It was a few months later.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeta!" the enthusiastic young woman said, smiling at me. Beside her stood a man around her age with glasses and dark brown hair. "This is Roderich, my husband! You must be Alfred!"
I nodded, glancing around at their house. It was much bigger then the one Papa's and Dad's. It sort of looked like a mansion. "This place is nice," Matthew said, standing next to me. I nodded, "It's nice here."
"I'm a musician. I could teach you to play an instrument if you're interested, since you'll be living here from now on," Roderich said, giving me a small smile. I returned it, but mine was fake.
"Shall we go inside?" Elizabeta asked. I nodded and Roderich mumbled, "Yes." Matthew was still glancing around, but I pulled on his hand and he followed me inside.
It seemed even bigger inside the house, but it still seemed . . .well, homey. "Would you like me to show you to your room?" Elizabeta asked. I nodded and she led me to a huge staircase. We climbed up it and it led to a single room.
The colors in it consisted of red, blue, and white. "They told me, that you liked red, white and blue . . .so-"
"Thank you," I said, giving her a smile. "Could I have some time alone to adjust?" I asked. She nodded, "Of course." She climbed back down the stairs.
Once she was gone, I smirked. "A perfect place for us, huh Mattie?" I asked my brother. He nodded and sat on the bed. "They don't notice me, though," he said. "It's ok, Mattie! I can still see you!" I said, hugging him. He hugged me back, "Thanks Al."
"How do you think Papa's doing?" he asked me, once I had sat next to him on the bed. I shrugged, "Don't know. They still think he did that to you. It probably isn't fun to be in jail."
Matthew sighed, "Yeah. I still don't know why I did that, though."
"It was probably that voice," I growled. He stiffened next to me, "I'm sorry. I didn't know why, but I still listened to it. I know it wasn't Dad, though. You were right, he wouldn't tell me to do that sort of thing, like . . .well try to kill myself."
"Well, it's ok, now! That voice doesn't come back anymore, right?" I asked. "No, it's been gone for a while now," Matthew said. "Good."
"Could we go back to Elizabeta and Roderich downstairs? Maybe we should try to get to know them, since they seem nice," Matthew said. "Sure, Mattie!"
"How was it outside, Alfred?" Matthew asked me, sitting down next to me. "Ok, I guess. I met another patient, Kiku and he told me a lot of information about this place."
Natalia ignored both of us as she leaned against a wall in my room, her arms crossed. She'd been like this ever since I'd return from my adventure outside. It wasn't like we'd planned anything on how to escape, though. She'd just told me to observe and see if there was a way to get out.
"Like what?" Matthew asked. "That the director, Ivan and Katyusha, well it seems their family has always owned this place. Kiku said that Katyusha is also his nurse, but he has a different doctor. Someone named Yao . . ."
"Why is Kiku here?" Matthew asked. I shrugged, "He said that there's a rule here: You can't tell the other patients why you're here. Kiku seems nice, though, so I don't know why he's here."
"Al, YOU seem nice at first. Then you see the color red," Matthew said. I glared at him, "So what? I like red!"
"You know what I mean," he replied.
"And speaking of red, there weren't any plants that color!" I complained. Matthew sighed, "Well, seeing as what your reaction is too it, I'd assume they wouldn't."
"Oh and apparently Ludwig has an older brother," I said, changing the subject. I saw Natalia flinch from where she was standing, but I ignored it. "He does?" Matthew asked.
"Yeah. I don't know what his name is, but he has this whole HALF of the asylum to himself. It looks like that half is falling apart, though. I would think that Ludwig's brother would've tried to escape by now because it looks like the windows can be opened or broken."
"That's weird, I've never ran across him on my way to your room," Matthew said. "He's in room number 42," I said.
"YOU IDIOT!" Natalia suddenly yelled.
I looked at her, to see tears rolling down her face. "Natalia, what's wrong?" I asked, walking over to her. She backed away from me, "I told you to beware that room!"
"I know that. I didn't go in it, though. I was just curious as to what was in it," I said. She glared at me, "Gilbert ruined me and my family's life! I don't want the same thing to happen to you!"
Then she was gone. "Natalia! Wait!" I yelled, but it was too late. I turned around to ask Matthew if he knew what was wrong with her, but he was gone too.
"Both of you! Get back here now!" I yelled at the empty room.
Silence.
Your friends seem to have abandoned you, except for me. Just listen to what I have to say, the voice said. "I won't listen to you!" I yelled.
It took a while for the voice to leave. Eventually I just lied down on my bed, trying to fall asleep. I didn't fall asleep, but the voice did go away. I sighed and sat up, looking out the window. It was dark now and I could see the moon coming out.
To me it looked a cat's claw.
Wait . . .was that . . .blood dripping from the moon?
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to focus on something else.
Something other then red.
Red.
Blood.
No, don't think of that! Come on, Alfred, think of something else!
It took me a minute to calm down, but eventually my mind was on something else. I sighed and opened my eyes. My eyes widened at what I saw.
The whole room was no longer white. Blood was splattered everywhere. The walls, the chair and table, and it even covered me. Then I saw all the bodies on the ground.
Katyusha, Matthew, Natalia, even Kiku and I had just met him, Dad, Papa, Elizabeta and Roderich (even though I hadn't thought about them in a long time) and finally Ludwig.
All of them were covered in blood, but there was something different about a few of them.
For instance Katyusha just seemed to be covered in blood, there didn't seem to be any wounds on her.
Matthew looked fifteen, again, with the same stabs in him and even the same clothes from back then. Why is that?
Natalia looked around six years old, with the same type of nurse dress that Katyusha always wore. I could see that her right arm was barely attacked to her shoulder and where her heart was supposed to be, there was a giant empty hole.
Kiku was basically the same as Katyusha, he was just covered in blood, but there was a sickly sweet smile on his face.
Dad . . .it was the same as when I last saw him. Covered in blood, half of his face torn off . . .
Papa had a huge slit across his throat, but other then that there were no wounds.
Elizabeta had tons of stab wounds in her and her leg was pretty mangled.
Roderich . . .ummm . . .well to put this lightly when I first saw him, it was hard to tell it was Roderich. Why? Well . . .his body parts sort of . . .weren't all attached.
Ludwig had the most blood on him. I could see his left eye had been gouged out and there was a giant gash on his right arm. I also saw a huge cut across his chest, that was caked with dry blood.
At first I had started smiling at all the blood and red. Have I mentioned that I love red?
I didn't notice the specific bodies at first, though. Once, I noticed the bodies, though . . .I stopped smiling.
Especially when I saw Ludwig's body. For some reason, it upset me, seeing him like that. Even though I did love red and it did look nice on him . . .it just didn't seem right.
"Alfred? Alfred!" a voice (not THE voice) started yelling and my vision became fuzzy. The red covering the walls started disappearing and became white, again. The bodies on the floor also started to fade.
I closed my eyes and opened them, again, to see Ludwig standing in front of me. He looked normal, thankfully. I had been worried-
WAIT! Why had I been worried?
"Alfred? Are you ok?" he asked, sitting down next to me rather close. "I-I . . .there was red . . ." I said and felt myself shudder. "You had a vision?" he asked. "Yeah . . .wait how'd you know?" I asked.
"Lucky guess," he answered. "Ludwig . . .why are you here?" I asked.
"…"
"Tell me. You never visit me around this time," I said. "I . . .my bruder said that you would probably be seeing something bad. So I came to your room and heard a . . .laughter."
Had I been laughing? I don't remember that . . .hm, maybe I had been sub-conciouselly doing that. "Your brother?" I asked. "…Yes. He-sometimes I visit him, but Ivan doesn't know that I do."
"So your brother really is in that half of the building?" I asked. Ludwig nodded, "But, he's not free to run around there. He kept tied up . . ."
"Ludwig, is your brother's name, Gilbert?" I asked.
"How did you-"
"Lucky guess," I replied, smirking, but inside I was trying to connect what Natalia had told me about 'Gilbert ruining her and her family's life'. I could see Ludwig's usual blank eyes show a flicker of amusement, but it quickly disappeared. After all, I was technically insane and dangerous, but only if I saw the color red or felt like it.
"Can I ask why he's here?" I asked.
"Gilbert had a friend that he'd known since childhood. She was somewhat violent and sometimes hurt him, but they stayed friends. Eventually when they were around fifteen she found another friend. They eventually started dating and Gilbert got a little jealous. I was five years old at the time and our father was old and sick. Eventually he died and Gilbert took care of me, but I could see that he still had conflicting emotions with his friends."
"And?"
"He . . .sort of went on a killing spree. I don't remember all the details, but it seemed like a police officer had found Gilbert after he'd killed a few innocent people. I'm not sure what happened to the police officer, but after that Gilbert was stopped."
Hm, what was Dad's job again? Possibly a . . .police officer.
"He was sent here after the police heard him talking about voices talking to him and people being with him that no one else could see," Ludwig said.
"Then Elizabeta-" I stopped Ludwig from continuing.
"Elizabeta?" I asked in surprise. "Yes . . .that was Gilbert's friend . . ."
"Um, continue," I muttered. He did and I heard that Elizabeta took care of Ludwig with her family. When Elizabeta turned twenty, Roderich (her boyfriend) proposed to her and Ludwig was fifteen. He moved out of the house that Elizabeta and Roderich lived in and got his own apartment, finished high school . . .and I think you can figure out the rest. There was something else about the asylum, right after Gilbert got sent there, but I didn't really listen to that part.
"Ludwig . . .what happened to Elizabeta and Roderich?" I asked.
"About a year after I left them, I heard that they had been killed by an adopted child they had been taking care of," he answered.
No . . .NO! This could not be happening! It can't be . . .
"Ludwig, I need to tell you something, but don't be mad. You know that I killed a few people and that I can see people others can't and hear voices?"
"…..Yes."
"Well . . .those people that I killed . . .they were Elizabeta and Roderich."
I'll just leave you at that cliffhanger. A few notes, though. First, I may not be able to update the next chapter for a while 'cause we have these big tests at school that I REALLY need to study for (but I've been writing this story, instead), this week. Also, I don't like PrussiaxHungary, I very much prefer AustriaxHungary, but it just sort of worked for the plot and . . .yeah. Thanks to all who have read the story so far and to those who have reviewed! If there are more reviews, I'll probably write the story faster . . .even if it's a short review.
~Draconis