Crumbling Walls | Erwin Smith x Reader 18+

Chapter 11

Stay

Pain, so much pain, burning at the back of your throat. Inside your chest. The second you opened your eyes is the second you felt it, so dry and rough, to the point your own breath hurts. So you ease it up, slowly, taking steady and faint breaths. Your body is burning, that's what you fathom next, your skin is so hot that you questioned if you were sleeping near a fireplace or something. But that thought got scratched away when you lifted your body up and glanced around you.

You're alone, in a vast and empty hall, with many empty beds, that you instantly recognized it as the infirmary. Your throat gulps at this realization, and you instantly curse at yourself because your throat burned again. You take a second, two, three. Your brain is working hard, so fast and hard that you give yourself a headache.

Him... I went to see him...

Figments and pieces, torn apart, trying so hard to connect and glue together in your head. The last thing you remember is that you went to see him, you needed to see him. After what happened, after what he...

Screech!

The infirmary door gets opened, and a lean, tall woman walks in. Her dark hair is wavy and delicately bouncing over her shoulders as she approaches your bed. Her lips seem to move, saying something, but it takes you a moment to snap out and actually hear what she's saying.

"How are you feeling?" Her voice is soft, and so sweet and warm it makes you want to fall asleep for some reason. But you shake your head, scattering your thoughts even more, then you speak.

Or, you tried to speak. But what comes out of you is nothing. Zero. Your voice is nothing but a hoarse, rough whisper. And that woman gives you a sympathetic face.

"Take it easy, you don't need to speak." She walks up to you, her soft palm finding your forehead, then she slides it down to your cheek, gently.

"You're having a mild fever." She murmurs, her tone changed to formal. "I will bring you something to drink for the fever, meanwhile, you should stay rested." She looks away, at the table near your bed. That when you look at it with her, you notice a bowl of water with a cloth submerged in it.

Did someone do this for me?

And for how long have I been sleeping?

So many questions you wanna ask, but your voice is gone and the woman takes that bowl away and starts rounding your bed, heading for the door. "Rest, Y/N, your body needs resting." And with that she's out and the door is closing behind her and you're confused and alone again.

Am I hallucinating?

Maybe you are, when you fall asleep a while later and open your eyes again to find yourself lying in a vast field of greenery. Your body is numb, not cold or warm. There's a fresh, cool breeze swooshing at you, blowing strands of your hair. It makes you smile, how peaceful it feels, it looks, it makes your heart swell inside your chest. And you take a deep inhale, your eyes closing again.

I wanna stay here...

But you don't, you can't, because it isn't real. And you fathom that thought the second you open your eyes, and see you're still in that empty hall, once again, and still alone and your body still burning with fever. You don't need to ask to know you're sick, so sick, right now. You don't even wanna know who got you here, who carried you from there to here.