Beneath The Flies • 《 Levi × Reader 》

《 Chapter 7 》• A Cloud Above The Sea

《 3 Years Ago; Another Visit to The Ocean. 》

Waves are a strange anomaly. They rise and fall, as if the sea itself is breathing in sync with the lungs of the men whom plant themselves within the flowing waters. They crash into the wet rocks blanketed by anemone and dripping moss and wash over the sand garnished in pink and yellow shells.

The water itself stretches out past the horizon and meets it halfway, embracing that thin line of warm and cool colors forever until the end of time, never letting go.

The salted sea is the holder of the world's secrets, the world we have never met despite living on the surface of its unforgivable lies.

Sometimes I find myself wondering if the sea is composed of the tears of gods who have been stranded in the deep pits of the lands, filling every space in lashing water meant to seperate us from the evil of the other continents far beyond the ocean.

But... According to our recent findings,

The other continents are meant to be separated from us.

We have been labeled as evil-
As the Eldians whom have tainted blood, the devils who harness the power to shift into wretched beings created for the simple purpose of devouring hope, love, and life itself.
We were banished to this island, locked away from the rest of the world and imprisoned like cattle.

Or rather...

Cast down like Devils.

Island Devils.

That is what we are,

And that is what we forever will be.

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《 Chapter 7 》• A Cloud Above The Sea

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Peace is something we have never been acquainted with, a thing we could only fantasize over; a phrase in a storybook read to us as feeble minded children, naive to think we could ever even dream to cradle such an enlightening freedom.

To sit here with my toes buried in warmth of the salted sands that sparkle under the eye of the setting sun is surreal. Watching the tide of the water sweep up over the pale shore and pull down the sand blanketed over the surface of my feet makes me feel almost human again.
It makes me feel alive.
...

...

"Eren..." A small wave crashed over the rocky surface of the beach on the opposite side of me. "You're going too far..."

Mikasa cautiously waded out into the waters, her ankles swallowed up by the blue tinted liquid that shuffled around her legs, small ripples parting from where she stood. She used her fingers to push a strand of hair that dangled loosely from the side of her jaw, tucking it back behind her ears as she trecked through the reef.

Just across the neck of the shore was a small island of rocks that cluttered together. Eren was pulling himself up onto one of the larger ones, dark and eroded by the knawing waters that ate away at it unspairingly over time.

Armin and Mikasa followed close behind, stepping eagerly through the lapping ocean and clawing up the rocks to stand beside Eren.

Mikasa's white evening dress was blown to the side in the harmonized wind, the whisper of the ocean carried by the soothing breeze that lingered on the skin of everyone who stood around, staring out past the neverending expanse of bellowing salt water.

A bird, of which I'd never seen before, sang a high-pitched noise above us all. The splash of yellow that peeked over the horizon dulled my senses, my vision blurring as I watched how the cream colored clouds swept past the yawning sky.

I watched how the unknown bird sailed through the air, the off-white feathers it flaunted filling my gaze as it drew closer, pulled in by some unknown force. It flew right over my head, and I shifted in the sand to watch it soar off over the hills behind me.

The wind halted.

Everything paused, and that dredded feeling in my stomach returned. My insides tied themselves into a sickening knot, my dry eyes rebuking the feeling of tears that asked to spill.

But I bit down on my tongue, chewing my grief and forcing it down my throat.

The Captain of the Survey Corps stood on the hill that overlooked the barren sea, the drowsy sun flitting over his distantly shadowed face.

The cleft in the hill made it so that he could not walk down easily to the beach if he so wished, but judging from the way he watched the clouds wash by, mimicking the way the waves flowed, I could tell he did not feel the need to introduce his body to the embrace of the water just yet...

My chest ached, my heart shaming itself in every way humanely possible. It's been a year, and yet the bitter taste of guilt was never diluted; but rather infused with a stronger flavor that was nearly impossible to swallow.

Those eyes he possessed were like needles that sewed the strings of remorse into my veins and forced me to my knees as if I were some sort of marionette created for the sheer purpose of entertaining those amused by watching me wallow in utter hopelessness. I had no way to apologize. It was a lost cause. My actions would not be easily forgiven...
...

He blinked, his gaze descending down toward me, who sat lonesomely in the grains of peachy sand, my fingers digging up handfuls of it as I tensed unknowingly.

He did not look at me with anger.
He did not look at me with hatred.
He did not look at me with sadness or sorrow, and he did not look at me with any emotion I was anticipating.

Rather, he looked at me in a way that shot a silver bullet of anguish straight through my ribs, piercing my heart and the flesh around it, bruising my spirit and shattering every bit of lasting desire to mend our frayed bond I held deep within myself.

He was looking at me... As if he had no idea who I was. His eyes did not recognize the history stored behind mine, and he did not see me as the person he had known for so many years.

He didn't see me.

And at the time I didn't realize...

That he never would.