Chasing Ghosts [Attack on Titan](Wattys 2014 Winner)

Chapter thirteen- The Piano

Chapter thirteen

AN

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Listen to the song!!

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I lay awake until the wee hours of the morning. Unable to make my mind stop spinning. Me? Angry? I'd always thought I was good at hiding my emotions. Apparently  not, I shifted under the silver covers turning to look outside the window beside my head bored. The moonlight streamed through the open glass washing the bedroom in alabaster. I sighed inwardly turning away from the moonlight and curling into a little ball clutching my pillow with my hands. My mind continued to wander through various things, stop. I told myself He was drunk, remember? When people get drunk they don’t use their minds. I thought to myself. I shifted again looking at the stone and wood ceiling. I heard the sound of frustrated groans from outside.

Ackerman trying to get out of the ropes no doubt. It stopped after a few minutes with a loud sigh. I sat up unable to sleep, so I just sat there in the darkness for a while listening to the sounds of the night time. I lit my lamp and got one of the various books I had stored in my desk, a story of the time before the monsters that ruled the land by fear. These books had been outlawed long ago, but I'd taken one from my mother’s store room. It had been buried under a collection of other stories. Covered in dust and dirt, I'd taken it and kept it. It spoke of massive bodies of water filled with salt. Vast lands of pure sand, forests with smaller trees… I ran my hand along the worn yellow pages.

I wondered what my life would have been like had the titans not existed. Would mother still be dead…? I stared into the cracks on the white walls. I was reading a page about these creatures known as wolves. They were like dogs, but bigger and not tamable. There was a drawing of one and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Massive and white, standing on a stone looking at whomever had been drawing the creature.

I must have been awake for hours, reading about these creatures there was a whole section in the book dedicated to the wolves. I rested my head on my pillow and covered my eyes with the book leaving my lamp off. I dreamt of the wolves, the bears…

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Some hours later

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I awoke later, shifting slightly in surprise there was a weight on my bed and I removed the book that was on my face to see Erwin sitting there he was reading mothers journal. I froze, not sure what to do with myself. A gray flickered though the window casting shadows across his face and lighting his hair up in musty gray It must have been raining. I pretended to still be asleep, realizing that the book that was on my face was illegal.  I moved pretending to still be asleep rolling on my side causing the book to fall under my hand keeping my eyes firmly closed. I felt him shift and stand the book hit the table with a soft ‘thump’ sound.

The door opened and shut with a click. I shot up and grabbed the book, he had left it open on the page he was on. The rose page… I set the book down slowly and stood. Eyeing the door where he had left, shifting my shoulders back slightly. I pulled on my gear and brushed my hair out in front of the little mirror I had across from my bed. In all the years I had been here, I realized I had never been to the third level of the home. There were three; the first was the entrance and mess hall. The second was the captain, commander and trainee rooms. The trainees shared two, various bunks shoved into the stone and wood room.

And the third…? I didn't know, I went to the steps that went up towards the third floor. I wondered how Ackerman was doing, I hadn't heard him so Erwin must have let him out of his ‘time out’ as I went up the steps I heard a beautiful sound…. A low melody wafting through the door. The steps where dust covered and the railing was equally just as dirty. I reached the door and I heard a voice.