Word count: 1667

I woke up with a start when I felt someone shaking me gently.

The bright lights of my office blinded me as I opened my eyes and I sat up abruptly, looking around.

Jean was kneeling next to me, concern etched on his face.

"Eren... what happened?" He asked softly, putting a hand on my shoulder in a way that I guess he thought was comforting. I flinched at the touch and shrugged him off.

My thoughts were deafening me. The same things repeating over and over.

'I killed your mother.'

'We are none of your concern unless you make us.'

'That short temper will be your undoing Eren...'

"Go away, go away, go away, go away, goaway goaway goaway goaway goaway."

Suddenly Jean was shaking me again, he was in front of me now and I could tell he was trying to hide the panic.

"It's okay Eren. I need you to tell me what's wrong, that way I can help." He said over my mumbling.

I just shook my head and pointed to my phone, which was laying on the ground beside me. He reached for it, looking confused for a few seconds as he looked through it before turning to me again.

"Eren... What am I supposed to be looking at?" He said softly and I looked up at him, snatching the phone from his hands quickly and bringing up the messaging app.

No.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

"Th- they're g-gone." I said with wide eyes, my voice sounding weak and broken and not at all like my normal one.

"What is? Eren... What's gone?"

I shook my head again slowly, trying to figure out how the hell the messages had just magically deleted themselves.

Tears began to well in my eyes and I cried out in frustration before throwing my phone across the room, where it hit the wall and shattered, tiny shards of glass littering the carpet.

I stood up and paced for a little while, biting my nails as hundreds of thoughts raced through my mind.

The messages are gone. I have no proof. I have no way of finding out who those sick fuckers are. I have no leads, no information, absolutely nothi-

I stopped walking abruptly and looked towards my desk where a few hastily scribbled letters lay on an otherwise blank piece of paper.

'Rivaille.'

Jean had been observing me while I paced and now that I had stopped he followed my gaze before walking over to my desk.

"What's Rivaille?" He asked, picking the sheet of paper up and holding it up as though I didn't already know what was written there.

"Not what... Who." I said gently, taking the paper from him.

"Okay... Who's Rivaille?" He asked, confusion evident in his voice.

I stayed silent, burning holes into the word on the paper with my eyes. Jean sighed and put a hand on my shoulder again, more firmly this time, before using his other hand to turn my face and make me look at him.

"Come on. I'm taking you home. There's no point being at work when you're so out of it." He said, wrapping an arm around my waist and guiding me from our office until we were outside the building and walking towards his car.

The journey was rather silent, the only noise being Jean's All Time Low CD playing quietly. I didn't really take any notice as he hummed along, instead focusing on what I was going to do with the new information that I had.

I can't go to the police obviously, as I had no proof and they probably couldn't track the number anyway. I can't tell Mikasa or Jean, they'll only worry themselves more. And Levi... What the hell am I supposed to do about Levi? The text said to stay away from him. What would happen if I didn't? They made it pretty clear that they wouldn't have any problem with killing me. What has Levi gotten himself mixed up in?

It was thoughts like these that ran through my head for the next few hours, only making my anxiety worse with each new one. Mikasa checked in on me frequently, watching me pace for a little while and asking a few questions, all of which I ignored, before retreating again to do her own thing.

I made my way over to my desk and opened my laptop after sitting down, pulling up Google and typing in 'Rivaille.'

I browsed for a while, all of the results turning out to be useless until I came across a rather interesting website, apparently dedicated to everthing about 'The Rivaille's.'

"The Rivaille family dates back, as far as we can tell, to the eighteenth century. They were mostly known around the time for being actively involved in one of the most dangerous gangs in history so far (they were known at the time as 'The Survey Corps') having killed over three thousand people and being connected to around two million serious robberies. Though most members were eventually tracked down and arrested or killed in their efforts to get away, the gang ruled over both France and England for almost five decades, having recruited teens and misunderstood adults across the entirety of the two countries." I read aloud, my curiosity peaking tenfold as the words left my mouth. I felt my brow crease a little as I continued.

"Word of The Survey Corps began to die down at the beginning of the nineteenth century, though some members of the gang still remained, they didn't dare come out of hiding for fear of being caught. The leaders of the gang had never been found, however it was rumoured that they were somehow involved with the royal family, making the citizens of France and England very wary about who was really ruling over them."

I sat back as I mulled over this new information, wondering if it could have any kind of connection to what happened earlier. Surely not... If they died out so long ago, would there really still be any active members around?

"Eren?" Mikasa said from right behind me.

I jumped and slammed the lid of my laptop shut before spinning around in my chair to face her, a hand over my rapidly beating heart.

"Mika! Don't do that!" I said loudly, glaring at her a little.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was just checking to see that you're okay."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair to get it out of my eyes, which looked up at Mikasa slowly, softening a little.

"I'm fine. I just had a funny moment okay?"

Mikasa looked me over in silence for a few seconds before finally nodding and smiling a little.

"Okay... Try and relax though. You've been working a lot recently and staying at Jeans and it must be taxing looking after Levi and-"

"Mikasa... I'm fine." I said loudly, my attitude darkening a little at the mention of Levi.

She just put her hands up in surrender and nodded, turning away and going to walk out of my room.

"Are you cooking tonight or am I?" She asked quietly, her back to me. It made me feel a little guilty that I'd snapped at her so suddenly when it wasn't her fault.

I stood up and stretched before walking over and pecking her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout like that. I'll cook." I said softly, walking from my bedroom and towards the kitchen.

"Eren... I know you said that you're fine, I just need to ask." Mikasa started as she sat down at the table.

I hummed for her to continue as I got ingredients and equipment out.

"You know that I'm always going to be here for you if you need me right? You know that you can talk to me about anything?"

I paused what I was doing for a second, contemplating what she had said and realising how ironically relevant it is to my situation. As much as I want to tell her, I know that it would only stress her out and if it really has got anything to do with gangs or something of the sort, I do not want her involved.

"I know." I said softly, resuming my task of chopping up vegetables.

"Good."

•••

HULLO.

SO I LITERALLY HAVEN'T UPDATED IN YEARS. I'M SORRY. WRITERS BLOCK REALLY FUCKIN LOVES ME BECAUSE APPARENTLY IT DOESN'T WANNA LEAVE.

Anywhore

I just wanted to announce that I have a new book up and running, and that one is a lot easier to write because it's much more planned out than any of my others, so if you would like to check that out then it would be very much appreciated.

It's called Guarded Soul and it's a Klance story (KeithxLance, from Voltron) and it's from Lance's point of view. There are already three chapters up and I'm writing the fourth one now, in hopes that it'll be up either tonight or tomorrow. I shall leave the description below and if you're interested you could maybe go have a looksie?

Guarded Soul:

Lance is the new kid at Altea High. You'd think that, being a guardian angel and all, he'd find it to be a piece of cake. But instead he has the revelation, along with every other teenager, that high school is hell and very different from being home-schooled like he's used to.

Even more so when you have a secret angel identity that nobody can know about...

Especially not Keith Kogane.

~~

Oke doke, enjoy that.

Now...

Reminder to go check out my other stories if you're interested.

° Polyglot - Ereri
° Drowning - Phan.
° Guarded Soul - Klance
° Klance Oneshots
° That's not me - Gratsu

I update when I can so some of them are short and all are so far incomplete.

let me know what you guys thought of this chapter...

HERE!

Let me know what you think is gonna happen next...

HERE!!

Constructive criticism and corrections are always welcome, as are you. :)

Much love ducks.

~Max
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