AruAni week 2024 - Heartlines

Dream of some epiphany

Day 1: Canon Verse - Ambassadors  

The soft lull of the ship isn't enough to put an end to Annie's inability to sleep. The dark sky peers at her through the small window. It serves as another reminder that she's alive to see another starry sky and will wake up tomorrow to a clear blue one. 

That thought alone is enough to keep her awake. 

Three whole years have gone since the Rumbling but even that isn't enough to scare the nightmares away. By tomorrow evening she'll be standing on the port on Paradis Island. She hasn't walked that holy ground in three years. Memories locked shut are beginning to surface. It's going to be worse tomorrow. 

Everything still feels fresh. She can smell the blood around her. Their screams are still ringing in her ears, preventing her from drifting off to sleep. All those people she killed. Would they be peacefully sleeping now had she not trampled them? The blood on her hands scares her to death. Her eyes snap open. 

The night is cold. She shuffles around in the blankets for a while longer. She pulls the blanket over her head to prevent the icy air from reaching her but it's to no avail. Each time she closes her eyes, a new memory resurfaces and a new person haunts her. She shuts her eyes again and takes a deep breath. That island brings back too many horrible memories she isn't ready to face yet. 

The Rumbling haunts her in a different way, though. Each night, she wakes from nightmares where she's being trampled and the people she killed watch in amusement. Then, just when she thinks it's over, she's forced to watch him call out to her, search for her and ultimately meet the same fate as her. And suddenly she's back at her old house in Liberio and kicking the life out of a punching bag so that her father doesn't kick the life out of her, the disappointment in her eyes clear as day. She's weak. That boy made her weak. She's no hero. She's a murderer who happened to be there. She doesn't deserve what she has today. Despite what Armin tells her. 

She's breathless by the time she sits up. The room feels hollow and empty in the quiet of the night. There's no sound besides the crashing of the water against the walls of the ship. The silence scares her more than the darkness does. The walls whisper all sorts of things to her. Like mockingjays, they repeat the horrors of her nightmares, the hazy memories of her self inflicted prison cell, the cries of the dead. Her skin itches, her eyes sting and her lungs are catching fire. The darkness dies when she door opens and she escapes out into the hallway. 

She path she takes is all too familiar. She's never dared to go any further but she's walked this path before on nights when she can't sleep. On nights where all she needs is to relive that moment on this very ship. On nights where she needs to feel a little warmth. Tonight is different, though. Tonight, she reaches up and knocks on the door. When she's answered with nothing but silence, she instantly regrets it. The shadows of the ghostly hallway creep in on her. She's alone. She's cold.

Her feet have just start to form a step backwards when his voice creaks from the other side of the door. "Come in." It's hoarse and tired but it belongs to Armin. Warmth. 

Annie places her hand on the doorknob and gently twists it. She stands still when she door pushes open. Armin shuffles out of bed. His eyes are bloodshot but he smiles at her. 

"Annie?" 

She looks down, uncertain of whether or not going to him in the dead of night was right. "I just want to talk." She says, her voice smaller than she intended it to be. 

"Of course." He says. He blinks away the light coming from the door. "Come in, please." He turns the lights on and when she steps forward through the door he notices how her skin glows in the light. He pats the spot on the bed next to him. "Sit down. Do you want water?"