Redemption Song | Levi & Eren

Chapter 17: Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2

      "Kuchel... Ah, if you mean Olympia... She's been sick for so long, she hasn't sold in ages."

Levi heard his slurred speech through the walls, picturing his missing teeth smile and bald head. He sneered at Levi every time they met.

His mother was too scared to ask him to avoid making eye contact with her son. She never left him in his care when she was preoccupied.

She'd requested Levi to turn the lights off so she could rest in the dark. She was nursing a terrible headache alongside additional health issues. Her skin was boiling to the touch but she shivered underneath multiple blankets.

Her throat scratched when she spoke so she rarely did. When she gathered the resolve to speak, her voice croaked out pleas in as sweet a tone she could muster.

That was two days ago. Levi hadn't moved since. He sat on the floor with his knees pressed into his chest and his arms laying limply at his side.

Despite his experience in going hungry, waiting for his mother to make as much money as possible to feed him, his stomach growled desperately. She always put his needs first, making sure he ate before she did and keeping him away from her job.

He figured it out. He didn't understand the purpose of it though. How could the joining of bodies be so pleasurable? Perhaps it wasn't considering the men came out happy while she sobbed.

The room started to smell, the lack of light and proper conditions resulted in damp corners. Insects crawled across the wooden floor. They flew overhead, occasionally biting at the child's skin.

There was a new smell in the room he'd smelt in the past. It introduced itself yesterday. He spoke his mother's name only to receive silence in return. Levi was smart for a young boy. He knew.

Footsteps grew louder, approaching the room from the front desk. The building, a brothel he heard them call it, adopted women like his mother although she was the only one with a child.

The others talked about abortion and mistakes when they thought he was out of earshot.

The footsteps stopped outside the door, faint lights peeked from under the barrier. The figure's shoes cast more shadows into the bedroom. They waited but Levi didn't know what for.

Eventually, the door slowly creaked open. He hated how the sound from the echoing hinges assaulted his ears. Nevertheless, he powered through.

The newcomer, clad in a long beige overcoat and what Levi considered to be a cowboy hat stared emptily into the room. He didn't see Levi hidden in the dark.

The cowboy holding a bag entered the room. He came to another halt, standing over his mother's bed. He stared down at her, his expression unreadable. It housed sadness in his eyes yet uncaring features.

Levi hadn't seen him before as one of the many workers who slapped the other women around or as a guest. Some came back to visit while some appeared once and never again.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey..." he repeated. "Damn, you've lost a ton of weight since last time, Kuchel."

A joke? Levi heard a lot of laughter in the neighbourhood but rarely jokes. He didn't care for them or other forms of humour.

He preferred people to be direct and truthful. He despised sarcasm, vowing to never use it like the cowards who plagued his childhood.

"She's dead," he announced bluntly.

"Huh?" the clean-shaven cowboy gasped.

That's when he saw him. Levi's frail body, lacking in muscle and nutrients, leaning against the wall. He faced the end of the bed, his mother wrapped in sheets atop it.