cw: vampires, kídnapping, possessive Levi, Levi is Mikasa's caretaker, Ackerman's are vampires, Levi is intimidating, reader is chained to a wall, blood (duh), Armin Erwin and Eren mention, gn!reader, no use of y/n (reader is as neutral as possible), mikasa is offputting and weird and I love that for her, Levi is a little bit pissed but not really, I promise the next chapter will be darker I just got lazy, Stockholm syndrome
wc. 4.1k
You were picking at the crumbling concrete that affixed you to the cold wall, you couldn't tell what time of day it was, the window blacked out completely. Small pebbles of concrete falling away from the thick metal stuck into the wall.
Thunk! The giant lock on the basement door clicks, you don't even have a moment to think as a gush of air wisps through your hair and Mikasa is stood in front of you with food.
"You seem to have been awake for a little while now, hope you weren't bored out of your mind." She sets the tray of well prepared breakfast food down on the ground. "I wouldn't advise doing that." She points to your hand still picking at the wall.
"Why?" You tilt your head, brows furrowed.
"Levi hates it, he's been meaning to fix that part of the wall for some time now. He just hasn't gotten a chance since the first person started to break it." She swishes her skirt a little back and forth in almost a childlike manner as she talks— the kind of when they wear flowy dresses and constantly spin around to show people how it looks.
"Yeah, he drained her right after. So maybe don't make it obvious. Although… he does seem to like you more than the rest, so you might be able to get away with it." She plucks a very dusty knickknack off the shelf near the stairs, setting it back in the wrong spot. Wordlessly walking out of the basement. Yeah this family is strange, not just because of the vampire thing.
Maybe you could reach the window, the chain seems just long enough. You set the tray aside, standing up on wobbly legs, the muscles already starting to atrophy. Not enough space to move around in this basement, especially when you're latched to the wall with such a short chain.
You hold yourself up on the wall, making it over to the window just fine, reaching up to try and pull it open just like Levi had done a few days ago. Was it a few days ago? Or was it a week ago? Or was it just yesterday? You're already losing track of time down here, each day the same thing. Levi brings you food, talks to you, leaves and repeat until you fall asleep or until he says that it's time for bed. For all you know he could have switched your sleep schedule completely.
Now that you were closer to the window you could hear the small pattering of rain, so faint you would miss it if the basement wasn't so quiet. You grab hold of the lock, twisting it down to you and tugging as much as you could to open it, taking all of your weight off your feet and holding yourself against the handle. The window creaks open, almost angry it was being opened.
The small rays of light enter the basement, the scent of dirt and rain flood your sense of smell, overriding the odor of the musty basement you have gotten used to. You close your eyes, the sun being so bright your eyes couldn't take it for too long. Taking in just the lovely aroma of the rainy day outside the basement, you hear the faint sound of a hum from behind you.
"You opened the window?" You hear Mikasa's gloomy voice from behind you, causing you to turn around to look at her, blinking your eyes open with a squint at her.
"Are you going to tell him?" You ask, worried you'll get drained if you do anything wrong now.
"Why would I tell him such a thing?" She asks, sitting down on the concrete at the foot of the mattress.
"Is it against the rules?" You stay by the window, just waiting for what she was going to do.
"How would I know?" She tugs her sleeves down to cover her hands, toying with them.
"You seem close to him, wouldn't you know his rules?" You slowly walk over to sit in front of her.
"I couldn't care less about those. I just care about what you're actually like." She fiddles with her skirt as she talks.
"Do you just want food?" You ask, lifting out your arm to her as an offer to her.
"Well, I don't know how your blood tastes." She looks down at your arm, tilting her head.
"Well then, what do you want?" You ask, picking at the food you had left on the tray. She watches as you peel off the outer layer of the croissant.
"You were a person before this basement. Who is that person?" She asks, scooting a little closer. Her eyes trained on your hands as you continue to pick at the food.
"Someone who enjoyed the sun on their face." You say, teeth gritted at the thought of never seeing it again. She looks at the window, her head tilting slightly as she thinks.
"I could be of some help with that, for something in return. Levi said your blood tastes great." She says, leaning towards your arm with a small grin.
"Go ahead." You say, lifting it to meet her halfway. The pinch of her bite hurting more than Levi's do. The blood rushing through your body and into your arm, out into her mouth.
She pulls back with a bloody smile, "Not half bad, still not as good as Eren's though." She stands up, disappearing up the stairs for a second before coming back with a key. You don't care to think of who she was talking about, only of what she was doing.
Crouching down to the chain connecting your ankle to the wall, unlocking it and grasping it in her hand tightly.
"Come on, lets go." She says, tugging it to get you to stand up. You wobble a bit, slowly following her up the stairs, in your disbelief it doesn't even cross your mind how much you need to hold onto the railing. You squint as she swings the basement door open, the light from just the inside of the house enough to hurt your eyes after the darkness of the basement.
She grabs herself an oversized black umbrella before leading you to a door in the kitchen. She clicks the lock on the door open, tugging it open and leading you out of it into the rainy day.
"Wait, can't you not go out in the sun?"
"Do you see the sun?" She asks, tugging you towards the tree line. You keep your mouth shut after that, not wanting to possibly upset her. The rain patters down onto your hair, long past the stage of "I need to wash this". The slightly metallic smell of the rain hitting the softening dirt outside distracting you completely from the situation you have found yourself in.
The feeling of your socks on the wet grass not even bothering you, your hair sticking to your face as it starts to soak through. The situation of your chain being held by a vampire being utterly forgotten, the earthy smell of the dirt slowly turning to mud in their backyard dragging your brain away from the situation at hand.
Mikasa stands under her umbrella off to the side as you stand in the middle of their backyard in the rain, eyes closed and shirt slowly getting heavier and heavier. The calming sound of the rain pitter-pattering onto the world lulling you into a peaceful state, not even thinking of getting caught being outside by him.
"Come see the frogs." Mikasa says, tugging on the chain before she lead you to the small stream outside their house. She crouches down and picks up a frog delicately in her hand.
You feel your shoulders loosing their tenseness, slowly leaning back on the wet grass. The itchiness a comforting feeling, not a cold dark basement with locks. You were finally… free. The soft sounds of birds chirping, the water running right next to you, the small sounds of leaves swaying in the air.
You hear the chain move against itself a little before fully drifting off, the grass thousands of times more comfortable than the tiny mattress you had been on for an unknown amount of time.
You awake to being completely alone in the garden, covered in mud and rain. You look around, walking back towards the house for a second.
You look down at the window into the basement, the only thing that kept you sain in the dark basement anymore. You were outside. Alone.
Your heart started to beat faster and faster.
But if you left now, what would Levi do when he found out? Surely you wouldn't get too far, besides your phone is somewhere inside still and you have no idea where to go. Most of all it was definitely against the rules.
You started running towards the stream, staying as far away from the house as you could before getting to the gate in front of their house. Your legs already hurting but you didn't care as long as you got away. The chain dragging along against your ankle.
He'll be upset with you. You don't want that.
You run towards the first house you could, rapidly knocking on their door.
A tall blond man opens it, "Oh, Hello. What brings you here, you aren't from around here." He says looking at you with a furrowed brow.
"Please help me." You squeak out, looking back towards the house for a second. He follows your gaze before looking back down at you.
"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong house." He begins to shut the door.
"What? No! I really need your help I'm gonna die!" You shove your body against it.
"The help I can give is to go back into that house before anything bad happens." He shuts the door.
"How did you know I was stuck in that house?" You yell at it before running a few houses down.
"Hello? Oh." A young blond man answers. He stares at your outfit and horribly gross hair for a second before continuing. "You aren't where you should be. I'm sorry."
"No, please. I need help, I want to live. I need your help."
"I don't know…" He leans out his door, looking around to see if anyone in town was taking notice of you at his door.
"Come inside for a minute." He says, stepping aside as you rush in, crouching down to stay out of view of the windows.
He pulls out his phone, two minutes pass in complete silence before a knock sounds at the door. You tense up, running away from view of the door.
"Armin, you said what." A loud voice sounds from the door, footsteps until you were face to face with a brunette man. "Holy fuck. We have to text Miks." He pulls out his phone. Definitely Mikasa.
"But do we? They're terrified and I don't want…" The blond, Armin, trails off as he grabs arm to stop him.
"Its the right thing to do."
"Is it? They're terrified, its raining still and they'll die if we send them back."
"Then they die, its not out fault they got out." The brunette puts his phone up to his ear, your heart stops. Send you back. They'll die if we send them back. Get sent back and you die.
You listen as he says five words into the phone, "Come get them, Armin's house." Tears start flowing down your face.
"Hey, listen I'm sorry about this." Armin says to you.
"Help me." You croak out, staring at his kind looking eyes.
"I can't." He pats your shoulder, turning you around to face the door in his kitchen. Help.
"Armin!" The other one yells, pointing.
"What?" He plays dumb as you fumble to open it. Running as fast as you could into the woods surrounding the whole town.
You hear branches breaking in the distance as you run, tripping a few times over fallen branches or roots of trees that had breached the ground floor. Ivy and stinging nettle attaching to you, thorns swiping you as you run past. Small cuts littering your being now— the clothes even more tattered than before.
"Come back." You hear Levi's stern voice from somewhere in the distance— unable to tell what direction. You scream, tripping over your own feet.
You hit the tree next to you, knocking the wind out of you for a second. A black figure appears in front of you.
"Please, no. I'm sorry. I just want to live. I want to be alive. I don't want to die in that basement. I promise I'll never tell a soul, just let me live." You cry, crumbling to the ground.
"You are safe in the house. We protect you, we feed you. I promise the house is the best life you can ever live, I'll make sure of it. Why don't you come home?"
Home. Back to the house. The house didn't have mud covering you. It didn't have the mean people that turned you away from their door. They opened their door for you when you needed help.
"Come back? I just want to live, please don't kill me." You beg, reaching your hand out to him.
"You look tired, why don't you calm down." He kneels down next to you, brushing your hair out of your face for you. His touch warm and inviting. Tired, really tired.
He takes your hand, bringing it to his face and kissing the back of it softly before your head lulls.
He takes his mouth off of your arm, relishing in the amount of blood he got to drain from you. "Poor one, had to make you think I was being nice to get you here." He picks you up as if you weigh nothing.
You feel your body grow hot rapidly fast, breaking you away from the first night of peaceful sleep you had since getting trapped in this far away town. You jolt awake, slamming your hand on the wall next to you.
"You were dirty." You hear a familiar cold voice state from behind you. A sloshing sound bringing your attention down to the small warm waves you feel against your torso.
"My clothes…" You trail off, looking around.
"Were filthy. They are being washed and you will get new ones, ones that better fit you living here for now." Levi says, standing up and whipping his hands off on a towel.
"Want my clothes…" You go to push yourself to stand, the cloudy water sloshing around.
"Sit down." Levi says in a stern voice, and for some reason you listen. The cloudy water at least providing a little bit of coverage rather than standing up.
"You need to be cleaner. You were covered in mud." He lectures as he sits on the counter.
"Is it still raining outside?" You ask, scratching off a small speck of dirt on your arm, every small scratch and mark you got from your run now completely gone.
"You went outside. Without permission." He says.
"Mikasa took me out." You defend, grabbing the washcloth on the side of the tub and dunking it into the water, scrubbing at your arm.
"You ran away." He states, staring at you.
"I wanted to live my life again. At least Mikasa listens when I talk." You turn away from his watchful eye, scrubbing at your body.
"Excuse you?" A stern voice sounds from behind you. You hear as he gets down from the counter, grabbing something and slamming it down on the edge of the bathtub before the bathroom door slams.
You turn around, searching to make sure he was gone. Looking at what he rudely set down, shampoo. He was calling you gross and dirty still. Nothing is good enough. So far that is all you have found out being trapped here.
Finally once you were squeaky clean, not knowing when you could get another opportunity to do this again, you stand from the bathtub. Draining it before nabbing the towel, drying yourself off completely.
You go over to the door, testing the doorknob to see if it was locked. It wasn't. You crack it open to see the ornate gothic hallway, right outside the door folded clothes on a small piece of furniture holding clothes right in front of the bathroom door.
You delicately pick them up, closing the door again before setting them against the counter to unfold and look at. Darker clothes, the shirt a deep shade of red with frilly sleeves. Begrudgingly you get dressed, looking at yourself in the mirror. You look exactly like them now, your stomach churns.
The door swings open to Levi standing there with an angry look on his face that cracks slightly as he sees you, his eyes raking over your new outfit with an inscrutable expression.
"You're finally clean. You'll be permitted to bathe from now on. I was going to let you roam the house soon, but after today I'm not sure if you have gained that privilege." He grabs your arm and starts tugging you out of the bathroom, down the long hallway past many rooms with their doors shut completely— could they be other people? He's said that there were people before you so that could be the case.
You all but fall down the stairs, catching yourself of the railing as your legs try to keep up with the quick gait of the man dragging you back to the dark lonely basement. The basement door wide open, the first time you've seen it left like that.
"There's food down there waiting for you." He says through gritted teeth, his tone sending a shiver down your spine from just how angry he sounded.
You fumbled down the stairs, quickly seating yourself on the thin mattress and leaving your leg out for him to reattach to the wall. However you just hear the door slam shut, shaking the dust from the ceiling rafters and knocking over the trinket Mikasa had put in the wrong spot. You slowly and quietly walk over to it, placing it back where it belonged before sitting back down on the mattress.
Starring at the food in front of you, a wave of guilt settling over you as you do. Why should you feel guilty you were running away from your kidnapper. You shouldn't get yelled at and shoved back in this basement like a dog in a crate after they tore up your carpet.
After what you think is a good few hours you eat your food, setting the tray by the end of the mattress and laying down, adjusting the new clothes adorning your body until they no longer felt too awkward to sleep in.
When you awoke the tray of food had been replaced. Steaming tea with a plate of fresh fruit, a muffin and a piece of toast with a flipped egg on it. You down the entire thing and sit back on the mattress, now chained back to the wall.
After a few days, or rather cycles, of this you wake up to your breakfast with a book on the tray as well. Pride and Prejudice, an older copy by the looks of the cover. You inspect it, a bookmark sat right inside of the cover— new and pristine. What looked to be watercolor of frogs.
Over the day you devour the book, having nothing else to do. Mikasa bringing you down food twice was the only time you stopped. When she brought down your dinner you had stopped her to talk to her.
"Mikasa, did he mean to give this to me?" You ask, holding it up for her to see.
"Levi doesn't make mistakes." She says before walking back up the stairs, saying out "He likes you, no one else got gifts" just before leaving and locking the door.
You set the book on the tray with the bookmark on the cover once you had finished it. You tried to stay up to say thank you to him, but you fell asleep before any noise even sounded from the top of the stairs again.
The next day you woke up to another book on the tray, Clarissa. Significantly longer and heavier than the previous one. Same bookmark placed on the first page. This one took you eight days to finish all together. The next morning you finally catch him coming down to leave you food. Having stayed up to finish the last few pages of the book.
"Levi." You whisper as he sets the tray down, he looks over at you.
"What would you like?" He asks coldly.
"I'm… sorry for running. It was dumb, I am safe here." You say, sitting up in your bed. Your apology is met with silence and a blank expression that you felt judgment pouring out of.
"Thank you for the books, what's the reason though. I ran away, this feels like a reward rather than a punishment." You say after seeing another one on the tray, another Jane Austin book this time as well. Emma.
"Trust is built. This can be your first stone to it. You're welcome." He says before turning and walking up the stairs— leaving you to read your entire day alone. After that he had started bringing you your food again.
"Which one has been your favorite so far?" He asks as you are halfway through The Castle Of Otranto.
"They've been so good, I forgot how much fun reading the classics is." You say, setting it aside and watching as he takes a seat on the cold concrete floor in front of you, your food tray next to him empty as he came to collect it.
"I made Mikasa read Clarissa a while back, I hope her notes in the book weren't too much of a bother." He says, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.
"Oh no, some were very good in my opinion. Heavy book to have her read, no?" You ask.
"She got too close to a boy in town, I needed to scare her a little. She's still too close to that annoying boy." He grimaces, "The brunette that you met." Your turn to grimace.
"Ah of course. Good way to set some fear in someone though." You say.
"Which one was your favorite so far?" He asks.
"Uhm… well obviously everyone loves Pride and Prejudice when they read it." You answer, remembering the first time you read it.
"Yes of course, wonderfully written book— subpar adaptations." He comments.
"Why do you think that?" You tilt your head.
"They never kiss in the book, yet every adaptation Mikasa makes me go see they are trying not to fuck the whole time." He waves his hand in the air dismissively.
"So I take it you like Pride and Prejudice?" You ask, scooting forward on the mattress.
"Enough. Not my favorite though."
"What is?" You ask, tilting your head to the side.
"Well, I could say Dracula but that feels easy, and wrong. It's not perfectly accurate." His favorite has to be perfect then?
"Well… he probably didn't have first hand experience like I do." You laugh.
"Wuthering Heights is only good if you read it thinking it is horror." He states, fueling the theory you have on his favorite needing to be perfect.
"To The Lighthouse was shifty, no plot I could agree with being a through line. We will have to see what you think about that one."
"Mikasa loved The Death Of The Heart. I thought it was very good." Highest praise he's given a book so far.
"You'll have to let me read it sometime soon."
"It's on the list for you already. The Go-Between was adequate." He comments. Could be his favorite.
"You have a list of books for me to read while I'm here?" You ask.
"You said you wanted to."
"Yeah, but you have a list?" He nods curtly. Of course he has a list, he's way too type A to not.
"The betrothed, the one by Manzoni not Cass. That one is…" He trails off, his voice slightly airy compared to the rest of the conversation.
"Is…" You try to pry, but he ignores.
"Mrs. Dalloway." He states. No comment on it or anything, just a statement of the books name.
"Mrs. Dalloway?" You question, to no answer.
"You shouldn't stay up to read. You have all the time in the world to read these." He stands up, picking up the empty tray and taking it upstairs.
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