Author's Note: I'm sorry it took me a while to release this chapter. Exams and studying and group projects have had me in a bind and I feel like there was a lot of pressure from myself to make this particular chapter as amazing as possible as it's such an important precipice in the story. I've been reading the comments and appreciating them so much. You all are amazing for taking the time out to read my story. Thank you so much aaah
Chapter 9: The Russians Invade
Back in the loft, Petra winced at the sound of machine guns going off in the distance.
It seemed that an unknown faction had raided East Rostock, causing German troops stationed in a nearby city to check out the mayhem. And get wiped out in the process.
Or so Petra had managed to hear from Wisely.
They have to be Russian troops, she thought, certain.
Levi lay on the sofa, arm draped over his eyes.
Is he asleep? She could make out the steady rise and fall of his chest. How he could sleep through the mind numbing noise outside was beyond her. Petra's fingers traveled up to her forehead where a soft gauze lay wrapped over her wound from the alley.
/
She had insisted on the formalities of treating a wound herself but after some mortifying minutes of struggling, she felt the alcohol infused cloth come around her head and a voice state "Just stay still." Levi securely tied it in place. She grit her teeth against the chiseling pain that coursed through, a steady hum developing in her head.
"By God, Levi. Never a boring day for ya." The old man named Wisely stood near the closed doorway, holding a cigar in one hand up to his mouth as he eyed the unconscious man from the alley now tied up in the corner of the hall. "What's your next move?"
"Run from here. Is there any other option?" The dark haired bandit responded.
The man eyed Petra who sat hunched with her head tied up in a bundle of cloth, eyes sullen from clear tiredom and lack of sleep. "The temperatures are going under tonight. And who was this fella talking about? Who is after her?"
Who isn't. The ginger-head looked over at Levi who sat on his haunches, one elbow on his leg as he reveled in thought.
"The Pea Blinders. They're the only ones that would stupidly send a scout like that and know the exact whereabouts of their target this quickly."
"Stupid yet efficient, eh? Nothing you can't handle."
"Wisely." Levi eyed the unconscious man on the ground. "Get as much information as you can from him. And send Hange a charter once you've learned anything."
/
Petra felt a sour taste in her mouth. So now some mob named Pea Blinders is after me not to mention the Russians are here at the border? Which is worse…?
A chilly breeze wafted into the hall and Petra shivered in her coat, scrunching her eyebrows in surprise at how Levi was basically laying on the sofa with only a thin shirt on.
He ought to be freezing...
She stood up, taking ahold of his long coat from the back of a chair on the way.
He saved me for a second time, after all. She paused over his form. And leaned in at the sight of something shiny at the end of the silver necklace he wore.
A tiny ruby…? She narrowed her eyes, brown orbs fixated, breath held in extreme attention. She had seen that somewhere. This thing on his necklace.
In a state of focus, Petra dismissed the fact that her knees had hit the edge of the sofa, causing her socked feet to slip.
Her body fell forward.
She yelped, hands held out to brace herself. Which they did. They landed on something hard and when she blinked in the instant Levi moved his arm from his eyes, it was all too late realizing that that hard rock thing had been his chest.
"I…"Her cheeks turned red. "I was about to put..." Her hair swayed as she desperately looked around for the coat and found it on the ground. "Ah, that. I was trying to put that over you and I think I slipped so then that fell away and I really, this looks so very wrong! I hadn't meant it to be this way." She stopped to ponder over how her face lay a few inches over his.
"You—"
His voice was cut off as an ear splitting loud banging was heard at the front door.
"THE SOVIETS ARE HERE!"
"What?" Petra choked out, hearing the same knocking travel down at the fronts of other houses. Through the frosted window, she could make out crowds of people running on the streets.
Levi sat up abruptly, causing her to fall to sit on his lap and where she sat red faced, Levi stated urgently, ""I didn't think he would have come this far so fast…Get everything. We have to get going."
/
The crowds at the train portals were insane.
Levi held onto Petra's arm tightly, guiding her after him.
He was leading them on so quickly through fields of people, she barely caught how, as he passed by a group of well dressed men, his left hand flitted past their pockets, all too natural. His hand came back holding crumpled pieces of paper and dripping coins.
A professional thief even in this disaster, she played in her head, eyes falling to his strong hold on her. It was the only thing that kept them from separating in this mayhem.
"There is NO more room on board! I repeat, NO more room!" A train attendant stood outside, fighting against crowds of people as doors began closing in on attendees heels from the fill up inside.
A child stood crying out to his father who held his hands to his face as his son was swept away into the train.
"Papa!" The child screamed.
Petra's mind erupted and began melting away into a trance. She suddenly had something to say.
"Levi," she began, watching the male's back. "Levi, I need to tell you something!" She added a bit louder.
Levi continued trudging forward in search of an open portal, clearly having not heard her.
"Thank you. For saving my life so many times." She continued, "I never thanked you."
Levi stopped them at a red railed train that seemed far less crowded.
"I doubt you a lot and I think I shouldn't have. I...I should have trusted you more. I finally wanted to say that." Petra gasped as Levi turned around and held her by the shoulders, his eyes ablaze with urgency.
She had never seen him so disheveled.
"Petra!"
"Yes?!"
His hold on her shoulders became more firm. "I need you to trust me. I need you to trust that you will reach home. You will see your mother."
What?
"Promise me you'll put your faith in me."He finished, irises a dark wild, his hair peeking from under his disguising wool cap.
She felt like time around her had slowed. All that was left were this man's words and her, his presence urging her to believe in him.
And she would.
"I promise!" She yelled, hoping this, he would hear.
Her words didn't waste on him.
The male loosened his hold then relaxed his stance. He closed his eyes, taking in a breath like he was relieved to hear her say those words. "For now, keep your hood up. We can't have—"
"Well, well, well." A domineering, loud voice cut in from behind Petra. "Is it not the infamous Levi Ackerman himself here to deliver the goods?"
Levi froze.
Petra's muscles stilled and her mind screamed at the way Levi's eyes widened.
Something was very wrong.
And in the way from the first time she had stepped out of her carriage to discover blood in the snow, she felt it now too. That feeling that something was just/not/right.
The goods?
Levi quickly collected himself, malice forming a stone-cold expression on his countenance as he looked up towards where the voice came from.
"Artem."