Ohoho, taking a break from English homework yoooo~
Here's one, dedicated to the last episode of SnK!
(can you spot the one part taken from an earlier chapter?)
Disclaimer: I don't own SnK, but HEY tomorrow's October, and the chappy's coming soon...!
Note: Remember when an arm was thrown at Erwin? HEY COMMANDER, THINK YOU MIGHT NEED THAT?!
okey dokey.
Three Warriors
xxx. moon .xxx
Pain registers like halos of white on the gates of hell. There's a crushing pressure on her face, and while she herself is still intact, all in one piece, safe — as safe as one can be when the entire world is your enemy — her nose is crushed and there's a seeping cold as his brutish titan fingers sink into her forehead, her giant skull falling way like a gritty, sopping sugar cube, half dissolved and half unbroken.
There's someone screaming, and she wants them to quiet down because it hurts and if she could just lie there in peace and silence, the world would be happy.
But the screaming won't stop, and as she whirls around, elbows striking in frantic vehemence, hoping to land a hit, she realizes that the screams are emanating from her own throat, and she can't breathe, she can't breathe, the blood is everywhere.
He rips off pieces of her like she is a cotton ball, and his rotten, stinking flesh is hotter than coals; she is battling a mass of fire, rolled into the wrath of one vengeful boy.
She tosses him aside, but he's clinging to her, and he'll cling to her until they both fall into hell, and the memory of her father flashes before her eyes.
He's tall and sturdy, steadying, soothing. His cotton shirt is rough, but his scent is familiar — like pine and hazelnuts, a reassuring blend of sawdust and the saddle soap he oils down his horse's tack with. He radiates warmth and worry and an eternally creased brow; she knows it all, has memorized it all, without ever really touching him.
So she finds it strange that, at this point in time, she recalls one of the only times he has ever embraced her, has ever held his own daughter to his heart so that the rhythm of her blood pulsing through her veins matches his own. Calloused hands enclose around her shoulders, scars and nicks and old wounds marring them. She remembers his breath on her neck as he wraps his arms tight around her, begging her to come back, engraving his memory into her mind forever, because he is on her side, and she will never let go.
Never.
His knuckles are knobby, growing stiff with arthritis, but he strings an arrow and teaches the trade to Bertholdt and Reiner just as he has done for many, many others, and when he oils down his bow and she sits by him, she is struck by the painfulness of this memory, because she can't remember his face anymore, only a faint smile and rough hands guiding hers into a position.
A bird falls from a distant tree, the arrowhead embedded in its sorrowful heart.
She grits her teeth and screams — the tears stream down her cheeks, and they sizzle into blinding steam around her, her skin pulled taught to the titan essence that stems from her heart.
Fear zips up her spine and she tries to outrun it; clawing her way up the wall, even though her right hand is fingerless and she's dangling by her left…
When she falls, she is light and heavy and overcome with regret. She is overcome with pain and fear and a darkness that consumes her whole.
The sharp pang of an unrecognizable emotion slices through her core like the iridescent glow of an unnaturally bright butterfly sparkling in a dull setting. There are thousands of images, but she can't sort them all. They come to her in flashes, urgent yet slow, one hundred and one memories scrolling past her during each millisecond, igniting everything that has been, is, and will be her life.
It is Reiner, proudly skinning a squirrel he'd caught.
It is Bertholdt, pondering everything and nothing on the porch.
It is the little black cat, licking its paws with deliberate slowness.
It is her father, shoulders shaking in agonized sobs.
And, far, far away, it is the moon, remembering who she is.
/chapter
REMEMBER
[10] Fear:
It's an endless dream, full of muffled voices and soft pitter-patters. The soft ping of water dripping echoes softly, and the faces become rippled patterns in the surface. She feels rage and anger and sadness wafting towards her, but they are thud drearily into a cold wall, and there is nothing but emptiness inside her.
Somewhere far, far away, Annie knows that someone remembers who she is.
Note 2: I don't like how they changed many things in the anime... -3-