Sta.sh
February, the twenty-sixth.
I looked at the calendar and sighed, my hand running on the page.
Another year... Another year from that day.
I turned, looking for my coat.
Perhaps there was time... Time to visit him.
I took my coat and wore it, the frozen air of the ending winter pricking my cheeks.
Every step, he was nearer. That was the day, the day of his ending... The day of our beginning.
I turned to his house, his big house that shared with his brother.
That wouldn’t pass as much as I did...
Reaching the door, I slowly knocked on it.
No answer.
I knocked again.
Nothing.
That wasn’t strange... He was probably sleeping.
But why did I have that weird feeling...?
I put my hand on the doorknob, and the door opened effortlessly.
I peeked inside, to see all in order; no knives thrown around, no broken pots, and no blood on the floor.
It all seemed oddly... Normal.
I got in the house, closing the door behind me.
The doorknob clicked closing...
So the door wasn’t broken. It was open... And he usually didn’t forget to close the door...
The place was silent.
Too silent.
“Gilbert?” I called him.
He couldn’t be outside.
He couldn’t be anywhere else but there... His house...
I walked among the corridors, searching for him.
Where could he be?
Perhaps...
.
.
.
His head on the floor.
.
His eyes closed.
.
His hair, messed around his face.
...
“Gilbert!!!” I cried, kneeling next to him.
There, in the middle of the kitchen he was, limp, laying on the floor.
I shook him. No blood, no scars, nothing. Perhaps he had just passed out...
“H...Hn...” I looked at him, mumbling in sleep. “I-Ivan... Stop---!”
“Gilbert please wake up” I told him, caressing his cheek.
But he didn’t.
“...Nein!” he continued to talk in his sleep, his expression worried ”D-Don't.... take... West...! I-I...”
I hugged him. But he started to struggle... “What--- Nein!... Not her! Not Nata-”
He froze.
“It's me!! It's me!!” I told him, trying to make him snap back to reality “Come on!! Wake up!!”
“NEIN!” He yelled “N-NATALYAAAA!”
He snapped his eyes open... just to meet mine.
“I'm here” My voice seemed a whisper compared to his previous tone.
“E-ehm...” He mumbled.
I looked at his eyes. Tears were in them. “S-sorry...”
He hugged me; I hugged him back.
“I'm here...it's all over” I said, my hands on his back.
“J-ja...” He was... He was trembling!
“It's over....you are safe!” I repeated him.
He blinked. “R-right..”
“I’m here...” I kissed him.
In the moment my lips met his, he seemed to stop to tremble... Perhaps he was calming down...
“S-sorry... I didn't want to make you worry..” He said, looking in my eyes.
I caressed his cheek. “It's ok.....I'm here... And I love you”
“I-I love you too...” Was his reply.
He smiled a little, then shook his head. “I just had... nightmares”
“It's...natural today...” The day of the dissolution of Prussia...
Then I turned a little, seeing the clock.
Darn, it was late...
“I can't stay long” I stated.
“N-no!” He gripped my hand “If you go... he will return!”
I shook my head. “He won't....he won't”
“H-he will!” He looked around him.
“No.... you are safe!!” I tried to reassure him.
“Th-this is because... You're here” He looked around, then at me.
“No... you are safe! He can't hurt you” I repeated.
“Nein!” He shook his head “He is here... Somewhere...”
I looked into his eyes. “Do you trust me??” I needed to calm him down...
He nodded “But he will come when you'll go...”
“No...he won't...I swear” I smiled.
He looked around him, still not calm.
I hugged his head tight...
And that’s when I heard something.
Footsteps.
“C...can you hear...” His low voice came to my ears, while the footsteps came closer.
Screw all! Who was there? I looked around, also a little scared.
“I... told you..” He whispered.
I turned around, and there was...
Ivan.
Ivan!?
He smiled, one of his stupid childish smiles. “Kol?~”
I was... stunned. “What are you doing here??
”
He waved at me. “Hello sister~”
...What!? “Go!!! you upset him” I replied, pissed off.
“But I'm having fun~” “It's not fun!!” I interrupted him “He is trembling!”
Ivan didn’t do anything but pout.
“Gilbert??” I turned to the Prussian, that was looking at Ivan scared.
“I-I told you!” He turned at me, pointing at him “He's been chasing me for... all afternoon!”
I started to worry. “You did?????”
Ivan smiled again.
“A-and I think he reached me... His hand touched the back of his head.
Now I was worrying more... “What did he do??”
He scratched the back of his head. “The pipe... And I collapsed...” He stopped for a moment. “...I think”
My head snapped. “Did you really hurt him Ivan??”
Ivan didn’t consider me but turned to Gilbert. “You see?” Gilbert stared blankly at him back “Even she thinks you are crazy. She thought that you having hallucinations was normal”
Gilbert looked down. “S--shut up”
“You are both pathetic.” His gaze enlarged on me too. “No one likes you so you teamed up......The dead guy and the whore....You hate each other and you still...” He seemed... disgusted. “...Try”
“Stop...” He tried to stand up “But we have a reason to live... You don't have one” His fists clenched.
I stared at him. What was he going to say?
His calm voice replied little after. “Yes I do...see you burn”
Oh no.
I saw rage in Gilbert’s eyes.
Oh no no no...
I tried to hold Gilbert back. But he got away from my grip, standing up in front of him.
“Y-you bastard!” He yelled “You want me to burn? Stop threatening me and put me on fire then! But when I'll be burnt, you won't have anything left to do. Who will you kill if is there is noone but you?” He paused. The silence was tense, his whole body shaking from rage, not from fear anymore. “Who!”
I was losing the situation...
“Gilbert stop!!! Ivan go!!!” I yelled, trying to overhang his voice, my hands locked in a hug.
He struggled. “What do you say now? What?” His voice was full of rage.
“Gilbert stop!!” I cried “You are not in condition!!!!”
“I... I can!” He continued to struggle in my arms. In Ivan’s eyes, there was... Amusement.
“No you can’t!!! Stop!!!”
Ivan smiled.
He got nearer to him, patting Gilbert's head with a single, clear movement of his hand.
“Well, shall I leave now? Goodnight, dears~” He grinned. “Hope you have nightmares again, Gilbert!” And he started to walk out.
Now there was rage in my eyes... How could he dare?
I trew a knife at him. How I wished it struck him in the heart...
His eyes blinked and he grabbed it by the blade, with his hand.
Only his glove got cut.
“Don't you ever touch him again!” I yelled at him.
I didn’t think he heard me.
Did it matter? I held my Gilbert tight...
There were no problems, until we were together...
.
I closed my eyes for a second...
.
I was there...
.
He was with me...
.
“Don’t I ever touch him again?”
My eyes snapped open.
Ivan!? I had just seen him close the door and go away!
But now he was... Upon us!
His eyes were glowing, his mouth drawing a small kolkolkol, and in his hand...
In his hand, my knife.
Pointed to us.
...
No, no, no...
It-it couldn’t happen...
My heart skipped a beat.
“Nein!” I saw Gilbert standing up.
Their faces were close now... But the knife was closer...
To his belly... No, to his heart!
“G-Gilbert!” I cried, trying to stand up.
But it was like I couldn’t keep myself in balance...
“Come here, Gilbert” A cracked smile formed on his lips.
No, no... This wasn’t on the plan...
I had to stand up...
For him...
They looked at each other’s eyes.
Then Ivan made a step.
Gilbert made a step back.
What were they doing!?
Ivan did another, and Gilbert backed off.
No.. He was going to lose... I couldn’t let him...
My knives... Where were them when I needed them?
Oh, perfect. He had my last knife...
And I couldn’t even get up...
Why...
I looked up at them.
Gilbert was still walking backwards, Ivan getting closer and closer to him.
And that knife... Near to his chest...
Tac.
Gilbert’s back knocked the wall.
“Dead end” Ivan said, his eyes glowing.
What to do?
.
Cry?
.
Yell?
.
Reach them?
.
.
.
I was... frozen... And that...
...
That was, the end...
Chest to chest.
Gilbert, Ivan.
I looked at him... His red eyes, staring into his...
And they weren’t sad, or worried.
They were just... Angry...
I had to get up, I had to do something!
I had to!
I couldn’t... Let him go... Like that...
.
A tear flew from my eye.
.
A single tear...
.
.
.
Blood.
Crimson blood, running on the floor...
The blood... Of my loved...
I had told him...
That wasn’t fair.
He would have had my revenge... Yes...
My... Revenge!
Nobody escapes Belarus’s revenge!
Nobody!!!
My eyes were burning.
I lifted my head and...
.
.
.
What!?!
The knife... My knife... Wasn’t turned how it was supposed to be...
The blade... Was turned.
On Ivan’s chest.
I stood up, my eyes wide.
“G-Gilbert!?”
Gilbert’s hand left his grip.
The knife fell on the floor, the sound of the fallen blade echoing.
Gilbert’s eyes were fixed on Ivan’s chest.
A deep wound, the most deep I had ever seen.
And Ivan fell to the ground, limp, like a dead.
Or perhaps, because he was...
He was... He was dead!
I blinked.
That... That was impossible...
“Gilbert... You... You...” I muttered.
He turned to me, his empty gaze.
And then he laughed.
But it wasn’t his usual laugh...
It was an insane, weird laugh...
Oh no.
.
.
.
That... That couldn’t be!
“Gilbert!” I yelled to him.
He stopped and looked at me, a strange smile on his lips. “Natalya!” He opened his arms.
That smile... The only place where I had seen it before...
It was...
On Ivan’s lips.
.
.
.
-You can’t kill him, Natalya. Even if you want to.
-Wh-what? Why! I can do it! He is unarmed!
-If Ivan dies, a new Ivan will come... You can’t escape from that.
-What do you mean!?
-The hand of the one who will take his life away... Will take his soul with him.
-S-so you tell me...
-Da. If you kill him... You kill yourself.
.
.
.
My sister’s eyes, suddenly filling with tears... Like always...
...
“Natalya!”
I jumped, back to reality.
Gilbert was in front of me.
But he... He wasn’t, Gilbert.
He was...
“Natalya~”
His eyes looked in mine.
His pale skin, his white hair, his red lips... He seemed the same...
But his eyes.
His eyes locked in mine.
His bloody red eyes were not as crimson as they were...
They were...
Violet.
Like a field full of violets.
But they were... Deadly violets...
“Natalya?~ Why don’t you answer to me? The one you love?”
His voice hurted my ears.
He wasn’t him.
He was... Lost... In the worst way...
I looked down.
No chance to bring him back...
No chance to see his true smile again...
No chance to kiss his lips again... Like I would do...
“Natalya” He looked at me, his gaze trying to seem worried.
“Why are you doing that?” He lifted my chin to his “I love you...”
These words hit me like a sting in the heart.
He wasn’t him... Then why did I still search him...
He wasn’t in there...
He was just trying to...
.
.
.
Let him.
...
It was better to let him...
I placed my lips on his, his now cold ones.
On his eyes, a mischievous smile.
He put his hands on my back.
He wanted me... To become one.
I didn’t break the kiss, standing on my tiptoes.
But if it was too late for me to save him...
I looked at his cross, there, on his neck.
Then I couldn’t be saved neither.
.
.
.
A tear fell on the floor.
A crimson tear.
...
And I fell.
Lifeless.
I was going back...
Back to my loved...
.
.
.
My ears catched a little sighing sound.
I blinked, catching my breath.
What had happened?
Wasn’t... I... dead?
I rubbed my eyes, and lifted my head.
He was there...
With me...
I wanted to say something, but what?
The words got out of my throat unthinkingly. “Don't do that again!”
He put a hand on his forehead. “I-I...”
“You?”
“I must do it”
“Do what?? Get yourself killed??”
He stared at me blankly.
Tears were in my eyes. “Ok....Go get yourself killed! I'm done”
“N-no. .” he mumbled, looking at me.
“I try for you...”
My eyes met his crimson ones.
“But I won't just stay and see you burn.”
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