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【𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓】
*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*
FOR A MOMENT, EVERYTHING SEEMED TO FREEZE. Terror congealed Himari to the spot, gluing her feet to the ground as memories broke through the dam in her mind. They were the ones she had tried so hard to forget about - to push away. They were the ones that kept her up at night, waking her from her slumber with a roiling stomach and silent screams etched into her throat.
Tendrils of fear had snaked around her ankles, turning her legs to jelly as they began tugging her down towards the surface of the wall. Her knees threatened to buckle beneath her and Himari gripped hard at the ring around her neck, a quiet whimper losing itself in the sudden hissing of ejected steam.
She couldn't. She couldn't forget - no matter how hard she tried. He was the reason she had lost everything in the first place. She couldn't put those memories behind her, not when the faces of the dead, both known and unknown, flashed behind her mind like a series of lightning bolts hitting the earth with a blinding eruption.
Her father. The cat. The countless people who had been crushed, been eaten. The ones who had been left behind. The survivors that had been killed off so they wouldn't go hungry. The parentless children. The childless parents. The widows. The ones who had been left alone.
The lives that had been lost and those that had been ruined single-handedly by the red-faced devil who stood before her.
The reason she fought, she tried to tell herself. They were the reason she'd decided to fight back against the beasts who trapped them in this stone cage. The titans, both normal, Colossal and Armoured. The reason for her revenge.
Yet, all that seemed meaningless to her, at that moment. Her reasons for fighting became lost as she gave way to her terror, knees allowing her to sink to the ground beside Connie. He reached out for her hand blindly, terror wracking his hands with tremors. Her fingers laced through his own and the pair held each other for dear life as they stared, unblinking, at the beast who glared back down at them.
He was so big - so much bigger than she remembered, especially now that she was up close and personal with him. His head alone was the size of Himari's old house - the one that had been demolished nearly five years ago to the exact day. His eyes were narrowed and beady, but gleamed with a kind of humanity so sick it made Himari want to hurl. Familiar, she realised. Those human eyes seemed so familiar.
No one moved - no one could bring themselves to. Those who hadn't come from Shiganshina had gone very pale and shaky with fright. They'd heard descriptions about him - oh yes, they'd heard. They'd heard Himari, Eren and Armin speak about the Colossal Titan and his giant body, with his devil-red face and unforgiveness for the fate of the humans that lay below him in sprawling masses. They'd heard about the terror and the panic he caused - the blood he had spilled and the desecration of humankind that he threatened.
