CHAPTER 2: Four is a crowd
Icy blue eyes glared at Levi as he lay on the floor, still trying to catch his breath.
"Did you hear what I said midget? I told you two to get the hell out of here."
"Give us a second!" Mikasa snarled
"Why the hell should I? This is our room, and you are not welcome here."
Levi propped himself onto his elbows, still sucking in deep breathes of air. The glacial blue eyes belonged to blonde woman with beaked nose. But the most intriguing thing was that she seemed to be handcuffed to a particularly tall man, who as of yet had not said anything.
"You're not even going to ask us who we are?" Levi questioned
"I don't want to know anything about you guys apart from what it'll look like when the door hits your arses on the way out." The blonde girl replied
"We should listen to what they have to say…" The tall man suggested. Levi noticed that the tall man seemed to be sweating bullets.
"No we don't!" Annie said, turning the face the man.
The tall man pointed at Levi, "Look, he's hurt."
Surprised, Levi looked down at his arms and noticed that some of the material on his jumpsuit had been burnt away, presumably from the acid from the sprinklers. Levi had been too focused on catching his breath, that he had not noticed the pain…until now. His skin burned, as if he'd been prodded by several hot pokers, but he restrained himself from grimacing.
"That's their problem, not ours." The blond girl replied coolly
Mikasa, now seemly aware that Levi was hurt, turned to him. "What happened?"
"Tch. It's nothing." Levi said, pulling up the arm of his jumpsuit, except now there were holes in it. "Some of that acid managed to get through my jumpsuit and onto my arms and hands."
The skin on Levi's arm was scorched red and inflamed. One particular spot on the back of his hand looked quite angry.
"Do you have any water?" Mikasa asked the tall man
"No, we don't." The girl said sternly
"I wasn't talking to you." Mikasa said to the girl, then turned he gaze back to the tall man.
"Didn't you hear me bitch?! I said no!" The blonde girl shouted
"What the hell is your problem?" Mikasa said as she stood up, the handcuffs pulling Levi with her.
"I don't like you. That is my problem. And I am not going to waste any of our water on either of you!"
"Yeah, well I don't like you either you blonde –"
The next thing Levi saw was a blur of green. He wasn't sure who hit who first, but both women where throwing punches at each other, albeit with some difficulty as they were still handcuffed to their male partners.
Levi was surprised that he had to use a significant amount of strength to pull Mikasa away from the blonde girl.
The tall man in an attempt to pacify his partner, had given her what looked like to Levi to be a backwards bear hug, in such a way that she was not able to move her arms.
"Let me go, Levi!" Mikasa argued, trying to pull her own hand from Levi's grasp.
"We have better things to do than beating each other up." He said, his voice almost sounding like a growl.
"Put me down, you great big giant!" The blonde girl shouted at her partner, her legs flailing through the air in vain.
"Not until you've calmed down, and promise not to fight anymore." The tall man said in a stern voice. Incredibly he seemed to be sweating even more, than when Levi first noticed him.
The blonde girl realising that her efforts were futile, immediately stopped and took a deep breath.
"Fine."
Gently, the tall man put his partner down. Except now, the couples each stood further away from each other – outside of punching range.
"Y-you wanted water?" The tall man stammered, as he took out a bottle from a pocket in his jumpsuit, "It's not much, but it's all we have."
He gently tossed to bottle to Mikasa, who caught it with both hands. Levi did not miss the dirty look the girl gave to both the tall man and Mikasa. She began pouring the water on Levi's arms and hands, the cooling sensation bringing temporary solace, until she stopped pouring.
"We should save the rest, Levi. I hope you understand. Just until we find some more." Mikasa said, screwing the cap back onto the bottle.
"Wait," Levi said, "You didn't get hurt?"
Mikasa shook her head, "Well, some of my hair got burnt by the acid. But I don't think that really counts."
Levi quickly glanced at her hands; they were red and inflamed just like his had been. He decided not to push the subject seeing as she obviously didn't want to draw attention to it.
"Thank you." Mikasa said, throwing the bottle back to the man.
"Great, now both of you can leave!" Annie barked
"We're not going anywhere until you answer some questions." Levi said, his eyes narrowing.
This was the first chance that Levi had of getting a look at the room they were in. He was surprised to see that they appeared to be in a room that looked exactly like a hotel lobby room.
"We can't be in a hotel?" Mikasa said, turning to Levi.
"I can't imagine a hotel having a sprinkler system that actually attacks its guests." Levi replied, and then turned back to the other couple that were handcuffed.
"So what are your names? I don't suppose either of you know why we are here by any chance?" Levi asked
"You guys can remember your name?" The tall man said in a surprised tone.
Levi sighed, this new couple were wearing the same jumpsuits as them, and they hadn't even checked their pockets yet.
"Check your pockets, you might find a card with your name on it. That's how we know our names." Mikasa suggested
This new couple wore the same old dark green jumpsuits as Levi and Mikasa, albeit with their own set of sewn up patches. It only now caught Levi's attention that the jumpsuits they were all wearing were quite old and worn out.
What if we aren't the first people to wear these jumpsuits? Does that mean that other people have been here before, and in our exact position?
Levi looked over his own jumpsuit more carefully, when he spotted small dark speckles. He had the sneaking suspicion that it was blood.
"So my name is Bertholdt?" The tall man asked, still looking down at his card, "But what is this bit underneath for?"
"We're not sure yet." Mikasa said, "But just out of interest, what does your phrase say?"
"Ab-" Bertholdt began, but was interrupted by the blond girl
"You tell us your names and phrases first." The girl said looking at Mikasa, "Then we'll tell you ours."
Levi shrugged, "Fine. The card says that my name is Levi, and the phrase "Take me back to where I belong", was my phrase."
Bertholdt and the girl now turned to Mikasa.
"I'm Mikasa. My phrase is, "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink it". Now it's your turn." Mikasa finished.
"The phrase that is written on my card is… is…" Bertholdt stammered, looking at the floor, "Abracadabra"."
Levi had trouble stifling his laugh, "So were you a magician before you came here?"
To Levi's surprise the blonde girl smirked, and Bertholdt continued to sweat.
"Was I?" Bertholdt asked, "Is that what our phrases mean? Do they reveal what our occupations were on the outside?"
"I don't know. But it's your turn now." Levi said, turning the blonde girl, with icy blue eyes.
"It says that my name is Annie. My phrase is, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"."
Mikasa snorted a laugh, and Levi had to agree. Annie had already shown what her temper was like.
Annie did not seem impressed and crossed her arms, "So do you guys know why we are here? Or why we are all handcuffed and partnered off?"
"Nope", Mikasa replied
"We are just as much in the dark as you guys." Levi added, and recounted the story of how he had woken up in another room with no memory and seemed to have tripped some kind of alarm and how they were attacked by the acid sprinkler system.
"Great, so were no closer to getting out this place. I knew we shouldn't have wasted the water on you guys." Annie spat.
"Do you really want to start all of that up again?" Mikasa returned
"Why don't we look around here for some more water?" Bertholdt suggested, "We never got to have a good look around here yet. We could have missed something. There might even be food around here. I'm starving."
"Good idea." Mikasa said, and she and Levi made their way into the centre of the room.
"So who do you guys think put us here, and arranged this whole thing?" Bertholdt asked
"Who knows? But I want to get out of her as quickly as possible." Mikasa replied.
"Let's check over here," Levi said, pointing towards what resembled the main reception of the supposed hotel lobby. The carpet on the floor was extremely ornate, and looked expensive. There were several coffee tables surrounded by beige sofas with scarlet cushions that looked particularly soft.
The reception area was made out of a dark oak wood, with stationary organised neatly. Curiosity got the better of Levi, as he picked up several sheets of what looked like paperwork, only to find that it was completely empty.
This doesn't sense.
"We need to check every nook and cranny." Mikasa added, as she rummaged through the top drawers.
Levi put down the empty sheets of paper and started looking in the bottom draws. Annie and Bertholdt were on the other side of the Lobby checking the tables and the furniture when Bertholdt called out.
"Guys, quickly! Get over here."
Levi and Mikasa didn't even look at each other before they started running over to the other pair. Their arms did not quite moving in sync with each other, making it awkward to run.
"What happened? What did you find?" Mikasa asked when they reach the other pair.
"Shhh!" Annie's words were susurrus, "Just listen!"
Levi was sure that Mikasa even went as far as to hold her breath, in an attempt to listen as well as she could.
Then Levi heard it. It was not loud, but as if the noise was being filtered. But he was sure that he could hear shouting, coming from somewhere in the distance.
"How many of us are there?" Bertholdt asked