FANFIC- OF PHANTOMS & POLTERGEITS CH 8, Part 2
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The night sky was cloudless for once, leaving the moon’s gaze unobstructed.
When the great grandfather clock struck midnight Alfred jumped out from bed. He went to the other side of the room to wake his brother. He found Matthew to be fast asleep, grumbling something about maple syrup when he shook his shoulder.
“Mnn? What is it?” Matthew yawned.
“Time to go, Mattie,” Alfred said. Matthew tossed the covers over his head.
“Go on without me,” Matthew said groggily.
“Come on, Mattie! You said you were coming. ‘The voice of reason,’ remember? Come on, I can’t do this without you,” Alfred whispered urgently, shaking Matthew.
“Fine!” Matthew sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Figures that Alfred would remember something he said only to use it against him. Matthew threw on a red hoodie on top of his pajama top.
“You’re going like that?” Alfred asked, scrutinizing the hoodie with distaste.
“Yes! Now, let’s move,” Matthew said as he pushed Alfred out the door. Alfred tried to keep himself from thinking about ghosts. If he didn’t think about them so much then maybe he wouldn’t be so scared.
Alfred formed some mental chant that he repeated to himself while he and Matthew walked down the large staircase to the ballroom. When the two had reached the ballroom, they found Francis and Ivan already there waiting for them.
Francis opened the door for them and motioned for them to come in. Ivan entered first with Matthew following, dragging a semi-reluctant Alfred behind him.
There had already been a table set up in the center of the room. It was a small, round table surrounded by four small chairs. Alfred gulped.
“D-did you?”
“I went through the liberty of setting up ahead of time,” Francis explained.
“Uh, right! It’s not like I thought it was ghosts or anything,” Alfred said nervously. Alfred noted that the table was empty of any special equipment. There was only a simple table cloth with a basket of bread and unlit candles on top of it.
“Aren’t we going to use a crystal ball or an Ouija board or something?” Alfred asked. Francis shook his head.
“Unfortunately, we are in short supply of such things. We shall have to make do with what we have,” Francis said.
“You are not frightened, are you, comrade?” Ivan asked almost playfully.
“No! Of course not!” Alfred exclaimed. It angered him that Ivan would suggest such a thing (no matter how true it was). Heroes weren’t afraid of anything!
“Well, shall we get started, mes amis?” Francis sat in the center and motioned for Matthew to come sit next to him. Alfred gave Francis a look, one that suggested that he should keep his hands to himself. Alfred sat down next to Ivan, who smiled at him. Alfred found the smile to be strangely reassuring.
“Ready?” Francis asked. They all looked at Alfred, who nodded weakly. Francis rummaged through his pockets and pulled out some matches. He lit one match and then the candles. He blew out the match when he finished.
“Now we must join hands.” Francis started by grasping Matthew’s hand. Matthew gestured for Alfred to take his hand. Ivan took hold of Alfred’s other hand and gave it a light squeeze. Alfred nodded appreciatively. When they all held hands, Francis cleared his throat.
“Repeat after me: Beloved spirits, we bring you gifts from life into death. Commune with us, and move among us,” Francis prompted. The rest repeated after Francis, chanting the words in unison.
Alfred closed his eyes shut, expecting a ghost to appear out of nowhere. Ivan squeezed his hand, encouraging Alfred to be brave. Alfred opened his eyes and found that nothing had happened.
“Now what?” Alfred whispered, afraid that any lingering spirits would hear him and be encouraged to come forth.
“We wait. With my signal we shall repeat the chant,” Francis said softly. Alfred nodded. Part of him wished that nothing would happen. That he would be able to go back to bed without seeing a single ghost. Then there was that other part of him, the part that wanted to know more about Arthur, the part that wanted to help Arthur in any way he could. Besides, heroes weren’t scared of anything! He could handle a few…undead…er…people.
After they had waited for a few minutes, Francis had nodded to them, signaling that it was time to repeat the chant.
“Beloved spirits, we bring you gifts from life into death. Commune with us, and move among us,” they chanted once more. Once again, nothing happened. They waited in silence for a few minutes before Alfred let out a frustrated groan.
“They’re not coming! Let’s just go,” Alfred urged them. Francis shook his head.
“They are here, hiding in the shadows, observing what we’re doing. They are just not willing to communicate with us. We must try to draw to them to us. And Alfred, if you really think that you cannot handle this, perhaps you should leave-“
“No! I said I was going to do it and I am. I’m not scared,” Alfred said stubbornly. Francis sighed.
“Non, you do not understand, mon ami. The spirits, they sense your fear. Mauvais spirits, they feed off this and we do not want to draw such spirits to us,” Francis said.
“Mauvais?” Alfred asked, looking to Matthew for help.
“Evil,” Matthew explained to Alfred.
“E-evil! You said nothing about evil ghosts! Normal ghosts are bad enough-“ Alfred stopped. He felt Ivan’s hand squeezing his own. Alfred turned to look at Ivan who smiled at him gently.
“Let me try something,” he continued when he received a nod from Francis,” рода духи, kind spirits, can you please give us a sign to show us that you're present? We wish you no harm, but only to communicate with you and help our fallen comrades.”The four looked around, trying to see if there was any reaction from any spirits.
After a few minutes, there was some flickering from the outside.
“What’s that?” Alfred asked.
“Probably someone is turning on some lights outside. Maybe we should go?” Matthew suggested. A cold wind entered the room, making the four shiver.
“Why? I thought you were looking for some answers,” a high-pitched voice said. The four looked at each other, trying to determine who had said that. Alfred froze when Matthew had gestured behind him. Alfred turned and saw the apparition of a young girl, twelve years of age, wearing a long white bed gown. The apparition was ghostly in appearance save for her eyes, which gleamed a beautiful green.
“T-thank you for coming,” Alfred mumbled. The girl smiled.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” the girl chuckled, bringing her sleeve to her mouth, trying to hide her amusement.
“We?” Ivan asked. The girl nodded.
“The others are…hesitant to approach you,” she pointed to Alfred,”since you socialize with that boy, the one with the green eyes and blond hair.”
“Artie?” Alfred asked. The girl nodded. Alfred frowned. He remembered when he and Arthur had first seen the ghost…portal. A female ghost had screamed when she saw Arthur. Alfred never found out why.
“Why?” The girl frowned.
“We suspected he was like the other one. But with what has occurred it seems that we were wrong,” the girl surmised.
“What do you mean? How is Arthur like this other one? Who is this other person?” Francis asked.
“They’re both different. They can see things that normal people can’t see. They have power over us, which was why we feared them, both of them. But it appears that your friend had good intentions and we were wrong to judge him so quickly,” the girl stated, a mournful expression crossed her features.
“Who was behind the attack? What happened to all those people in the ballroom?” the girl looked surprised.
“You of all people should know. The culprit has been following you for the longest time,” the girl explained. Alfred looked surprised. Someone was following him?
“Following Alfred?” Matthew frowned. “But I haven’t seen anyone following Alfred. Is it a ghost? A spirit like yourself?” Matthew asked, echoing Alfred’s own questions.
“No, it is not a spirit. It’s a monster that lives in the shadows and lives off fear and anger. It’s been following you for quite some time. Your blonde friend noticed this. He tried to protect you from it.”
“He did?” Alfred asked. The girl nodded. Alfred felt …lost. The more questions they asked, the more lost he became. A shadow monster was following him and was behind the attack on Arthur and the other people. Arthur knew that the shadow was following him but said nothing about it.
“What-“
“No more questions. I’m afraid that’s all we can do for you. We jeopardize our safety by being here,” the girl said, a fearful expression crossing her features. She slowly began to fade. As she faded, the wind in the room began to pick up and grew stronger.
“But you can’t go! Please! I have to know why! Please! Come back!” Alfred yelled over the sound of the rushing wind. The wind grew stronger until a loud shrill cry was heard and then the room settled down as if nothing had happened.
“What just happened?” Matthew asked. Alfred sunk into his chair, running a hand through his hair. He closed his eyes and sighed. He hated the fact that he was no closer in understanding what was going on. The ghosts feared Arthur because he was like ‘someone else.’ Who was this person? Why did the ghosts fear them? Why were the ghosts here in the first place? The girl’s attire along with some of the ghosts’ he had seen on his first day were old-fashioned clothing, clothes that had not been worn over decades. And the shadow. What was it? Why was it following them? Why had it attacked Arthur and the other people? Were there more people behind this?
“Alfred, we should get going. You ok?” Matthew asked softly, placing a comforting hand on Alfred’s shoulder, a worried expression on his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine, Mattie. Don’t you worry about me,” Alfred said boldly. Matthew shook his head disapprovingly before urging his brother to move.
A loud jingle of the doorknob froze everyone in their tracks, startling them. They stared at the doorknob as it jingled and rattled. Alfred almost feared it was another ghost. With a loud violent click the door flew opened, revealing a large dark figure.
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The colorful caravan sat in its usual spot, harboring two guests from the ones who were searching for them. The wind chimes clinked as a gentle breeze passed, creating a soft melody. A woman, one who was not as young as she used to be, walked up the steps. She frowned when she found the door unlocked. She could have sworn that she had locked it. She shrugged the incident off. She must have forgotten. She wasn’t as young as she used to be. She grew more forgetful with each passing day.
She stepped inside the caravan, inspecting the interior. Something was different. She could sense it. She searched the interior and found the curtain was open, revealing two intruders sleeping in her small bed. She nodded to herself. She had foreseen their arrival. She had not expected them to come so soon though.
She walked towards the slumbering youths, inspecting them. They were different from the others. She continued to gaze upon them until she knew how exactly these two individuals were different from the rest of the attractions. She nodded to herself. It made sense. She went to her chair and sat in it. She fished through the messy table until she had found her tarot cards. These two would want an explanation. The cards would help her explain their situation to them.
And she waited. She felt almost inclined to wake them were it not for their peaceful expressions. She let them dream. Dreams were sometimes the only escape a person had. She would not take that from them. No, they needed to rest. They had a long journey ahead of them, a dangerous one at that. They would need to be well-rested before returning home.
The woman gazed at the small window. She could see the cloud-filled sky. The clouds formed shapes of doors, knives, hourglasses and masks [4]. The woman sighed. She hoped for the best for the two, knowing that they needed luck more than anything.
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“What are you doing here?” an angry voice boomed out. Alfred scowled at the voice. He recognized that voice and had grown to dislike it very much.
“Hello William.”
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[1] Lily= Liechtenstein . Finally some other Hetalia characters make an appearance.
[2] Yes, Alfred is using Clue or Cluedo to try to find out what happened to Arthur. The green piece is named Mr. Green in the pre-2002 North American editions. He’s otherwise known as Reverend Green. I’m old school plus I grew up with the green piece being Mr. Green so that’s what I’m going with.
[3]He’s known as Mr. Boddy in the North American editions. He’s Dr. Black in other editions. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, Mr. Boddy is usually the victim and the game’s purpose is to figure out who killed Mr. Boddy, in what room he was killed in and with what weapon. In the 1985 comedy film, Clue, in ending C, Mr. Boddy has actually set up the whole meeting.
[4] Divination symbols. Doors mean portal. Hourglass means running out of time. Knife means hidden enemy. Masks mean something hidden.
A/N: Why am I writing about ghosts and séances when I’m terrified of ghosts? Normally, such types of séances usually use a Ouija board but the things freak me out so I decided not to write about them.
There’s WAY too much dialogue in this chapter. =A= And I know that some of you are probably screaming with rage at the historical inaccuracies that are in this chapter. Yes, séances and other supernatural experimentations (e.g. spiritualism) started to become popular in mid-19th century in England. France’s tight relationship with the Catholic Church prevented such trends to ever gain hold until later on. I just embellished a little to make things more dramatic. And the approach that I went with is more of a mixture of a more traditional approach and a modern informal approach.
Did anyone catch the Russia/America hintings going on? :O
And forgive me for my lame Russian and French. I used google translate seeing as I know very little French or Russian. If I made any mistakes, feel free to point them out so that I may correct them.
I pushed off the Alfred-William confrontation once more. -3- At least you have something to look forward to next chapter, eh? ;D
Updates: To be honest with you guys I haven’t really been in a writing mood lately. I’ve gotten obsessed with Olimpos, which, unfortunately, isn’t helping me write. I also got some midterms and papers coming up so I probably won’t have as much free time to write. In other words, I’m not sure when the next update will be. I do know that it’s probably going to be a very lengthy chapter.
I’m also letting you guys vote for a ‘sequel’ (or triquel, if that makes any sense). I have some ideas for a continuation of this story but I want to know if people would be interested in reading it. If there seems to be no interest in it, I probably won’t write one.
There’s also only 3 chapters left. ^^