「ERERI」It's Too Late Now

Complete Collection 3-4

Part 2:

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ＤＥＰＡＲ ③ ＴＵＲＥ
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Levi had left, and now Eren was alone in the hospital room with the lights turned off. He wasn't going to be able to find much sleep this night, mainly because he was wondering why his father's experiments had made his body collapse, and what his father's reasoning was to start with. Take away being a boy who was tortured since he was born, that he could not walk, somebody had found him out of the dark hole he had dug and dragged him out. They were still pulling.

Levi had been the first person to be nice around Eren, even though he did have a bit of attitude, it was the least of Eren's worries. He knew that he wasn't going to live long in his life, that his timeline was eventually going to be cut off short because of his disability, but he wanted to live the length of it to its full glory. No matter how many people he left hurt behind him, he didn't care anymore.

The street outside was cold and empty, but who was to drive on it this late in the night? Nobody wanted to venture out past the sunlight, and unless you had a drive- something or someone that pushed you to go, everyone abandoned the roads and headed home.

There were small IV cords running into his arm, and a steady flow of white liquid that he couldn't identify flowed through the strings, into his veins. He didn't feel anything, the needle had been inserted before he regained consciousness days before. What he did know was that the scent of freshly cleaned hallways and the dustless bed sheets reminded him too much of when he was a child and visited the hospital near his hometown on many occasions, probably too many.

But what could he do about that? Nothing, that was his past, and it wouldn't be changed.

When Levi had been there, he had given Eren his phone. Levi's phone, I mean. Mikasa had threatened Levi that if he had tried anything that week he had been there during nights and mornings that he'd quickly have every limb chopped off and he wouldn't be able to talk for another year or three. So Levi quickly backed off, knowing that she wouldn't stop her nagging until he did so.

At nights, it was cold in the hospital. Eren was huddled with the loose, thin sheets bunched up to his face, trying to hold in all the warmth that his body produced and quickly lost. When he had been smaller, he couldn't even move his arms, let alone hands and fingers, so over time, he eventually learned to function without fully working legs and arms. Although, sometimes, it would be a lot easier if he could use his legs to run from everyone, it would help him if he could use his arms properly to reach out to that light that kept walking away from him, but turned around every so often to make sure he was trying to keep up. He was trying his best, but without the strength to do so, he would easily fall behind.

When he had been tossed down the well in elementary, all he felt was the cramped and stuffiness of the bottom, the slippery stones digging into his sides. If he hadn't been immobilized, maybe he could've ran when the kids had started pushing him backwards, or maybe if he had not ever had his disability, he wouldn't have been picked on to start with. They would've found somebody else to torment, and he would have been left alone. Being alone certainly felt better to him than immersing himself in a crowd of people who only told him they cared and then left him when he needed help the most. Liars would be worse than being isolated forever. 

But sometimes, you run into that one special person who doesn't seem to hold the aura of dishonesty and filth. You'd have to be lucky to recognize that person, though, before they ran off from you with their backs turned. Ones who aren't likely to look back, but if you could catch them before they left, they'd stay forever.

Eren glanced at Levi's phone, and wondered if he could call the dorm's number right now and talk to him. Maybe he could call Mikasa, maybe Armin who was studying millions and millions of miles away. His hands steadily reached out to grab the small rectangle, and with his only strength in his fingers, he found a note telling him the number to the dorm. It made him smile, how Levi had already planned it out, knowing he'd be lonely at the hospital all night and day while everyone else had school or went on to finish their lives without him.