Everything froze around me. It was as if the hands of time had stopped racing.
I couldn't hear the noises anymore. I couldn't hear the people's footsteps. I couldn't hear Armin or Mikasa. There was only me, those four massive blood-red fingers on the wall and a pair of stone eyes seemingly staring right through me.
I felt my heartbeat in my throat. It was like I could hear it in my head, growing slow and faint just like everything else around me. But something felt wrong, more wrong than the fact that a titan showed up.
Because I didn't feel shocked, I felt terrified, but I wasn't shocked.
You know that feeling you get when you read a sentence in a book you have read before?
Like you've been here before. Dad told me once this type of feeling had a scientific name, but for the life of me I couldn't remember it right now. A tug on my sleeves snapped me out of that haze, and suddenly it felt as if all hell broke loose.
Right and left people were running past me, screaming the names of their loved ones at the top of their lungs. Mikasa was the one responsible for that tug on my sleeves, and a second later I realized we were all running. Armin was running in front of me and Mikasa ran by my side, he was screaming for us to head towards the lake because there were emergency ships made in case something like this happened.
It took me a moment to think over his words before I came to a halt, skidding to a stop across the dirt.
"MOTHER!" I screamed at them, before turning around and running in a different direction. "GO AHEAD AND I'LL CATCH UP!"
Needless to say, neither of them listened to me. Mikasa caught up with me and even ran a bit ahead, while Armin was right on my tail.
We turned around the corner and I began to pick up speed. My house was around a mile away from here and I needed to get there fast. I needed to get there before any titan gets there.
However, as soon as we turned the corner, my heart started pounding like crazy. I couldn't understand what made it pick up pace all at once, but it felt as if it were trying to break out of my chest and run for its life. It felt as if it was encouraging me to go faster.
A squeaking noise caught my attention and I glanced at my side to find a mid-sized grey rat running right next to me. It was going at the exact same rate as me, not an inch faster or slower.
And I could swear on my life it was looking directly at me.
It was trying to tell me something, I couldn't even believe I was thinking that, but somehow I knew it was trying to tell me something. I was contemplating the idea of stopping for a moment to pick it up, before Mikasa grabbed me by the back of my shirt and yanked me back. Right then, a few bricks crashed down where I was standing and the rat was no longer in sight.
I froze for a split-second, but Mikasa dragged me away from the rubble and pushed me forward. We were almost down the street when the ground beneath us began to shake. Armin lost his balance, almost falling back before I put my hand on his shoulder to steady him. The ground beneath us shook even harder.
Some part of me was naïve enough to think this could be one of those rare earthquake occurrences Armin told me used to happen before we were born.
But the rest of me was slapped in the face by reality as the buildings around us came crashing down. The impact of that crash threw us all three backwards. Mikasa tried to grab my hand then but my fingers slipped from hers and I was thrown back in the different direction. Pain shot up every part of my body as I rolled to a stop on the ground, and I coughed as debris clouds intensified all around us.
Squinting, I struggled to make out a shape through the debris, and my eyes widened when the clouds cleared up.
This one had to be a 15-meter class, no, it had to be much bigger than a fifteen meter class. It was almost as large as the colossal titan, the only difference is that it had relatively more skin and faded blonde hair.
I heard of this one before.
They called it the Armored titan.
The ground roared as it ran through, too fast to be an average titan. It broke through buildings left and right, squishing people and bricks as if they were insignificant flies.
I felt anger build up within my veins; my blood began to boil at the mere sight of it. Such creatures disgusted me. They didn't deserve this power that they have. They didn't deserve to have any control-
My breath caught as the titan turned its head, and its attention was focused on me.
Just like with the rat, I could sense it was gazing directly into my eyes. Its arm paused midway in the air and the creature seemed to be frozen in time, the rise and fall of its chest was the only indication that it was a living being and not a statue.
Something was off. The anger that was weaving its way into my veins subsided and I had that feeling again. That feeling that time had slowed down and that I am looking at something familiar to me.
And the way it looked me, it was as if the titan felt the same way.
Its eyes narrowed for a moment as its gaze remained fixed on me, and I saw something shift in them.
My heart stopped racing. I didn't feel afraid anymore. Confused, yes, but not afraid.
Because looking into the eyes of this titan didn't feel any more intimidating than looking in the eyes of a human.
I must be going out of my damn mind.
"Eren!" Just like Mikasa's tug earlier, Armin's voice snapped me out into reality and all the noises came back into focus. My eye contact with the titan was broken and the creature seemed to unfreeze, going back to crushing everything in its way. I was almost sure it was going faster now, and in the direction opposite to me. I looked at Armin and saw him running towards me, Mikasa right beside him. There was blood around his mouth and when he approached I could see he had a busted lip, but other than that he seemed fine. Mikasa extended her hand to help me up but I pushed her hand aside lightly, seeing that she also seemed uninjured, and pushed myself up on my own.
"I got this," I muttered, then looked back in the direction of the Armored Titan.
It was nowhere to be seen.
"Let's go!" Armin shouted then, turning around and starting to run back towards the direction of my house. I followed after him, my mind only halfway focused on the road before me as it kept replaying that encounter with the titan. Where did it go? Something that massive doesn't just vanish into thin air in a matter of minutes. And moreover, it clearly noticed me, so why didn't it get me? I thought titans ate every single human in their path, but it wasn't eating anything. It was destroying everything in its path, but it didn't pick up a single human.
Why?
"This way!" Armin yelled again as they made another turn. A group from the Garrison ran past them, and Eren was momentarily distracted by the way the soldiers used their gear to make their way through the buildings and towards the titans.
Some of them stayed on their ground to help civilians head towards the docks, pointing them in the ships' direction and picking up anyone who has fallen.
"Jaeger! What are you kids doing here?"
I looked up to see a familiar blonde looking down at me, his forehead was creased and his eyebrows were pulled together.
"Hannes! We have to get to my house you can help-"
"You have to start running in the other direction!" Hannes's shout cut me off, "There is no time!"
"I'm not leaving my mother behind!"
"You don't have a choice, Jaeger! All of you need to get out of here right now this is not a negotiable matter!"
Anger started to course through my veins again, "Either help or get out of our way, I'm going back!"
"You will do no such thing!" Hannes moved to stop me but I ducked out of his reach.
"You're more of a delusional drunk than I thought if you think I'm leaving my mother behind!" I shouted, more anger started building up within my head. Was he insane? What the fuck was he trying to do? All this time he's wasting trying to stop me could be put into better use!
Hannes's eyes widened for a moment before he narrowed them again, attempting to reach out for me once more, "Just take Armin and Mikasa to the ships, I won't leave my mother!" I ran before he could grab me, picking up even more speed than before. I didn't look back to see what was happening, or if anyone was still beside me. All I could see was my house ahead.
And a 7 meter class that was moving towards it.
"MOM!" I ran even faster when I spotted her standing on the porch. She was probably cooking when all of this happened because she was still wearing an apron and oven mitts when I saw her.
She turned to look at me, "EREN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? RUN AWAY!" She was screaming at me, her face was reddened and the look in her eye was wild with fear. I half-jumped the rest of the way to her before reaching out to grab her arms.
"I won't leave you, let's go-" She was petrified, looking up into the sky at something behind me. I turned around to find that the 7 meter class was standing directly above us, his head tilted down to look at us.
"RUN!" I tugged on her arm and we both took off. I could see the titan's shadow on the ground getting bigger as it leaned towards us, reaching for us with its blood stained hands. I felt a band of warm flesh encircle my waist and suddenly I was flying through the air.
I let out a yell without even realizing it, and glanced up to see that it was Hannes, who had grabbed us. He held both me and my mother as he used his gear to get us away from the titan's direct reach. We landed a decent distance away from it, around 10 feet probably, right next to where Hannes had left Armin and Mikasa. Armin was holding Mikasa back, but as soon as they saw us he let her go and they both ran towards me and my mom.
"Did you really think we'd go and leave you behind?" Armin said, putting his hand under my elbow and helping me stand up. I looked at Hannes who was helping my mom stand steady, and he shook his head as soon as I opened my mouth and before I had the chance to say anything.
"That way! We need to get to the ships!" He said, pointing in the direction ahead of us. Armin pushed me forward then and we started running. Mikasa was on my right, Armin was on my left, and mother was directly behind us with Hannes. More buildings tumbled down as we ran and Hannes kept directing us along the way, taking sharp turns left and right to avoid being trampled under any of the fallen houses. My breathing was becoming rapid and my legs felt as if they were on fire, I wasn't sure I could go on for much longer.
"Come on, we're almost there!" Hannes was now running in front of us, his hand around mother's wrist as he pulled her along with him.
"The docks are just around the corner," Armin said, looking at me. I looked back at him and nodded. Before running straight into Hannes's back.
I staggered back then, "Ow what the hell? Why did you stop?"
Mikasa came to a halt right beside me, and she pointed up. I followed her line of gaze and my eyes widened. The road was blocked with what could have easily been a six meter high wall of broken bricks and wood. And there was no visible way around it.
Hi everyone! This chapter was brought to you by Dystoria'74! I just looked this one over!
I will try to get to work on the next chapter but I'm also working on my 3rd chapter of my own story, "A Monster's Claim", so I don't know when the next one will come out. But if we have so wonderful encouragement….it may come out faster. Just a thought.
See you next time!
-Jeager's Paradise/Dystoria'74