Chapter 5 - The Stolen Glimpse

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"I recognise him. I've seen Eren before."

Levi and Mikasa were sitting next to each on a sofa out of ear shot of the other partners scattered about on other sofas about the room. Levi repositioned himself so that his body was facing hers. She had his undivided attention. But he remained silent, stunned at Mikasa's revelation.

"Say something." Mikasa sighed and shook her head, "Now I get the feeling that I shouldn't have told you."

"Why did you? We barely know each other, yet you trusted me with this information. Why would you do that even though it went against your better judgement?" Levi asked as his brows furrowed.

Mikasa pondered for a moment before answering.

"I'm not sure. But you and I are partnered up. Maybe whoever put us in here partnered everyone up in specific pairs for a reason?"

Levi thought about this for a moment before Mikasa started again.

"Plus, I don't get a bad vibe or feeling from you unlike some of the others..."

"Really? Like who?" Levi asked, intrigued.

Mikasa looked behind her, making sure that no one listening to their conversation.

"That girl Annie - there is something not right with her."

Levi snorted, he did not trust Annie one bit either but they had more pressing matters at hand.

"Wait - go back to Eren. You said that you recognised him?"

Mikasa nodded.

"How do you know him?"

Mikasa tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and her eyes seemed to go distant as she went deep into thought.

"It's hard to explain. If you had asked me what his name was before he told us, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. But as soon as I saw him, this image flashed before my eyes. I was walking, I don't know where. As I walked I turned around and Eren was beside me. We were walking together... I think he might have been my friend...?"

Levi did not miss the way the pitch of her voice elevated towards the end of her sentence.

She is unsure of what she said.

"Can you be sure that it was this boy Eren that you saw though?" Levi asked.

"His eyes... ", Mikasa's gaze turned away from Levi. "The colour of his eyes are unusual... but they are exactly how I remember them." Mikasa said in a more confident tone.

"But that way you said it before made me think you were unsure about it?" Levi asked, keen on pushing for more information.

Mikasa turned her head in such a way that Levi could not see her facial expression.

"What I wasn't sure about, was if we were friends or maybe... something more than friends."

"Tch."

Mikasa spun her head around in shock of his reaction.

"What do you mean by that?" Mikasa spat.

Levi took a deep breath and sighed.

"Nothing."

Levi could tell that she was annoyed at him.

"And that is all that you can remember about him?" Levi asked.

"That's it. The reason I asked you not to say anything yet is because of the others. A lot of the others don't seem to like Eren... he has already been accused of murder. To add this to his name might but him in even more danger." Mikasa said.

Levi pursed his lips in thought.

"Or it could exonerate him..." Levi said. "If he has someone to vouch for him it may take the suspicion off of him."

This time Mikasa snorted a laugh.

"And tell the others what exactly? That I have a glimpse of a memory? No – I think that would make things much worse. They may suspect me of being.... something! It seems that in here, being in anyway different causes you trouble."

To prove her point, Mikasa looked back at Eren who was sat under the watchful guard of Jean, while his partner Ymir appeared to sleep on the sofa.

Levi nodded in agreement of Mikasa's reasoning, and thanked his lucky stars that he was paired up with such an astute partner.

"But just so you know, I think your instincts are right. I don't trust that Annie girl either. As for your boyfriend, I can't seem to get a good read on him yet. But time will tell."

With that, Levi and Mikasa decided to rest while they could but this only meant closing their eyes for a short time before Armin and Reiner got back with the food. Levi's mind was unable to switch off, sleeping would be impossible. Now that he had time to sit down and think, Levi realised that he had a throbbing headache.

So Mikasa recognises Eren. But he did not seem to recognise her?

Convinced that the confusing situation was giving him his headache he screwed his eyes closed, hoping that it would go away. Levi heard the handle of door behind him turn, and from the door Armin and Reiner returned with lunchboxes in their arms. Excited at the prospect of food, everyone gathered to the pair of blond men. There was a large dark mahogany table in the middle of the room, and the food was laid out as everyone took their seats.

"Is there any more food?" Bertholdt said, tucking into his ham and cheese sandwich.

"Mmmhmm." Reiner grunted.

"Yeah, there are quite a number of boxes left in our room but I think we should try and ration them until we can find more." Armin said as he sipped from a carton of juice.

"Did you ever think that it could mean that there are more people here?" Mikasa said.

"What do you mean?" Ymir asked.

"The thought did occur to me." Armin said as he nodded and turned to the group sat at the table, "Whoever put us in here put us in here for a reason right? They want us to do something. And that means that they can't let us starve in here in the meantime. Now, what Mikasa said about there being others is that the amount of food they have left in mine and Reiner's room is way more than the seven of us need. Therefore, the rest of the food is surplus meant for the other people that must be in here."

"So we should try to find them?" Eren asked.

"Of course we should try to find them." Jean piped up; Levi got the impression that he wanted Eren to look like an idiot.

"But how are we going to organise this? This place seems huge." Annie asked as she took a bite from her apple.

"Armin has a theory. Why don't you bounce your ideas of them?" Reiner suggested.

"I believe that this library may be the centre of this place, whatever this place may be. The reason I think that is because of the doors." Armin said, pointing to the door to the south.

"So what about doors? I find that most rooms have doors..." Jean tone was too cocky for Levi's liking.

Armin's cheeks began to redden, but he continued.

"Yes but this room has four doors going in all different directions, and they even show if they go south, north etc. Now I have only been in two rooms in this place. This room I'm going to call the Library – because I can assume that we all believe that it resembles one?"

The group nodded. Nobody could fail to miss the huge bookcases that took up every inch of the walls in the room.

"Good, and now the room that me and Reiner came from, I am going to call the Classroom. Again because that is what it looks like. Now, that room only has one door, which leads here to the Library."

"Yeah does anyone else think that there seems to be themes going on with these rooms?" Ymir asked.

"It's pretty obvious." Annie quipped.

Ignoring these comments, Armin continued.

"Now if this is the centre, then we need to explore each of the branches that lead out of here. If we all go together we will be wasting time, and I have a feeling that time will be of the essence if we want to get out of here. So I am going to suggest that we all split up and go in different directions and gather whatever food, water, resources and even other people and bring them back here to the Library. We should all agree to regroup in 2 hours, regardless if we find anything or not. Are we agreed?"

The general consensus was that the group did agree, but of course there were one or two issues.

"So if we are splitting up, who is going where?" Ymir asked.

It was agreed that Annie and Bertholdt would take the North door and see what they could find. Mikasa and Levi were keen set off back the way that had come, and so they would take the West door, down the corridor that lead to the room that Annie and Bertholdt were found in. But that corridor had two different paths that could be taken; they would take the branch that did not lead to the Hotel room.

Jean and Ymir said they would go back through the East door and bring back what they could. Armin and Reiner would stay in the Library, as Armin thought that the books might be of some use. Reiner added that if there was an emergency, that they were to come back to the Library for help. Jean did not like the idea of leaving Eren out of his sight, but Reiner was quick to assure Jean that he had nothing to worry about and that Eren would help Armin with the books. Jean did not seem to like the idea of arguing with a man of Reiner's build and size.

With everyone agreed as to where they were going, everyone began to stand up and push their chairs underneath the library table.

Jean bent down to tie the shoelaces on his boots, but the length of the handcuffs meant that Ymir's arm was dragged down too.

"By the way guys, if anyone could find something that could get these chains off..." Ymir said, her handcuffs rattling as she shook her wrist. "I would be much obliged".

"I'm not that bad am I?" Jean said sarcastically.

It was obvious that everyone wanted to get the handcuffs off, and it was decided that anything that they thought could take off the handcuffs should be added to the list of things that should be brought back to the Library.

The group quickly said their goodbyes and wished each other luck and they all began to make their way to their respective doors. Levi watched as Armin already began looking through the titles of books of the nearest bookcase. Mikasa put her uncuffed hand on the golden doorknob and pushed the door open to reveal the familiar dark corridor and stepped inside.


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