The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 14: Remember

    His skin was warm, and you could feel his pulse drumming against his wrist, above his thumb, as strong as it ever had been. Tears pooled in your eyes as you stared down at him, Mikasa still wrapped around him. Everyone around him wore the same expression: one that had no clue what they had just witnessed. You, however, felt that you couldn't celebrate his emergence, nor could you stand by to be confused. The only thought that you could comprehend was: what is going to happen to him now?

    Somehow, you, Eren, and the other witnesses ended up on top of the wall, waiting, speechless. Armin was the next to fall down next to Eren and cry. You couldn't bring yourself to celebrate, and you didn't want to understand what horrible ploy was at work. It's just not possible for someone to just turn into a titan. That thought gnawed at you, but you knew that Even could not possibly have faked his feelings for you, playing as a human. You turned away from the circle and began to pace back and forth along the narrow edge of the wall. Your nails were rigid as you fiddled with them restlessly, and your clothes clung to you uncomfortably as your body poured out sweat. You could hear someone coming up behind you, nut you genuinely didn't want to talk to anyone right now, not even...

    "Annie," you said, spinning on your heel. "I-" she did something that surprised you. You and Annie had been the closest of friends, and you had shared dark times and affection with each other plenty of times before, but before you had even begun to explain anything, she had wrapped you in a hug. "I know that you couldn't possibly have known; you don't have to explain anything- at least not to me." When she released you, you felt cold and craved her touch once more, but now was not the time to be sentimental. "What do you mean, 'at least not to me?'" you asked, letting her words sink in. She signed, looking into your teary, scared eyes. "You're gonna piss bricks, and so is Mikasa right now, but Jean went to contact the military police right after you left." Your body began to shake, and you had to sit down; the weight of life right now was crushing you. The dizziness and anxiety that was pounding in your chest made you want to throw up. There was simply no air for you. You clawed and scratched at your neck, deranged, muddling up your hair and clawing at your eyes. "Stop!" you heard yourself scream. Suddenly, you were no longer a part of this world, but in another, transparent, fluorescent one with which you felt unattached to...

    You were standing in the middle of a courtyard full of graves, the names of those you did not know blurred and deemed insignificant. You paced, back and forth, looking for Annie. Where did she go? She was just right in front of me... Your anxiety was gone, your breathing normalized, and you were dry, no longer covered in blood, and your thoughts rather clear, as if the past several minutes had not happened. As you proceeded through the courtyard, you began to recognize some of the names on the headstones. Sasha Blause, Connie Springer, Jean Kirstein, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover, Krista Lenz, Ymir, Marco Bott... You began to feel the pressure rising in your chest as the names became even more personal. Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Annie Leon- You looked away, your tears occluding your vision so that you couldn't even see the remainder of her last name. At this point in the courtyard, there was one headstone left after Annie's, but it didn't take a genius to realize to whom it would belong. "Get me out of here!" you screamed, begging whatever god had thrown you here to let you go. "Why?" you screamed, crouching onto the ground, your knees pulled up to your chest. "Because," a familiar, sweet voice spoke. It was Aster, her wounds more profound than in death and her little body obscured with blood. "This is your future." You backed away from her, your face buried in your hands as you screamed. "You're not here anymore!" you screamed at her, "You're dead, and I know that it's my fault! Just leave me!" You dared to look up, and, to your relief, she was gone. It didn't take you much longer to see the bigger picture, though. All of the graves around you were uprooting, the gray hands clawing up from their mounds of fresh dirt, their nails caked in blood and grime. They were all around you, rising from all directions. The first to make it out was Armin- his blue eyes were as bright as ever, his demeanor different than the others, who were greedily and angrily emerging from their tombs. "Listen, (Y/N)-" Armin said quickly. "You have to help Eren." "Wh-what do you mean? Help him from what?" you leaned your back against Mikasa's vacated grave as she and the others began to swarm around you. "You'll remember when you wake up, but you must remember that he needs your help. He can't make it through what he's about to go through alone, which he will be for a large part of it." "I-I don't understand." The tear poured down your cheeks, and you felt the burning, nauseating feeling of not remembering something. "One last thing- you'll wake up soon-" Armin said, his talking becoming more rushed, "you may be the last one standing of us cadets, but you cannot give up. Even when it seems impossible, there is a bigger scheme at hand- please," he grabbed your jacket, along with the rest of the bodies now grabbing and groping your body, "YOU CAN'T FORGET!" Muddled, faraway voices sounded in your head, but you felt tethered somehow to this nightmare. Annie's gory face was inches from yours, tears shimmering on her bony nose. "I'm so sorry- I won't get the chance to apologize, but I am." She disappeared into dust when you reached out to touch her. "NO!" you screamed, "COME BACK!" "I'm sorry," Even said, kissing you on the lips, his taste the same in death as it was in life, "but you have to save our world, because I-" he evaporated before your eyes, your screams following as you began to melt into the ground, becoming one with the grave, falling, falling...

    "(Y/N)! Get up! Please- What's happening?" 

    You inhaled a sharp breath of the real air, your choking sensation returned, your memories of the nightmare world melting from your mind as you felt the screaming stop in your throat. You squeezed your eyes shut as Armin's voice pounded in your eardrums. "REMEMBER! YOU MUST NOT FORGET! PLEASE!" The voices of those that you knew were surrounding you were insurmountable, and your head felt ready to burst. You couldn't even comprehend the words being spoken. You couldn't open your eyes to identify the hands grasping at your collar, but you felt the back of your head beginning to dangle off of the wall. Swinging your eyes open, you pushed those on top of you away, and jumped backwards, falling into an unknown that only you could understand, praying that you could see that courtyard just one more time.

    Down, down...