Title: Haunted Melody
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I own nothing of this except the idea.
Warnings: Psychological themes, horrible deaths, violence, language, and content meant for more mature readers. Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter Two: Whispers of Past
The group of nations all switched on their flashlights as the entered what appeared to be the administration area of one of the buildings. It was a sad sight really; papers were strewn all over the floor and the large remains of the reception desk. It looked like a tornado had ripped through here, but other than the mess of papers and the damaged everything looked like the people had left only moments ago for coffee.
The British nation shined his torch, for he refused to call it a flashlight, on one spot in particular on the ground. The yellow hued beam illuminated a vanilla colored folder, one used in offices everywhere, with the name Sherwood, F. listed clearly in cursive on the tab. England bent down, his light still shining on the torch and stared at the folder in a daze.
"Now, whatever you do, don't touch anything. A spirit might attach itself to you that way." Alfred warns, shining his light around the room and at each of the nations, except for the Brit who was crouched down by the desk.
Arthur slowly extended his hand and as his shaky fingers barely grazed the folder, he let out a loud gasp as his mind was assaulted with images of a man who could only be Mr. Sherwood.
He saw how he was mistreated as a young boy by his parents because he looked different, how Frank slowly lost his mind because of all the hate and abuse he was put through, how at the age of 13 he was admitted into this hospital and locked away like a prisoner for years. England saw how the young Frank screamed and cried as he was shocked repeatedly by doctors who said they were doing this to help him. Soon after a year of that, Frank was nearly mute and only spoke a few words at a time to the doctors.
Arthur shuddered as he felt a sudden intense pain fill his muscles causing him to yelp loudly and remove his fingers from the folder. The sudden sound caused the others to shine their lights on England and look at him in a mixture of worry and confusion.
After several tense moments of silence Prussia speaks, "Hey England?"
"Yes."
"Are you alright? You just yelped like you'd been shocked by lightning or some crazy shit." The Prussian man asks, mentally thinking back to that ghostly woman he saw only moments ago.
"I'm fine. Something just shocked my hand and it surprised me." The Brit stutters at the start but smiles at the end, his mind nearly completely dismissing the weird event as nothing but his imagination. Yet some part of him doubted it was.
"Hate to be rude, but does anyone else hear that?" Spain asks, tilting his head in the direction in which he thinks that the sound his coming from. The Spaniard closes his green eyes and a small smile appears on his face.
"It sounds like a piano..." Prussia begins but trails off as an orb shot right down the hall connecting the room they were standing in to one of the many patient wings.
"What the hell! We've seriously haven't been here for five damn minutes and crazy stuff is happening! If it's hamburger bastard just screwing with us…" The southern half of Italy begins to threaten the American only to stop when he notices the look on his face.
"It's not my doing. We haven't even turned on equipment yet and already we've had something happen. All when England touched the folder." America raises his hands in casual defense.
"You mean the folder might have started it?" China asks skeptical of what he just saw.
The American nods, "Yeah, but because it was touched I think we need to read it or something."
"Wait. What about the folder I picked up?" Russia asks managing to smile in this creepy situation. He pulls out the folder he had picked up out of his jacket's protective area.
"When did you pick that up?" Japan asks his own thoughts a bit scattered.
"Oh, about the same time the soul appeared!" He says cheerfully, remembering how General Winter taught him about how sometimes human souls would stay on earth and appear as orbs similar to snow. It had enchanted him, and gave him a greater respect and awe of the supernatural.
"You mean the orb." America states while eyeing his rival with interest.
"If that is what you call it in your house then yes."
France cleared his throat, causing the nations to quiet down and to dissolve the building tension between the two rival nations, "What caused it though? Whose files did you both pick up?"
"Sherwood, F. I didn't open it because I had only just touched it when…" England trails off unsure and a bit distant from everyone.
"I picked up a file with the name Jones, J. I had only skimmed it to find out her name was Jaleen 'Jay' Jones. She was admitted in 1942 according to this and died mysteriously a few days later on December 7th 1942." Russia frowns, wondering why it was that when he skimmed those very short documents inside that there was no investigation into her death.
"Well, Frank was a good guy if a bit quiet. Jay on the other hand, man did that girl have issues." Alfred whispered softly, hoping not to be heard. He was unlucky as China, Japan, Italy, and Germany all heard him. "Anyways," he begins, "let's read the files. Everyone, I know I said not to touch anything but I think we should give this people proper rights if their dead. After all, no one probably cared about them."
The other nations nod in agreement, thinking how horrible it would be to have no one care if they were dead or alive. It must have been a horrible fate, but they also knew that this was Alfred's home and to think that he wasn't the only one who had to do damage control. What worried some of the nations, mainly Prussia, Germany, the Italy brothers, Japan and Canada was the fact that this Jay woman was killed exactly a year after America entered the Second World War. It seem a little odd, well to them at least. The only nation who was suspicious about Jay's death was Russia, and he had a feeling that America knew exactly who killed her.
"You know what I find odd comrades?" Russia asks, his face a blank mask.
"What Russia?" the northern half of Italy asks, noticing how the Russian seemed more relax but tense like he was in the Cold War.
"Why is it that her parents are listed as having the last name Alexandar and yet her last name is listed as Jones?"
"Anyways, let's just start already. The sooner we get out of here the better." Romano snaps, tired from the long flight and all the odd events that were occurring. He didn't care if it was real or not, but if it was a prank pulled by America there would be hell to pay.
"Alright, I'm going to start a spirit box session and find out more info. Can someone turn on a camera or right down the audio, better yet both?" America asks, pulling out the Spirit Box device and switching it on so that white noise filled the room.
The American covers it with his hand and asks, "Can you tell me who you are?" and then removes his hand.
Not even a minute later a female voice responds, "You know, J."
"Alright, now we're getting somewhere." Alfred says.
Before he can cover the spirit box to ask a question the same female voice says, "Liar. Murderer. Thought you loved me."
"Who?" Alfred asks quietly and covers it as the spirit answers and loudly asks, "How many of you are there?"
"Ten." A male voice this time answers.
"Who are you?" Italy asks, curiously.
"Frank Sherwood." The same voice answers.
All the nations, except for America, look confused and in awe at the spirit box. Two of the ten spirits have been identified. This saved them a little bit of work.
"1932." Frank's voice states.
"1928." Another gruffer voice states.
Soon seven other voices call out various years. Spanning by for years between each year said, until the last voice, Jay's, said "1942. The bastard."
The spirit box goes silent and all the nations are stunned at the dates that they collected by the dead and the fact that they were talking to human souls. A Sudden scream, both on the spirit box and echoing throughout the room, caused the nations to jump out of their reverie. They sprint towards the sound, and see a woman with a large gash across her stomach and her patient gown was shredded. The woman had long black hair and appeared to be bruised black and blue because of her attack. Just when one of the nations, Prussia, was going to help her a nurse ran into the room.
The nurse was in a uniform that was common of nurses back in the 1940s. She wore sky blue button up dress with a white apron on, her hair was up and her little hat was on. She raced towards the woman and that was when they noticed that the nurse was transparent.
"Who did this to you?" The nurse asked as she tried to stop the flow of blood.
"Al. The bastard, he gave me some pill saying it would help. He told me that he was only going to help his wife." She blubbered, wincing in pain as her breathing became labored.
The woman, whom they can only assume was Jay, collapsed and died on the floor in the nurse's arm, muttering about how she was an idiot for falling in love with Al and not trusting Alice. The nations watched stunned as the nurse seemed to snap out of the flashback and look at Prussia sadly, and since the spirit box was still on and giving white noise, they heard her voice come through.
"I'm sorry…past…must be amended. Love…" She whispers while gazing at Prussia's eyes as she faded away.