The Works of Hetalia

Chapter 5

Beyond the door, the once red walls were now a dark gray. A long hallway went down the middle as the sides extended. On the left side was a painting of a bride hung on the wall. A frown was etched into her face as she looked at her bouquet. On the right, a man was dressed in white and neatly presented to match the woman. On the floor in front of both paintings was a hand.

As she started to walk forward, she stumbled and Alfred turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

Grimacing, she remembered the scratches on her left ankle, an unwanted present from the painting. She put a hand on Alfred's arm to steady herself and brought her ankle up to examine it. The bleeding had stopped, but it had trailed down her ankle and soaked through her sock. There was one long deep scratch on the right side, with three more shallow ones on the left. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but enough to still sting.

"Holy shit dudette, where did that come from?"

Setting her foot down, she explained what happened with a sigh. She could see a frown on Alfred's face and assuringly rested her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's fine." A small smile grew on her face. "We'll just find a vase later and I'll be good as new."

He seemed to appreciate her gesture and nodded. With that, the two walked up the hall. Going around the edges she suddenly stopped when what looked like multiple eyes seemed to blink open and stare.

"Gahh, what is that?" Alfred asked. He didn't wait for a response as he stuck his tongue out and wrinkled his nose. "Gross is what. Why the hell are their eyes on the floor?"

She didn't say anything and slowly walked towards them.

"Yo, wait. What are you doing?" He asked but didn't hesitate to follow.

Carefully stepping around the eyes she noticed one in the middle looking odd. It stared at her half-lidded and seemed irritated. Bending down, she gave it a closer look.

"Is this one sick?" He asked, peering over her shoulder.

"I think so. I wonder..." She trailed off and began digging in her purse. She pursed her lips when she didn't find anything to help. "I thought I had eyedrops but I guess I took them out."

Alfred patted her head like a dog. "That's ok, we'll just find something else." Walking to the back of the giant room, paintings were hung on the wall. One, in particular, a giant white snake, caught her eye.

"Alfred, take a look at this." She pointed to the eye. "Is that a hole there?"

He narrowed his eyes in concentration before lighting up. "Yeah, it is! Good eye (Y/N)."

She smiled at the praise and looked around. "I bet it's another puzzle. Maybe we'll find a gem or something." She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Alfred had moved away.

"Yo, (Y/N), over here!" He said when he noticed she wasn't behind him. Spinning around, she noticed he was next to a door down a side hallway. She briskly walked to him, following his lead.

It was a room full of canvases and easels. She noticed that there were areas not filled and looked around. Pushing a stool to the side, she slowly made a path to a table that sat in the middle of the cluster. Alfred followed her and gave a high five when she made it to the table.

"Nice work, I can see you're the genius here." He said with a wink and she could have sworn she saw a star briefly appear by his eye.

Thanking him for the compliment, she grabbed the small bottle of liquid and her eyes widened. "Hey, these are eyedrops!" She exclaimed and showed him the bottle. They quickly made their way to the eye and she gently placed a couple drops on it. The eye blinked a couple of times before opening up. The redness had disappeared and the eye now seemed glossy again.