The darkness always makes things worse. Although, I don't think these woods need the darkness to make them feel any more despairing. The Jaeger Estate does that just fine on its own.
Towering pine trees with thin, ragged trunks protrude from the ground like arrows from a bale of hay. The space between the trees is filled with hanging branches, patchy foliage, and inky darkness. Above the trees there are patches of sky dotted with lights. I can't decide if it's comforting or not. It only reminds me that we're in the middle of nowhere.
I frown at the nature around us, it gives me the creeps. I sigh breathing in the smell of burning logs, moist air, and weed. Marco gets our bags out of the trunk of my car, strapping them on his back and making him look like a human pack mule. I don't know why he brought so much stuff. We're only here for the weekend, and all we're going to do is smoke, eat, and chill.
I glance at the cabin in front of us. It's so weird being here. It's been over a year now since the last time all twelve of us spent time here. To be fair, Eren hasn't really had much time to party for a while now. Not since his half-brother, Zeke, was accused of murdering five people.
"Let's get inside," I mutter to Marco who, for some reason, is digging through one of his bags and using his phone as a flashlight.
"I think I forgot my face wash," he says like he's perfectly content standing out here like these woods aren't completely haunted.
"Why are you looking for your face wash?" I ask, annoyed.
"Did you bring any?" he asks, ignoring me.
"No, I didn't bring any damned face wash, just use someone else's. Let's just go inside," I whine taking a cautious look over my shoulder. The only thing there is to see are very dark, very intimidating woods. I can't shake the feeling that someone, or something, is watching us.
Maybe Zeke isn't in prison like the news says.
Marco looks up from his bag with an eyebrow raised at me. "You good?" he asks with a slight smirk as he recognizes my panic face.
"I'm fine, I just don't want to be out here any longer."
His smirk deepens, "You scared?"
I glare at him. "Shut up, dick, it's just weird, okay? Like aren't you uncomfortable too? His brother literally stashes the bodies in the woods here."
"The bodies aren't here anymore, Jean," Marco says.
"Yeah, but what if their ghosts are?"
Marco starts snickering and pinches my chin. "You're so cute."
"Don't call me cute," I pout.
"Mm, you're even cuter when you're angry."
"I'll hit you," I warn.
Marco tilts his head with a point of challenge. "You can go in without me, you know."
Hm, a forest full of ghosts or a room full of all the people that make me want to blow my brains out half the time. I purse my lips together. "I'll wait."
Marco hums and goes back to searching for his long lost fucking face wash.
I let out a long sigh and resort to talking my anxiety away. "Don't you think it's odd that Eren wants us to meet here, like, why can't we just go to his house? Why meet in the fucking middle of some haunted ass-"
"Eren has had a tough year. He's not only had to deal with millions of interviews and a strenuous court case, but he's also lost his brother, the only family he has right now."
"He has Mikasa," I say glancing back at the cabin and seeing a few figures mulling about past the glass windows.
"Never-the-less, Zeke killed not only some really good doctors in Trost, but his own dad. Not only does the whole city want Zeke dead but they also want to make Eren's life miserable for no reason." Marco curses to himself most likely more so about the face wash rather than our friends horrific life. He turns his phone's flashlight off and zips up his bag. "I don't blame Eren for wanting to be away from people to just blow off some steam, be distracted for a little while, and not have to worry about some mob busting down his door with fire and pitchforks."
The faint light from the cabin and the glow from the moon make Marco look soft. His pretty, delicate features distract me from being terrified for a moment. Maybe Marco's just that attractive or I'm hopelessly in love with the kid. Probably the former.
"And besides, we're Eren's friends. We're here to support him, right?" Marco adds.
I rub my eyes between my forefinger and thumb. "Yeah yeah, we're his friends and here to support him blah blah blah, but still..." I twist the straps of my backpack around my shoulders, "when's the last time either of us talked to Eren? I'm pretty sure the kid's half mad at this point."
"Jean," Marco says with a sigh.
"Dude, have you talked to Armin lately? He said Eren's, like, losing touch with reality or something, like, he's not okay right now." I swallow knowing that not only am I anxious about the creepy ass woods but also that this weekend could turn to a form of therapy session for Eren. And I'm not good with that shit. Especially because I don't like Eren.
Marco stares at me for a moment, the dim light makes his brown eyes even darker. It's hot but also a little scary. Most people think Marco's a little - well, vaguely large - ball of fuzz that's just trying to do good for the world and make people happy. But actually, he doesn't take shit from anyone. He makes me look like a puss sometimes.
"Your brother killed your father because he thought that he killed your mother, plus your brother killed four other good men with families of their own while he was supposed to be raising you." Marco pauses, "Wouldn't you be a little messed up too?"
I sigh, defeated. "It doesn't help that Eren was already a psychopath," I mutter, kicking an empty beer bottle across dead grass. Before I can act like an even bigger baby and make Marco kiss me to stop pouting, I hear an odd clank of the discarded bottle.
I freeze for a moment. It probably just hit a rock. But I still have an anxious pit in my stomach. I step towards where the bottle was flung as Marco slings his last bag over his shoulder and locks up the car.
The ground is littered with leaves in shades of red and brown. Each step squishes into mud and I curse Eren under my breath for my future cleaning of my precious Doc's. I squint through the dark until I find the bottle.
I chuckle to myself. God, I'm such an idiot.
I bend to grab the pale stone that the bottle bounced off but the thing doesn't lift from the mud. I pause then try to yank at the smoothed rock again from the earth. It takes another strong pull with the help of my legs to rip the oddly long stone out of the ground. But once it's in the light, I freeze.
I stare bug eyed at the long, smooth femur bone covered in mud in my hand.
"Mother fucking Jesus Christ!" I blurt as I fling the bone as far away from me as possible. I furiously rub my hands over my jeans until my palms burn as I mutter, "oh my god," under my breath repeatedly.
"What what what what?" Marco says running up behind me.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my GOD, oh my god," I whine as I look at my hands in disgust. I squeeze them into fists and shove them under my armpits. "It was a bone, it was a human bone, it was a bone not a rock, it was a bone, oh my god, it was a leg bone, holy fucking shit." I grit my teeth together to try and not gag.
"Okay okay, chill out dude, I don't think it was a human bone," Marco says putting his hands on my biceps and peering over his shoulder to see where I could've possibly yeeted human remains.
"I know what human bones look like, Marco," I hiss curling in on myself and feeling like I want to go home. "I knew some shit like this was going to happen." A chill runs up my spine as icy October wind sweeps under my clothes. I look back at the trees as they sway slightly with the wind, leaves fall in swirling, jagged patterns, and the insects go silent for a moment. Marco drops his hands from my arms and I almost leap to latch onto his arm if it weren't for the fact that he was going directly towards the fucking bone.
"I'm fairly sure any human bones wouldn't be so close to the house, dear," Marco says patronizingly as he wanders into the darkness around the house.
"Dickhead, seriously, I'm not fucking joking," I yell at my boyfriend as he continues to get farther from me, and leaving me to fend for myself with the ghosts. I consider going to wait in the car until I see Marco and his flashlight stop a few yards ahead of me.
"Wait," I hear him call. He bends and picks up something, turning back to me and holds the thing up in the air. "Is this it?"
I stare at him in horror as he walks back to me like we're playing some twisted game of fetch. He investigates the bone as he walks, flipping it and picking at the enamel. When I can see him clearer in the light from the cabin my heart sags at the sight of the fucking bone.
"Marco," I call, raising my voice in warning. "Put-" my body recoils as I gag. I put a hand out to block my view of the shit in Marco's hands. "I swear to God Marco, put that shit down. I can't." He continues walking like he doesn't care and comes right up to me. "Get the- get the fuck back you pyscho, I'm not fucking playing."
He finally stops a few feet away from me. He looks at the bone thoughtfully, like he's studying it, like it's fucking interesting to him and as if it wasn't once part of a human body. God, pre-med majors are freaks.
"Marco, seriously, put it down, lets go tell Eren," I say sweating for some reason.
Marco looks up at me for a moment, his thinking face still on, and then proceeds to scan the lawn for more bones? He swings the femur lazily by his side, like it's nothing more than a muddy stick.
"Marco," I say weakly. He stops again by the porch of the cabin, then squats and nonchalantly flips the bone in his hand. He looks over his shoulder at me and smiles.
"C'mere!" he calls waving the bone along with his words. I shake my head and take a step back. "Come on! It's okay!" he says again.
"Nope, fuck you," I call back without any punch to my words.
Marco smiles and shakes his head. He stands then gestures with his new best friend bone and his flashlight at something on the ground.
I squint. The light reflects off a stone protruding from the ground that has the words, "Rest In Pieces" on the face of it. I frown.
"It's fake, Jean," he says. He points to the rocking chairs on the porch. "Look, there's his best friend."
A full bodied skeleton sits lounging in one of the chairs with a beer bottle positioned in its hand. The porch railing is wrapped in orange and purple lights. Strands of pulled cotton are stretched over the front door making it look covered in spider webs. Plump orange pumpkins line the gravel walkway to the front door. X's of caution tape cross on all the front windows.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
Mother. Fucking. Halloween.
"I want to go home," I say rubbing my hands down my face. My body feels exhausted. Why am I doing this to myself? Everyone else planned on coming to this stupid weekend for Eren, I should've just let them have fun without me. I didn't know I'd be so stressed out.
Marco starts laughing at me again. He tosses the bone aside and jogs noisily to me with his bags bouncing loudly off his back. He wraps his long arms round me immediately and lays his cheek on my head.
"Aw, my poor baby got the shit scared out of him by some Halloween decorations," he hums as he gives me a squeeze. "Don't worry babe, I'll protect you from the skeletons."
I ignore the annoyance in the back of my head and let Marco baby/patronize me for a moment.
"And the ghosts?" I ask pitifully into his shoulder. It's stupid but I still want to hear it.
He chuckles softly. "And the ghosts."
"And Eren?" I add.
"And Eren," he repeats.
I sigh, letting Marco hug me. God, this weekend is going to be longer than I thought it would be.
I hold my breath for as long as I can until I have to exhale before passing out. "Alright," I mutter, "Let's go." Marco kisses me on the forehead and smiles at me like a dork. "But we're going to get fire noodles when we get home so I can see you make as big of a fool of yourself as I just did."
Marco scoffs lacing his fingers into mine as we start walking to the front door of the cabin. "I mean, sure, but I'm pretty sure it's going to take more than fire noodles to make me look that stupid."
I shove his shoulder without letting go of his hand. "I hate you."
He hums, "I love you."
I grump as I drag a step behind him. "I love you too," I mumble into his shoulder.
Our steps crunch as we step up the gravel walkway to the front door. I subconsciously glare at every Halloween decoration in sight. I'm fucking stupid. I can't believe myself, honestly. At least it was only in front of Marco. I have a reputation to keep with everyone else.
Marco stops at the front door and glances at me. "Ready?"
I sigh, "Yeah, whatever."
He smiles, bending to kiss me, really kiss me, because it'll be awhile before we can do this again without a peanut gallery of gushing commentary. Idiots, I say, we're surrounded by idiots.
Marco pulls away looking down at me with eyes swimming in infatuation. God what am I going to do with this beautiful dork.
"Don't look at me like that, Bodt, we're here on business," I say with a trick of my eyebrow.
He pouts, "Business and no pleasure?"
"Not until Bert and Reiner wake everyone else up first," I say lacing my fingers under his shirt to brush at the low curve of his spine.
He smiles with a tilt to his chin. "Not long then, deal."
He opens the front door without knocking as we both expect everyone who's here is probably already half drunk and/or high.
"Hey-o,"Marco calls as we enter the warm cabin. A chorus of cheers echo from the living room. I follow Marco into the house with a squeeze of his ass before I close the door. He bats my hand away and goes to the living room where everyone is congregated.
Most of the crew is here and, as expected, scattered beer bottles and wine glasses line the large, circular coffee table in the middle of the living room. Leather couches surround the coffee tables, a couple of bean bags too, and even a hanging chair dangles closer to the white stone fireplace that's the grand centerpiece of the cabin.
This isn't some Lincoln Log shack of a cabin that you'd imagine. The Jaeger's are loaded. They also have a thing for the outdoors and nature. They like hiking and boating and hunting and shit like that. They poured as much money as they could into this place. It's more impressive than their actual house. Eren's family stay at the cabin every summer for months. They love this place. Well, they loved this place.
Reiner's the first to stand and swallow Marco in a hug. It's comical how muscular Reiner is, like, Marco's not a small guy but Reiner makes him look like a stick.
Speaking of sticks, Berthold stands behind Reiner and follows to give Marco a hug as well. The couple then walk to me. I wince a smile back at Reiners dopey face.
"Jean, my man," he says as he sticks a hand out for a handshake. They know better than to give me hugs. I'm not a hugs type of guy. Marco is just special, okay. I return Reiner's handshake. He shakes his head once looking at me. "You get more and more tattoos everytime I see you."
"You sound like my mom," I say.
He laughs, "I get that a lot."
I scrunch my face in confusion as Reiner turns, ignoring me, and collapses back into his seat to stick a beer bottle back into his face.
Bert sticks his hand out to me in similar fashion to his boyfriend but with a thin, fake smile on his face. "Jean," he says.
I nod, shaking his hand. "Bert," I reply. A simple man with little to say, I like Bert.
Marco goes around greeting everyone, giving them all hugs and saying stupid things that they all like to hear.
"Historia, you look gorgeous, how do you always look gorgeous?"
"Ymir, stubborn as always, it's good to see you."
"Connie, you been working out?"
"Sasha, have you taken my request to start eating more sweet potatoes?"
The craziest thing is that Marco actually means these things. Genuine dork. I pause for a moment thinking of why he doesn't say those nice things to me anymore. Hm, fucker.
I cross the living room to where Connie and Sasha are sitting, ignoring Historia and Ymir entirely, and plopping on the couch next to my favorite Potato Girl.
"Jeannie boy! You came!" Sasha squeals as I sit next to her, she throws her arms around my neck and squeezes. She smells like chocolate and wine. I glance at the accumulation of ho-ho wrappers on the coffee table. She lowers her voice and leans towards my ear. "I thought you might not come."
I shrug, "What can I say, Golden Boy can be quite persuasive."
Connie's face scrunches, "Gross."
I roll my eyes. Sasha ignores her right hand man and tugs me on the sleeve.
"How's the apartment? You haven't invited us over, I feel like you're still illegally living in Marco's dorm without telling me."
"I swear we're moved out. And it's good, really good." I pause thinking of how much work it took Marco and I to move in together. How many fights that happened with my family. How many hours I worked at the tattoo parlor to get deposit money. How many times we calculated Marco's schooling out with rent payments. It was a nightmare. But then I think of how Marco and I can do literally whatever we want whenever we want. We play video games until 2am, we make two dinners some nights, we fall asleep watching movies, we stubble home from bars without having to sneak anywhere, we don't have to worry about being too loud. We're happy.
God, we've fucked in every corner of the place and we aren't even completely unpacked yet.
I clear my throat. "But yeah, we just haven't gotten the place to how we want it before we start inviting people over. You guys will be the first to know."
"We can just help you unpack, we'll have an unpacking party," Sasha says picking up her glass of red wine and taking a larger gulp than normal people would.
Connie scoffs. "That sounds laaaame."
"Well you're not invited," Sasha says without looking at our obnoxious bald friends behind her.
"What are you guys doing anyway? Bumming around smoking until your brains stink?" I say with a cocky grin.
Sasha gives me a secret look of disappointment and a hidden gesture at Connie behind her. Connie notices and pinches her shoulder.
"I wish, but at least we're going to Brazil next month," Connie says.
"Brazil? What's in Brazil?" I ask.
"Beaches and food," Sasha says with a proud smile.
Connie nods. I shake my head. I can't believe these two live their lives out of their apartment saving money to go on amazing trips every 6 months. Marco and I could do that if he didn't want to be a doctor. Damn Golden Boy.
"You guys are ridiculous," I say crossing my arms and leaning back into the couch.
"You're just jealous," Connie says with a wink. I recoil in disgust.
"I'm jealous," Marco says as he steps over while handing me an opened beer without having asked me if I wanted one. My chest fills with butterflies and rainbows and shit. He sits next to me resting a hand on my thigh and easily joining the conversation.
"Just drop out of med school," Connie reasons.
"Oh right right, yeah med school is no big deal," Marco says sarcastically.
I interject feeling the need to support my man suddenly. "Hey one day, you'll be a doctor and I'll be a loving husband that makes you dinner when you get home and we go to Paris on the weekends in our private jet, and then you'll be jealous, Con-Man," I say pretending like it's no big deal to talk about being Marco's husband one day.
Connie rolls his eyes. Marco's hand squeezes my thigh and I feel a sense of pride all the sudden. Marco's husband, that's me, not too long in the future.
"Would anyone eat brownies if I made them?" Reiner asks as he stands and crushes a beer can in his hand.
"Duh," Connie says picking up a corndog from out of nowhere and lobbing off the top. "Wait, are they pot brownies?"
"Do you have to get high everyday?" Reiner asks with a tilt to his head and almost real concern on his face.
"Yes, next question," Connie says confidently. "Plus, this weekend is even more important because it's the only time Marco will smoke."
Everyone turns to my boyfriend and Marco's face goes red. "I did it like once a couple of years ago."
"And now it's tradition," Connie says. "We have to makes sure that Golden Boy is still human sometimes."
"Whatever," Marco mutters with a small smile. "How bout a card game, anybody?"
"I'm in," Sasha says, "But Reiner when you're done mixing the brownie batter can you give me the spatula?"
Reiner smiles down at Sasha and winks, "I got you girl." He then turns to start cooking in the kitchen and Bert follows suit.
"Babe, you in?" Marco asks as he goes to fish for his card deck in his backpack. I nod start clearing space on the coffee table for the game. "Connie? Ymir? Historia?"
Connie props his feet up on the couch with his arm behind his head. "Nah but I'll watch?"
"You mean cheat?" I say glancing at the infamous pair of heathens.
"Maybe, you scared?" Connie mocks with a smirk. I laugh and shake my head.
"No thanks, we'll watch though," Historia says to Marco. Which means, "We don't want to play and we're going to sit here and make out for the rest of the night."
"No problem," Marco says as he sits down on the floor next to me in front of the cleared space. He starts shuffling cards and dealing them out as he repeats the instructions of the game to Sasha.
I nudge his shoulder. "You know I'll beat Connie up for you, if you want," I say knowing he's directly behind us.
"Me too," Sasha says as she organizes her cards.
"Please don't," Connie says.
"Just you wait," I mutter as we begin the game. It's amazing as time flies and three rounds go by without being interrupted. I'm only pulled back to my surroundings when I hear the front door open.
"Hey, everyone!" Armin's voice comes from the front door. The couple of blondes join us in the living room. Armin waves to everyone with a kind smile, Annie stands beside him looking bored.
The four of us sitting on the floor playing our game spare a sliver of our focus to spare a bland, "Hey."
Bert and Reiner greet the pair from the kitchen and Reiner makes a boner comment at Annie. I ignore it knowing that Reiner probably only going to get beat up for it. It's not the first or the last time it'll ever happen.
"Has anybody seen Eren?" Armin asks as Marco slams down his last card and shouts, "Out!" Sasha groans collapsing back onto the couch as she drops her remaining cards in her face.
"Why is Marco good at every card game?" she whines at the ceiling.
Connie scoffs from his position on the couch above her. "Try beating him at soccer, you'll die."
I ignore the pair and their ignorance of how perfect my boyfriend is, although, I'll admit, it does get annoying sometimes but at least I know a few of his weaknesses. I keep half of my focus on Armin and this weird energy around him. He seems pretty uneasy. I like to think of Armin as a flight attendant. You know everything is okay when there's something going on in a plane and the flight attendants seem unbothered by it, but you know you're fucked as soon as they start to worry. I think Armin is the most intune with all the people in our friend group. If something's wrong, Armin's the first to know. Additionally, Eren and Mikasa have kind of been MIA since at least Marco and I have gotten here. I wonder what they're doing.
And like some damn triplet magic, Eren and Mikasa pop out of nowhere to greet his not-so-secret favorite person. I decide that the Big Three's problems are nothing I should concern myself with and notice Reiner and Bert chowing down on some brownies straight from the pan.
"Yo," I call at the two, Reiner looks up at me, "gimme one of those."
"Me too!" Sasha says perking up from the couch.
"The brownies are done, thank fuck," Connie says rolling over too. Reiner sighs, almost as if he forgot that he offered everyone brownies and sends the pan down. Marco prepares for another round of the game as Eren calls out to Sasha if she wants some popcorn. Of course, Sasha says yes.
Eren leans over the coffee table to hand the bowl of popcorn to eternally hungry Sasha and finally acknowledges me. But all he does is makes eye contact with me, pauses, lets a hint of a grin twist his lips, then proceeds to look at the rest of us. God, just the sight of him makes me feel the need to punch something sometimes. I don't think Marco understands how difficult it really will be for me to be nice. I'll just have to get as doped up as possible.
Thankfully, Eren shares the same mindset as he sits on the floor next to Reiner and asks, "So who brought weed."