Chapter Text
“The blood is the life, and I shall drink from the cup of eternity.” – Abraham Stoker, Dracula.
***
He should run.
It was raining, had been for days now, like the ocean had suddenly decided to dump half its contents from the skies. Ugly clouds blotted out the sun, their mix of grey and deep, vicious purple provided an ominous and stifling ceiling above the city. The alleyway was dark, already dark even before the sun was due to have set, but for some reason Levi Ackerman had decided to return home down the gloomy little back-lane today rather than via the cleaner and, arguably, safer streets.
His umbrella lay at his feet, rolling away slowly amidst the river of slushy water by the gutter after having slipped from his hand. Pelting raindrops, now unhindered, left darkened spots of damp on the raven's dark jacket and the material steadily soaked through. The short strands of his dark hair grew slick in the rain, sticking to his face as he stared at the scene ahead.
Blood. So much blood. Even through the torrential rain the spattering of colour was visible. It was a blotch of life, a now stolen life, that stood out amidst the world of greys and browns in the alleyway. Death was nothing new to the raven-haired man and this case should have been no different than any from his childhood, his teens, his nightmares…but it was.
A man was crouched by the lifeless, twisted body. He was lean and clad in some sort of dark clothes; grey jeans and a faded, blue-grey shirt accompanied by a tattered, black and tan hoodie. But this man was not a saviour, not a concerned passer-by. He had not simply stumbled upon the body as Levi had.
The crouching youth turned his head, catching sight of the new witness no more than fifteen metres away. With the jerk of movement that came with straightening out of the hunch, the hood fell back to reveal a face marred with the same red that was pooling on the ground, being swept away by the rain.
Not a man, Levi determined as he squinted through the rain. No, the youth appeared more of a boy than a man, perhaps in his late teens or early twenties at the very most. His brown hair was mussy and quickly growing darker as it dampened under the downpour. Eyes the most extraordinary shade of bluish-green stared watchfully at the raven-haired man as a slow smile curved the stained lips into an amused little simper. It was a sheepish kind of smile, more suited to a child who had been caught red-handed trying to sneak sweets from the kitchen. More of the scarlet ran from that smiling mouth until a hand came up to wipe the stain away. Honest in the way that adults seldom are, the fading smile said that this young man knew exactly what he was doing and knew he had been caught out.
Levi tried to reason with himself, tell his eyes that they hadn’t seen the boy bent over the mutilated corpse a few moments ago, teeth buried deep in one shoulder. He had to be wrong. There was no way that this…this person had been eating another human being! Even if the chunks of missing flesh screamed otherwise.
“Shouldn’t you be calling the cops by now or something?” The youth spoke, his tone curious.
The voice was too pleasant, too playful to match the situation at hand. The teal-eyed brunette began to walk over, no sign of haste in his lazy saunter.
One step closer, two, then three.
He should run. Levi really should run away right now. This minute. This second preferably.
“Hello? Mister?”
The assailant stood in front of him now, not overly close, but near enough to cause trouble. Near enough to make the raven-haired man’s skin prickle. Even if the boy’s lazy stance was quite disarming. Teal eyes appraising, inquisitive as they flickered over Levi from his feet to his face. Confusion lit those blue-green orbs as they trained on his face.
Levi knew that he should turn around and sprint back to the street. Why hadn’t he run yet? It wasn’t that he couldn’t move…it was that he couldn’t seem to find it in himself to want to move badly enough. There was something about that face, that voice, the calm and casual demeanour that didn’t sit right with him. No one should be this at ease with such slaughter…
But then again, the boy wasn’t the only one still standing there.
A friendly smile lit up the youthful face, as if all of the sunshine lacking from the day had been hidden inside the curve of those lips, the glow of those eyes, the gentle dimple that resided in those slightly tanned cheeks.
“Oh, I get it. Shocking, right?” The disarming smile grew a little, an alarming contrast to the words falling from the boy’s lips. “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s been a while. No one was supposed to see…”
“No shit.” He muttered, finding his voice at last.
“Oh, so you can speak! And a nice voice, too. Say something more.”
“What…what were you..?”
“Me? I was just catching up with lunch.” The teal-eyed boy grinned, casually slipping his hands into the pockets of his jumper. “And before you ask, yes that was a pun. You should’ve seen the chase they had in them. Good times, am I right?”
After several long moments of Levi’s continued silence, the brunette gave a sigh and kicked the toe of his shoe at the ground, scuffing the cobbled pavement. The action sent red-stained droplets flying. And then the boy looked up, letting his head roll on his shoulders in a quick stretch, and he began to speak quicker.
“I guess I shouldn’t let you live but I’m feeling lazy today so here’s the deal.” The boy tossed his head, flicking wet hair out of his eyes as he smirked. “I’ll count to ten and you see if you can make it back to the street in that time. If you make it, you’re home free. If you don’t…” The languid grin returned, “…we’ll see. Ready?”
Levi blinked, shaking his head rapidly as the words sunk in. “Wait-”
Teal eyes flashed along with the lightning overhead. “One…”
Levi was skidding around the corner before the word ‘two’ had even begun to form on the younger male’s tongue. He kept pace with the boy’s count down in his head as he dashed back down the narrow lane, slipping more than once in the monster puddles.
“Three!” The boy’s voice travelled as he called out purposefully louder.
“Little shit…” Levi growled under his breath, feet flying across the wet cobbled ground.
Four, five…
Round one corner, then the next, Levi ran like he had never run in his life. He had never backed down from a fight or a threat, never turned his back on danger.
Seven…
Apparently there really was a first time for everything.
Eight…
Nine…
The street was coming into sight, pale light filtering better through the clouds without the clutter of crowded buildings.
Levi felt his adrenaline spike at the same time footsteps reached his ears. Not from the street, but from behind him. Quick and light…and fast.
In a last panicked stride, the raven broke away from the darkened alley, his feet slamming into the pavement as he skidded a little in time to stop before meeting the rushing traffic a mere half a metra away.
“Ten.” A voice whispered in his ear in the same instant that Levi felt a rough shove between his shoulders.
The force sent him stumbling forward and into the chaos of oncoming cars.
Horns blared and other pedestrians cried out in fear as the man narrowly missed being taken out by a taxi.
“Shit!”
He jerked out of the way of another oncoming vehicle, scrambling for the other side of the road where he glanced back wildly in search of his attacker.
No sign of the bastard could be found, no matter where he looked or how long he stared. Levi wanted to lie to himself and say that he had only imagined the voice in his ear. But he was certain that he hadn’t imagined the feeling of warm breath on his nape, especially not in the freezing rain.
“What in the love of fuck just happened?” He muttered under his breath, starting to shiver under the pelting rain.
Wet, bedraggled and very much disturbed, Levi headed straight for home.
A half hour later, the door to Levi’s apartment clicked shut behind him and the raven supressed a near overpowering urge to slide down it. What had he just seen? Who was that kid? What had he been doing? There had to have been a reason, right? Why else would he have been so calm?
The multitude of questions continued to build up and up, only serving to add to the turmoil bubbling within his gut. Pushing off from the door, the petite man marched off and went through all of the rooms, closing every single window and eventually settling himself in front of the TV with a larger-than-necessary glass of wine. Red, ironically enough. The screen remained black as the man still hadn’t worked up the desire to turn it on, reaching instead for where his phone sat on the coffee table, next to the wine bottle.
Scrolling through the list of names in his contacts, Levi pressed the last name he ever thought he would want to call after an experience like the one today and held the mobile to his ear.
Three rings in and an overly cheerful voice greeted him with a screeching cry of what he presumed was some odd expression of joy. Unless of course she was being strangled to death. At this point, either option was just as likely as the next.
“LEVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!! Ahahahaha, you little urchin! How are you?”
Joy it was. The woman continued her tirade without so much as a pause for breath.
“How long has it been, even? Years?" More obnoxious laughter. "I kid, I kid. Even so, the last time you called me I was still in-”
“Hanji.”
The excitable chattering cut off in an instant and the call grew quiet. A moment of silence passed between the two, a short and knowing silence.
“… Something’s happened, hasn’t it?” Hanji spoke up at last. Her voice was much calmer, lower in tone and doing its best to be soothing. “I’m right, aren’t I? Levi?”
And that was why he rarely called Hanji Zoe.
The two of them had been friends since kindergarten and had known each other since before he could actually remember. Because of this, the woman could read him like a book more often than not and she had made a habit of calling him out on his shit each and every time it came up. But she also knew whenever something was wrong, a trait that was both infuriating and bizarrely comforting.
Levi let out a rushed sigh, running a hand through his hair and rubbing the shorter fuzz of his undercut. “Just…some really weird shit. I’m not completely sure myself.” He admitted, not willing to go into any of the specifics until he had a better grip on the situation himself. “I don’t really want to talk about it…even if I did; I’m not sure how I would tell you.”
Not two minutes into the phone call and Levi already felt more relaxed just by being able to talk about things. It was calmer inside the apartment, warm and dry and clean. The comforts of home made the odd occurrences of the day seem all the more absurd and unlikely, more like something he would find in one of his nightmares than in actual life. Even without details, Levi knew that Hanji would understand enough to know what to say.
“Sounds rough.” The woman acknowledged, knowingly treading water around the subject. “You’re sure you don’t want to tell me anything?”
The offer was there, right in front of him if he wanted it. Yet another thing that made him remember why Hanji was among those he counted as a friend. She knew when to push and when to let him decide for himself whether or not he would talk.
“Not tonight at any rate.” The raven sighed, taking a moment to drain the rest of his glass of wine. “How’s Moblit?”
A short huff of laughter carried through the phone.
“Subtle change in topic there.” Hanji teased, but mercifully moved on. “Mobi’s good, we’re living together now.”
This was news to Levi. As far as he had known, the two of them had been dating but nothing past that.
“Oh God. Poor him.”
“Hey, shut up, I am a perfectly tolerable flatmate. Unlike you, Mr OCD.”
Levi’s eye twitched a little at the comment. “Fuck you, I don’t have OCD. I just have a high-”
“A high respect for personal hygiene and cleanliness,” Hanji interrupted, attempting to muffle her snickering and failing miserably, “yes I know. That’s why I buy you Windex every Christmas.”
The raven clicked his tongue at the all too chirpy remark. “Tch. That’s about the only useful thing you do.” He muttered in a bored tone, pouring himself a second glass. “How long are you going to put off marriage?”
The woman cackled on the other end of the phone. “It’s just so much fun watching him trying to work up the courage to ask!” She snickered. “Gosh, don’t get me started, I may cry. It’s so adorable!”
“Don’t tease him too much, he might lose hope. And don’t expect to be crying on my shoulder if he dumps your sorry ass.”
“Ah, I know, I know. I promise that if he doesn’t ask in the next year or two then I’ll pop the question myself.” Her words paused for a moment as another bout of giggles took over. “Can you imagine the look on his face, though?”
Levi could definitely imagine the look on poor Moblit’s face.
“Heh. You should film it. He’ll probably faint. Or cry.” Another pause, another generous slurp of wine. “Is he one to blubber?”
The snickering continued. “Only sometimes! But he’s put up with me for long enough, he’s sure to have nerves of steel when it comes to normal things.”
“True enough.” The raven-haired man agreed, taking on a snarky tone. “You’re a fucking force of nature, a real ballbuster.”
Hanji let out a very loud snort at the comment, completely shameless as always. “You’re always so nice, aren’t you? Just a regular ball of sunshine.”
Levi rolled his eyes at the overly teasing tone. “You mean in the same way you’re a perfectly normal human being with no personal space issues whatsoever?” He shot back, downing the last dregs of his second glass.
“Yes. Exactly.” The woman agreed, sounding far too pleased and not at all put out. Same old Hanji. “Are you absolutely positively one hundred and three percent sure that you’re okay?” She asked, serious tone returning for a moment.
“Yeah…yes.” He shrugged even though she couldn’t see it. “I’ll be fine by morning.”
“Of course you will.” The jovial tone returned like it had never left. “Have a drink, loosen up, watch some crappy soap opera or late night drama and skip work tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is a Saturday, idiot.” The raven griped at her but scooped up the TV remote regardless, jabbing the red ON button and watching the screen burst into muted life.
“All the better!” Hanji shouted through the phone, Levi could practically hear her grinning. “That means you’ll be free all day. Do you want me to come over?”
“God no!” He answered quickly, sitting up straighter in alarm. “I’m still recovering from last time.”
There was no joke in his words and they both knew it. The incident the pair was referring to had even been labelled as the Great Shit-fest of ’07. You had to have been there to understand.
Levi grimaced at the sudden and unexpected sound of Hanji’s screaming laughter tearing through his phone (really, though, what about Hanji isn’t ‘sudden and unexpected?’) and held the device a safe distance from his ear until the screeching died down.
“Ahahaha! I told you that it was an accident!” The woman tried to explain for about the thousandth time since the ‘incident’ had occurred. “I swear I never meant for that fish tank to explode!”
“Tell that to Norman and Oswald.” The raven deadpanned, taking another gulp of wine and holding the glass up to the light of the TV.
He wondered what glass he was up to now…
“It was an honest mistake! I said I was sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah. I remember.” He offered, smirking to himself at the memory of a sobbing Hanji waiting on his doorstep in the hallway outside his apartment for a whole hour trying to get him to open the door. Both of them had been stupidly hung-over. Good times. God they had been stupid back then but, really, what had changed? “The roses were a bit much, though.” The raven added with a tiny frown as he thought harder; back to the horrendous clean up.
A gasp sounded at the other end of the phone. “It was supposed to be an apology!”
Levi knew that, he did, but of all the ways to say sorry…a hundred red roses weren’t the first way one would think of to make it up to such a decidedly cynical person like him. Or if it was, then it shouldn’t be.
“But for me? Really?” Levi pressed the issue, his characteristic little half smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth as he listened to the woman whine out her protests.
“It was one time, Levi, and I leave you alone most of the time anyway. I mean, nobody is perfect, not even me. I know, I know, it’s a shock but I’m sure that you will be able to look past that total shock and see that it was a gesture of…sweetness or something from a very…very drunk friend. I don’t know! What more do you want from me?”
Making Hanji rant had turned into a rare pleasure for the petite male and he settled back smugly against the sofa, milking the topic for all it was worth.
“You got those damned petals all through my goddamned flat, shitty glasses.” He drawled out, draining the last of the wine straight from the bottle.
“Argh! I know, I know!”
More helplessly apologetic noises. Honestly, some of the sounds that came out of that woman’s mouth were more akin to a dying cat caught somewhere between being strangled and electrocuted. The more he dwelt on it…the more bizarre it seemed.
“It took a whole day to clear them all away.” Levi went on, inspecting his nails in a calm fashion while Hanji wailed out apologies.
“I know, I am sorry and wretched and impulsive and you know it will never happen again so long as I live.”
“Not to mention clearing away the fish tank-”
“I can buy you some new fish! I’ve said that already!”
“I don’t want more fish! Once was enough, Hanji.”
“I must have traumatised you! I’m sorry! Please don’t be maaaad!”
“Your banshee screaming is what’s making me mad, dammit! And I’m not mad, I’m indifferent!”
“Eehehee! But indifferent people don’t shout into their phones!”
“Gah! I’ll call you tomorrow, you ridiculous woman.”
“Not if I call you firs-”
“You don’t get out of bed until midday. So there. Goodbye.”
“Sorryaboutthefish! Byeeeeeeeeee-”
Levi stabbed the End Call button and sighed, rubbing his temple with his free hand. It was always extremely tiring to talk to Hanji…but at least he didn’t feel paranoid anymore.
Switching off the television, Levi dragged himself through a scalding shower, scrubbing for good measure in an effort to get his skin to stop crawling. The action failed to work quite as well as he would have hoped but, with nothing to be done and the heavy pull of sleep tugging at his lids, the raven retired at last to bed.
The events of the day, whatever that had even been, could easily wait until tomorrow. But what had happened?
“What indeed..?”
That night Levi slept restlessly, freed from his usual nightmares only to be haunted by visions of bloodstained lips and teal eyes.
“Wake up, Levi…”
“Wake up.”
“Come and find me.”
“Find me.”
“Wake up.”
“Levi…”