CHAPTER 15

"Anyway, I'm leaving you here." Levi parked the car a few blocks from where Eren lived.

The boy groaned, "Do you really have to leave me so far away? My legs are so tired I don't think I can even walk."

The bodyguard tsked, "Don't question me. You know out of all the brats I train, you're the one that's the most smart-mouthed. All of the Survey Corps trainees wouldn't even dream about talking to me the way you do."

Eren felt smug, "What can I say? When you're this cute you get away with a lot of things."

The boy saw his life flash before his eyes as he saw the man lunge towards him. Luckily, it was just him opening the door on Eren's side, "You're such a fucking smartass. Get out already. I got shit to do."

Eren laughed as he undid the seatbelt and threw his legs to the side, "Fine, see you later then."

Levi hummed in response.

The green-eyed boy took it as the cue to get up and leave. He threw his hoodie over his head and walked slowly towards his building. His whole body ached.

It had been a week since they had begun training. Because of Levi's tight schedule and Eren's inexpertise in working out formally, they had settled on training every other day. If Eren had thought the first day at the gym had been bad, he had no idea of what followed. Levi had put him to work on various exercises to build muscle. As a bonus, he got a long lecture about how poor his diet was and a couple of hurtful jabs about how he looked like a skeleton because he was all tall but no meat.

In order to keep the suspicion to a minimum, he told Armin and Sasha that he had joined a boxing club. That way, if his face looked like a bloated tomato, no one would question him. He had mentioned in passing how he was trying to better his diet and Armin had jumped in to talk about how important eating healthy was which only led to another long lecture (though one that was drastically more polite). Armin even offered to teach Eren where to buy food and cook dishes that would be good to him to which Eren hesitantly agreed.

Despite the craziness of the week and learning how to balance training with work, he had felt pretty good. His bad moods hadn't consumed him as much as other weeks. In fact, Eren had felt more confident than he had in years.

Dragging himself through the halls of his building, the boy smiled to himself, thinking about his friends Armin and Sasha, his trainer Levi and his body that would soon be bigger and stronger. The good thing about being sore was that it meant that the body was working on making a better version of itself. The teen jimmied the doorknob, went inside and slammed the door shut, ready to throw himself onto the bed for a while before heading to the diner. That was until he saw a familiar girl.

His smile dropped.

"Annie?!"

"Hey Eren, did you miss me?" The girl said sweetly.

"What are you doing here?"

She frowned, "Guess not."

"Wh-What are you doing here?" He repeated.

Annie stayed silent. The girl had her pale hair in a loose ponytail. Her eyes were disinterested but her lips were slightly curved downward. Her bottom lip was busted. She must've fought with someone.

Annie wore a black jacket over a thin grey hoodie coupled with light blue jeans and black sneakers. She looked like any normal girl.

"Lev- My bodyguard will see you. You have to go." He pleaded, "Please. I don't want him to do anything to you."

"Hm. Don't worry about that. He's dropping that rental car as we speak. Then he'll take a couple of minutes to get in position to guard you. We've got time."

"But-"

"His cameras didn't catch me either and the window," she pointed at the closed curtains, "is closed. Though I think he's begun suspecting that someone is following his tracks. He's a slippery fella I'll give him that. Sometimes that guy just disappears into thin air. I'm glad that your bodyguard is good. Would've beaten myself up if I had given you a shitty contact. I guess what they say in the streets is true, the Survey Corps are the best." Annie's eyes wandered around yet she looked at Eren through the corner of her eye when she said, "Still, I'm better."

The boy fidgeted in place. Annie sighed.

"Gods, you hate me don't you? I shouldn't have come here..." She plopped onto the bed.

Eren jumped, "No! No of course not, I could never." He hasted towards her, falling to his knees right in front of the blonde girl. The boy grabbed her hand, "I could never hate you."

She had a small smile on her lips. Her eyes, however, remained sad, "But you still won't come with me right?"

He tightened his lips. A small voice whispered an idea into his ear. What if he were to go? What if he were to drop everything and run into the sunset with her? But after all that had happened Eren just wanted a little bit of peace, and Annie was everything but peaceful. Her very existence fed on chaos. The silent type that you didn't even notice until it was too late, much like a toxic gas seeping into your lungs while you slept.

When Eren opened his mouth in attempt to speak he was shut down, "Don't say it. I couldn't bear to hear it. I know you wanna run away from everything. You wanna stuff the past in a chest and lock it forever but it doesn't work that way Eren. The past eventually comes back to haunt you. Hell, it's already happening as we speak."

Eren frowned, "What do you mean?"

Annie observed the boy closely, "Grisha has Mikasa."

"What?!" The boy leaped to his feet. A cold electricity ran through his entire body.

"Yup, overheard it while I was snooping around one of Grisha's facilities. I even got to see her file. Pictures and everything."

The girl also stood up. She went to fidget with the old flower curtains, tugging at it and feeling the fabric between her fingers. Another smile arose on her lips, one that was more sinister. She was playing with the devil, tempting destiny to reveal her to the bodyguard on the outside. Meanwhile, Eren was too appalled to notice such perverse games.

"She's not as pretty as you always described." She mumbled so low that Eren's brain didn't register the words.

"Is she okay? What are they doing to her? Wh-Why does Grisha even have her?" His hands began shaking, he paced back and forth, the anxiety gripping at his lungs and pulling violently.

Annie watched him with dull eyes, "Probably to get info about your whereabouts. I don't know how much she knows but I doubt she'll last any longer than two torture sessions."

"Torture?!" He shrieked.

"Yeah, you know. Pulling fingernails, pulling teeth, cutting toes and tongues. Spraying them with ice cold water. Breaking their arms and legs. The usual." She shrugged.

The grip on his insides got too tight, Eren could hardly breath, "B-But she's innocent. I have to help her she can't... they're going to... they're going to kill her!"

Annie crossed her arms, "Relax. Grisha's not an idiot. He wants to get you back not drive you away. Grisha knows that if he kills her you are never returning. She's far more valuable alive."

Eren buried his fingers into his chocolate hair while breathing heavily.

Annie stepped forward and leaned towards him, "Didn't you hear me? Grisha wants you back. Shouldn't you feel happy? I thought daddy's love was all you wanted."

Eren shook his head. Of course it sounded nice in theory: a father devastated over the loss of his son and doing everything he could to find him. And yet Eren had the feeling that it wasn't fatherly love that was driving Grisha to search so desperately for him.

"It doesn't matter. I just need to rescue Mikasa."

Annie smirked.

"I can help you with that. Meet me on 32nd street, right in front of the junkyard sign. 8 pm sharp. You know where that is?"

"No." He said honestly.

"Ha, thought so. I'll leave these instructions. Get rid of the bodyguard and we meet up there." She walked up to the boy and roughly pressed the note into his chest.

"Why don't we just go right now?" The boy pleaded.

She caressed his chest, "Patience, Eren. Things have to fall in place. There's no use in going if the right people aren't there, you know what I mean? I'll tell you how to win the game, you just have to move how I tell you to." she whispered in a low tone, "That includes ditching the bodyguard. Any sign that you told him or that he knows something and I'm not helping you, okay?"

Eren inhaled sharply, "Why?!"

"Because," she murmured, "I said so."

The blonde leaned in to kiss Eren's cheek. It was a soft, tender one. Then, she threw her hoodie up and left. The door was slammed shut.

Eren stared into the abyss. His mind was failing to make sense of everything happening around him. His phone rang. Eren went to see who it was. Levi had sent him a message.

I'M BACK AT THE GUARDING POST. EVERYTHING OKAY?

Eren could barely read the message with how violently he was shaking. He typed out the following:

YEAH, EVERYTHING'S OK.

-S E N D-

"Excuse me!" A middle-aged woman snapped her fingers in front of Eren's face.

He snapped out of his trance. He hadn't noticed her at all.

"Hello? Yes? Are you listening to me now? I'm a customer. I expect to be treated as one. I've been sitting at my table trying to get your attention for the past FIVE minutes. Are you trying to embarrass me in front of my daughter? You see her? She's the one sitting in that booth right there," she pointed, "My poor angel has been wanting to order some french fries and you're just up in the clouds! She's starving. Starving!" The woman threw her hands into the air.

"Ma'am, is everything okay?" Armin had been passing through when he heard the commotion.

"NO. Everything is not okay. Are you the one in charge? This boy is NOT doing his job. He's just sitting here staring into oblivion!"

The coworker put the dirty dishes he was holding onto the counter and told Eren, "Here. Go wash these. Table Seven's order is about to come out too so please serve them. I'll take care of this."

He then turned to the customer and began apologizing in a soft, professional voice.

Eren was flabbergasted. He simply took the dishes into his arms and walked away. He made his way to the kitchen where Sasha was finishing up cooking two burgers. The girl had a spatula in one hand and the other on her hip.

"Everything alright out there?"

The boy shrugged, "I dunno. This lady started screaming at me out of nowhere."

"Don't get so flustered."

The boy furrowed his eyebrows, "I'm not flustered."

"Really? 'Cause you look like you've seen a ghost."

The green-eyed boy bit his lip. The lady wasn't what had his stomach in a knot.

Sasha served the food onto some plates. Eren stepped forward to take them but she refused, "Don't worry I'll take them. You just stay here a while 'kay? You could use a break."

Her voice was uncharacteristically serious. It must've been obvious what a mess he was. The moment Sasha left the kitchen, he took a deep breath.

By the Gods. His heart felt like it was being shredded to pieces. All he could think about was of Mikasa afraid and in pain. It didn't help that the harder he stared the clock, the slower it ticked.

Not too long after did the door swivel open again. While turning around to face her, he said, "Damn, you served those in no time Sasha."

A gentle hand rested on his shoulder, "I'm sorry about that Eren."

It was Armin.

"Some people are like that. I wish I could tell you it won't happen again but, if anything, you just get used to it."

Eren chuckled, "Eh. She wasn't entirely wrong. I've been a little out of it today."

His coworker cocked his head to the side, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

The tall boy smiled sadly. Eren wasn't even sure if there was anything he could do, "I think I just need a rest."

An idea came to mind. He swallowed hard.

"W-Well maybe there is something you could for me. If it's not too much to ask I mean. The day is almost over. How about I go home an hour early and I'll make it up to you tomorrow?"

Armin nodded, "Of course, of course. Sasha and I can handle the diner just fine. Go ahead."

Next thing Eren knew he was standing in front of his locker, staring blankly at his phone. His heart was going a thousand per hour.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He closed his eyes. In the darkness he saw Mikasa's face. She was always so serious, ever hardly showing emotion. And yet, when she would hug him when he had a rough day or give him words of encouragement, her love would seep through his skin and reach his heart, warming his twisted insides. Mikasa was more family than Grisha ever was. Could his father really be capable of hurting her?

With shaky fingers, he typed into his phone.

TIRED FROM THIS MORNING. IF YOU DON'T SEE ME FOR A WHILE I'M IN THE BACK TAKING A NAP.

A couple of minutes later he received a response.

O K .

He stared at the two letters for ages. Usually, Levi kept an eye on him from the front of the restaurant. Maybe the bodyguard wasn't even there at all. Maybe he had just left the cameras on Eren and would be coming back until closing hour. The brunet begrudgingly put down his phone in the locker. The light emanating from the bulb above him twinkled in his emerald eyes. Levi would kill him for running away like that but Eren was finding out that there were far scarier things than death. He slammed the locker closed. There was no point in wondering if the bodyguard would catch him instantly or never. He would soon figure it out.

Throwing all thoughts and logic out the window, he put his jacket on and left through the back exit without a second warning.