𝔉𝔞𝔱𝔢 ||𝔏𝔢𝔳𝔦 𝔄𝔠𝑘𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔞𝔫 𝔄𝔘||

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Tᴡᴇɴᴛʏ » Tʜᴇ Rᴇᴛᴜʀɴ

I stumbled back, not being able to comprehend the new loss. Not wanting to admit to myself that Reiner didn't earn his freedom back.

"We did it. We're free." Hange breathed out. "And all of us are barely harmed! Amazing!"

The rest of us hung in silence. The fifth survivor was a short girl, whose hair ended at her shoulders. Her eye color was a piercing blue, and her skin a tad pale. But none of that mattered right now.

I was drowning in denial, along with grief.

Annie was handling it worse than I was. Her face also was void of emotion, but she stood at the shut doors as if she were waiting.
Waiting for him to come out, and tell us that he was fine after all
That it was just a sick prank, but a damn good one.
That he actually could finish off the last wave of Offerees.

As for Bertholdt, his back was facing us. Out of nowhere, he slumped to his knees, his back beginning to quake as quiet sobs were detected from him. Hanji lost the joy that lit up her face, now taken over by solemness. She then let her knees plummet into the soft earth, laying a supportive hand on Bertholdt's quaking back, as he continued to cry his heart out.

"He died. For us," She muttered to him.

A wave of unknown anger erupts within me as I whipped around to her. "Can you shut the fuck up?!"

Hanji was obviously taken back by the sharpness of my tone. "I was just trying to help." She mumbled, her tone laced with humiliation.

"Well, you're not." I heave out a sigh, turning back to the quiet prison.

"Are -- are they gonna come after us again?" The blonde girl quivered.

"No," I snapped, arms tightly folded across my chest.

"Do you -- do you think they will?" She continued.

"No," I snapped once more, my tone elevated a bit higher. My body whirled around to menacingly stare at her. "Who are you, anyway?"

An uneasy little grin lifted her lips, "I'm -- I'm Historia. Historia Reiss. And -- you?" She retorts.

I then broke my stance, moving past the rest of them. "That doesn't matter right now," I growl harshly through a low volume.

Sneaking a glance back, Historia seemed helpless at my cold exterior, and how it seemed that I wanted nothing to do with her. I just didn't know how to handle a stranger aimlessly stuck with us when we just lost one of our own.

Isolating myself from the others at a good distance, I too, sank to my knees.Then I finally let the waiting tears spill out, as my body completely crumpled into the rain-tainted grass.

【❣】

For a while, I just lay there. No one came to shake me back to reality, no one came to check on me.

A mist hung in the air, coating my body and seeping through my clothes, giving me a slight chill. For the first time in a while, I let my eyes drift open, batting away the mist that has collected on my lashes. Only to find somebody crouching before me.

My eyes traveled up to discover Reiner smiling down at me. "Reiner?..." I croak, pain etching my throat as it was painful to utter a single word.

"Don't waste your sorrows on me," Reiner advised, earning a confused glower from me.

I plant an arm on the ground, supporting myself to be elevated.

"Wait... is it really you, Reiner?" I ask, hope laced in my tone.