Holding Everything

Chapter 22: The Visit

I start coming to, slowly; I hear a ringing in my ear and feel that my hands are bound in front of me, my head hurts alittle, "probably from being knocked out twice with chloroform within a twenty-four hour time span," I think to myself. My vision begins to clear up and I realize how dark it is, and then notice something wrapped around my head, giving me the notion that I'm blindfolded. The image of Eren's expression still fresh in my memories, "he looked so empty, like he wasn't even really mentally there or something," the thought crosses my mind that given the family business he's involved in, he was forced to kidnap us and turn us over to his father.

My thoughts are interrupted by Lillya screaming,

"AHHHH!!! IT HURTS!!!" I can feel her thrashing about trying to free herself, she continues yelling without rest as she kicks, I grunt as one land's on me, she probably has no clue where she's aiming in this car.

Being a flexible gymnast, it's no surprise she can actually kick in such a small place and actually have force to it, "wait, gymnast." I gasp upon realizing the PTSD that must've been triggered, the impossible positions her father forced her to pull off for hours, and being tied up like this!

"Eren untie her! Please! This is too much for her!" I yell, I hear a slight gasp and things quiet down a bit, excluding Lillya's rasping pants and sobbing cries, I assume Eren untied her because she quieted down and is no longer fighting back.

"E-Eren?" She says in pitiful tone, her sobbing still audible.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I had to do this, I'll explain everything when I get a chance but," he hesitates, "please trust me."

Time passes and we're finally pulled out of the vehicle we were brought in, my hands are untied and I'm directed a few steps to the side; I feel something on the back of my head and then the blindfold loosens little by little. I can finally see again, after my eyes adjust I see that the sun will be setting soon by the color of the sky, making me wonder how long I was out this time. I look at my surroundings and can only see that I am back in Eren's and Rika's home, I understand again why he had to do this, but Lillya has no clue about his life.

I watch as Lillya's blindfold is unraveled, and when it's taken off her eyes are closed but her face shows she's angry, she opens her eyes and glares at Eren, tears well up in her eyes again and she looks away.

"Lillya, I'm sorry, I had to do it I had-"

"Just leave me alone. So you have us here, what do you want? To think I was even worried about you but apparently you're just fine, fine enough to kidnap your own friends." Her words are cold and she keeps her eyes away from his, he looks down defeated, as if he has no excuse to give and only backs away to me; her lips quivers and her eyebrows dip in the middle, showing she's getting even angrier.

"Kou, please help me, I know you must be mad too but I-" I hold my hand up and cut him off, his eyes become worried and I can tell at any minute he will start crying.

"It's fine, I know why, but Lillya doesn't, but sooner or later we need to have the right to be awake when we get to your house don't'cha think?" He nods and looks down, "let's talk inside though for now." I pat his back and he starts heading up the flight of stairs leading to the front entrance to his home. Lillya stares at me in disbelief and I shake my head as if to say, 'don't worry about it right now' and motion for her to start heading up the stairs with me. She hesitantly takes each step up, watching Eren closely from behind and looking back every minute before she finally makes it up the stairs.

We head inside and its large and spacious, something I didn't have time to notice the last time I was here; a butler stands waiting at the foot of the stairs some yards away, standing perfectly still and awaiting his orders. When we come in he approaches, but Eren waves him away to which he disappears into a separate room to the left, we head to the right and walk through a large door that opens to a wide open hallway, similar to the last time I was here. Eren leads us down the hall, and then up a flight of stairs at the halfway point of the hall; on the next floor we continue down the rest of the hallway and enter a room, I recognize it slightly. It's almost the same room I was arranged in when I was here, but in the bed lies Rika, sleeping soundly; too soundly. Her body is still and she is paler than usual, "she looks...dead" I think to myself as I stand at the doorway in shock.

Eren walks to the side of her bed and caresses her cheek, pain showing on his face as he sits in the chair and runs his fingers through his hair, then resting his elbows on his knees with his head down. A moment later, a maid comes in with a pile of white cloth in her arms, bows at Eren and he gets up and places a soft kiss on her cheek. We leave the room for a moment and wait in the hallway in silence, minutes tick by and when the maid opens the door, she walks out with a rolled up pile of cloth in her arms, different from the ones she had when she entered, "I guess the maid changed her pajamas or something," i think, we walked back in and Eren rushes back to her bedside, taking her hand in his and sighing, when he looks up at us a moment later I can tell he's ready to start talking.

"I can't explain the chloroform thing right now, Lillya, but please trust that I had no ill intentions behind it, in fact, to obtain the upmost safety in getting the both of you I did it myself, though it was hard to put my mind at ease when I actually did it." He looks at Lil who's still glaring at him with red, swollen eyes; he continues, "So the reason I have the both of you here, is because I think something happened to Rika when you awakened, Lillya.