Warning: Mentions of attempted rape, Light gore, and cannibalism.

Green eyes stared back at her and Isabell wondered if they were somehow related. Levi had told her that there weren't a lot of people with green eyes in the underground. They were rarely opposed to the normal black and brown. But his eyes were bright, practically glowing and Isabel wondered if hers looked the same to his. 

The child in front of her tilts his head to the side, an air of curiosity around him. He was no longer looking her in the eyes, instead, his gaze traveled down to the bag of bread in her hands before looking back to her face. 

"Um, do you want some?" She's pretty sure that Farlan would skin her for offering up bread, even the bread he told her to buy and come straight back home. However, this was a kid, that barely went up to her waist and she was still a 'kid' in her brothers' eyes.

The boy only blinks at her with a bored expression before turning around to walk away.

"H-Hey!" She huffs as he keeps walking. His bare feet padding on the road. He acted like he hadn't heard her at all. Maybe he was deaf? That's what Farlan called people who couldn't hear. 

Still, there's just something about seeing a kid in an oversized shirt in a dark alley that tugs at her heart because she used to be like that before Levi picked her up. It was hard looking for food and somewhere warm and if this boy was deaf then it will be harder for him to get help wouldn't it? 

With her mind made up, she moves to reach out to him-

Only to realize he was gone. 

She blinks, looks left then right and silently curses because she literally just lost a child who was walking right in front of her thanks to her own thoughts. 

With another huff she turns and heads home. 

~~~

"You're late." 

"Sorry!" she squawks out an apology with a small bow. She expected to see Farlan when she came home but here was Levi, sitting at the wooden table they shared like he knew she was going to get sidetracked and he was going to catch her walk in. 

Truth be told, she was hoping it was Farlan waiting for her because with him he'd fuss at her and flick her forehead like usual. Levi, on the other hand, wasn't easy to read and the way he was staring at her looked like he was ready to pass judgment. 

She swallows and leaves her shoes at the door, careful to put them in her specific place. Then she turns, walks across the room and hands him the bag. 

"I met a kid today!" She blurts out because the silence was killing her. She flops down into the chair across from him as he delicately takes the bread out of the cloth bag, making sure no crumbs fall out. 

He raises an eyebrow at her, "And?" 

"He had green eyes Levi! Like me! You said there weren't that many people with green eyes but I found someone else-" 

"What's his name?" 

Isabel bit her tongue. 

Right, name. She hadn't even asked the kid his name. Isn't that the first thing you're supposed to find out about someone? 

She groans, head falling to the table, missing the way Levi's eye twitched when the table moved, causing his teacup to rattle a bit. 

"I don't know." She drags out, "I tried to talk to him but he kept walking, I think he's death-

"Deaf." 

"Yeah, that."

A hum. 

~~~~~

Farlan sees him next. 

Honestly, if it were not for Isabel's constant rambling about a small kid with eyes like hers, he would have easily looked over the kid. He's pretty sure he forgot the week-old conversation but apparently, the details were at the back of his mind because he was able to spot the child. 

It's pretty hard not to when the kid slams into his hip and Farlan lets out a curse, cause goddessdamnit that hurt. What the hell was this kid made out of? 

Farlan is quick to snatch the collar of his shirt and yank him forward. 

Only the kid doesn't budge. 

Instead, a noise similar to snarl comes out of his lips and he nearly takes a chunk out of Farlan's hand. Brows furrowed, green eyes narrowed to slits and lips pulled back to show teeth. On a child, it shouldn't look this feral, yet it does and Farlan drops the kid the second he feels teeth scrapes his skin and a loud clack as teeth come together. 

The kid makes another noise and pushes past him as if he's out on a mission to get to something while Farlan tends to his hand. There are small pink lines where the teeth scraped against skin. 

Farlan turns back around and the boy is gone. 

~~~~~~

A few days Isabel sees him again next, under dangerous circumstances. 

There's blood dripping from his mouth as he swallows thickly. Isabel watches the lump in his throat disappear into his chest. The man beneath him- that was on top of her mere seconds ago is dead in a bloody heap. He looks like he's been mauled by a bunch of rabid dogs. 

Isabel is scared. 

Scared that she almost got raped. Scared that this small child managed to rip a grown man off her. Scared that she watched him sink his nails and teeth into him. Scared that she watched him take a chunk out of the man's neck and swallowed. 

And he's still eating-

She throws up. 

The noise catches the boy's attention and he stops midway of taking another bite. His eyes are dark, pupils were blown as he stares at her. 

Levi and Farlan had warned her to come straight home the second she was done with her business at the market, but she wasn't prepared to be snatched up from behind and gagged. She wasn't prepared to be hit in the head with something blunt that's still making her ears ring and vision water. She wasn't prepared to see a child eat a man's neck and face off his body. 

The child sniffs, the sound echoing in the alleyway. It's too dark, no one comes back here unless something shady goes down. There's no traffic coming this way unless you planned it. 

She's still scared. 

Another sniff and Isabel manages to move her legs, force herself against the wall. Her naked back scrapes against the concrete but she doesn't care. 

The child stares at her with a frown before he reaches for his own collar, pulls his shirt over his head and throws the bloody shirt to her, leaving him in nothing but ragged shorts. It lands on the ground by her feet and he child goes back to doing what he was like nothing happened. 

Isabel carefully takes the shirt, wincing at the pain in her head and puts it on. The shirt presses to her skin where the blood is and she has to keep down the second wave of nausea. 

The child seems to be done with his meal and stares at her with a tilt to his head. He watches as Isabel stands to her full height, using the wall as support. She wipes her mouth and takes a few deep breaths, trying to look anywhere but the body on the ground. 

She needs to get home. 
~~~~~

It's not easy getting home. 

Mainly because she's wearing a bloody shirt and she can't take the main ways home, she has to stick to backroads which gives her more goosebumps and makes her even beyond paranoid. 

The second reason is that the kid is following her. 

He sticks close to her, so close that she can feel the heat radiate off his skin. Isabel tried shaking him off, even yelled at him and pointed in the opposite direction. He still follows. 

She gave up. 

It's well evening when she gets home and she's so exhausted. She just wants to scrub herself clean and shove some food in her mouth and go to bed. 

She comes up the backway to the house, searching the many cracks in the bricks to find the spare key. Then jams it in, rattles the knob like she was taught and shoulders her way in. 

The door isn't used to being open and there's a groan as it does so and Isabel pads in, the boy behind her and dear goddess he's tracking in blood Levi's gonna skin her-

"What the fuck-"

Around the corner stands Farlan, with a cleaning rag in one hand and an eating utensil in the other but Isabel doesn't care. She all but collapses on top of him. He almost falls but he wraps an arm around her waist, dropping the utensil and hand towel. 

"Oi Farlan, why are you..."

The silence was deafening. 

Isabel turns her face away from Farlan's neck, she's shaking a bit. 

"L-Levi I got blood on the floor." 

~~~~~
"H-He's dead. He killed him." Isabel whispers. 

After scrubbing herself clean, and being examined by her brothers, Isabel now sat on the floor in her room. 

"The kid?" 

Isabel nodded, eyes dark. "He- He ripped his neck out- with his teeth." 

Levi had was currently outside probably cleaning the floor. Farlan decided to stay with Isabel. 

The door to her room opens and Levi enters. His face is stone and he has a plate of food. 

"The kid's gone." He says as he sets the plate in front of her on the floor. Isabel quietly shoves the food in her mouth and it immediately tastes like shit. She won't waste it though, food is food. So she shoves it in her mouth and forces herself to chew. 

"He does that." She says after taking a few bites. "He helped me." She takes another bite of the meat on the plate. She's trying not to make a mess but her hands are shaking too bad. 

A hand places on her head and she stops midway of stabbing another piece of meat. 

"It won't happen again." Isabel can see the rage in his eyes. She nods her head instead of responding and sniffles. 

~~~~
The body was found three days later. 

Isabel does leave the house but she only leaves with one of them, and if she' more clingy than normal they don't say anything about it. 

Levi also meets the boy a day after that. 

In. The.  House. Covered. In. Filth.

He looks at Farlan who points at Isabel. She gives him a sheepish smile.

"He's been sleeping outside on the porch-" 

"Clean him, and then clean my damn floors." 

Isabel straightens with a smile and drags the kid to their small washroom.