Cursed

The tuning fork

"Can we ride the rest of the way with you?" Levi asked not looking at Eren.

"Had enough of Hange?" Erwin chuckled. Levi tsked looking away.

"Get in." Levi opened the door across from Eren. The red haired girl climbed in first. Eren looked at her.

"You look familiar." He commented. The girl looked over at him. She scrutinized his look.

"I don't recall seeing you." She admitted. She held out her hand. "Isabel Magnolia." She introduced herself. "I do some modeling from time to time." She offered. Eren snapped his fingers.

"That's it. I'm Eren Yeager. Carla's son." He said. Isabell giggled.

"The writer! Oh, yeah I was on a few of her book covers. How is she?" She was bubbly and super nice, Eren thought.

"Doing good, she's still on her tour for her latest book." He explained.

"She talks about you all the time!" Isabel cried. "I wanted to meet you for so long! Like did you really defeat the dragon in less than three hours?" She demanded. Eren rolled his eyes.

"Well, three hours that day!" He chuckled. Isabell laughed. They discussed other games and books they both enjoyed while Levi grouchily, told Erwin where to go.

"Did you see that twist!" Isabel cried as she laughed with Eren.

"Here I haven't seen you in two years and your filtering with the guy I like." Levi snarled as the truck pulled to a stop before Iron gates.

"Oh please, you didn't think his mom mentioned he was gay!" Isabel huffed. Levi rolled his eyes as he got out. He walked up to a keypad and punched in a code. The gates swung open. Levi waved the vehicles through.

"Welcome to the wall of weird shit and happenings!" Isabell shivered. "I always hated this place. It just feels wrong don'tcha think?" She asked Eren. She had only been in their car for about fifteen minutes.

"Yeah it does." He agreed. Levi pulled open the door to climb back in.

"That's Levi's old house." Isabell pointed to a single story ranch type place. Across the street was a literal castle in comparison. "That's where the wicked witch lives." She snorted.

"Petra?" Armin guessed. Isabel nodded.

"You've met her?" She asked.

"Well, she really is a witch." Levi said. They drove around a half circle. Levi directed them down another street. It ended in a wooded path.

"Keep going, Furlan used to live in the woods here, it's why I hadn't met him until Petra introduced us." He explained. Erwin drove down the dirt tire tracks. They came out into an opening. There was a nice looking house, the garage on the other hand looked. like it had a bomb go off in it.

"I take it he used the garage." Erwin commented.

"Yeah, it was his lab." Levi stated. Isabel reached over to squeeze his knee.

"OK, I'm not sure what is suppose to happen here, like you think Furlan is still alive?" She asked. Levi sighed.

"Yeah. Petra is a complete airhead. She messed up my life, now I have to figure out how to fix it." Levi explained.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I mean I thought, you taking off had something do with her. She left not long after you. Her dad said she went to boarding school or something." Isabell offered.

"Of course a lot of people left after Furlan disappeared and then, your uncle Kenny vanished." She added.

"The two incidents are not related." Levi got out of the truck. He held a hand out for Isabel. She took it slipping from the seat. Eren got out on his side. Moblit had pulled up beside them. It looked like he had a lot of equipment in his car. There was only enough room in the back for one person to sit.

Without a word, Eren opened the back door. "Just take and carefully stack that stuff over there on that cement pad. Where the garage used to be." Moblit instructed.

"Carefully, Eren. These are delicate instruments." Hange ordered. They went to the trunk. Eren lifted a heavy copper barrel. There were wires and a spout on it. This is what filled up most of the back seat. He carried it over to the cement pad. Armin walked up beside him. He had a box.

"Levi and Isabel are only friends." He reminded Eren.

"Yeah, but what is Furlan? I mean will he even know a few years have gone by? How is bringing him back going to help? Will he remember any of this? Hell, will he even be conscious?" Eren looked skeptical. He felt a cold wind wash past him.

"Yeah, I don't know." Armin offered no help. Once all the stuff was unloaded there wasn't much else anyone could do. Armin, Isabel, Erwin, Eren and Levi went to hang out by the truck while Moblit and Hange set to work setting up the equipment.

"Can you tell us what's going to happen?" Eren asked the brains. The blonde's looked at each other.

"This is Hange's show, so literally anything can happen." Erwin muttered.

"What is suppose to happen is, see how Hange is placing those metal rods?" Armin pointed. Eren nodded. Hange had about five metal rods that they were hammering into the ground at specific points.

"That's basically the tuning fork as you called it. That barrel thing is the frequency emitter. It will slowly adjust the rods to various frequencies for a set time. Hopefully we find the one that Furlan got blasted to. He should appear within the perimeter of the rods." He explained.

"If he doesn't?" Levi asked. Armin shrugged.

"Don't know from there. I'm sure Hange has like three back up plans at least." He added.

"So, this is just a guessing game. What if Furlan isn't even "here"?" Isabel asked using finger quotes.

"Then we go back to square one and try to find another way to help Levi." Erwin said. Isabel glanced at her friend a worried look on her face. Levi looked away out to the woods that surrounded them.

"You know." Eren asked. Isabel looked down at her bare legs, she was wearing shorts.

"Yeah, I tried to help when it first happened." She explained.

"Izzy, Come on, let's go for a walk." Levi took her hand and they headed off to the trees.

"I sorta get how Petra felt. I mean just this morning he had sex with me, now he is acting like I'm a fucking tree myself." Eren gripped.

"I think he has a lot of emotions he isn't dealing with well right now." Armin offered. Eren just nodded. They continued to watch the two set up.