Laura Nolen - The Fall

“Welcome back,” Adam said brightly. “I know I already said it, but man. It’s just so good to see the real you, Char.”

“We should do this more often,” I said.

“Eh, don’t hold your breath.” His lip twisted around again, and his hand went to his jacket. When I saw the needle, my tongue couldn’t swallow, and my throat went numb. “Now, Ambassador,” he said. “If you could restrain your wife for a moment.”

Eren’s hand was warm and heavy on my shoulder, and I chewed the inside of my cheek as hard as I could. The pain was the only good feeling I had left.

Adam rolled his eyes. “You’ll have to do better than that. She’s awake. That’s really her. Take it from me. We can’t afford to get complacent.”

The Lieutenant stirred, and Eren glanced at her for a moment before crouching down and pulling my arms together behind the chair.

“Now hold still,” said Adam. “This’ll only sting a bit.”

He looked at Eren, who nodded that he was ready, and came close. My arms jerked against Eren’s grip involuntarily, and he squeezed them tighter. I went ahead and stopped breathing. I needed to last five more seconds without crying, and I wasn’t sure I’d make it.

The needle flashed through the air, taking longer than necessary so that Adam had plenty of time to watch my reaction. I forced every cell in my brain to remain completely frozen. I would not give him the satisfaction. I couldn’t. But at the last minute, weakness won, and I closed my eyes.

The pressure on my arms vanished. There was a light thud , and my eyes snapped open. The syringe remained secure in Adam’s grip, and a wave of mild surprise played over his face. The needle swung in a glinting, silver arc toward me a second time, and as I watched, Eren delivered a second blow, knocking it away.

“Oh,” Adam said. “Oh, you’re gonna regret that.”

“I doubt it,” said Eren, his jaw clenched.

“Lieutenant,” Adam shouted, “stop him!”

The Lieutenant stood, lumbering, from her chair, but she wasn’t much of a soldier. Not anymore. She stumbled toward us, glassy-eyed, and laid into the fight.

So I kicked her.

The top of my foot hit her squarely in the stomach, and she fell backwards, barely affected save for her lack of balance. Adam and the needle were inches away once again. I gripped the seat of my chair with my hand and caught him fully in the chest with my feet, shoving him for all I was worth. But the angle was too high, and my chair skidded back, teetering. Adam kept coming. Eren launched forward at the same time, dangerously close to the needle, and torpedoed into Adam just as my chair lurched back and hit the ground.

I curled up, trying to keep my head from bearing the brunt of the impact, then flipped around as fast as a cat. Syringes are motivating like that.

But the fight was over. Eren was faster, stronger, and better trained. Adam made a move to stab him with the needle, but Eren used the movement to secure a grip on Adam’s exposed wrist. I lost sight of the needle for a moment, but Eren pulled himself up and landed a knee on Adam’s throat, pinning him. Without releasing his grip, he calmly removed the syringe from Adam’s clenched fist and slid it into his upper arm.

Eren tossed the syringe away and maintained his position while waiting for the drug to take effect. They locked eyes until Adam’s angry, grunting pant dissolved into a helpless growl. Finally, his eyes glassed over, and his struggle ended.

The Lieutenant was sitting, half-reclined, on the ground near a chair. She didn’t look to be much of a threat anymore, either.

Eren stood, straightened his uniform, and looked at me. “You okay?”

I gaped at him.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you,” he said gently, taking a step toward me. “He watches—”

“Back up ,” I said. “You stay away from me.”

He stopped in an instant, like someone had slammed a door an inch from his nose. “Charlotte. You have to understand—”

“What? That Adam was watching you? And that’s why you just had to let him keep me in stasis for five years ? That’s why you had to bring me back here to him?”

He swallowed, sorting his words before he spoke them out in a slow, careful string. “I was trying to protect you.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice breaking. He stepped toward me, and I backed away. I lifted my hand, and again, he stopped.

A moment passed, and he took a seat in the chair, defeated. “Charlotte, please. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Right.”

“He was following us the whole time. Every single word. I’m wearing a k-band , for goodness’— He can literally hear everything I do, and he knows when I’m lying. Look. I was so afraid he’d hurt you if he ever suspected me. I had to be completely sure you’d broken out before I could even think about…” Eren trailed off. “I had to fool you both . I practically had to fool myself. It was the only way to keep you safe. If I’d been wrong about you, or if he’d figured it out—”

“I just spent five years trapped in my own head,” I said, my voice hard. “With no control over what he did to me, or what he made me do. But it’s good to hear how safe I was that whole time.”

Some tiny, near-dead part of my mind knew that my anger was misplaced, at least in part, but the gray madness of Adam’s prison had pushed it so far down I couldn’t reach it. I was finally coherent, and my rage built to an apex.

I wanted Adam dead.

I wanted Eren gone .

I wanted to fly so far away that I never saw any of them, including this cursed ship, ever again.

I wanted my mom.

I was so caught up in the injustice of everything, in the newness of my mind’s freedom, that I didn’t see the shadow moving just outside my vision until it had grown too large to stop. “ Er— ” I began, but my word was cut short by a strangling pressure around my throat. Adam’s fingers were cold, but he was very much awake. His nails were barely longer than what could pass as normal, and they bit into the skin, like he was making a fist instead of just squeezing. He did not look me in the eye.

“Char!” Eren shouted, too late. He sprang from the chair, but the Lieutenant’s lumbering form was faster. I braced myself, preparing to fight her, too, but the world was already going dark. At the last moment, just as she was about to hit me, her body juddered and swung to one side.

I had the strange sensation that time had slowed, and I struggled to watch as she slammed instead into Adam. A strong jerk shook my vision as she delivered him another blow, and his grip on my neck finally loosened.

And then Eren was there, shoving her aside and hitting Adam so hard that he sprawled onto the ground next to me. I choked in some air and tried to stand. I couldn’t.

A few feet away, the Lieutenant’s slow gaze turned from me to Adam, and together, we watched him fade. Eren stood over his body, fists tight, and turned to look down at me.

“She—” I tried to speak, but was wracked by a cough.

“Lieutenant?” Eren said.

She looked at him mildly, like a puppy preparing for a nap. “Where am I?” she said.

“In headquarters,” said Eren. “You’re in stasis, mostly. I think.”

“Unlike Adam,” I said. “He has some kind of immunity?”

But instead of answering, the Lieutenant slumped to the floor. “I wasn’t always…” she said, and closed her eyes.

As I watched her, the knot in my chest doubled down, pulling tighter. Maybe Eren was right, and we were all just Adam’s prisoners.

But I was still out of breath and exceedingly unwilling to think about Eren right then. I knew the feeling that crept through me, and I hated it. It had only ever made me weak.