Off Record [Ereri/Riren] ✓

18 ⚕︎Vulnerable ✍︎

Off Record
Chapter 18
⚕︎Vulnerable ✍︎
Eren

vul·ner·a·ble

/ˈvəln(ə)rəb(ə)l/

adjective

susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.

It always starts out the same way. This is how I know I've entered a nightmare.

"He's here." The voices whisper. "He's come back for you."

I don't know the man. I've only ever seen him in this nightmare, but if I see him here then I must have known him once.

Is this nightmare fiction, or is it a memory?

I've been asking these questions for years yet I'm no closer to the answer. Perhaps I'll never know. Perhaps I don't want to know.

It begins in a dark room. There is no door nor are there windows. I'm not alone in the room, Titan is with me. He has a body of his own.

But... he's afraid. Titan fears nothing, even death doesn't scare him but I can see the fear is his eyes, clear as day.

Am I afraid too? I should be but for some reason I feel nothing at all. It feels as if my very soul has been taken from me.

I look to Titan and ask what I always ask. "Who are you?"

Titan smirks. He's no longer afraid. "Who aren't I?"

I find that I am chained down to a table. I'm naked, I'm vulnerable. I can see the man looming over me. He holds a needle in his right hand and a scalpel in his left.

"Don't be afraid, son." The man says. "I'm going to fix you."

I'm shaking, I'm sobbing, I'm screaming for him to stop but he doesn't. I can feel the needle pierce my skin while the scalpel carves wounds that are sure to scar. My vision's blurry, but the amount of blood I'm losing is impossible to miss. I can see it, feel it, smell it. The man's covered in it.

The room starts to spin and my vision is caving. "Please," I sob openly. "Please stop."

"This is for your own good, Eren. Hold still."

He places down the needle and the scalpel and picks up a sewing needle. Bile rises to my throat as I watch him sew my flesh together as if I was nothing more than torn fabric. It goes on for hours. How many cuts did he make?

I have no more tears left, all I can do is lie still and wait for it to be over. I've pissed myself twice already. I start to wonder if I'll die on this table.

Finally, the pain stops and I'm left with only the residual stinging of my wounds. I can't see the man, but I can hear him along with the crackling of an open flame. When the man returns he holds a branding iron. I'm too weak to protest, so I simply watch him press the hot metal to the sensitive skin on the inside of my left ankle. I can't even muster up the will to scream.

What did me mark me with?

I know what it says.

He puts the branding iron down and takes the final needle and injects it into my bloodstream through my arm.

I turn my head to the side and am met with a mirror. Facing me is Titan.

I turn back and instead of seeing the man looming over me, I see Dr. Ackerman.

-

I wake up in a cold sweat, my throat sore from screaming. Ryder has thrown the door open and stands in front of me, unsure of what to do. A few other people are with him, I don't get a good look at their faces though.