𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒 {𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑗𝑖 𝑍𝑜𝑒 𝑥 𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟}

1. Hopelessness

"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙹𝚘𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚊𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝙷𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜" - Tim Keller

<Y/N's POV>

"Hey, kid! Get back here, damn you!" Damn this old geezer's got some legs on him. Jeez, what does he do all day but sit on his ass anyway?! Well, work smarter not harder is what they say.

I drop down to my side and slide under another merchant's stand table. And out of sight of the prick chasing me through the market.

'All this for a loath of bread?'

"Where did that devil child go?!" The merchant pig yelled out for everyone to hear. Of course no one answered back. With merchants it's always 'do what you can to fill your pockets, and your pockets only'

"devil" huh? Well, that would certainly explain a ton about me. I mean for lack of better terms I don't really feel anything. I'm what people would describe as indifferent I mean I live a pretty shitty life so what's the point really? I mean if the titans were to break through the walls and kill us all I'm all the better for it really.

I have no family and no home. I lie, cheat, steal, and even kill just to get by. I have no memories before a few years ago. Maybe I was just a late bloomer I don't really know and I don't really care, whatever memories I had weather they were good or bad they do nothing for me now.

2 Hours Later

I sit by the edge of the stream and enjoy my prize. I bite off a piece of the loaf of bread and fall onto my back and just stare up at the open sky. The taste of the bread in my mouth was nothing short of stale.

I stare up at the blue sky. It's so empty, void of anything but the birds who claim it as their own. I reach up to the sky for no real reason as if I could ever hold the sky in the palm of my hand.

I can hear three people approaching me, kids it sounds like. They take a seat a few feet away from me. I don't look at them I don't really care to. I rest my arm over my eyes and take another bite of the bread if for no other reason than so that I don't die of starvation.

"I was just talking about how man kinds future laid beyond the walls" Huh? what an entertaining idea kid. The more I thought about it the more entertaining the idea seemed.

"Why does it have to be this way why can't people just let us dream?" Dreams are fleeting they only last until your body forces you awake and you realize just how temporary a dream really is. And just how out of reach they will always be.

The more I listened the more cryptic the conversation became. One of the kids sounded so cold and another kept going on about how the false sense of security we get from the walls was just a temporary comfort. I mean I can't say he was wrong but god damn is this what kids worry about?

There was another kid too he was fiesty kept going on about wanting to join the scouts. He wanted to be one of humanity's saviors. It was a cute sentiment I'll give him that. But he's naive beyond imagination.

Maybe I should think of joining the scouts, after all, anything even death has to better than the life I'm living now.

My thoughts were cut off when the very ground beneath me began to shake. Out of instinct I hopped to my feet and ran. I don't know where or why but I ran. My feet were carrying me and I didn't Ben know where the hell I thought I was going.

I search for the origin of the rumble and I look up at the wall after something caught my eye and the last thing I ever expected was the thing that appeared right before my eyes. A giant hand that was bare of skin peaked over the wall.