Title: "Shadows"
Author:
shuriken7Claim: America
Prompt: 3. Pain from Table 1 @
50ficlets, 10. Years @
fanfic100Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 263
Summary: America is forced to face himself on the eve of the Civil War.
Notes/Warnings: This is a snapshot piece. APH deals with the personifications of nation-states. Some stories will be historical in nature, others will be examining them as just people.
“In Dixie Land I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie...” the doppelganger said as he raised the rifle to his shoulder to aim. The accent was from the southern states, not the clipped northern accent he spoke in.
America stared at the other him. He had been there like a ghost, creeping through the halls of congress, shadowing his steps for many years. America feared ghosts and this one seemed to cling to him. He was there, always, hovering in his footsteps. He had wanted to ask if anyone could see this other America, the silent one that was always next to him. However, America was too frightened to ask, as if the acknowledgement of him would make him real.
The sound of the rifle had been all he had heard. That ringing shot that seemed to silence all other sounds. After that it had just been the pain, the pain of a bullet ripping through his shoulder, tearing as it came out the other side. The world narrowed to that single point, the point where his own image held the rifle to his shoulder. The rifle that smoked from the shot.
America jolted from his sleep, clutching the point where the wound had been. It was not there. There were loud knocks coming from his door.
“Yes?” he said, hoping his voice did not shake too much.
“Fort Sumter has just surrendered to the Confederates.” said the politician at his door. It had begun, the first shots had been fired between himself and the ghost that had become solid.