"Hey Eren, have you done your homework?" Connie asks his friend with a hopeful expression on his face - making Eren squint at the short haired boy. "What if I did?", he replies carefully.
"Well, it's just that, yesterday I was kind of tired, so I may have forgot to do my homework, and I know that my best bud Eren is going to be nice enough to let me copy his homework!"
"He's going to bug you until you let him copy your homework, so you might as well just let him, a blonde kid interjected. Eren looks at Armin, an exasperated look adorning his face, and finally relents, giving Connie his notebook - "Better make it quick - and make sure to not copy every single stuff, you know that Erwin is too smart for that type of mistake"
"Don't worry Eren, I've copied hundreds of homework, and never got caught! Thanks!"
Eren, not believing a single word that the boy just said, can only begin walking towards his desk. Normally there would be Mikasa besides him, but today she isn't here, for some reason. Maybe she got sick yesterday, he thinks, trying to come up with a reason for her absence.
"You're that sad that you let Connie copy your homework? What, are you afraid that Erwin is going to give you a bad grade? I thought you were braver than this" a red headed girl approaches Eren, who scoffs at her - "Please. And why did he have to ask me for that? Normally you give each other your homework to copy from, Sasha - what happened this time?" - Sasha just dismisses the question with a wave oh her hand, and replies "Nevermind that, it's just that we thought we had a better chance of copying if we asked different people this time - so if that's not what is bothering you, what is?", the girl keeps asking, while scrutinising the area for anything out of the ordinary, when her eyes lands on the empty desk besides Eren's. "Ah-ha! Mikasa isn't here and you're wondering why, uh? Don't worry about that, I'm sure she's ok!"
"I'm not worried, I just noticed she isn't here and I am just wondering why, nothing weird about that, I'm not worried about her!"
Armin and Sasha could barely hold in the giggling, their friend's crush being an obvious thing to anyone with eyes and ears. But Eren would rather admit that he can't get taller with those stretches than admit he has a crush on his friend.
"Kids, sit down please - today we'll go over your homework, so please open your notebooks on your desks, and I'll come and check them out", the teacher, Erwin, says as he turns around to adjust his coat on the coat hanger - "If anyone is still 'checking' their homework, now would be a good time to stop doing that, since I'm not looking at you, Connie". The noise of an object landing on a desk could be heard immediately after, followed by some quiet laughter.
Erwin begins from the front seats, starting with Eren, and notices that his desk mate isn't here. "Wasn't Mikasa supposed to get home yesterday, Eren? Do you know why she isn't here today?", he asks , looking at the boy's notebook
"No sir - we saw each other yesterday, but that's it - I haven't seen her today at all". Eren hopes that his somewhat worried expression and tone is not too obvious, but the tall man catches them immediately, releasing a small laugh. "I'm sure she's ok - well your homework is fine, although there is a small mistake", he says, while glancing up at Connie, who is currently trying to see if he can catch it before Erwin can come and see his homework. Before he leaves, he gives a quick wink to Eren, silently telling him to play along.
Carla is talking to the police officers, telling them what she knows, which isn't much, but it's all they can manage to have at this point. Levi completely shut himself from the outside world, building a wall around himself, only acknowledging Petra when she asks if he is ready to talk, responding only with a shake of his head.
"From what I understood, the parents had an appointment to the bank, and so they asked Levi, their older son, to come pick up Mikasa, their daughter, and bring her to school - he was supposed to get here half an hour earlier than the time he finally got here, and that's when they found...this"
At the mention of him being late Levi finches - it's all he's being able to think about : If I wasn't late I would've been able to prevent this...I'm sorry you have this sorry excuse for a son, I'm sorry I let you down one last time... Petra knows what he is thinking, and she's whispering that, even if they had arrived on time, it probably would've resulted in them being killed as well - "Think about it, they couldn't have done al of this in only 5 minutes, they obviously got in the house well before the time you...I mean we had agreed on. It's not your fault". Levi can see the reasoning behind that thought, and while he agrees that in this way, the police could've acted immediately, it's still a bittersweet thing. I should've still arrived earlier - they did tell me they had an appointment..."Mr Levi? We should talk now" A police officer crouches in front of the teen, not waiting for a reply. "We've collected all the evidence, and now we're going to start our investigation. This M.O. is similar to a streak of kidnapping that happened a few months ago - so we already have a good starting place. I can't and won't make any promises, but this is a good thing. We already sent out some info for out field officers to look out for. If they will come up with anything worthwhile, we'll contact you immediately. For now, that's all we can do. Do you have anywhere to stay Mr Levi?"
"He can stay at my place - he's my boyfriend, my parents won't mind" Petra offers, and Carla immediately interjectes "Are you sure Petra? He can stay at my place as well, and he lives closer to us anyway". The young woman can only nod "I want to stay close to him right now - maybe in the future, but for the moment I want to help him out anyway I can and be right there for him"
"I understand - do you have my phone number? I want you to call immediately if you need to, ok? No questions asked"
Levi still isn't talking, still thinking about the images that they've been forced to see - it would surely haunt them for weeks. When the medics came to collect the bodies, he almost threw up to see just how stiff they had become, the unnatural positions forcing the medics to straighten the bodies, sometimes making horrible sounds that he can still hear. He doesn't know for how long he remains seated at the couch, covered by a flimsy blanket that's becoming quickly overbearing and irritating to the touch. When Petra finally coaxes him to move so they can at least eat something, the only people remaining are them and Carla.
"You better call your parents now Petra - in a while school will be over so I'm going to have to go and pick up Eren, and I'd like for Levi to be already at your place by then" - the girl quickly nods, and walks away to call their parents, preparing herself for the worst conversation that she has had to make.
Carla crouches by Levi, and shakes his arm, until he manages to make eye contact. "Do you prefer that Eren doesn't know about this?". The teen has to think about this: on one side, he doesn't want Eren to think about what just happened, but on the other, he's not sure what lying would accomplish - if, and that if is the worst thing he can think of, they manage to find Mikasa, she'll surely have experienced enough trauma to affect her mentally, changing every single relationship in her life.
After a while, he finally speaks, so softly that at first Carla thinks that it's her imagination. "You can tell him if you want"
Mikasa is just waking up, still groggy from the sleep. She wonders why she didn't hear her alarm clock, and so she reaches out to grab it, only to find out that she can't move her arm. Immediately everything comes back, every noise and sound and sight, making her close her eyes tight, thinking it must be a nightmare. But after she opens them again and she's still tied up, she begins to cry against the makeshift gag the men had evidently put on before.
She can hear traffic noises, and she wonders where exactly they brought her, and if she was still in the same state as before. She remember what the men had said about her and, she gulps, the memories physically hurting her, her mother, about them being assets and how they couldn't have broken bones. Her conscious mind is trying to not think about it, but her unconscious pushes through and begins to list off possible motives, not one thought being not depraved.
Suddenly she is shifting, signalling the car has stopped moving, and she can hear footsteps coming closer. Instinctively Mikasa closes her eyes, pretending to be asleep, hoping that maybe she'll be spared any explanation if she keeps on sleeping.
The boot of the car opens, and the raven is close to shivering from fear - "I know you're not actually sleeping, so open your eyes up". The girl doesn't want to listen to the man, and doesn't move a single muscle in her body - the next thing she feels is a slap across her face, immediately causing her to scream in pain and open her eyes. "Every time you disobey us, you're going to get slapped, so think about that next time you want to waste time instead of simply obeying"
The man lifts her up roughly, and throws her to the ground, where she rolls a few times. She can feel the burn of from scratches immediately, and she remains still, still crying softly.
"Get up now" - she can feel the man's presence behind her, crouching to get closer to her, but still she doesn't move, fear gripping her. Immediately she gets slapped again, "I told you, every time you disobey, you get slapped, and I don't care how much you get slapped - as long as your bones don't break, you'll do fine enough - now get up!"
Still feeling dazed, but not wanting to get slapped again, she tries getting up, flailing around her feet to grip the ground, inevitably slipping and landing on her face, where she lies there, trying to calm her swirling mind. After a couple of seconds, she tries to get up again, this time succeeding, and gets immediately grabbed by the scruff of her shirt and dragged towards a building - she looks around, seeing nothing but desert, not even a road close by.
The man knocks on a metal door, which opens right after.
"There were some problems with the pick up - all we manage to get was this girl - the mother tried to fight and that fucker twisted her leg, breaking it. We had to kill her, which was a shame - she was something else"
"Leave it to you idiots to fuck up a simple job like that - whatever, one is better than nothing I guess. Bring her to the room, she'll be there in 5 minutes. Make yourself comfortable in the meanwhile"
Mikasa keeps looking around, seeing only a couple of guys - she then gets pushed towards a white door, making her slam against it, opening it and falling in the room.
The man sits himself on the white sofa in front of her, spreading his arms on the back. She then starts to take off his shoes, and loosens his belt - the pants fall between his ankles, and he relaxes into the sofa. Mikasa wants to cry, but she's scared that she will get slapped again, so she simply averts her eyes and focuses on the ground.
She doesn't know how much time passes, her only thoughts about how she wants Levi to burst open that door and kick the man in the face for hurting his sister, but her wishes aren't met, every passing second ticking away with no changes.
Suddenly the door opens, and she hears high heels clacking on the floor, and stopping in fron of her.
"She's a bit younger than I thought, but I think it's better this way - more money for us. Hello darling! My name is Elena, and welcome to your new home! I'm sorry that these brutes hurt you, but all you have to do is obey, and then you'll find out that they can be also surprisingly nice!"
Her small hand grasps her chin and forces her to look at her face, a smile on the woman's face, so genuinely beautiful and reassuring she feels like throwing up - but stops herself when she sees the raised hand next to her face. Don't slap me anymore please...
"Now, I'm sure you're wondering what you're going to do here, beautiful - just look in front of you,", Elena's hands roughly pull up Mikasa's face, forcing her to see the man's member, ", and just start licking, beautiful"
The raven doesn't want to, and decides to endure the slaps that are sure to come, anything to avoid doing that - she's expecting the first slaps, avoiding crying out in pain as much as she can, since she doesn't want to give them more power.
"I see, beautiful - you think that if you can endure the slaps, you won't be forced to do your duty..." Elena's voice was so soft and pleasant to hear that Mikasa again felt like throwing up - "But it's not going to work, beautiful "
Each slap that followed was more forceful and more painful than the one before, forcing Mikasa to scream from the pain - when the woman stopped, the raven had both lips split open, and her cheeks had actually started to bleed on the outside.
She wasn't sure if she could endure another slap like that.
"Now, you either start licking, or, if you want, for the time being you can clean up the place - or else I'm going to slap you for real"