The Chains of Humanity | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 18: Stay With Me

Levi ended his unheard performance with a final soft chord, releasing the somber notes of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor; the very last piece he had learned to play before he had run away from his home.

The man sat on the piano bench, worn but still smooth, as he stared down at the keys.  After all of this time, even though he had known this piano was sitting in the corner of the tiny pub, Levi had never even paid a second’s notice to it until now.  For some odd reason the music he had so desired to have when he was younger had disappeared, only to make reappearance now.  With his three comrades passed out on the bar counter, Levi stood up from the bench, his lowered gray eyes brushing across the smooth piano keys, and ambled his way over slowly to the sleeping bodies, his gait a little shaky from intoxication.

Levi stood before the bodies, soundlessly slumbering on the worn counter with their mouths ajar and drooling onto the counter; Farlan, at least, did so.  Isabel had this odd smile stretched across her sleeping face, slight but present, as her shoulders rose up and down peacefully and calmly for once.

Then there was Saika.

The epitome of beauty, misplaced as she lay leaning on the ugly slab of worn wood, her seemingly flawless skin pressed against its filthy grains.  Her creamy ivory skin glowed in the candlelight, her dark hair tumbling down her shoulders in a glossy gleam.  Her features, which were usually hidden behind a mask of a constant worry and longing, were now wiped over and as clean as a fresh sheet of paper; a shimmering star in the velvety night sky, free to wander and free to exist.

The thief behind the slumbering girl sighed, rubbing his face in his hand as he sucked in a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.  After standing there for a few seconds to ponder, he twisted his neck, popping it with loud, sickening crunches, and readjusted the thick woolen cloak upon his shoulders.  His cheeks, flushed in red from alcohol, burned even more as he took the maid’s arm and crossed it over his shoulders.  He hoisted her up into his arms, her legs dangling from the crevasse of one arm and her back supported by the other.  Her head hung back limply, her face too dyed scarlet from the drinks they had all consumed in their card game.

Levi left the other two passed out on the bar, the cards they were playing with splayed out everywhere under their heavy bodies.  Walking down the darkened alleyway, with the heels of his long leather boots clicking against the moistened cobblestone, Levi headed towards the entrance to the Underground rather hastily.

Saika, shuddered awake by the brisk movements of her carrier, fluttered her eyes open groggily, letting out a moan as she woke.

“Le…vi…?” she muttered, blinking her eyes closed again slowly.

“Shush it,” the thief slurred, stumbling in his quick steps.  He regained his balance, though Saika didn’t really notice his clumsy action.  “Go back to sleep.”

“Take me…back…” the girl groaned, turning in the man’s arms so that her nose nuzzled into his chest.  “Take me back…”

“I’m taking you to our shitty little hideout,” Levi mumbled, quickening his pace even more.  “You’re not going back to that hellhole.”

“But I must...” Saika protested, her arm that was slung across the man’s shoulders gripping his dark blue cloak.  “The Master will be here in…in…”

“You’re not going back,” Levi hissed.  “Fuck.  You’re going to stay here with me, and no one is ever going to beat the shit out of you again.  Got it?”

“Levi…” Saika murmured softly, her lips barely moving.  “Why…?”

“Shut up,” the young man, drunken beyond belief, snapped.  “Just go back to sleep, you little brat.”