Tethered Souls | Eren Jaeger

𝟬𝟭 Marley

In a Marleyan street, the ghost of Spring hung in the air - evanescent of the warm leaves that spiralled down in flurries not long ago. Elegant flowers had begun to sprout, planted in a specific and decorative formation. I still remembered every detail of the same street I observed so often. The cracks in the stone pavement. The broken street lamp and hedges. A man sat on the bench under my window. Notably, he was missing a calf and appeared very aloof. I could barely make out his face, not that he looked very important.

I felt myself begin to breathe heavily, clutching onto the arm handle of my wheelchair. I wanted to go home. I miss him. I miss all of them. Times like this came often, uninvited of course. Reminiscing about the past was a dangerous thing, but I wanted it back. For all I knew, I could be abandoned by my comrades and stuck in this bland room forever. No - this will all be over soon. Not long left.

A grey head peaked through the crack of the white door, but I was too occupied with fantasising about my second escape plan to notice. "Time for your medicine, miss!"

"Go fuck yourself you old hag." I muttered under my breath, shifting my wheelchair away from the open window. I froze, not knowing what had gotten into me.

"What was that?" She croaked. The nurse's eyes were surrounded by so many wrinkles that I couldn't tell whether they were even open. Her nurse's uniform was perfectly ironed, crisp and painfully white. She had a kind smile on her face, forcing me to feel remorse for my sudden outburst. Nurse Helga, it said on her badge. The stamped on military-like font made it seem scarier.

"I'm sorry," I cleared my throat, moving backwards slightly as she leaned over me to shut the window. "I don't want it today."

"You know you have to." She insisted, but the expression on her melting face already showed defeat. She knew how I was. I was a pest, a nuisance. I was the infamous patient who made everyone's job twice as hard. But I didn't ask to be here either.

"But those pills.. they make me feel sick. There's this sharp, stabbing pain..." I said lazily, not bothering to lay it on thick. I just put a hand on my stomach and groaned.

There was an awkward silence as she tried to read my expression. I could imagine seeing myself from her perspective. A blurry image of a fresh-faced teenage girl, shaking in her wheelchair and shamelessly spewing lies.

"Alright. I'll notify the doctor about that." She sighed, shakily getting up from her crouching position. I felt bad for the woman. She could barely use her knees anymore. I'd have thought that such a 'civilised' nation would allow people to retire at an appropriate age rather than working them to the bone. "And I'm sorry, but you will be moved downstairs tonight. I don't know how, but you've broken countless locks and bolts on that window and it's not safe to have you on this floor."

I took my hand off my stomach and smiled at her as she slipped back out the door, of course leaving it halfway open, so everyone could stare at me distastefully in their white coats as they held clipboards to their chests and walked past. I turned around to face the window and my facade crumbled into despair. I knew precisely what 'downstairs' meant - they were moving me below the ground floor.

I had to come up with another way to communicate with Levi, and I had to do it fast. I hoped I'd been keeping good track of time, because if I was correct, Liberio would be in ruins in less than three days. Countless innocent men, women and children would be lost to the plumes and slashes of death and destruction. Maybe even the lives of my closest friends, Armin, Mikasa, Sasha, Connie, Jean... Eren..

As risky as it was, I had been doing far too much slacking and too little thinking. I had to take a chance. I got up from my wheelchair, rubbing the tight bandage wrapped around my head in discomfort. It must have been lunch hour - the narrow corridor in front of me was devoid of any people. In about 20 minutes, a nurse would come and bring me lunch. I had to be out of this district before she could come and report me as an escapee.