The Guide to the Protector (A HetaOni, 2ptalia and Female Reader Fanfiction)

|ChApTeR FoRtY SiX| Haunted (Part Two)

(A/N: So short chapter, I know, but I wrote a really long chapter and I wanted to make it more intense by separating it into two chapters :33 Next chapter will be released sometime this week, most likely Thursday or Friday, I'm sure of that. Ok enjoy!!

~AJ)

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"It's not the future you are afraid of. It's the fear of the past repeating itself that haunts you."

-T.W.W.

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Previously

And as he took a step back-stumbled, even-someone else pushed forward. Romano's green eyes pierced mine. Ours locked and he refused to tear away from my gaze. He frantically searched, scanned, for clues, for answers: for anything.

"You...

You know about the clock, too, (Name)?"

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|Reader's POV|

"(Name)," Romano began as calmly as he could, but there was an itching curiosity being bitten back to gain control over the volume of his voice. "What do you know about the clock?"

With the frighteningly urgent way Romano demanded the information from me, none of the other countries dared to say anything. I was on my own. 

A strange mix of inaudible mumbles and incoherent words fumbled out of my mouth. My head was swirling with way too much broken memories for sentences to be formed, much less said. 

"I...I don't recall much...just a voice...Italy's...a blinding light and a grandfather clock." My lips trembled as I spoke. 

"Well, you're in luck because I happen to remember a single thing." Romano threw on a harsh smile, matching the bittersweet, sarcastic tone of his voice with his twisted expression. "Do you remember when we first met? What did I say to you?"

I blew out a puff of air, thinking critically. "...After jumping down the ladder, I helped you outside the cave. When we entered a room full of light and you could actually see what I looked like...you said...

It's...you.

You...you've seen me before?"

"I have. In a reoccurring dream..." Romano started, trailing off.

He then paused to squeeze his eyes shut. He crossed his arms against his chest and shifted his weight to one foot, which is what he did when he was uncomfortable or nervous. I wasn't surprised: dreams relating to the mansion weren't the least bit pleasant, I would certainly know from experience.

"You reach your hand out to Veneziano. After a moment of hesitation, he takes it. In this unnaturally serious voice I've barely ever hear you talk in, you ask if he wants to save the lives he's lost. He says-"

"Help me rewind the clock." I finish Romano's sentence with him. Rewind the clock, one of the phases I had remembered hearing.

"I see it's coming back to you." He nodded and went on to say, "So you do help him. You each take a hand from the grandfather clock and rewind it together. 

And while that doesn't seem too scary, it really wasn't...rather, it was a bit eerie. Unsettling. It was the same scenario. However, sometimes different dialogue was exchanged, so that must mean...every dream I had was another loop where someone died and Veneziano had to go back in time."