Coming for your heart

Chapter 9

Levi's POV

When they arrived it was already too late.

The village burned. The people were fleeing in all directions, leaving their homes without any other place to go to. Children and teenagers alike looked back at their destroyed homes with sorrow and pain plainly portrayed on their faces.

Some of them wailed, knowing that they could never go back.

The smoke was suffocating.

"Let's see if there are any other survivors.", Erwin's order came, as clear and calm as ever when suddenly a boy rushed in their direction, his blond hair interwoven with ash and dirt all over him.

"Please!", he shouted. "Please help my friends! They are still in there! Please!" He stopped in front of them, breathing so hard he had to prop his hands up on his knees. His blue eyes found Levi's first, then Eyebrow's.

"Please...", he begged, his voice raspy and angsty. With wide eyes he came closer, frantically looking back at where he had probably left his friends. "They wanted to look for her but everyone is dead and...and they are all dead and they still went back and they will..."

Erwin was the first to break free from the terrified rigidity that had befallen many of the recruits and soldiers standing behind them. There they saw the extent of the King's reign for the first time – the true horror of war.

For there were never only soldiers dying. Never only those who had more or less chosen to fight for their country. There had always been people like that young, desperate boy begging Levi to help his friends.

The innocent. Those who had never wanted to face such a bloodshed.

"Show me.", Levi took over and the boy's hopeful eyes definitely were worth it. "Lead me to them. We will see if there is anyone left to help."

The boy thankfully didn't waste any time with useless gratefulness and sprinted away, apparently expecting Levi to follow him.

So he did.

Eren's POV

The soldiers spread out after some time, leaving Eren and Mikasa alone.

All the neighbors were gone, one way or another.

Around them the flames danced like creatures summoned from hell. And like hell the heat surrounded them, burned them – suffocated them.

But neither of them moved.

They were still sitting there.

Staring at the crumbled house. At their crumbled home. At the pieces left from their old lives.

"Eren...", Mikasa rasped after some time and rested a hand on his shoulder. Maybe she wanted to comfort him, maybe she needed support herself. Eren didn't turn his head to find out.

"She is alive...", he mumbled. "She...she is alive. I never...she is alive..."

"Eren, Armin was right. We need to get out of here as fast as possible."

Eren spun around, tears of anger simmering in his eyes, making their way down his face, tainting his cheeks. But when he faced the blank face of his sister all anger disappeared.

For a moment he thought his heart might stop beating. The pain was excruciating to bear.

He rose to his feet. No one was there to see the young teenager walk up to the path in front of his house. A path he knew all too well. Like every single part of the house.