Forget The Past (Ereri)

Chapter 2 - Before

Mikasa and I didn't know what he looked like, but we would always draw little battles in the dirt with sticks. Giggling to ourselves when we would scribble something silly in it. Like a flying dragon breathing fire on the enemy side, or a mustache on a soldier or two.

One day, when I was twelve, my father went back to war right after my mother died of a poison meant for him. So he didn't put his all into the battle. Or so I heard.

Sad my mother was gone, I tried to recall the description of the twenty-six year old. He didn't change that much after all the stories, but I remembered something about him having black hair like Mikasa's, being shorter than me, and having one of the most expressionless faces known to man at the strangest of times.

Before my mother died, my father told Mikasa and I a story about how one of our elite soldiers left our side after grazing Levi's wrist with a bullet. It would have killed him, but she seemed to regret doing so. Immediately helping him retreat before he bled to death due to a vital blood vessel being opened up.

She left our side to join his, and her good name was polluted with crimes. So if she were to ever come back, she would be immediately executed.

I wondered why Petra, one of our greatest elites, would abandon her squad for Levi. Making Oluo, Eld, and Gunther devastated. But of course, it seemed as though those three wanted to follow her. But whilst they tried to escape one night, Gunther was caught, and executed immediately.

My mother died the day after Gunther's death. She was seemingly poisoned the night Gunther was executed, but it was supposedly directed towards my father. Since he refused to eat that night, saying he had too much work to do, and too little time. My mother, not wanting to waste any of the cook's great meals, ate it up. Getting sick after half an hour. It was unknown if Gunther's death was tied together with the poison, but I was deeply affected by the event.

My father had gotten extremely cautious, and always had someone test the food and drink before feeding it to anyone of the royals.

Nobody was poisoned after that, but when Levi demanded war once again, my father left. Like said before, he was still slightly depressed, and when the battle ended, I ran towards the soldiers to greet my father at the main kingdom gate.

Their grim expressions startled me. We always fought them off before Levi attacked the kingdom! If we lost, that could only mean...

Asking some of the soldiers where my father was, they simply closed their eyes. Not wanting to look at me. So I continued watching the soldiers, warriors, wounded, and even the dead come inside. Mikasa came up from behind, and sat herself next to me. I told her about my father not leading the soldiers inside. She nodded in understanding, but her face paled. Staring at something behind me.

I turned around, and was met with my heart stopping. There lay my father, the king, lifeless. There was a sloppy stab wound in his chest, and an evident bullet hole through the forehead.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and I turned to Mikasa as I broke down in front of her. She pulled me into a loving hug, telling me it was going to be all right. I was going to become the king at sixteen, and for the time being someone would take my place since I was much too young to make any decisions.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I continued to think about both my father, and my mother in their own little life. I didn't know where people go when they die, since no one could prove anything, so I just believed you lived in an everlasting lucid dream with all your lost loved ones.

(Sorry if I piss anyone off about the whole afterlife shit. But this is literally what I think. If you have a problem with it, please keep it to yourself.)