Torture For The Feeble Hearted

The Feeble Hearts

Darkness. That's all it was. Along with a deafening silence, the darkness was all that could be in that tight tank. The feeling of bubbles of oxygen in the sealed liquid container was the only other sense that Eren had at his deposal. Even if he tried to move even the smallest of muscles, he wouldn't be able to feel the glass or know if he was even moving it. But there was something that was awakening his senses; something from the outside that was building his insides up.

Slowly, Eren was able to open his eyes as his strength began to come back to him. Unfortunately, his eye sight served him no use as all he could see was the blue bubbling luqid that surrounded him. He knew where he was, but he still always hated the surprise of remembering his predicament. The anger that boiled inside of him set him off, causing him to smash his head into the glass of the tank. Using all his strength, he banged on the glass until it shattered and he was flung upward from his leg, causing his head to hit the bottom of the tank and deplete most of his strength.

"Troublesome as always," the husky voiced ghoul growled as he held Eren upside-down and only a few inches off the ground. Eren chuckled at him and smirked as he punched the ghoul in the kneecap, causing it to break backward. The ghoul screamed in pain and dropped Eren, allowing him to run free from the trapped room. He scrambled about the ground due to his wet body and hair, but was still able to run free to the sealed doors, ripping them apart from one another like paper.

"Subject 1-17 is escaping!" The ghoul shouted through the intercom as Eren bolted down the hall. The halls started flashing bright red as security guards started to swarm every space of the hall Eren turned to. Eren skidded to a halt.

"Come to us nice and slowly," one of the security guards said as he crouched down to meet Eren's height and motioned towards them as he crept forward. Eren panicked and broke some piping on the wall that shot out hot gas and steam out to the crowd of guards. As they screamed and shouted, Eren turned directions and ran down a different hall.

The sound of screams that did not belong to the guards were also heard down that hall. They sounded like a prepubescent boy, which caused Eren to stop and find where they were coming from. They sounded too familiar to turn back on. When he followed the source, he found himself walking into another subject's room.

"Let go of me you gross oaf!" A boy shouted as he tried to pull himself out of the guard's grasp. When his gaze met with Eren's, his heart jumped. "Eren! Help me! Please!"

Eren panicked. The steam that was distracting the other guards had slowly begun to stopped spewing, allowing them to run after Eren again.

"Eren! Please!" the boy begged again. Eren turned to him and stiffened.

I can't leave him. Eren thought as he watched the guards bolt down the hall. Eren then shook the thoughts from his mind and ran into the room to save his friend; busting the kneecaps and breaking the arms of the guard in his ferocious rage. The guard eventually dropped the boy and he fell to the floor.

"Thank you, Eren," the boy said as he fixed his wet, black hair.

"No problem, Kaneki," Eren replied as he helped the boy up and hoisted him on his back while running out of the room. As he bolted down the hallway, guards began to swarm around them; leaving only one hall safe.

"This hall leads to the control room! That way Eren!" Kaneki commanded Eren as he pointed down the empty hall. Eren followed the command and ran faster down the empty hall until they came to the control room. That was when Kaneki entered in a code and flipped the switch next to him.

"What does that do?" Eren asked obliviously.

"Look that the cams," Kaneki replied as he pointed at the screen behind Eren. The screen showed all the security cameras that recorded every subject hall in the facility. When Eren turned to look at it, it showed all the subjects' room doors opening.

"Wow. How did you do that?" Eren asked as he turned back to Kaneki.

"These dumbies never should have taught me code," Kaneki replied as he climbed back onto Eren's back. Eren smirked at him while running back out to the hall to find and exit. Unfortunately, at the end of the hall was a dead-end; just a window. But when Eren turned tail, he was confronted by a large group of guards.

"There's nowhere to go, brat," one of them gurgled. Eren scowled at them to hide his unrelenting fear that was bubbling inside of him. In his enraged panic, Eren raised his hand to his mouth and opened his mouth.

"Back up! Or, I sware, I will bite it!" Eren shouted. The guards scooled with intent, whipping their electric sticks to fully extended.

"You don't scare us," one of them said. Eren turned to Kaneki's frightened expression and winked at him.

"Hold on," Eren whispered. Kaneki squeezed Eren's torso and ducked into his back as Eren quickly turned and jumped out the window; shattering it to pieces as they were sent it flying down the outside of the building.

"Eren!" Kaneki panicked and screamed as they descended down at a high velocity. "Turn into a Titan! Turn into a Titan! Turn into a Titan!!"

"I can't at this speed! Slow us down!" Eren replied. Kaneki panicked more and shook with fear as he sprouted his kagune and gripped onto the building to slow them down. Once they were at a slow enough pace, Eren bit his hand and flashed into his Titan form with Kaneki's kagune wrapped tightly around his upper arm. Eren ran fast down the empty fields, in hopes of finding a place for them to hide, a place they could disappear.

~~~

"Where are we going to go? We've never been this far from the facility before," Kaneki said as he hugged his knees to his chest and admired the full moon. Eren sighed as he pulled some Titan flesh off his face.

"We'll keep running till we find somewhere. Until then, we have to keep our eyes peeled. We could have been followed after we left," Eren replied. "We'll keep running until we keel over if we have to."

"What about food? We both need some source, and I'm not too keen on eating my best friend," Kaneki said as his eyes started to water.

"We'll find food. Don't worry. And even so, I would be willing to give a piece of me if it will stop your suffering," Eren said as he hugged Kaneki close to him. "Besides, we could also experiment with my Titan remains. They prosper long enough for you to eat."

"Ok... I'll be willing to do that as long as you promise me some things," Kaneki said as he turned to Eren.

"Anything," Eren replied as he held Kaneki's hand in his own.

"Promise me you won't force me to eat you. Promise me you won't leave me to die. And promise me... that we will stay friends forever," Kaneki said as he began crying slowly. Eren nodded his head and smiled as he held Kaneki closer and stroked his hair.

"Just you and me, buddy. Forever," Eren replied as he rocked the smaller child side to side as Kaneki fell asleep in his arms. "I won't let anyone hurt you."