Chapter Text
The car ride continued in a thoughtful silence, only occasionally interrupted by the clanging of Eren’s handcuffs. Eren stared out the window. What Marco told him seemed too crazy to be true, even if he was living proof. In the window, his reflection showed a pale face, a white line circled his neck just under the jaw. He brought a hand up to gently trace it with his finger. The nail was cracked and bloody, with dirt pressed into every split. His hair was a mess, long strands snarled and caked against his skull. His eyes, normally such a bright shade of green, had become a sickly shade of gray and sunken further into his skull. ‘ I look like the beggar man mother used to feed on sundays’ Eren thought.
The light press of his finger suddenly turned rough and hot. The inside of Marcos car disappeared and his mind was consumed with the loud chants and accusations of the crowd below. The horrible thumping that filled his chest made it impossible to breathe as the fear of the mob threatened to consume him.
A shrill ring broke Eren away from his reflection. He turned to face Marco in the driver's seat, pulling on his cuffed wrist in the process.
“What is that?” Eren asked, breathless, peering at the flat object in Marco’s hand that appeared to be making the annoying ringing sound. Marco didn't respond, but brought the object up to the side of his face and spoke to it.
“Look Jean this really isn’t a good time.” Despite starting the conversation Marco seemed to be more focused on driving.
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know. I work there.”
“Uh...Well someone but..” Marco’s eyes nervously shifted off the road and towards Eren.
Marco was more forceful in his response than Eren expected out of him.“No. I can’t really... Connie came back!”
Eren remembered, than, being little and playing with some of the other children by the big tree on the edge of town. They had been playing war using a fake telegraph constructed out of a few rocks and some old spoons. None of them knew how to use Morse Code though, so they just talked into the spoons. That is what this reminded Eren of.
Marco’s one sided conversation was confusing to Eren. Not only did he not understand who Marco was talking to or how he had managed to do it, but Marco seemed nervous.
So Eren decided his best course of action would be to ask him about it. “Who are you talking to?”
Marco’s head turned briefly toward Eren to shush him.
“No Jean, that’s not him.”
“It’s uh… another one of the awakened. I just need to drive them to the station.” Marco moved the flat object to his other ear as he turned the car.
“Oh. No one big.” His eyes flickered onto Eren.
“Um...Eren Jeager...” A loud yell burst from the phone.
“No! Look you don't need to…” Marco seemed to get more worked up every time he responded.
“Jean stop.”
“Jean!”
Before he was even done speaking Marco pulled the flat object away from his face and slammed it down into a section of the seat that separated him from Marco. . He used his left hand to rub his face mumbling something about a “stupid Jean.”.
Now that the conversation seemed to have ended Eren tried to get his answers.
“What is that thing?” He asked, pointing to the flat object.
“Look. I’m not really in the mood to explain any further, but it is called a cell phone. You can talk to people on it.” Answered Marco, keeping his eyes on the road.
Eren nodded. “Oh, ok. So who were you talking to? Jean? Who is that?” He turned partly in his seat, better angled away from the window.
Placing both hands on the wheel and looking at Eren, Marco debated in his head whether or not to tell the truth. In normal circumstances, he would not hesitate to admit that Jean was his boyfriend, but considering what he knew about Eren’s case, Marco decided this was not normal circumstances.
"A friend of mine. He was seeing if I wanted to come over. It's nothing. Go back to looking out the window." Marco responded curtly.
Though slightly offended by Marco's dismissal of his attempt at conversation, Eren turned back toward the window. His eyes meet their reflection and Eren snapped back away from their chilling blankness.
They continued their car ride in near silence. Eren’s eyes flickering around the car. There was so much he didn't recognise, and even more than had changed. The clothes strewn about the floor were so different than what Eren was used to, and what Marco was wearing now. It confused Eren even more. He wanted to ask Marco for answers, find out what the clothes meant, and what the colorful plastic balls that covered the inside of his car were were. Eren glanced at Marco whose face was held in a slight scowl, eyebrows pulled down and lips pressed tight. Despite the uneasiness churning in his gut, Eren decided not to ask, scared he would get snapped at. His gaze moved back to the contents of the car. With Marco silently flustered from his argument with Jean, and Eren's confusion turning quickly into fear the car ride seemed to take much longer than it should have.
The police station was just out of town in an ideal location to reach both the center of town and it's rural sprawl. In fact it hadn't moved since its reconstruction in 1853. When they pulled into the parking lot Marco groaned.
"I told you not to come you stupid little... uhg."
Eren followed his gaze to a man about Marcos height leaning against a different car. His arms were crossed and his leg bent, the heel hooked on the front curve of the car. He was wearing dark jeans and a tight shirt that had some kind of symbol on it. It fit in with the strange clothes he had seen in the back of Marco’s car. The man, who Eren could only assume was Jean, pushed himself of his own car and leaned against Marcos as they pulled in next to him.
"So this is our famous little serial killer hu." Jean said as soon as Marco had his window down. Marco's eyes flickered onto Eren "Yea. But Jean..."
Before he could finish Eren interrupted.
"I didn't kill anybody!" He yelled. Achieving more in sounding like a child than convincing them of his innocence.
Jean scoffed back "Like hell you didn't"
Before Eren could shout something back Marco put up his hands to stop them. "Would you both stop! This is not the time for this. Can we just get Eren into the police station before Levi get's here and he kills somebody?"
Sending suspicious glances at each other the two agreed. Marco leaned over Eren to unlock his cuff, much to Jean's displeasure, and then they both stepped out of the car. Eren only had a small amount of trouble finding the handle after watching Marco.
When Eren had gotten out of the car Marco and Jean were already a bit of a ways off whispering to each other. Jeans hands were on Marco’s wrists, and despite their closeness not being anything out of place for Eren they did seem more intimate than normal.
Eren looked around. He remembered the station from when he was alive. It was a little building on the outside of town that served as a jail, courthouse, and a base for there less than efficient Sheriff. It had been remodeled since his death, the paint had been changed and a new section annexed on. The bell tower on top still stood strong though. Staring at it made him feel queasy, it was the same as he had last seen it, with its barred windows and slanted roof, but at the same time he knew it was so drastically different.
His gaze was stuck on the bell tower as a paralyzing fear took him over. His head turned slowly, dread building up as his heart started beating faster. His nails pushed crescents into his already bloody palms.
Then he was looking right at it.
The Oak was twisted and an eerie glow pushed through it's limbs. Though it was rather low to the ground it was thick and had branches twisting out, as though they were reaching for something unobtainable. It had gotten taller since he had last seen it, reaching up into the long wires held up by wooden posts.
Eren's breath stuttered, coming in sporadic huffs as panic set in. Fading images of the police station and the violent faces of his neighbors flashed through his mind. Despite how much had changed the tree was still there, and the station was still there, and he was still terrified.
“Hey douchebag! We don't have all fucking night!” He barely registered Jean’s voice through his panic.
“What are you even looking at?” He yelled again walking over to where Eren was standing, with Marco not far behind. “What? It's just a damn tree! Come on!”
Jean reached to drag Eren, but a hand on his wrist stopped him. He turned to look at Marco, whose gaze was flickering back and from Eren to the tree.
“Eren” Marco said in a cautious voice. “We need to go into the station now. Will you come with me?”
Marco stepped forward to pull Eren, losing his grip on Jean's wrist. Eren jumped when Marco's hand touched his shoulder, and he slowly turned his head to meet Marco's eyes.
“Eren” Marco started again, slower and less threatening. Eren was starting to scare him, the aggressive look in his eyes not matching the deadpan expression he had on his face. .
Eren was on edge, so much was happening at once. This new world he had been thrown into was so different than what he knew. He hadn't had time to think about it yet, not in depth. But it had been over a hundred years! Everything he knew, everyone he loved, was gone. But these people knew him. Everyone he talked to knew his name, and the implications of that on his life, on what happened to Armin, terrified him.
“I-I don’t.” Eren stuttered. “Wheres Armin? Did he? I mean if I came back….”
There was silence. Marco froze he had no idea what he was supposed to do. With high profile returnies the protocol was to bring them to the police station with little to no knowledge of what had happened since there death. But Eren looked so worried, like he was genuinely concerned about what had happened to Armin. So despite everything, his job, the town, Levi, the ever impending Jeager case. Marco decided, he was going to tell Eren.
“You should know jackass” Jean spat, before Marco could even decide which part to tell first. “I mean you're the one who slit his pretty little throat right?”
In a split second Eren's eyes, already predatory, tense and ready to pounce, lit up. His sunken eyes and pale skin contorted into a nightmare. The white line around his neck standing out. He was ready to fight, and Marco didn't think this was a fight Jean could win. So before anyone could even move, Marco gave into fear, and rumor, and went against everything he preached. He unclipped his gun, turned the safety off, and fired.
Erwin Smith had been police chief for a long time. Up until seven years ago there wasn't much he had not seen. Than the dead rose from their graves and one of the most notorious white collar criminals from the 1950’s broke into his living room to steal a coat. After that Erwin Smith could safely say he had seen everything.
He always stayed in the station during awakenings. Levi could be trusted with the graveyard, it was Erwin’s job to give anyone who found an awakened off cemetery grounds a place to bring them. It was his decision to separate the awakened by temper, give the living guns for safety and control, and to put Levi in charge of the cemetery. He took pride in what there town had accomplished.
This awakening had by far been one of the quietest. No re-deaths yet, or real fighters. Levi reported it to be relatively small this round and so far no one outside of the cemetery had woken up. He took it as a sign that his team was getting better.
Than he heard the gunshot.