Coming for your heart

Chapter 51

Ymir yawned loudly and closed her eyes with soft mumbling.

Neither Jean nor Mikasa looked her way. And Eren was still occupied with straightening his clothing above the branches on the freezing ground.

Armin's fingers brushed against the pile of leaves next to him. A shiver ran down his spine and a part of him wanted to just lie down on the unforgivingly hard ground and sleep.

But he knew what followed as soon as his lids closed. As soon as the night took him for maybe a few hours.

The nightmares.

They had started just a few days after everything in Shiganshina had happened.

And they got more intense the more Eren asked Jean and Ymir about the others. About the ones who didn't make it out of the village, out of the fire in time.

He asked about Hannah.

About Franz.

Marco.

Jean's little cousins.

Nifa.

Reiner and Berthold.

Armin was sure that Mikasa would have liked to ask about Annie as well. But the thin line of her mouth and the hard stare trained on everything but their companions gave him enough reason to think that she feared the answer more than the question.

"Armin, try to get some sleep. Jean and I will be on guard all the time.", Eren said with a low voice while he glanced over to Ymir who was as fast asleep as always. Somehow, she wasn't bothered at all by her surroundings or the fact that they could very well die out here.

"It's fine, Eren.", Armin whispered although his eyes were burning with exhaustion. The cold had frozen away every pain in his limbs after the first weeks. And the hunger he had been feeling...it was just that. A feeling.

Not important anymore.

Not when they had really understood that it could be that they wouldn't get any food for quite some time. Not if they didn't catch a single animal.

The berries could only do so much to cease the urge to vomit because of the burning in his stomach and those terrible thoughts that haunted his head ever since.

Eren knelt down next to him and put an arm around his shoulder.

Why, Armin didn't know. They couldn't offer any body warmth. They were cold. Cold as corpses. All of them.

Yet Armin still rested his head against the bony shoulder of his friend, his eyelids so heavy and his mind so fuzzy. He wanted to sleep.

So badly...

To sleep...

- - -

"Armin. It's time for your medicine."

His eyes fluttered open.

Light hit him and he shut them closed with an arm thrown over them. Sweat glistened on his hand. He felt the cold drops against his forehead.

"Mikasa..."

A warm hand touched his. A thumb stroked his skin.

"It's okay, Armin. You are safe. It was just a...nightmare."

"Mikasa...the forest...the guards will come...", he muttered. Those few words drained him from all the energy he had gathered and he fell back on his pillow, his hair sticking against his neck and shoulders. "...have to warn him...have to..."

"Armin. We are no longer there.", her voice said urgently. "Please. You have to take your medicine."

"He will come...", Armin mumbled again, his throat sore and dry as the deserts he loved to read about in the books of the giant library in the palace.

Library...palace...yes...

"He isn't here, Ar.", his friend's voice assured him. "You know what has to happen. You know it."

He felt the rim of a glass against his lips and he was about to fight back when the familiar hand caressed his cheek, giving him the chance to slap it away. Not that he would have had the energy to do so.

It was so hot.

And cold.

And so unbearable hot.

He drank down whatever had been in the glass, the action so exhausting for him that he felt the darkness of sleep tugging at the edge of his mind.

"Jean's cousins...they...and Reiner...", he cried softly with a hoarse voice. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and a pounding headache prompted him to start crying. He wanted the pain to go away. He wanted it to go away...

He swallowed but the burning in his throat didn't subside.

"I can still hear his voice.", he mumbled. Maybe Mikasa had already left the room. Maybe he was alone. "You...too. I know it...I see it...in the way...in the way..."

"Armin. Sleep. I will be here when you wake up."

Sleep...but...his voice...he will come...he will kill...Erwin...

(The sun is burning down on us so I decided to be smart for once and stay inside. Sooooo here is another chapter! 

Armin's still got a high fever - I do hope it's realistic enough, I'm only taking my expierences in consideration here - and for the first time we get to hear about what happened in that forest. But who is this person Armin is talking about? And who else survived the fire? Are they all dead? What did Ymir and Jean tell them to prompt such nightmares?

And who is this he Armin is talking about?

Hope you liiikkeeedd it! Never hesitate to comment!)