HetaOni: Italy's Story

Chapter 9: Terror

Japan's POV:

I awaken from the memory possibility, feeling sick to my stomach. That gruesome scene. Everyone massacred. Everyone but myself and Itary-kun. It was the most horrible bloodbath I've ever seen. And I've been around for over two millennia. I feel like screaming and clawing at my eyes and ears... To get rid of the blood and screams that still haunts my mind. I shudder hard. In all my years...

Chuugoku-san, who's already awake, sees my rapidly paling face, reads the warning signs, and immediately lunges for the nearby wastebasket, pushing it to me just in time for me to empty the contents of my stomach into it. I haven't thrown up like this since the end of World War II.

"Japan?" China asks me quietly, when I'm done, rubbing my back to help calm me down. I'm physically shaking. I feel cold and hot at the same time, but I also feel immeasurably better now that I've finished with the wastebasket.

I look around, finally able to observe my surroundings. I'm only the third—or fourth, if Germany-san saw something this time—to wake up. As it is, China, Germany, Russia, and myself are the only ones awake so far. Odd. Itary-kun is usually awake by this point...

Something feels wrong. A sinking feeling in my stomach that has nothing to do with what I saw. "Japan? Are you okay, aru?" China asks again. Oh, how unlike me. To zone out like that...

"H-hai... arigatou... I just saw... A terrible blood-bath..." I whisper to him, the scene flashing behind my eyelids. I fight the urge to dry-heave again.

I notice that China-san also looks greatly disturbed and pale. "Are you okay?" I ask him.

"Not really, aru... But I'll be fine..." I nod my head, knowing not to push it. Now that I'm looking, I notice that everyone who's woken up is pale and shaking. I see I'm not the only one who saw something horrible... Perhaps Itary-kun was right... Perhaps we shouldn't have broken this clock... Perhaps it was one too many...

One by one, everyone starts to wake up in varying states of distress. England wakes up with a jolt, tears running down his face as he chokes back a sob. America wakes up lunging for England, sobbing into his shirt, and Canada wakes up pale and shaking and unnaturally still, a haunted look in his eyes. Prussia wakes up grasping his chest, as if in pain, panting and sweating with a look of absolute horror, as he clings to his little brother for reassurance. France wakes up with a yelp, falling to his side, as he grips his arm, hyperventilating, grabbing at it frantically, as if to make sure that it's still there. China and I have to talk him through his panic attack to get him to breathe normally again. Spain wakes up next, yelling something about Romano. Then Romano wakes up in a flurry of panic, frantically searching for his brother, only calming once he sees Itary-kun still sitting in the clock-induced trance.

That's when I see something wrong. While the others are talking about how strange it is that Itary-kun hasn't woken up yet, I see Itary-kun's face scrunching up in pain, though it's hard to see, it's becoming more noticeable by the second.

"Everyone..." I say quietly, catching their attention. "Something's terribly wrong." I say as they follow my gaze to Itary-kun.

"Oi! Fratellino?!" Romano cries out, about ready to try to shake him awake, when Itary-kun wakes up himself.

I'll never be able to forget Itary-kun's soul-piercing, agonized, tortured scream. He screams so loudly that blood starts trickling out of his mouth, as tears start streaming from his eyes. I notice, vaguely, that the tears coming from his left eye are slightly pinkish, but I push the thought back. Now was not the time.