Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 9

After Matthew had run off, Feliciano had tried to chase after him. But the house didn't want to cooperate. He ended up in that room again, the one where he wanted to take Matthew because it was the safest room for him, ironically enough. But Matthew wasn't there.

When Feliciano had first seen Matthew, he couldn't believe his eyes. But he thought that it was just a coincidence. The other one, Alfred, looked similar as well, but at the same time, different enough that Feliciano didn't feel a connection with him. Curiosity had compelled him to speak to Matthew, and the moment he'd heard his voice…

It wasn't until Matthew had shown recognition for his song that Feliciano started to think that, perhaps, this Matthew and his Matthew were one and the same. And when Matthew started to get hurt…

The house cooperated with Feliciano the most, but he was not the only one there. The fact that they couldn't find the room where Matthew would be safe showed that someone else wanted Matthew hurt. Why else would he suffer all of the injuries from the past? And after speaking to Yao, he knew that many people had hurt his Matthew. Then there was Matthew's killer to contend with.

Feliciano wanted to keep Matthew safe, the way he couldn't protect him last time. He wanted to see how much Matthew remembered. But it hadn't been his intention to show him the portrait so early. He needed Matthew to remember. And instead, Matthew ran away, and the house wouldn't let Feliciano find him.

He'd gone searching through many other rooms. He was aware of the layers, and tried to break through the layers. When there was someone else in the room, Feliciano would go through to them. They were still afraid of him, which was good, but not what he needed at that point.

Finally, Feliciano ended up in his father's study. He could feel the familiar trepidation when he entered. He hadn't felt it since he'd died, and it alarmed him that he could still feel like that. He'd been in his father's study many times but hadn't felt it. He pursed his lips and pushed through the layers, and the thing he feared the most was in front of him.

He was about to interfere when Matthew spoke.

"You told the other Matthew that he caused Feliciano to embarrass the family," Matthew said. "You didn't care about him at all. You just cared about the family name. And you also threatened the other Matthew. You had your hand around his throat and you told him that you should kill him. That it would be one way to make him atone for his crimes. And you said that he would never see Feliciano again."

Feliciano felt cold at that moment, and he gasped. His father and Matthew turned towards him, and then Feliciano felt the heat.

"You…" Feliciano growled. He trembled as his rage continued to build.

"Feli, I can explain," Romulus said, releasing his hold on Matthew. His eyes were wide and he had grown pale. He was scared. Good. "I promise, I didn't kill him."

Feliciano screamed. He could feel the hurt and anger from the past cloaking him again, and the darkness that had taken hold of him that night sank its claws into him again. He allowed all of the emotions to come out of him. He released the anger over what had happened to Matthew in the past, and what was happening to Matthew in the present.

His father was pushed back by the force, and he stormed at the man. Romulus's eyes widened as Feliciano stood before him, the darkness oozing from him, creating additional limbs like the legs of a spider. Since their deaths, it had become rare to see Feliciano like this. But Romulus knew what this meant.

"I-I didn't kill him," Romulus insisted. "Please. I had nothing to do with his death."

Feliciano gritted his teeth, and one of the additional limbs shot forward, impaling his father in the chest. It wouldn't kill Romulus, but it was the only way for the dead to feel true pain. Romulus screamed.

"You hurt him," Feliciano growled. "You threatened him. You tortured him. What else have you done to him? Even if you didn't kill him, you still hurt him. And why? Was it because he loved me, or because I loved him? Which one did you punish him for?"

Feliciano didn't wait for his father to answer. He stabbed another limb into Romulus, and another scream echoed through the house. Everyone would know that Romulus was being punished. And they would be wary that they would be next.

He hoped that he would be wary.

Romulus disappeared. He would return soon enough, but for now, his spirit was damaged and needed to recover. Feliciano scoffed in disgust. His father wasn't very strong when he was on the receiving end. Feliciano turned back to Matthew as the shadows disappeared, and he could feel his face soften.

The living had a hard time handling the intensity of this darkness. Feliciano rushed over towards Matthew and knelt down. Matthew was still breathing, and Feliciano sighed in relief. Perhaps now he would be able to get Matthew to the safe room.

Feliciano rolled Matthew over onto his back, and then pushed his hands underneath Matthew's legs and upper back. One advantage of being dead was that mass didn't affect them that much, especially if it was the mass of a living person. It was easy to carry Matthew.

Feliciano paused when he saw Matthew's unconscious face. He looked so relaxed, which was strange in itself. He didn't seem as though he was scared or in pain, as was usual whenever the living were exposed to that darkness. In fact, he looked as though he wanted to smile.

He fought the urge to bend down and kiss Matthew. It wasn't the time, and besides, the angle was wrong. But this version of Matthew's face was better than the last time he saw his Matthew.

He knew that he shouldn't have sprung all of that on Matthew. It was too much. But after listening to what Matthew had said to his father, he knew that this Matthew and his Matthew were one and the same. He just didn't remember it. Feliciano shouldn't push him.

Just as he was about to leave, he noticed something. There was a ring of bruises around Matthew's neck, but he was sure that his father had grabbed Matthew's shirt. Could this be another echo?

Feliciano shook his head, before he rushed out of the room. He sighed when the room he ended up in happened to be the safe room. He placed Matthew on the bed and tucked him in. It could be a while before Matthew woke up, and Feliciano sat down on the edge of the bed. He wouldn't leave Matthew alone again, lest someone even worse than his father came around.

…

Alfred shut the door behind him, and he pressed himself against it as he and Jason worked to regain their breaths. The ghosts looked fine, which Alfred decided made sense, since they didn't need to breathe. However, they were looking around the room with worry on their faces.

"What was that?" Jason demanded.

"Feliciano's anger," Lovino said. "Every now and again, he lapses into this angered state. It gets worse if someone particularly triggered it."

"What did he do to Mattie?" Alfred demanded. "What would he have done to our brother?!"

"I don't think he'd be in danger," Marcello said. "But we need to get out of this room. This is Feliciano's room, and if he finds us in here…"

"Feliciano's room?" Alfred repeated, before he looked around. This room looked dark and abandoned, and it was the first one they'd been in that actually looked as though it hadn't been used in the last hundred years or so. Then his eyes locked on the only thing in good condition and his jaw dropped. "What the hell?"

It was a portrait of Matthew, wearing old clothes. The portrait looked lifelike, and even though Alfred wasn't particularly knowledgeable of art, he could tell that a lot of care went into painting this portrait.

"Is that… Matt?" Jason asked, having also noticed the portrait.

"Wait, that's your brother?" Lars asked.

"…Why is there a picture of Mattie in Feliciano's room?" Alfred asked, turning to Lovino and Marcello, who looked as though they wanted to be anywhere else. "What aren't you telling us?"

"…That portrait… was Feliciano's lover," Marcello said. "When we saw your brother, we thought they looked a lot alike. A-and he sounded the same. A-and they have the same name."

"…You said that you didn't think that Feliciano would hurt him," Jason said. "Is this what you meant?"

"We don't know if they are the same person. But… there are a lot of similarities to be a coincidence. A-and if we think so, then Feliciano might think so, and…"

"Whoever killed the servant might think so too," Alfred finished. "Why didn't you tell us about this?"

"I-I thought it would be best if you thought that your brother is in danger. That way, you would actually try to help us."

"But Matt is in danger," Jason said. "If Feliciano thinks that Matt's his dead lover come back to life… then isn't there a chance that he might kill Mattie so that they can be together?"

"…Shit, you're right," Alfred said, before he rounded on the other two sets of siblings. "If you know anything, then tell us now."

Miguel and Antonio exchanged a look, and Lars and Bella exchanged a look. Henri was off to the side, staring at the portrait with an unreadable expression.

"I can't really say much," Antonio sighed. "I stopped bidding as soon as I saw Francis bid. I don't think I've actually seen him look so serious with an auction before, so I kind of just stayed back."

"Yeah, we already spoke to Francis," Alfred said. "He won the auction." He turned to Lars. "You were trying to win the auction too. It probably annoyed you that Francis won."

Lars shrugged.

"I was hoping to get someone for Henri," Lars said. "When it didn't happen, I figured there would be another chance."

Henri tensed, and he turned to face his brother.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"You were looking for a house for yourself," Lars said. "And you needed staff. We couldn't really afford to send any of our own staff, so I was hoping to get someone from an auction. And this was someone close to your own age, so you might have felt a bit more comfortable with him."

"You mean, you wanted to get me a slave? Lars, you knew I wouldn't be happy with that!"

Lars shrugged.

"If it makes you feel better, I would have stopped sooner," Lars said, "but Mathias Kohler was also desperate to get this servant." Lars turned back to Alfred and the others. "Have you spoken to him yet?"

"No," Alfred said. "But this isn't the first time his name popped up."

"If you know where he is, tell us now," Lovino said.

"I think I saw him outside," Miguel said. "Just a warning, he did not look right. There was definitely something off about him."

"Dude, there's something off about all of you," Alfred deadpanned.

"If you really want to find him," Bella suggested, "why don't you ask his friends? They're usually in the library."

"Yeah, but they're not the only ones there," Marcello said. "And some of them we really don't want to expose these two to."

"…How bad are they?" Jason asked.

"One of the people who linger in the library is a child and his older brother. And one of Mathias's friends also has a child with him. You see, with the kids… They can be very volatile."

"You mean, the kids or…?"

"The kids. When children are killed… Let's just say, the lost potential can make things happen."

"We'll be careful, then," Alfred said. "But we really need to find Mathias. And we need to know if he had anything to do with…" He cut himself off, before he turned to regard the portrait. He couldn't think of the servant as his brother, and he didn't feel comfortable using the name Matthew. But he also couldn't refer to him as 'the servant' now. "If he had anything to do with his death."

"I don't know what you're hoping to achieve," Antonio said, "or what's going to happen when you're done. But be careful. You're not the first living guests that came to this place in the last hundred years. Do you think you're going to be the first to leave?"

Alfred swallowed. Antonio's meaning was abundantly clear. Still, he nodded, hoping he looked braver than he felt at that time.

…

Feliciano sighed and closed his eyes. He had no idea how long Matthew would stay asleep. He was still breathing, so he wasn't too worried. And for all he knew, it was just a trick of the house, making it seem as though he had been waiting there longer than it actually was.

The longer he waited, the more his memories returned to that horrible night. He kept thinking about everyone that he had seen that night. Everyone that he ended up killing. He couldn't feel guilty about any of them, because at least one of them was a murderer.

Did he notice anyone sneak off? Actually, there were a lot of people that snuck away, including his father and Lovino. But he didn't doubt that any of those people could have done it. Did anyone look as though they were trying to conceal blood? Did Feliciano see anything useful that night?

The house occasionally entered a loop, where they were all able to experience that night again. Feliciano had tried to use the loops to try to find the answer to these questions, but he could never see anything useful. He had grown desperate for a while, and the loops had been more frequent. It was only when he had to admit defeat that they became less frequent.

If they were to enter a loop now, what would happen to Matthew? Would he be an outsider, looking in? Or would he be forced to play the same role as before, and have it end in his death? And would this Matthew die with his Matthew?

No, it was too risky to allow another loop to occur. He didn't want to lose Matthew again. He didn't want Matthew to suffer from any of that again.

He reached out and stroked Matthew's hair, careful of that stray curl. The two of them had caused quite a bit of an awkward situation for each other when they were kids. Since then, they were always careful about touching each other's curls.

Matthew moaned, and Feliciano retracted his hand. He didn't want to disturb Matthew, no matter how much he wanted Matthew to wake up. He wanted him to have enough time to recover.

"Feli…" Matthew muttered.

Feliciano's eyes widened, and he waited for Matthew to say more, but he had fallen silent again. He wondered if Matthew was dreaming, and whether he was dreaming about Feliciano. And what the dream would contain. Was it from back then, or was it about this night? Or could it have been from that night?

Feliciano wondered if his name had been on Matthew's lips when he died, and that made the matter worse. Matthew would have called for help, but he hadn't been there when it mattered. That was what truly haunted Feliciano. He hadn't been there when his lover needed him, even before that night. Feliciano could do nothing while his father tormented Matthew, and caused others to torment him too.

Feliciano closed his eyes. He wanted to fix all of his mistakes, but he didn't know how he could do that.

…

"So, where are we now?" Alfred asked.

"Not the library," Lovino sighed. "The house probably needs to recover after Feliciano lost his shit."

"What do you think it might have been about?"

"I don't want to alarm you," Marcello said, "but I think it had something to do with your brother."

Alfred's stomach dropped. He didn't want to think of it that way. He was worried about Matthew, especially now that he knew that Matthew looked like Feliciano's dead lover. He was afraid that Feliciano would want to keep him because he thought they were the same person. Or worse, that Feliciano would hurt him because they weren't the same person.

"So, where are we?" Jason asked.

"It's our father's office," Lovino said. "This is where the auction happened. But… Well, usually my father is here."

"Do you think that Father was the reason why Feliciano got so mad?" Marcello said.

"I hope so," Alfred said. "That jerk deserves everything bad that happens to him. So… what does Feli do when he's angry? To you, I mean."

"He gathers the shadows," Lovino explained. "When he killed everyone, his heart was full of darkness. And that darkness becomes part of him again when he's angry. It was that darkness that had us killed, and that darkness can still hurt us."

"If we're hurt enough by that, then we can't stay in the form we're in now," Marcello continued. "We need to rest and recover. If he got mad at our father, then we won't see him for at least a few hours."

Alfred shuddered. He wondered if Lovino and Marcello had experienced it before. Or if Francis had experienced it before. Francis wouldn't have deserved it, but maybe he felt that he did.

"So, why exactly are we here?" Alfred asked.

"That's what I would like to know too."

Alfred jumped and spun around. Standing behind them with arms crossed was Arthur.