Thanatophobia |Levi Ackerman|

Chapter 40

"What is it?" I asked as Hange smelled the cloth that had been under the set of books.

"The cloth smells like peppermint oil and charcoal." Hange said looking over the cloth quite closely. "Likely to keep away moisture and bugs."

"Shiganshina did flood sometimes. Not really too often around these parts." I said with a small shrug.

"What about the books?" Eren asked looking at the books that were in Levi's hand and he had stacked them. "What do you think they are?"

"We won't find out just standing around just looking at it." Hange said nervously.

"If what we came here looking for really exists, then we've just found it." Levi said and he handed the first of the books to Eren.

Eren looked hesitant but if it was anyone's job to open it, it was him. He was the reason why we were here, it was his father that had made this mess. He took the book from Levi and placed it down on the desk in front of all of us. He touched the cover but hadn't opened it just yet.

"After all this time." Eren whispered though we all were close enough to hear.

Eren turned the cover of the book and a photograph was placed between the cover and the first page. Eren reached down and grabbed the photo and held it up for us all to see. It was like the painting we had but the image looked like how I saw it with my eyes not a paint stroke.

"Who is that?" Levi asked looking at the strange photograph.

"That's Eren's father but... I don't know the other two." I said looking to Eren to see if he seemed to know.

"I don't know, they don't look familiar." Eren said shaking his head.

"We'll go on, what does the book say?" Levi said getting pushy but I think we all were antsy to get answers.

Eren looked at the image in confusion not being able to take his eyes away. I looked to Hange and Levi did as well. While Eren was entranced in the photo Hange picked up the book. Her eyes scanned the next page for a moment before she began to speak.

"Mankind is not gone. Beyond the wall, countless humans live in comfortable refinement. I pray the person who finds this will be a fellow patriot." She spoke before taking a deep breath.

I don't know what I expected to hear, I had thought about what might have been down for years. Sure, I hadn't pondered it as much as Eren likely had but I had never once settled on what exactly to expect. There could have been people down here, maybe a Titan, a trunk of secrets, a lot of things could have been imagined.

"I was only a young naive boy when I realized the true nature of this world. I hardly understood my school assignments much less the harsh reality of mankind. When I think of what mankind had been, I remembered the day my sister and I ventured to watch the airships land nearby.

She had spouted off a ridiculous dream of riding in one of these ships when she one day became rich. I told her it was a foolish dream, that we, an Eldian family could never be rich. I saw the shine stay in her eyes despite my cold response as she saw the airships not feeling a ping of doubt.

My mind turned to a teacher of mine at school who had told me that the airships landed just outside the internment zone. If only my young mind had let that thought reside. The twinkle and amazement in my sister's eyes lead me to run past the guards to that very nearby field. Despite the countless lessons my mother and father had given me about staying within the walls I succumbed to adrenaline.

We made it to that open field and I saw my sister's eyes turn into glossy orbs as she watched the airships seemingly from a front row. It brought a smile to my face to see her happy almost making me forget of the rules we were breaking.