Freefall | Eren x OC

Chapter 55: To You 2000 Lifetimes From Now

Eren is walking down a sleek stone street, one he is only slightly familiar with, in a city he is only slightly familiar with. He's only been here a few weeks and he's completely alone as he walks past buildings from a different time, vehicles from a different time, people in dress from a different time. Eren stops in front of a storefront windowpane, the lettering reading "Woods Photography" and catches his reflection in the glass. He's wearing the black three-piece button-up suit with a red tie and his hair is shorter, only reaching down to the nape of his neck. He haphazardly adjusts his tie, though he's not sure why he cares about it. Does any of it matter in the grand scheme of what's going to happen? Of course not.

Just as he's passively looking in the shop window, a flash of purple catches his eye. It's not a colour he sees around Liberio much, it's deemed too extravagant, too attention seeking for the common folk. He sees it pass right in front of him again, inside the shop. It appears to be a ribbon, a purple ribbon tied around a wide brimmed black hat. It passes close to the window again. 

Before Eren can stop himself from staring at it any longer, the hat appears through the chimed doorway and attached to the head of one of the most beautiful woman he's ever laid his eyes on. She's somewhat older, with styled red curls that fall down her shoulders and the prettiest eye colour Eren has ever seen. She's sporting a cinched long sleeve black dress with a sweetheart neckline and a fake lily flower sitting just in the center, covering the hint of cleavage. Her dress reaches down to just below her knee, what some would call 'too risqué' in this city. She has an air of sophistication to her, but an even deeper air of curiosity illustrated by the hand-held camera tucked into her black-gloved hand. She eyes Eren somewhat cautiously, not quite sure why a stranger is looking at her so intensely. 

"Good day," she says politely and walks around Eren, her heels clacking on the sidewalk. 

Eren watches her as she walks away and he feels a magnetic pull, an invisible force pulling him to her. He shifts in his shoes as he watches her walk, he's seen her in his future memories. 

'In all likelihood, I fall in love with this woman. Yet still... she is destined to be killed like everyone else.'

Eren shifts once more and against his better judgement, he begins following her. He can't stop staring at her backside, wishing for some reason that he could go up and speak with her, ask for her name. Ask her why he's feeling this heavy pull towards her. And yet he knows why.

Eren stops himself, why the hell does it matter? None of this matters. It'll all be gone in the near future; she'll be gone in the near future. He silently watches her as she keep walking down the street, oblivious to him before he turns around and walks away.

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He's walking down a different street a few days later. 'In the future, though I don't know exactly how far, this will all be gone,' he thinks solemnly to himself as he passes men hawking wares, women selling flowers, kids playing marbles on the sidewalk, boys in heavy soot walking past with chimney sweeps. 'Before too long, these people will all die. No, I kill them, it's already determined that I do.'

He thinks this through every walk he takes, it's the only way he can even remotely clear his head of the visions from his past days and future events. He is plagued by the memories of his past lives, the memories of his present friends, of her, of how he's already lost her.

His thoughts of her are interrupted as he sees the women from a few days ago reappear before his eyes. She's wearing the same dress and hat as she holds her hand-held camera up to her shoulders and laughs as she takes a picture of two street urchins holding up an ice cream cone.