The Monster Within: An Attack on Titan Story

Chapter 1

Annika pulled her chestnut brown hair into a ponytail as her blond haired friend read the next sentence of her story. "And the boy woke from his long slumber and soon realized the world has changed. He woke up too late." He closed the notebook that had the story within it. The notebook's cover had an intricate design on it, seemingly showing a mermaid. Annika thought he must've hated the story since he closed it and was now staring a the design. "It's a bit sad." The boy said, tracing the design with his pointer finger. "Is there something wrong with a sad story, Armin?" She asked earnestly, tilting her head to the left.

Armin shook his head. "It was quite interesting, I liked how a mermaid cursed him instead of like a witch or something." Annika nodded and looked at her hands as she picked at her nails. It was habit of hers that she was often told she needed to break. She only did it when she was nervous though, she would tell people. What she didn't tell them however was how she was always nervous, especially around other people. The only person she was truly comfortable with was her mother, Armin was second place in that regard.

"Hey! Armin!!" A brunette boy with teal eyes was running over to them with a black haired girl in tow. Annika gazed up at the boy when he reached them. His teal eyes seemed to bore into her brown ones and she looked away, a blush creeping up her face. Why is he always coming around? Annika thought and shook her head in order to stop her blush of embarrassment. The boy, Eren, was one of the people she was especially nervous around. Armin was her only friend and she was constantly afraid that he liked Eren more than her, or at least that was one of the reasons.

Annika stared at the building across from where they were sitting against a wall as Eren and the black haired girl, Mikasa, sat down next to them. Annika glanced at Mikasa. She wasn't as scared of the raven haired girl as she was of Eren, but she still practiced caution around her. "What are you two doing?" Eren spoke up, glancing from Annika to Armin.

"Oh, I was just reading Annika's story." Armin answered him honestly. Eren mumbled something like "oh" and then went to grab the notebook, but Annika snatched it away, their hands almost colliding in the process. Annika's blush came back. "Hey! Why can't I read it too?" Eren asked with a saddened expression and a slight blush from the "almost collision." "I-it's not good. It's bad. Like super duper bad." Annika answered and tucked the notebook into her messenger bag that she always had with her. Eren rolled his teal eyes that Annika thought must be the color of the ocean.

"You know mermaids don't exist." He said, referring to the mermaid design on her notebook. She huffed and crossed her arms, looking up at the sky. "You don't know that." She said. She stood up and her gaze travelled her eyes back to him. "One day, I'll be a mermaid and then I'll defeat all the monsters!" She half yelled and started walking away. "I-I gotta go home, see you later Armin."

Before the brunette girl could get very far she ran into an older girl. Her hair was a darker brown than Annika's, but her eyes were the same milk chocolate shade. "Annika! I've been looking everywhere, mom was worried." She scolds her younger sister for running away from them. "But I wanted to show my friends my story, Cassie." Cassie sighed and waved over at the trio of kids. "Sorry, but you're gonna have to leave your boyfriends and girlfriend for now." Annika shook her head vigorously, trying to say that they weren't her boyfriends and girlfriend.

Cassie grabbed her little sister's hand and started dragging her down the dirt road to their home. Annika looked back and saw that both Armin and Eren had blushes on their faces. She muttered an "I'm sorry" wishing they would hear it. It seemed as her wish had been granted when Armin widened his eyes and nodded as if saying it was ok. The younger brunette girl sighed and stopped in her tracks, refusing to go any further. "Anna..." She softened at the use of her nickname that only her siblings used and started walking again. This time, she grabbed her sister's hand and made her way to their front door.