren was asleep in his room right now. I guess I could help them out; though I don't know why they would want to write about the history of this town. Nothing of importance has happened here.
"Sure, why don't you come in and have a seat in the living room." I offered, and Hanji seemed more than happy to enter the house.
(Levi's POV)
Here comes the tricky part. Hanji is the distraction, and I have to find a way to sneak out of the room and look around the house without being caught. So far everything we have found points to ghouls; though why they would go after these two is beyond me.
"Your house is beautiful!" Hanji chirped. It wasn't anything impressive, and in fact needed a good cleaning. There was dust everywhere.
"Oh, why thank you. So what is it that you want to know about?" Carla asked us. Though I can't let her know I know her name yet; she hasn't told us it yet. Who lets people into their house without introducing themself first?
"Ma'am I really hate to ask this, but could I use the restroom?" I asked, I always hated doing this. It was rude to the person that just let you into their house.
"The bathroom is on the second floor, first door on the right." She instructed me. I nodded to her and Hanji before walking upstairs. Now where's that kid that was attacked; talking to him would help with our investigation. I looked left and right at the top of the stairs. Three rooms to the right, two on the left. Right it is then. I started walking down the hallway and looked for the kids room. The first room was indeed the bathroom, and the one almost right across from it looked like some sort of study. The last room was the master bedroom. Okay, I guess it was on the left. I turned around and almost walked over a young boy. He looked to be about two or three years old.
"What are you doing?" He asked with more curiosity than accusation.
"Actually I was looking for you. I heard you had a scary experience last night. Do you want to tell me about it?" I ask him. Hating to have to speak in a cheerful voice.
"Oh that? A man was under my bed and cut me, but he's gone now. I told my mommy it was a monster, but it was just a dirty man. I was scared and didn't know what to say." His words sounded close to a jumble to me and I had to pick it apart before I finally understood it all. A man was under his bed. He seems to have gotten over it pretty quickly though.
"Do you know how he got out of your room so fast?" I asked the kid.
"He jumped out the window of course." The kid seemed to remember something. "Follow me." He said and started running to his room which happened to be the first door on the left of the staircase. I followed him and waited for him to explain himself. "Look." He said as he pulled something out from under his bed. It was a knife. "The man dropped it." Eren held it out to me and I took it. The knife looked old, and had unique designs to it.
"Can I take this?" I asked him.
"Yep. I wouldn't want my mommy to see it." He said cheerfully. How can he be so happy when he was just attacked last night? I never understood kids. I hid the knife in my jacket and walked back downstairs with my little follower.
"Don't tell your mom about what you told me. It would only make her worry more." I told him; hoping that it would keep him from telling his mother about me trying to search the house.
"I'm not stupid." He nearly shouted.
"I know you aren't" I told him. Hanji was waiting for me at the bottom of the staircase, with Mrs. Jaeger beside her.
"We should get going now. Thank you for everything." Hanji stated happily.
"Thank you so much for talking to Hanji, I know she can get a out of control at times." I added a small insult towards Hanji. I've learned to take every chance I get because she will take every chance she can to make fun of my height.
"What did you learn?" I asked Hanji the second we got out of the house.
"Well not much more; I think we already got all the information we need. Let's just get on with it. This place it really boring." She's already complaining. This is going to be a long job.
"That kid gave me the knife that was supposedly used on him." I told Hanji once we were a safe distance away from the house, and pulled it out of my jacket. Nothing seemed to be special about it other than the design. I handed it to Hanji whose eyes lit up.
"Score!" She shouted. "You know, maybe we should stay with them. I mean how many times do you hear about a Ghoul giving up on its prey? If we stay by the boys house we would have a better chance of getting the thing." Hanji suggested.
"I'd rather not leave it up to chance. All we need to do is go to the cemetery and take care of that thing as soon as possible." I responded. "First we need to stop back at the hotel and grab a few things."