Contemptuous Arrest [ Erwin x OC ]

Ninth Endeavor: Heartbeat

WARNING: This chapter contains romanticized descriptions of blood and human consumption; if you are uncomfortable/triggered by these inclusions, you are not entitled to read those instances. Please be cautious of the events taking place in this chapter.

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It had been a restless night for Levi, accompanied by the constant twisting and turning in the comforters, nightmares besetting his subconscious, and a layer of sweat encasing his body each time he shot up from an unsettling dream. It was the same event replaying in his mind as he slumbered, however, he could never shake the traumatizing aftermath that afflicted his mentality upon awakening.

"Dammit," the raven-haired male cursed, slicking his bangs past his his forehead as he attempted to steady his fast-paced breathing.

Clutching the thick covers to his chest, Levi blankly stared into the inky shadows of his bedroom, inhaling and exhaling slowly to recuperate from the reoccurring nightmare.

He had seen it again in his visions; the conflagration that resembled dragon's fire ravaging and devouring all that lay in its path. The wails and pleas of women and children resonating in the muggy night air. Even the monstrous deity that resembled the form of a grotesque, overgrown raven. The plumage-ridden beast had shrieked and cackled, its beady, devilish eyes mocking the frozen male beneath it, almost like it enjoyed watching the man suffer. As it goaded and cried its piercing laughter, the ghastly creature spread its malevolent wings, the large feathers dropping to the ground and instantly eroding into charcoal ashes.

"Everything just keeps getting worse," Levi whispered to himself as he held his head in his hands, shaking it back in forth in order to eradicate his newly-formed headache. "One night of peaceful sleep is all I ask for . . . "

Even after refilling his prescription, Levi was still plagued with the constant torment affiliated with his sleeping patterns. He had followed doctor's orders, ingested the amount before bed, yet the dosage advised was never strong enough for the stormy-eyed male.

Emitting a grunt of displeasure, Levi swung his legs out of the covers, peeling the sheets off himself roughly in the process. Perhaps wandering the house in the middle of the night would clear his thoughts, or maybe trekking up to his library would assist him in soothing his erratic heartbeat and pounding migraine. With a solemn sigh, Levi hopped out of bed sluggishly and trudged to the door, opening it with equal enthusiasm as his gait.

As he padded down the corridor, the house wasn't as pitch-dark as Levi had imagined it to be at around two o'clock in the morning, rather, it was faintly illuminated. A soft glow of lighting seeped from the living room, its incandescent warmth attracting Levi to it like a moth to a flame. He stalked silently down the rest of the hallway, his steps causing the floorboards to mutely creak in the quietude enveloping the residence.

When the living room occupied a majority of his vision, Levi was taken aback by who he saw lounging on the settee. There, clad in simplistic attire and notebook in hand sat Erwin, his glacial-blue irises shimmering when he peered up from his journal to acknowledge Levi.

"E-Erwin?" Levi slurred out of drowsiness, his narrowed eyes squinting at the Aryan male's sedentary position.

The demon blinked twice before scribbling something into his notebook, flashing it to the dumbfounded mortal when he was finished.

It is quite late. Why are you awake, Levi? Don't humans normally sleep at this hour?

"Maybe I'm not like normal humans," Levi quickly rebuffed, pacing into the living room fully and stopping at a couch opposite from Erwin. "Maybe I'm more abnormal than the rest, and sleep doesn't fulfill my needs like they would for Naomi . . . "