**written by: thesketchytepe**
10:51 PM
All at once, the lights went out, the ceiling fan shut down, and the TV turned black.
A choir of low but surprised "Noooo" rang throughout the Jaeger cabin. Sasha reached out to the dead TV and cried a little louder than necessary, "No! Captain America's ass! What happened to it?"
"Power's out," Eren stated the obvious.
"But how?" Reiner asked. "It's not storming out there, is it?" He peered over at the nearest window only to find more darkness.
"Don't know. I'll go check it out." Eren yawned loudly before standing up and stretching his arms high above his head. "Maybe a squirrel got into the circuit breaker or something. That happens a lot out here."
"Noooo, poor squirrely," Sasha whined into her pillow.
"Maybe we should take it home to Maximus," Connie told Sasha. Maximus was their brown lab that they adopted not too long ago. He was known for ripping apart furniture, rolling around in mud, and he tried to eat his own shit on multiple accounts.
Sasha wacked Connie's face with her pillow.
"You need any help?" Marco offered from his spot on the couch, leaning against Jean's chest.
"Nah, I got it. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes."
"I'll go with you." Mikasa began to shift out of her yellow bean bag chair when Eren sighed and put a hand out in front of him.
"Mikasa, I'm fine. I got it. Just relax."
She looked a little hurt by his rejection, but he then added for her sake, "I'll text you if I need anything, alright?"
She hesitated but then nodded and settled back down.
"I'll be back, y'all!" Eren called with a wave as he sauntered toward the front door.
"Save America's ass, Eren!" Sasha yelled after him.
"I'll make it my personal mission, Sash," Eren chuckled.
Silence wafted over the group for the first time since the movie started and, as much as Connie didn't really want to admit it, it was awkward. It shouldn't be, right? They were all friends; they were really close with each other and usually were kept up to date on what was going on in everybody's lives. But now that Eren—pretty much the sole reason why everyone was here—was gone, no one really knew what to say or do. Especially with Mikasa still in the room, Eren's second and scarier half.
Connie cleared his throat and drummed his chapped lips together. I guess I didn't take enough grass yet. I'm usually not aware of awkward silences this late.
"Hey, Sash." He turned to her on the floor. "You got any popcorn left?"
"Uh, no. I finished that a while ago."
He pouted. "Why do I even bother?"
"You okay, Armin?" Marco suddenly spoke up. "You don't look too well."
Just as Connie inched around in his seat to look at Armin sitting on the floor, so did everybody else. The leather couches squeaked and the poly beads of Mikasa's bean bag crunched under her weight. The darkness masked Armin pretty well; the kitchen behind him looked like a black abyss, everything blanketed by the heavy darkness. Connie had to squint to make out his blond head and pale arms. He was holding his knees to his chest and his chin was tucked in between them. He couldn't see what expression his face held, but the intensity in his forearms told him that he was absolutely terrified, nearly frozen with fear.
"I'm fine," he murmured into the darkness.
He was clearly not fine.
"What's wrong, little guy?" Reiner teased. He swung his meaty arm around Berthold's shoulders. "You scared of the dark? Did you leave your nightlight at home?"
Annie, sitting beside Armin with the back of her head resting on the couch, shot a deadly glare up at Reiner. Berthold was closer to Reiner than she was and, spotting the look she was giving him, lightly pushed at Reiner's thigh.
"Stop it," he whispered.
Annie then rolled her head to look at Armin and the gesture kinda freaked Connie out. Her face was serious and she didn't blink; it was like that scene in The Exorcist when the possessed little girl turns her head around like a fucking owl.
He shuddered and then turned back to facing the ceiling. He had no idea how Armin thought she was "nice" and not a fucking sociopath.
"What's wrong, Armin?" Mikasa asked, obviously concerned.
Armin didn't answer for a moment. He sighed as if he'd been holding his breath this entire time and Connie could hear a small smile in his response: "I'm fine, really. I guess Reiner's right: I am a little scared of the dark. Of what's…out there."
"Oh my God, I thought I was the only one with a stupid fear," Sasha moaned as she turned around to place a hand on Armin's leg.
Jean snorted and Connie chuckled. They both had hung out with Sasha long enough to know that she was hopelessly drunk. She always got emotional and touchy-feely with everyone when she was tipsy, and she once fell into the bathtub at a party she and Connie threw once they finally moved into their apartment.
"I'll tell you my stupid phobia since you were so brave to share yours," Sasha slurred at Armin. "I'm absolutely terrified of butterflies."
"Oh my God, it's true!" Connie affirmed as Jean's laughter grew. Marco, Reiner, and Berthold couldn't help but throw in a giggle too. "She nearly pissed herself when we came out of a restaurant and there was a little butterfly in the garden in front of the place."
Sasha smacked Connie's cheek pretty hard, making an audible slapping sound and leaving his skin burning. Jean fell into another laughing fit as Sasha scolded him, "Shut up, you little turd! Those things are so creepy!"
"Sasha, thanks, but I'm fine," Armin tried to soothe her. "Seriously, it's not that big of a deal."
"Oh, don't patronize yourself! It doesn't have to be dark in here; we can have a rave party."
As the laughter died down once more, Sasha got out her phone and beamed it at the ceiling, flicking it back and forth. "Rave party," she whispered before beatboxing quietly to herself.
One by one, everyone else got out their phones and flashed it in the air as they joined in on Sasha's quiet partying. Connie fished out his phone from his back pocket, using it for the first time since they came to the cabin. "Sweet dreams are made of these," he sang under his breath, in tune to Sasha's poor beatboxing. "Who am I to disagree?"
As he maneuvered through his phone, he noticed how incredibly slow it was responding to his requests. "Fuck, reception here sucks."
"Well, we are in the middle of nowhere," Marco said, shining his phone at Connie's head. "This stuff's bound to act a little weird."
"Yeah, I guess."
Another silent moment swam by (but this time with flashlights aimed at the ceiling and Sasha making shadow puppets). Connie lifted himself on his elbows and peered at the front door.
"Damn, where's Eren? It's been, like, fifteen minutes."
"Maybe he got eaten by a swarm of butterflies," Jean suggested before he got his own slap from Sasha. "Ow, fuck, Sasha!"
"I'm sure he's fine," Marco sighed.
"He hasn't texted you, Mikasa?" Berthold shyly suggested.
"No, he hasn't." She looked up at them. "I'm gonna go check on him."
"He said he'd text if he needed you, Mikasa," Annie said a little harshly. "Don't baby him."
Connie shrunk into himself and braced for impact. "Ah, shit."
Mikasa and Annie didn't argue too often, but when they did, it was uncomfortable for everyone. It's not like they hated each other, but they certainly weren't the best of friends either. Connie thought they mainly got along for Eren and Armin's sake. God, those gatherings must be an absolute pain.
"You can't tell me what to do, Annie." Mikasa's voice was low but sharp like a razor blade.
"You're right—only Eren can do that."
"Stop it, both of you," Armin interrupted who was conveniently placed between the two and clearly not in the mood to be the punching bag for them. "We'll wait a little longer and then we'll go check on him."
Just as the room was about to plunge into another pool of awkward silence, the faint sound of rapid footsteps could be heard coming from outside. They pounded up the wooden porch and then a huge weight slammed against the door.
Connie jolted up and stared at the door. "What the—"
The doorknob frantically twisted around, the sound of old metal screeching loudly. The door finally burst open and in stumbled a body. The recognizable shape of Eren slammed his back against the door and stood there, breathing heavily as if he just ran a marathon.
Connie shined his phone in Eren's direction. "Dude, where were—" The sight of Eren cut off the rest of his sentence and left him with a gaping mouth and big eyes.
Eren carried Historia in his arms. Her bright hair was tangled and had leaves stuck in it. Her eyes and mouth were open, but no emotion crossed her features, still and flat as stone. Large dark stains covered her left leg, her left arm, her entire torso, and little spatters littered across her neck and chin. Eren's eyes were wide with fear and sweat rolled in heavy beads down his face, but Connie couldn't ignore the giant stain that made up his right thigh.
"Oh my God, what happened?" he blurted out, jumping up from the couch.
Everyone else shot up from their seats and stared at Eren and Historia, demanding the same thing. Mikasa was the first one to move; she held out her arms (to take Historia or for Eren to fall into, Connie wasn't sure).
Tears lined Eren's emerald eyes. "Someone's out there," he whimpered. "Oh my God, someone's out there."
"Is Historia okay?" Sasha asked in a scream. "Is—Is that blood?"
"Who?" Mikasa ordered. "Who's out there?"
"Where's Ymir?"
"Historia! What happened to her?"
"Eren, what's happening?"
"That's a lot of blood. Holy fuck, that's a lot of blood."
Everyone began shouting at once, moving quickly, panic rising in the air like the billowing smoke of a bonfire. Reiner decided to play the hero and nudged Eren out of the way before grasping the doorknob. Luckily Berthold yanked him back and then locked the door. Marco ran up to Eren with his arms spread out like Mikasa while he began rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, ready to get his hands dirty with the seemingly gallons of blood that coated Historia. Jean inched forward but kept backing away the closer he got to the disaster standing in front of them, cursing up a storm in his anxiousness. He eventually found his way next to Connie and Sasha while still hopping from foot to foot. Annie took two steps forward but was held back by Armin's hand on hers—she didn't protest, and merely stared in frozen shock. Armin, however, looked like he was ready to hurl, anxiety and disgust scribbled across his wide eyes.
Connie felt Sasha lean on him and squeeze his arm tightly. He nearly fell over with her drunk weight on him.
"Connie, that's Historia," she cried quietly.
He gripped her shoulder. "Y-Yeah, it is."
"She's covered in blood."
"Yeah."
"Is she…? Oh my God, is she dead?"
Reiner lifted the little blonde girl from Eren's arms. Berthold and Marco stood over her as they gently brushed back her hair and picked at her bloodied skin, searching for wounds. Mikasa took hold of Eren's arms and searched his body. His arms and shirt were heavily stained, but as far as they could tell, his upper body suffered no wounds. All of that must've been Historia's blood from carrying her around. Mikasa eventually eyed the growing mess on Eren's leg.
"Eren, your leg," she gasped. "It's bleeding. What happened?"
"There's someone out there," he repeated as Mikasa swung one of his arms over her shoulder and grabbed his waist. "They—they had a knife. He got me, but he…" His eyes traveled back to Historia. "He got Historia first."
"What the fuck!" Jean hollered. "Who was it? H-Historia's dead? What—where—how the—!" He was so scared he couldn't even finish a coherent thought.
"Oh my God, Connie." Sasha turned into his shoulder and began to sob, her body shaking.
He couldn't utter a sound. He couldn't even comfort Sasha, something he was usually good at. His trembling fingers held onto his phone as the light shakily floated from Eren and Mikasa limping over to the couch to Reiner holding Historia's white and red body, Berthold looking down in complete horror. Marco had stepped away from Historia with a sullen expression and then ran over to his backpack at the front door.
"Where's Ymir?" Connie managed to choke out. "She couldn't have been too far behind Historia, right?"
"I—I don't know," Eren huffed. "I didn't see her."
"Fuck, is she still out there?" Jean cursed. Connie felt his presence behind him, still hopping around like a dog trying to get back into the house of safety.
"He had a mask over his face. And he was big, like, just huge. I found him—" Eren choked on his own words as tears slipped down his cheeks, the memory probably hurting him as much as his leg was. "He—He was stabbing Historia, but—but she was already dead. He heard me coming and turned around with this huge fucking knife in his hands. He got me in the leg, but I managed to knock him out with a rock. I grabbed Historia and came running back here. I don't know who he is or where Ymir is—it was too dark out there."
"Who—Who would do this?" Connie stuttered. Despite his warm sweatshirt and Sasha leaning on him, he felt as though he were caught in a blizzard, his bones shaking, his skin chilled.
"It could fucking be anyone," Eren muttered. "The whole town thinks I'm a sort of devil for being related to Zeke, like I deserve to suffer for his actions. Zeke will probably be evicted from the death penalty and I guess one of the Jaegers has to take the fall. So why not me, right?"
Eren leaned against the leather couch while Mikasa held onto him as tightly as she could as if he would evaporate into a mist and float away. Marco suddenly had a first-aid kit in his hands; he jogged over to Eren and flipped open its lid, his fingers flying through the stuff inside.
"What do we do?" Berthold asked into the chaos. His voice was quiet, as always, but it was loud enough to silence the whole room for a good second or two.
"We have to hide," Connie answered. He gripped Sasha's waist and pulled her in closer. "Eren said there's someone outside and he'll probably come this way, right? So, we gotta hide."
"This guy ripped apart Historia and nailed Eren in the thigh," Jean reminded everyone. "Who knows what else he could do?"
"Let's get to the basement," Eren recommended. "We can hide there for now. There's also guns down there, in case he does come back here."
Mikasa nodded her head once. "Alright, let's get moving then."
No one really argued as Eren pointed to a narrow door tucked in the corner of the living room. Jean opened it for Eren and Mikasa and then trailed in after them. Marco, Connie, and Sasha went down next, Marco still holding his first-aid kit and Connie holding onto Sasha who was swaying from side to side, drowning in a horrible mix between drunkenness and panic. Connie didn't pay attention who came in next: Armin and Annie or Berthold, Reiner, and Historia's body.
He wasn't sure of most things thus far; all he knew was that Historia was dead, Ymir was missing, and some crazy killer was out looking for Eren.