After the fall of Wall Maria, I was taken to a hospital in Wall Rose, and was stuck there for at least seven weeks. Not only did I have to take nasty medicine and get shots, but I also had to get an artificial leg to replace the one I lost. Once I was released from the hospital, I was put in the house that belonged to the people who gave me the artificial leg. Even though I was expecting them to be rude, they were actually kind and loving. There were only two people who lived in the house, a woman who was about forty four, and a boy who was my age. I was happy that I was put in a house with kind people, but I missed my family.
Every night, I end up dreaming about the fall of Wall Maria, and every night I wake up screaming and find myself in pool of sweat. Even though I wished that my screams were silent, they weren't. Every night I ended up waking Leo, and he always ran into my room to make sure I was ok.
"Sadie, are you ok?" Leo asked me one night as I awoke screaming again.
"I'm fine…" I replied, and laid back down.
Leo looked at me with concern in his eyes.
"These dreams you keep having, are they getting worse?" He asked, and I shook my head.
"No, it wasn't a dream…it happened," I said, and Leo frowned, knowing that I was talking about the event that happened about a month ago.
For a few seconds, Leo and I sat there in the dark, and the only sound that was heard, was the ticking of the clock. After a while, Leo pulled back my blankets and crawled into bed with me, and I blushed.
"I'll stay with you until you fall asleep," he said and I nodded.
"Thank you," I whispered, but didn't close my eyes. Silence took over again, and I didn't know what to say.
For a while now, I've been thinking, and I've been thinking really hard. About what you might ask? Well, I was thinking about signing up for the military.
"Leo, I've been thinking about joining the military," I said softly, and he looked at me with wide brown eyes.
Leo grabbed my shoulders gently and looked me in the eye, "I won't allow that," he said, and I sighed.
"I thought you'd say something like that…" I mumbled, and Leo pulled me close to his chest.
"I-I can't lose you, Sadie, you mean a lot to me," Leo said, and I laid there in confusion. How could I mean something to him?
"What are you talking about, Leo?" I asked, moving his curly brown hair out of his eyes, and he sighed.
"I don't want to lose another person that I care about," he replied, and I frowned.
"You don't have to worry or care about me, I'm fine," I said, and he shook his head.
"No matter how hard I try, I'll always worry about you," Leo said, and I let out another sigh.
Even though he tried to hide it, I could tell that he pitied me, and I hated that. After our small conversation about the military, I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep. When I awoke the next morning, I saw that Leo wasn't next to me, and then crawled out of bed. I walked over to the dresser and stared at my reflection. I noticed something about my hair, I noticed that it was way too long. I sat down, grabbed a pair of scissors, and began cutting my long hair.
Once I finished cutting my hair, I looked down at the brown locks that where now lying on the wooden floor. It felt nice not to have a lot of hair weighing me down. After I cleaned up every last lock of hair that was on the floor, I slipped out of my nightgown and pulled on a white buttoned up shirt and a pair of pants. Not caring about how I looked, I walked into the kitchen and sat down, doing my best to avoid Leo's stares.
"Good morning, Sadie! I see that you cut your hair, it looks nice," Leo's mother said and I smiled softly.
"Thank you, it feels nice to not have all of that hair weighing me down," I replied and grabbed a piece of bread.
I bite into the bread and began chewing, trying to think about something that didn't involve Wall Maria, Leo, or anything else that's been on my mind. Lately, those are the only things I've been thinking about, and I just don't know why. While I was in deep thought, I was brought back to the present by Leo shaking my shoulder.
"Sadie, mom's talking to us!" Leo said, and I blushed in embarrassment and turned towards Leo's mom.
"Don't look so embarrassed, Sadie, its fine! Now, I'm going to need you two to go into town to get groceries, can you guys do that?" she asked, and we nodded.
After breakfast, Leo and I went out into the market and began buying the things she needed. While I was picking out fruits and vegetables, I saw people going up to a booth that had two members of the Military Police inside of it. I noticed that there were a lot of teenagers and children, who were twelve, signing up to join the military. On the walk home from the market, I had decided that tonight I was going to sign up for the military. I felt bad for leaving Leo and his mother behind, but I couldn't just stand by and let the titans eat people. I was going to help humanity fight back.
-Time Skip-
Before I left to go join the military that night, I made sure Leo and his mother were sound asleep. Seeing that they were, I grabbed my bag and packed all the things that I'd need. For personal belongings, I only grabbed the small compass that my father gave me when I was six. It was the only thing I had left of him and my family. Making sure I had everything, I opened my bedroom window and climbed out of it.
Once my feet were on the ground, I ran towards the market where the booth was located. Once I was there, I walked over to the booth and the soldiers looked at me.
"You here to sign up for the military, kid?" the first soldier asked, and I nodded.
"Yes, sir, I'm here to sign up for the military," I said, and the second soldier slid a pen and a piece of paper towards me.
"Just sign this and you're in. Before you do that, are you twelve years old? If you aren't, you can't join. That's the law," He said, and I nodded in reply.
I took the pen in my right hand, filled out all of the information that was on the paper, and pushed it back to the soldiers.
"Thank you. Welcome to the military, kid. Try not to die," The first soldier said, and I gave him a nod.
"I'll try," I said before walking past the booth.