Break the Silence
By: Melody Syper Carston
Kapitel Eins: Whispered Apologies
"Since you've been gone, I learned how to move on. How to be myself; I don't need no body's help. I've been doing so good, I forgot that I could live like this. First step: Take a deep breath. You don't need a reason why. You can, you can take- take time. You can, you can walk, run, dive. Close call: Ya think ya might fall, but all ya gotta do is try. Even angels, Even angels learn how to fly!" —Fantasia, Even Angels
They could never get a hold of each other. Alfred always calling when it was way too late at night for the Briton to even be sober if at all conscious, and Arthur calling way too early for the American to even be in a coherent state to answer. Leaving one voice mail after another. Sometimes leaving a text here or there stating that they regretted ever fighting, but never receiving any response until the other had forgotten what they were talking about completely.
Arthur had given up on trying to get in contact with Alfred after the seventeenth forward to voice mail. It was completely pointless, trying to talk to him anymore. He obviously didn't care enough to answer his phone, which of course was very unusual.
He only ever answered his phone anymore if it was his boss or some other important figure, not caring if another country called him. There weren't any conferences for a few months, and he was finally learning to enjoy this solitude once more. He liked being alone. He was able to think without being interrupted. He could read and drink his tea in peace. He could function perfectly fine on his own.
But Arthur still hated the silence.
And with no one there except himself and his voice, he found it more and more difficult to keep the pure white that the Silence carried along with it away from his home.
And it terrified him.
The silence possessed him, controlled his movements, and there were times when he would come to in a part of his house he hadn't been to in years!
Why was he suddenly finding himself in his old study on the opposite side of his house? He never used that room anymore! He had abandoned it after the fairies had destroyed half of the books and valuable items in the room. He didn't like to be reminded that his magical friends no longer visited him. It made him uncomfortably aware of the Silence again.
X~*~X
"Now where am I?" He muttered to himself coming out of his daze to realize that he had once again been wandering around his home. He felt that he was getting better at getting lost in his own home than Roderich was! He was constantly having to check his surroundings and find his way back to the inhabited part of the house!
Arthur frowned when he recognized the part of the house he was in. An old hallway that he had banned himself from entering. Ever since the Revolutionary War, he felt he could never enter this hallway. Not without everything he had forcefully forgotten rushing back to him all at once.
The rooms were all different in this hall. Some were pristine white and clean. Some were carved in. Some had old snatches of tape and ripped posters still hanging there. Each room had it's own story behind it.
The ones farthest to the back held the most memories. Those that used to hold his little brothers when they had been in his care. Others such as the ones at the front of the hall were ones that made him shiver at the cold vibes coming from them. Those rooms belonged to his older brothers. The very brothers that used to torture and tease him so much that he would take refuge at Francis's house until they had forgotten about him once more.
The hall was an eery quiet. Quieter than the rest of the house was, lately. The ringing was almost unbearably loud here. So much so that he couldn't hear himself think properly. This wasn't the same type of ringing. It was more of a high pitched whine that seemed to be coming from the back of the hallway.
The back of his skull was beginning give off dull wave of throbbing pain from the faint noise. It beat in time with his pulse, quick and fast.
Arthur curiously travelled down the hall, eyes landing on each of the older doors with a cautious eye. He counted them each, six on the left, six on the right, two left untouched in the middle of each wall.
The Englishman stopped in front of the last door on the right, studying the remnents of poster corners and small sharpie doodles and carvings that littered the once pristine white door. Slowly, not thinking about what he was doing in any way, Arthur pressed his ear to the door as if he were going to hear something other than the hollow emptiness that sounded from all of the rooms.
"What in the queen's name am I doing? I've completely lost my head if I thought that I would've heard something... This is bloody ridiculous..." He scolded himself, not moving from his spot. "Nothing's there!" He was about to turn and leave when he thought he hear a noise.
So there was something. Someone was in there and was speaking quietly.
Arthur's heartbeat quickened even more as he pressed his ear flush against the wooden surface of the door. He strained his ears, hoping to catch anything of what the person was saying.
Anything at all to show that he wasn't alone.
But the wood was too thick and he could only make out the sound of muttering, never what was being said.
With a frown, Arthur twisted the doorhandle and pushed through the doorway. As soon as he stepped through, the whispering stopped as if being caught talking about someone behind their back.
"Won't let him hurt you Matt—" A gasp followed the whispers and then it was silent again.
Arthur glanced about the empty room searching for the cause of the voices. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
But there was nothing. No one hiding in the closets or under the bed or behind the bookshelf or under the table. No voice anywhere. No child. No magical creature.
And then a whispered, "I'm sorry, Dad... please don't hate me." before everything went black.
X~*~X
A/N: So I guess I should say where this idea came from before I really get into this and start to confuse people.
Pairing: USUK
Request: "Go into a silent room and listen to the silence. Once you start to hear the ringing noises, concentrate on that and you'll start to hear whispers. But be careful because once you start to notice them, they'll start to notice you and there is no such thing as a voice without a body."
"I don't see why people add disclaimers in their stories. I mean obviously they don't own it or they would be multimillionaires that actually did something with their life instead of writing things for fanfiction. If they actually owned all of this shit then it would've happened and they wouldn't even bother to think about this dumbass website." – One of my friends on disclaimers.
~Melody Syper Carston