Told you guys that I would update soon! This, by far, is my favorite chapter so far. Enjoy~
Alfred would have been lying to himself and everyone else if he voiced how he wasn't feeling hope brim inside of him. This strange dream that they all had was tying them to their small playground, and now calling them forth to go there, despite how the dream happened days ago and school was still going on.
They moved quickly, even though Kiku insisted on following all the speeding laws. Despite how the others urged him on and how obviously antsy he was already. The last thing that Kiku wanted was a speeding ticket on his record. Finally though, they got to the same street they all knew by heart. Alfred let out a huge sigh of relief. Matthew shot him a look before Alfred said anything he could regret later.
"We're all eager to go and see okay? You can't just get your hopes up like this, we probably aren't even going to find anything there other than just a rusty old carousel." Matthew muttered the last part, but everyone heard him. Alfred paused, but he said nothing to his friend, nor did anyone else comment on what Matthew had said. Undefinable hope encompassed their hearts for a second, but Matthew's words brought it crashing back down, leaving nothing but growing disappointment for something they haven't even seen yet.
Alfred, obviously offended by the words of his friend, stalked forward, tramping through the woods in an effort to find the same path they always took. Normally it seemed to appear only when they stopped looking, but right then, as if sensing Alfred's anger and not wanting to anger him more, the path appeared before him. Alfred led his friends into the woods, refusing to let the disappointment that was harboring his friends bring his spirits down. He knew they were going to find something there, he simply knew it.
If they didn't. Alfred just didn't know what he would do.
Memories of when they were asleep were fuzzy, as if they were looking through fogged glass. They could all remember different things, but even the memories of those were beginning to fade while they talked. The most prominent ones though, were the memories that happened recently. With the boys who came to visit and fixed them up.
The nice boys who visited them when night fell, who seemed close to crying when they found them after they vandalized. The nice boys who none of them could remember the names of, even though they were so great to them, and were the only ones who ever visited them anymore.
Yet their descriptions of their boys were spot on. Each feature, each detail, from the way they walked to the sound of their voice, they could describe. The hours of daylight were spent talking about them, nothing left out, except for personal feeling which didn't have to be said.
"He's so quiet, I wish he would talk more. Though him being quiet is nice, he is always thinking about what he should say, instead of blurting out every single thing that comes to mind," Heracles spoke up, as he had just woken up from his nap. One would think that the thought of the endless slumber would deter him from sleep, but still the Grecian centaur still slept as often as he did before.
"Don't you want him to say his opinion more?" Gilbert asked. Sure his boy was quiet, but at least he had a backbone and wasn't afraid to talk, even if he wasn't heard.
"If it is really important, he will state his opinion on the matter. I know he will," he answered.
Heracles said no more on the subject, he would randomly go in and out of conversation, chiming in his own two cents. Ludwig would simply go in and out of conversation, unwilling to talk about his person, but he would say a few things about his person when he was bugged by Gilbert, his brother.
"He's talkative, and he always has a smile on his face," Ludwig once said, after almost an hour of Gilbert practically begging for him to talk.
They all had things to say, while on the other hand, Arthur couldn't remember a single thing. Some days, he would simply stay in place, not even opening his eyes to look around on the sunshine he missed so. He wouldn't join in conversation, simply staying in one place, thinking.
"Arthur, I don't think it's healthy for you to stay like that. Move around!" Yao voiced, moving his arms around extravagantly. Arthur barely twitched, the only notion that he heard was a barely noticeable movement of his lips. As if he was trying not to frown.
Arthur's eyes suddenly snapped open. The motion carried though the small, group, all of them stopping to hear what was going on. Arthur motioned with his hands frantically, seemingly unable to utter the words that wanted to spill out.
"Someone's coming! Get in formation!" Arthur all but hissed. Formations were something they heard before, and quickly they went and formed themselves into the positions they knew so well. No one knew they could talk and move, and it was meant to stay that way.
Arthur almost wasn't quick enough, not a moment later there were voices reaching through the leaves of the trees. The branches rustled, and a foot stuck itself into the small clearing. Arthur didn't wait long enough to see if the others were changing into their original forms. He shut his eyes, only leaving his ears intact to listen.
"Matthew, I knew you could be dark, but that was just depressing," Lovino said, even skipping out on the nickname he so often called Matthew. Matthew stared at the forest floor, ashamed by what he said, even if he knew it would be true.
"It's the truth, we aren't going to find anything." He defended. Lovino simply huffed, while Matthew and Ivan chose to ignore him. Kiku said nothing on the subject, having thought of that himself but didn't speak out like Matthew had on the matter. The only person, surprisingly enough, was Feliciano, offering his friend a strained smile even
broke though it was obvious that Matthew's words hurt him.
They walked side by side together as they entered the clearing. The only words that the silence was Alfred's.
"Finally, here we are," he spoke, making everyone look up.
They didn't know what to expect. There was the carousel, sitting still in the warm afternoon sun. The birds tweeted and there was no summer breeze that lofted through the air. Their voices grew silent, and the only sounds that broke the air was the birds tweeting as if nothing special was going on.
Together, the boys moved as one to the carousel. The birds tweeting grew silent, as if the boys were crossing a sacred ground that no one had been on for years. The sudden absence of sound though did not deter the boys, and in only a couple of seconds they stood before their centaurs.
Nothing. Even Matthew, who dared not let himself hope, felt something akin to the darkest of sadness cross over his heart. He couldn't bare to make himself look up at Gilbert, his centaur, who he spent so much time fixing up. Matthew stared at the floor, at the hooves of his centaur which were caked in mud and dust that had not been cleared.
Before he could stop himself, he could feel the tears forming in his eyes, stinging him with their pain. His hands clenched into fists, and he turned to his friends who were all staring at their own centaurs, sadness and disappointment on their features as well.
"What did I tell you? I knew there would be nothing there!" he cried out, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks. Hot anger flashed across Alfred's face, but then he saw the tears, and he held his tongue.
"They're just decorations, nothing more. It was silly of us to get our hopes up because of a stupid dream that happened!" Matthew was screaming now, but he didn't care. Hurt was all over his features, pain that hope brings crushing his heart.
"Matthew, it's okay…" Kiku tried to say, being the voice of reason as he always seemed to be. Matthew batted him away, even though Kiku was still a good ten feet away. His hands simply moved through the air.
"No! It's not okay," Matthew yelled. Kiku didn't even flinch. "I just wanted him to be real. I just wanted him to be real."
Matthew put his face in his hands and cried. It wasn't pitiful crying that simply came when one experienced a pain of the body. No he let out deep, wracking sobs, which came right from his soul. He shook in his place, hardly daring to move for fear of falling down, unsteady as he was.
"Ach Scheiße. Don't cry," a voice almost choked out.
Matthew stopped moving. Heck, he stopped breathing. Sure enough, his crying stopped, but he was frozen solid by a voice he didn't even recognize. Matthew looked up, at his friends who were all looking in shock at something behind him. Slowly Matthew turned, taking in short, shallow breathes.
And Matthew screamed at the sight before him.
I'm all guessing you know what Scheiße means. But if you don't know, it means 'shit' in German.
Other than that, please review! They always motivate me to update faster. :D