Girl from Mitras ★ A. Arlert

Chapter 55 - Far From Home

- How was your work week?

- Not bad, I would say. Yeah, not bad, definitely better than the previous one. And yours?

- You know, everything is as usual. A lot of work. But we're not talking about me here, remember?

- Yes... It's just that it's easier for me when... you know, I'm not the only one who talks.

- The purpose of these meetings is to help you deal with your PTSD, not to talk about how your day went and how great the weather is today.

- The weather is bad today.

- Mid-December, even on Paradis this time wasn't the best.

- In fact, this week everything was really good, only two breakdowns. And... I sort of coped with it. I did those breathing exercises you said when I was... having a panic attack.

- What were you thinking before it began?

- The first time we sat in our meeting and talked about the fact that we should gather a group of people from the ambassadors to travel around the world and... start discussing the creation of a global alliance to restore peace after the Rumbling. And... you know, images from the past immediately began to flash before my eyes... all these people, these deaths... what I have been doing since I was eleven... I quickly left the room and locked myself in the bathroom. I began to breathe, as you said, to try to redirect the flow of thoughts in a different direction.

- What are you focusing on this time?

- I started thinking about my family, this is the best thing that helps me so far.

- That's good, but keep analyzing your surroundings and finding pleasure in the little things. It's necessary that new bright positive emotions appear in your life that would take place in your mind, displacing thoughts of past shocks from there.

- Yes, I remember. Also, as you recommended, I started writing down my dreams so that I can remember them later.

- Excellent, and the second time?

- That was last night. We... received a letter. From Paradis.

- Oh...

- You didn't know, you weren't there yesterday.

- There was no time, there were cases in the evening.

- There's a letter from Historia.

- Tell me.

- She wrote about what had happened since we left the island. She protected Jean's family and Connie's mother returned to her natural state, they now live in the Capital under the protection of the queen. She writes that the island is still dominated by the opinion that Eren did everything right. Historia understands that she cannot openly oppose these opinions, otherwise she'll lose influence and power, and then anarchy will reign on the island. She has gathered some kind of secret council around her, and they're quietly promoting ideas about how to start making contact with the world outside the island to close this terrible chapter of our history and live on in peace. And she also became a mother. She had a daughter, can you imagine? She named her Frieda, after her half-sister. She writes that she misses all of us, even though she still has Sasha. By the way, Sasha is on the mend, she walks by herself, but she still eats according to a special menu, which doesn't particularly please her. Mikasa, on the other hand, lives alone in Shiganshina and doesn't have much contact with them. As for our position, she says that people gossip about most of us, that we have betrayed our homeland and our place on the chopping block. Therefore, Historia believes that we shouldn't return to Paradis anytime soon.