Trust me. (Aruani) [Contains manga spoilers]

Chapter 3, Trapped

They were walking down the stairs. It felt like the time had suddenly frozen still and doing that was taking an eternity. Annie's hands were shaking again. They had tied her hands behind her back. Some sweat drops had formed on her forehead. She felt nervous but kept a serious look. She'd need to get out of here. She'd give no information to them. She couldn't trust them.

Levi seemed more pissed than usually, now that the murderer was right next to him. He swore to get revenge back then but he knew that first they'd need to get every little information out of her. That's why he tried staying calm.

Hanji kept humming while walking down. She tried to relax the atmosphere like that. It only made Annie more nervous.

"We're finally here!" Hanji cheered and opened the heavy door which had no window on it. It lead to a dark place. The place had an awful smell.

"Tch, why has no one cleaned here yet? ..Well a filthy place like this only fits for the bitch", Levispoke grumpily and narrowed his eyes when he glanced at Annie who quickly glanced away.

Levi went to a desk to see what kind of torture supplies they had there today. In the meanwhile Hanji took Annie to sit on a chair.

"Nice. We have a spike mace here", Levi hummed and grinned a bit. He couldn't wait to get his revenge.

Annie gulped and felt shocked. There was no way of getting out of here now. There was no light. She wouldn't be able to turn into a titan and her body was weaker now after all. She felt hungry and slightly sick. The crystal had drained out most of her strength.

Hanji chained her shaking hands to the chair. She did the same to her legs. Torturing her would be harder if she were to struggle all the time. Now she'd stay in one place and had no way of preventing the things that would happen to her.

"Ooh... The little bitch is scared?" Levi wondered and took steps to her. The spike mace made a chilling sound when he dragged it after him as it kept touching the floor. Annie gulped. Hanji had left to get gloves, masks and aprons for them since Levi didn't enjoy getting dirt on him.

"Hoi.. Look at me. Let me have one look at your disgusting face before it will be gone", Levi spoke and chuckled a bit. The sadness was filling his heart again and he was releasing it by laughing. Annie then slowly turned to look at him. Her eyes were teary but she stared at him angrily. Again she tried wearing the protective shield she had always had. Seeing her like that made Levi to lose control. He hissed as he lifted the mace up. The murderer was right in front of him. The girl who killed his squad members and seemed to enjoy it.

"You have no right to-", Levi shook from anger and squeezed the mace in his hands.

"-cry", he added and stared at her full of hatred. Annie kept looking at him. Her heart hurt and some tears escaped from her eyes. Her strict look had changed to a sad one.

Then Levi hit her to face with the spike mace. The spikes teared up her skin and blood splashed on Levi's clothes but he didn't mind. Only revenge was in his mind. Annie had closed her eyes when she had noticed the hit coming closer. It had hurt a lot since he was a strong guy. She carefully opened her eyes but only managed to open her right eye. Levi had hit on the left side of her face. She could feel blood falling down on her clothes and there was a painful feeling on her face. Her cheek tingles a lot. She kept gritting her teeth together as she tried bearing it. She glared at Levi with her right eye.

Levi punched her to face with his left hand and then again with right one. He kept hissing and roaring as he was releasing his anger and sadness to her.

"You were enjoying back then. Now I am enjoying this!" Levi roared and kept beating her up. Annie kept her eyes closed and again tears were falling down to her cheeks.

Next Levi took a knife and placed it on her finger. The finger she had had her ring on.

"I wanted to cut your arms and legs off.. but I think I'll start with your toes and fingers", Levi hummed calmly before cutting her finger off. Now she let out a shriek and shook.

Levi stared at the terrified looking girl. It felt good to torture her like that.

Armin and others could hear the shriek. Right away Armin stood up and took quick steps to the door that would lead to the lower floor where they were torturing Annie. Eren went in front of the door and looked at Armin seriously. He felt slightly disappointed.

"Move!" Armin snapped and shook a bit. He looked around. Everyone stared at him in misbelieve.

"What? Is this really ok to do? You can't win with violence!" Armin shouted and glared at them now.

"You're acting strange. She only deserves it", Jean spoke calmly and sighed. Connie nodded and glared back at Armin. Sasha gulped and looked away sadly.

"She has done many bad things. Isn't it just normal to pay for them?", Mikasa hummed calmly and took steps to Armin.

"If I recall.. Eren has killed many too and so have you Mikasa. Actually all of us have since titans are actually humans. The same species as we", Armin spoke seriously and turned to glare at Eren again.

There was a silence. Everyone tried gathering their thoughts but Armin had always been the smartest and they should trust his thoughts.

"Still.. She's an enemy of mankind. We can't go easy on her", Jean hummed and crossed his arms.

"She saved you didn't she? Don't you feel bad for her!" Armin snapped and took quick steps to Jean. He stared at him determined and placed his hands on his shoulders. He tried getting them on his side. Jean looked away and sighed.

"Do you have specific feelings for her Armin? Didn't you see what she did back then!" Mikasa snapped angrily.

"Even Eren understood and fought her but now you are taking her side and turning against us? Why!" she added and grabbed Armin from his collar. She gently slammed him against the wall.

"Because I understand how she feels! She's.. just scared. She's a good person!" Armin raised his voice and some tears were deep in his eyes. Mikasa knocked him unconscious and he fell on the floor.

"H-hoi Mikasa.. You didn't need to-", Sasha worried but Connie shut her mouth.

"That was the only way. Trust me", Mikasa hummed and sighed loudly. She leaned against the wall with her back and glanced at Armin's resting face. She felt bad for him but she didn't want him to get into trouble with that whore.

"Hooi Levi! Don't!" Hanji raised her voice and grabbed to his fist. He had already started beating up Leonhardt.

"Hanji.. S-she--", Levi hissed and Hanji flicked him on the forehead.

"Baka!" Hanji scolded him and took him to sit on another chair. Then she went to Annie who was in a lot of pain and was staring at the floor. Hanji squatted down to get an eye contact to her.

"Question time Leonhardt. You better answer honestly since I'm known for torturing and I am good at it. Once I cut one's tongue off when I got tired of listening his bullshit!" Hanji spoke and grinned.

Annie stared at the creepy figure. It was the same person as nine months ago. The one who trapped her when she was in her titan form but in the end she had managed to escape. Now she had got trapped again by her. Her name was Hanji Zoe.

The same person appears in front of her to creep her out again like nine months ago.