What is... "Home"? (Hetalia Fanfic, Part 2)

Chapter 125~!

'Ah, I so wish you had been better at keeping your nose out of other people's business'

"Martin, wait, sto-!'

BANG.

"No!" I screamed, shooting straight up as I trembled, startled out of light dozing. Taleah woke up and started crying out of fear, but I quickly made her look at me and apologized for scaring her. "Shhh, it's okay, Taleah. Calm down, sweetie, don't worry."

"O-Ok-kay, A-Alice," she whimpered, clinging close and hiding her face in my chest again. This was probably going to be a habit of hers...

"I just had a bad dream, that's all."

"Do angels get bad dreams, then?" She looked up at me with big wet eyes.

"Sure they do, they're about sad things," I told her with a small smile. "But it's okay. We'll be fine, I promise."

"I just wish we could escape out a back way, like in the movies," Taleah whispered, and I ran my fingers soothingly through her long and tangled hair.

"I know, I do too," I replied softly.

We were hiding under a ratted blanket in the darkest corner of the room, trying to go as unnoticeable as possible. 'If only I could make us disappear like Matthew can' I thought with a regretful smile. 'Maybe then getting away would be easier.'

"But there isn'-" She froze midsentence when a baby elephant started tap-dancing upstairs. I chuckled at that; he was drunk again. It was funny, but in the kind of way that is also terrifying.

It's kind of like when you laugh despite being scared wit-less.

"He's c-c-coming," Taleah whimpered, her grip tightening on my shirt front.

"Shhh," I said into her hair, holding her tightly to show her I was there. "It's okay, I won't let him touch you."

Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom...

"He's just trying to scare us, don't be afraid," I told her before sliding out from under the blanket and leaving her there. "Don't move, don't attract any attention to yourself. Do you understand?"

She nodded fearfully, her eyes staring up at me with mixed emotions I couldn't name. "Don't let him kill you, Alice."

Six words a five-year-old should never have to say.

I settled into a determined expression and fixed the blazer around her shoulders so it covered her a bit better. "I won't, he won't kill me."

"But how do you know?"

"I just do. Now shhh, Taleah," I said, pulling the blanket over her head and moving to stand in the middle of the room with a strong stance and my arms folded.

Martin burst through the door, dropping a bottle of hard liquor and letting it shatter with a high-pitched sound. "Ah've been thinkin'," he told me in a slur, although his speech was the only sign that he was impaired by alcohol.

"Yes?" I prompted tiredly.

"Melina, Ah've told ya too much!" He sent a spray of gunfire at the ceiling, nearly taking out the light bulb. I shrieked and clapped my hands over my ears, crouching down quickly.

"So that's it, then!" I shouted when the shots ceased. "You're going to kill me now and take away every last shred of happiness you knew before you became like this!"

"What happiness? You've hated me for years!" he shouted back.

"But I remember!" I hollered, and he went silent. "I remember what it was like when Selena was alive, and when we were all happy together. Now that Selena's dead, you know that I'm the only one other than yourself who has those memories locked away." I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for some justification to him not killing me, but it was all I had. Threatening him wouldn't do diddly-squat, and I wouldn't survive a bullet to a vital area. If I kept him talking, another option might present itself.