Chapter Text
Eren felt his heart beating up in his throat, sweat beginning to bead down the side of his face and outstretched hand shaking. He took a slow, cautious step back, raising his other hand to join the first in a pathetically sad attempt to calm his attacker down. His breathing sounded ragged to his own ears, mouth dry and adrenaline coursing through every inch of his body.
He took another step back, the heel of his left foot hitting a box. He didn’t risk a glance over his shoulder, he just shifted his foot ever so slightly to the side until the box was no longer there and slid his foot back.
“Please,” he said quietly, his voice strained and foreign to his own ears. “Please, just... let’s just stay calm.”
The other individual in the room growled low in his throat, taking a threatening step forward.
Eren could practically feel the pulse in his neck beating, strumming rapidly, confirming he was about to die.
Of all the ways he had imagined going out, being locked in the storage room at work with the new guy wasn’t on his list. In fact, despite Jean’s stupid theories, the new guy wasn’t anywhere on his list of possible ways to go. Neither was being locked in the storage room at work.
And yet, if he were to die like this, right here, right now, it would probably be one of the more exciting ways for him to go out.
But he wasn’t exactly looking to die right now, which was why he was slowly but surely trying to put some distance between them. The room was small, so there wasn’t much space to keep them apart, but he would take what he could get.
“It’s okay,” he said quietly—to himself, or the other, he didn’t know. “It’s okay. Let’s stay calm. We’re gonna be fine.” His back hit the wall, stopping his retreat. “Just fine,” he forced out.
The other took a threatening step forward, light coloured eyes locked on him like he was dinner. Eren felt his shirt sticking to his back with sweat, another bead of it sliding down the side of his face.
One step. Then another. And another. Slowly but surely, he was closing the distance.
Eren felt his knees give way and he slowly slid down the wall, pressing himself back against it. When his ass hit the ground, he sat there, eyes on the advancing figure, lungs beginning to constrict more and more in fear.
“Is this how it ends?” he asked quietly. “Is this how I go out?” He’d always considered himself to be a fighter. He was a strong believer in fighting to stay alive no matter what, but he had no options here. Any fight he attempted to start, he would lose. The storage room didn’t have anything he could use as a weapon, and if he tried to pull down one of the shelving units, the place was so small it would either crush them both, or the top would hit the opposite wall and the shelving unit would just rest above them both at an angle.
He was stuck, trapped, and legitimately about to die...
He didn’t want things to end this way. He still had so much he wanted to do.
Beat Jean at MarioKart at least once in his stupid life.
Be on the winning side of a paintball fight.
Go to university.
Make his sister proud.
Buy that smokin’ hot Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle he’d been saving for since tenth grade.
Leave this God forsaken hick town.
He pressed his head back against the wall, the other right in front of him. Turning his face away, he could feel hot breath on his cheek, the smell particularly foul from this close.
Clenching his eyes shut, Eren grit his teeth and curled his hands into fists.
“Levi,” he said, heart pounding and sweat coating his entire body like a second skin. “Levi, please. Snap out of it.”
Eren didn’t want to die.
But in this moment, what he wanted didn’t seem to be an option.