Sweet Serial Killer [ Riren ]

EIGHTY FIVE

EIGHTY FIVE
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"So how have you been? After everything with Grisha."

"Oh, I've been . . . Okay. Considering all of this," Carla replied, taking a sip of coffee as she glanced downwards. Eren saw right through her lie. She was definitely far from okay. At night, Eren would constantly hear her crying.

He would always try to go into her room and comfort her, but her door was firmly locked whenever he made an attempt. If he voiced his presence, Carla would wave him away, brushing off her sobbing as something else entirely.

She was trying too hard to be strong.

Kind of like him . . .

"I'm so sorry about all of this, Carla," Dina said, her voice laced with false sympathy. Eren resisted the urge to glare at the blonde woman. What were her intentions? Her purpose of coming over? Eren did not trust her one tiny bit.

"Don't be," Carla responded, forcing a small smile. Unlike Dina's many forced smiles, Carla's was delicate and looked somewhat genuine, far from Dina's clearly fake ones. Eren felt a surge of overprotective affection wash over him.

He loved Carla so much.

"After all," Carla went on, "he was your friend. Didn't you two work together?" At this intake of news, Eren perked up, becoming interested. He straightened up slightly from where he was leaning against the counter. This could be important.

"Yes." Dina got a faraway look in her eyes, and Eren scoffed. Was that when the affair began? At work? He wanted to demand this of Dina, pick and prob for answers and get every single one of them. Every last one of them . . . .

"I was his nurse," Dina explained. "And part-time secretary." She fell silent, and Carla murmured softly, "It must be tough there now. Without him . . ." Dina shifted around, shaking her head. "No," she replied slowly. "I was fired from that job a few days before Grisha was. I guess they were just letting people go."

Hearing this, Eren froze. His mind was turning, forming countless theories and possibilities. Usually he wasn't like this — he had admitted to himself a while ago that he wasn't on the extremely-intelligent side. Now he was thinking and behaving exactly like Armin, analyzing things and considering every little detail.

Would you be proud? Eren wondered, wishing Armin could hear him.

"Just letting people go? How is that possible? My father was a trained, professional, seasoned doctor who had successfully treated many patients. Firing him would be a huge blow to the industry," Eren pointed out, speaking for the first time.

Turning her cold gaze towards him, Dina gave a light shrug of her shoulders. "Truthfully, I don't know why my bosses did what they did. But what's done is done, right? None of us can change anything," she responded loftily.

"Right," Eren hissed out through gritted teeth. Carla glanced curiously at him, clearly wanting to know why he was so on edge around Dina. She was probably embarrassed by his rude behavior, too, but he could honestly care less.

"Do you want more coffee?" Carla asked Dina, breaking the temporary silence. Dina nodded, a curt smile appearing on her lips. "Yes, thank you," she replied, still smiling. As Carla took her cup to get a refill, Eren noticed how Dina fidgeted around with something in her pocket underneath the table, out of sight.

Suspicious, Eren stared intently at her, hoping to get a rouse.

When Dina did not meet his gaze, Eren deflated, turning away. His brain was still ticking. Dina had worked with Grisha. And Grisha had been a doctor for years, long before Eren was even born. So how long did the damn affair last?

"Here you go," Carla chirped, setting Dina's cup of coffee down. Dina jumped slightly, looking up frantically and forcing another smile. Eren hated her smiles; absolutely loathed them. He wanted her to stop doing them — forever.

"Thank you," she beamed, taking the cup of coffee in her hands and drinking carefully from it. "No problem," Carla replied, going to sit back down.

A part of Eren wanted to just quit with the simple small talk and get to the good stuff. He desired nothing more than to ask about Zeke's whereabouts, and of how he was doing. Though he knew better than to dare do any of that.

If Dina discovered Zeke had spoken to Eren, she would be furious.

Plus, she would probably lie, anyway. Eren highly doubted she would tell him the truth. "Oh, Zeke is at home, curled up on his bed after I beat him, still grieving over his dead father and all. But other than that, you know, he's perfectly, utterly fine!" As if.

Huffing, Eren tapped his foot impatiently on the floor. This conversation was going basically nowhere. He wanted to either demand answers from Dina or kick her sorry ass out of the house. Literally. He seriously did want to kick her.

"Eren, honey, how's school going?"

At the question, Eren stiffened, clicking his tongue. "Fine," he responded flatly. "Why do you care?" He arched an eyebrow, and Dina blinked. She clearly assumed he was just going to be nice to her because she was being polite.

Ha, he thought with contempt.

"Just worried about you, sweetie," Dina replied, and Eren frowned. "Drop the nicknames," he insisted, and Carla cleared her throat, flustered. "Eren, please," she said, her voice going high-pitched. Dina smiled again, laughing.

"It's fine. Just teenage spunk. I should be going, anyway," she announced.

"Care to walk me to the door?" Dina added, looking innocently towards Carla, who nodded and stood up. "Eren, can you take care of the cups?" Carla inquired, and Eren complied reluctantly, hesitantly doing just as he was asked.

For a moment, there was silence as Carla walked Dina to the door.

Then, just as Eren was finishing up rinsing out Dina's cup, he heard a scream.

A familiar scream.

One he recognized well after dealing with Grisha's ways.

Mom!

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(A/N: *sips tea and casually flips through a book*)