Chapter Four: Looking Through Flesh Curtains
Warnings: Unintentional Self-Injury, Violence, Blood, Loss of Sanity
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Italy's POV
My skin is squirming all over, and my brain feels like syrup. I want an answer as to why my body feels so weird. Did I accidentally eat bad food? I can't remember anything except this weird feeling. The unfurnished room around me isn't helping.
Looking down, I see dirty hands and feet coated in a sticky red substance. I'm hoping that it's sauce, but for some reason my body remembers something painful. There are special curtains of skin on my stomach which interest me. Maybe there's a show inside of me that's playing.
Roughly, I pick at the scabbed curtains and dig my hands into the slit.
"I want to watch your show," I said calmly. I hear something similar to the beating of a drum inside which is so enticing. "Let me in, please." When I try to pull the curtains apart, I feel pain for some reason.
Finally, I cracked open the curtains and let out a scream of agony. The show isn't very welcoming and the curtains are burning me. When I looked down I only saw something absolutely disgusting. The red drum that I heard looked odd; it was beating without a drummer and pulsed rapidly. Pink bags were filling and emptying very quickly. My body was in pain that couldn't be stopped and shutting the fleshy curtains did nothing to help. I feel as though I am on fire even though I know it to be untrue; I see no flames surrounding me. Maybe the fire is invisible.
"I'm sorry I snuck in to your performance! Stop burning me!" I screamed at whoever was behind this. No one listened to my apology, and the invisible flames continued to nip at me. "Grant me forgiveness! I'll do whatever you want, just put the fire out!"
I wonder if kicking the director out would do anything to stop the flames from engulfing me. I figure that it's worth a try. In an attempt to stop the pain, I cracked the pale curtains open and screamed. Through tears I spoke loudly, "I demand that this end! If you do not obey, I'll hurt the director!" The director did nothing to quell the flames, so I picked up the bumpy pink snake that must be in charge of this. I screeched in agony, but I didn't let the rising flames stop me. I pulled the entire snake out and threw him at my feet. "Surely your show will fall apart if there is no one to lead it!" I screamed angrily at the snake. He had no words to say so I proceeded to stomp on him until he died. Despite the death of their dear director, the drum continued to play and the flames that punished me refused to stop. Perhaps I'll have to kill the entire band.
I scanned over my room to find something of use and saw a TV that was showing a person that looked like me. I moved my hand and the person moved his hand as well. Why am I on TV?
"Do you make a mockery of me, director?!" I yelled at the corpse. I picked up the snake and threw it at the screen. "Such a cruel man shouldn't make me into a part of his show! Free me from your hellfire or I'll massacre your band!" As the flames burned harshly, I figured that was his silent answer and began to tear apart everyone resting behind the curtain. Though it pained me, I ripped out a slender pink snake that was much longer than the director. One by one, a few performers were torn from the fleshy curtains. I screamed in agony due to the flames spreading all over the stage and I soon came to the realization that the curtains, the stage, and performers were all a part of me. How cruel of the director to manipulate me in such a way. He punished me for watching a show that took place on my stage, used my curtains, and stole performers from me.
"You are a thief, director! You punish me when you should be punished for robbery! Do you expect me to pay for entrance to my own stage?" I continued to yell at the director. From the grave he still treated me cruelly and made sure that the embers at my feet lasted. The ever-burning flames will be the death of me.
Red colored water spilled from the stage. The performers must be trying to save me, but it is too late for them to stop what has been done. I looked to my "self" on the screen for answers. He only stared back in a mutual confusion.
"What should I do?" I asked him. He only repeated my words. "You're not helping, Feli. I need you to say something to stop the fire before I die from it." He only looked at me with angered eyes.
"I hate you!" I screamed. I threw the director at the screen again and slung him around in hopes of him feeling pain. An odorous mush spilled from him and I yelled victoriously.
"The director shall feel my pain! He hurts from the grave!" I cheered.
Once I quieted down, I heard someone crying. "Italy, stop! You're hurting yourself!" The man had a deep voice that sounded familiar.
"The director hurt me! I'm fine!" I called to him in an attempt to assure the man. He didn't seem to stop crying. "I'll kill the band if it'll make you feel better. There's no need to cry!"
"No, don't!" he yelled, but I ignored him and pulled every band member off of my stage except for the drum. The drum seems to be special and must stay there. After a while, I felt like the fire had finally got to me. I dropped the band on the ground and collapsed onto the floor.
"I'm so tired," I muttered. The fire claimed my life, and I fell asleep in the smoky darkness that took me in.
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Germany's POV
"No, Italy!" I cried out as he fell to the ground. Someone like Italy shouldn't succumb to madness. It's painful to see him tear his organs out, clueless that he's hurting himself. I wish I could run to him and save him from himself.
I watched on the TV as Italy's body relaxed and yelled, "Get up! Get up, Feliciano!" He remained still, and I knew he had died. It feels unreal that Italy unknowingly killed himself. I should've known that things weren't going to end well when the screen came on, but I never expected to see that. I wish I had been the one that the hooded man killed. Then, Italy wouldn't be losing his mind. I only hope that Italy was only groggy from recently awaking from death, but I know that Italy's mind most likely snapped. No sane person hurts themselves and blames it on their large intestine.
Suddenly, I heard a scream from the TV and instantly recognized it.
"You can't claim me!" Italy screamed. His breath was heavy and his exposed heart started to beat. "I'm not going down by the hands of a demon!" He took in some labored breaths and stood up only to fall back down. "You can call me names, but I refuse to let you take my life away!" Italy then looked straight at the camera. "Why do you still watch me?! Stop making me to be an unwilling performer in your show!" he cried. Italy stood up once more and mustered the strength to try to pull the camera off of the wall. Eventually, he seemed to grow tired. Since he was so close to the camera, I had to watch as Italy's eyes lost their liveliness and roll back into his head. He fell to the ground limp and lifeless. For once, I only hope that he'll stop trying to fight back. He can't hurt himself when he's dead.
The screen flashed away from Italy and our merciless captor appeared. "Oh, what a shame," he said. "It looks like our dear little Italy has already lost his mind. What an idiot! I didn't even need to lay a hand on him for Italy to die. Besides that, how's everyone doing? Feeling hungry?" He chuckled. "Can you believe that it has already been two weeks that you all have been in my captivity? I know it's been a bit uneventful for a while, but don't worry. The starvation experiment will be over very soon. I'll come to check on you guys tonight and see how starvation has affected you all." Thank God that the experiment is almost over.
"The only problem is that Italy just killed himself so I'll be prolonging the experiment for a little while longer. It's funny how I planned to end it today, and Italy ruined that for me. I'll have to punish him for that. I can't wait to send the footage to Romano. He might send me more money!" So he's profiting on the pain of us and our family members? I'm surprised Romano hasn't murdered him yet.
I wonder why the nations outside haven't stopped him yet. Maybe he's more skilled at this that I thought.
"Hey, have any of you figured out who I am? I bet not. You never seemed to acknowledge me before all this, so how do I know that you even know who I am? If you knew who I truly was, you'd feel regretful for all the times you all disrespected me, kicked me out, and treated me like I was nothing! I can't wait for the day that I get to kill you especially, England! I wish that I wasn't related to you at all!" Well, that's a big clue. Then again, England has practically half the world related to him. I wonder what England is thinking right now.
"I'll prove to you that I am way stronger than you believe me to be! Once I kill you all and take your land you'll know! I'll be the strongest nation in the world! No longer will you see me as INFERIOR TO YOU!" The TV turned off and went black once he was done. I only hope that he gets stopped before he kills anyone permanently.
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AN: better not eat my time skips again! The site eats my dashes, asterisks, and everything else I've tried. If this works, I'll cry tears of joy. Sorry for the short chapter, it was all I could get in. I love leaving readers with questions like "why did Feli go nuts?" "who is this mystery man?" and "wtf author?" because I am the worst fanfic author. You guys should check out my new aph fanfic "A Vengeful Heroism" because I spent a lot of time making it. I even drew concept art for it. I promise that Russia's Crazy Dinner Party isn't dead, it's just sleeping. SLEEPING! Anyways, I'll see ya next chapter! (Don't you dare eat my time skips!)