The soft pitter-patter of rain hitting the windowpane had managed to pull a certain German out his sleep. Shifting to find a better position in bed, Ludwig ended up curling up next to another person in bed. A flash of lightning lit up the room, and a few seconds later the windows shook with the following thunder. Any hope of getting back to sleep was lost as the lightning became more frequent. Sighing, Ludwig sat up in bed. A slight nagging sensation at the back of his mind became more intense as he became more alert. He had had a strange dream.
But what was it about?
He shook his head to try and rid himself of the foggy dream. A soft snore brought his attention back to his bed. Ludwig chuckled, Feli had snuck into his bed again. The female lay sprawled out on the other half of his bed, with her half of the covers around her ankles and her auburn hair fanned out across her pillow. She was wearing the dress shirt he had lent her, since he refused to let her run around his house in the raw. A small smile crossed his lips as he watched her sleep. Reaching down he grabbed the covers and brought them up to cover the young Italian's sleeping form.
A strong bout of thunder shook the windows again, and Feli stirred slightly. Ludwig froze, his hands hovering over the female's shoulders, still holding the covers. The Italian shook her head slightly, "Holy Rome..." then her head lulled to the side and was peaceful again. Ludwig breathed out only realizing then that he had held it. He placed the covers lightly on her shoulder and returned to lying down again on his side of the bed. He put his arms behind his head, reflecting on Feli's comment. His eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Holy Rome?
Another bout of lightning lit up the room and was followed by the strongest sound of thunder yet so-far. The rain started to come down hard. Ludwig sighed as he looked out the window next to his bed, into the inky darkness of the night.
A soft golden light began to appear on the lower part of the wall directly across from the door. Ludwig tensed slightly as the slight sound of hard soled shoes came from the hallway outside his door. The light gradually became brighter as the footsteps neared his door. Then, when the light became its brightest, the footsteps stopped. Ludwig held his breath and slowly reached under his pillow. His fingers stretched out, groping around until they came in contact with something cold and smooth. He slid his hand up the object until he found the slightly rough handle of the object, his pistol. Pulling it out soundlessly, he kept his eyes locked on the brass door handle, waiting.
The footsteps started again, and the door knob wriggled then turned fully. The door opened slowly and the soft golden light poured in through the open door. Slowly, he raised his pistol and aimed it at where he thought the intruder's head would be. The footsteps started again and a small black silhouette appeared at the lower half of the door. Ludwig squinted, trying to let his eyes adjust to the light. After a minute, he was able to make out the features of the silhouette. It was a young boy, possibly six or seven years old with piercing ceruluean eyes and blonde hair. He was dressed entirely in black save for the small white cravat around his neck, and a black hat with gold trim. The boy was holding a candle in a small brass tray. Ludwig relaxed ever so slightly, but glared at the boy.
"What are you doing here, Jungen?"[1] he lowered his gun to rest on his thigh and looked the boy directly in the eyes.
As soon as he looked into the boys eyes, he felt as if his soul was sent flying from his body and into the depths of the boy's eyes. He could feel the boys' gaze probing his very being. After what seemed like minutes, the boy released him from his gaze. Ludwig relaxed only then realizing that he had frozen. After a moment the boy finally spoke.
"To help."
"Hmm... I see. What is your name?"
The boy placed the candle on the dresser off to his right and took two steps towards Ludwig. He then leapt into the air and onto the bed. Ludwig felt his eyes open wide with shock.
Wha-? How did he-? The bed is at least five feet from where he was standing!
The boy looked Ludwig directly in the face.
"I am the Holy Roman Empire."
Ludwig felt a wave of deja vu wash over him.
"I know you. I've seen you before... In a dream." the last part slipped out under his breath.
The Holy Roman Empire nodded knowingly. A hint of sadness hung in his eyes.
"Why are you here?" Ludwig demanded.
"I've told already. I'm here to help."
The boy huffed slightly, turning to look out the window at the storm outside before he stopped abruptly. His eyes locked on Feli. Ludwig felt confused as the empire stared longingly at the sleeping female next to him. Then it suddenly struck him.
"You're dead!"
The former empire snapped out of his staring to glare at the German.
"Yes, yes I am. To an extent."
"What do you mean to an ex-" but the former empire cut him off by leaping off the bed.
"Come. We have wasted enough time already." he said as he walked briskly towards the door. As he reached the door, he grabbed his candle and turned towards Ludwig. Unwillingly, Ludwig flung the covers back and climbed out of bed. He walked over to the door where the former empire stood waiting for him.
"Komm."[2] the empire commanded, before he walked out of the room and down the hall to the left. Ludwig turned to see if Feli was still sleeping before he closed the door leaving it cracked. He then jogged down the hallway to catch up with the Holy Roman Empire. Once he caught up with him, the former empire stopped, nearly causing Ludwig to bump into the small empire. Ludwig looked down in confusion at the former empire. The Holy Roman Empire had a mischievous glint in his eyes and was smirking.
"Keep close." and blew out his candle.
Instead of being plunged into darkness, Ludwig was blinded by a very bright white light. He yelped and covered his eyes.
"Scheisse!"[3] he yelled.
A voice sniggered from beside him, "You can uncover your eyes, the light is gone."
Slowly, he uncovered his eyes, seeing multicolored spots everywhere. He blinked rapidly, trying to rid himself of the spots. After a minute his vision returned to him, and he turned to take in his surroundings.
They were on hill that overlooked a small town that was nestled into valley. Ludwig could see some of the citizens walking through the streets. It was vaguely familiar to him. He could remember coming here, but when? He folded his arms across his chest and scanned his vague memories for the answer. The sound of the former empire clearing his throat brought Ludwig back to the present. He turned towards the empire.
"Where are we?"
"You'll find out in a minute. Follow me."
The empire walked past him and headed behind him. Ludwig turned to see that there was a fruit orchard behind him with a path that lead them away from the hill. A slight gust of wind brought the scent of the flowering fruits towards him. The empire stopped at the edge of the trees and stood waiting for him. He had a look of impatience written on his face, so Ludwig made sure not to dawdle. Holy Rome started into the orchard as soon as Ludwig was half way to the path.
"What's the rush?" Ludwig muttered under his breath.
But Holy Rome was too far ahead to hear the comment.
"I will tell you one thing."
The Holy Roman Empire stopped and turned to glare at Ludwig, his cerulean eyes deviling into Ludwig's sky blue ones.
"You must not interfere in any of the events that you see while we are here."
"Wha-"
Just as Ludwig tried to ask the young empire what he meant exactly by that, a ball about the size of a soccer ball came flying out from nowhere and smacked into Holy Rome's face. The young boy was sent somersaulting backwards before colliding face first into a nearby tree. Ludwig gaped at the boy as he slowly peeled his face from the tree. Holy Rome slowly turned around, his nose and forehead were red and a little bit of blood leaked from his nose. If looks could kill, the person at fault for the ball incident would be six feet under.
The sound of laughter and shouts of joy soon came into the orchard as three children came from behind Ludwig and rushed over towards their ball. A boy grabbed the ball, holding it over his head, he took off running straight into the orchard. Holy Rome leapt to his feet, his hat falling from its precarious perch, a dark aurora surrounded him as he gave chase to the children who continued to run after the other boy. Ludwig couldn't help but chuckle at the seemingly serious boy's actions. He shook his head chuckling, and started walking over to the abandoned hat. Leaning down on one knee, he reached pick it up. But as soon as his fingers brushed the rim of the hat, he was struck with another bout of deja vu.
"Weird..." he shook his head and picked the hat up, brushing it from any dust that could have gotten on it during its time on the ground.
Ludwig stood up, looking down the path at the tiny figures still running down the path. Then suddenly one of the figures fell. He sighed and started to jog down the path towards the fallen figure. After a minute he arrived at the fallen figure. It was Holy Rome, who was muttering under his breath.
"Stupid kids... Never respect their elders..."
"You alright?" Ludwig asked as he knelt down and placed the hat back on its masters' head.
Holy Rome sighed and pushed himself off the ground. "I'll be ok. Oh, and thanks for getting my hat."
Ludwig chuckled, "I'm surprised that you didn't scare the heck out of those kids with all of your screaming."
"O-oh, yeah about that..."
Holy Rome stood up and scratched the back of his head.
"We're kind of... invisible right now."
Ludwig narrowed his eyes at the emphasis on the word invisible, "What do you mean by invisible?"
Holy Rome sighed and turned away from Ludwig. He put his small hand on his chin while he thought. "How to put this with out giving the ending away... Hmm... AH! I've got it."
"Got what?"
Holy Rome turned back towards Ludwig, "We're ghosts in the past."
A minute of silence past between the two.
"Are you serious?"
"Yup."
"This sound a little too much like the Christmas Carol."
Holy Rome stared blankly at Ludwig. Then it struck Ludwig that the story wasn't around when the Holy Roman Empire was still in power.
"Never mind what I just said."
"Fine. Now that we have wasted so much time, we'll have to move at double time." he turned and started to run down the path. Ludwig stood up and ran after the young empire.
So how is the first chapter? Feel free to review and comment! I will accept constructive criticism!
Translations:
[1] Jungen - boy
[2] komm - come
[3] schiesse - shit