I Don't Believe It's There: PruCan

Nightmare

Ludwig's (Germany's) POV

"GET AWAY FROM HIM! GIVE HIM BACK, YOU MONSTERS!"

I jerked awake, hearing the screaming from the room next me; my elder brother's room. Not waiting for my mind to process, I instinctively repeated the same pattern that used to happen every night. I flung myself out of bed and ran uncoordinatedly to my brothers room.

"West! West!" I rushed up to him, seeing him clutching his blankets, shouting and writhing. I grabbed his shoulders and tried shaking him awake, "Gilbert! I'm fine! I'm okay!"

He gasped, his eyes flying open, pupils needle thin, dark circles underneath. His crimson eyes darted from left to right, looking around in panic. It ceased once he knew I was here, healthy and alive.

"I'm here Gilbert," I reassured him. "We're at home."

His lip quivered before he threw his arms around me. "Ludwig..." he sighed shakily, "I'm so sorry Ludwig..."

I rubbed his back and whispered repeatedly, "It's fine. I'm okay."

This hasn't happened in a long time. First, it used to be every night, then every week, finally every month. It's been 6 months since the last time. He's gotten over it, but when his night terrors come back, it usually means something happened. It was most likely from what happened to Berlitz. I didn't think it would affect him this much: probably because he was the one who saw it happen. He wouldn't admit it, but I knew he favored Berlitz, being the only one of the three dogs that he raised without me.

After my brother had calmed down for a few minutes, I asked, "Are you okay?"

Our embrace was released and he spoke quietly. His voice was ridged, shaky and low. "I'm fine Lud. Go back to sleep."

I frowned and nodded curtly. Putting a hand on his shoulder, I said, "Schlaf gut."

I left the room silently, knowing he probably wasn't going back to sleep. We never talked about his night terrors, or discussed them in the mornings; but it was obvious what they were about. That time we were imprisoned... It bothered me that what happened decades ago mentally scarred him more than it did to me, although I was the one who it was inflicted upon.

Giving one last glance into Prussia's room, I closed the door and crawled in my bed, trying my best to get the last couple hours of sleep I needed before the sun would rise.

I didn't end up going back to sleep either.

Schlaf gut: Sleep well

Yeah, short chapter, but it's okay because I posted this on the same day as the chapter before. I wasn't sure whether to put this in Germany's perspective or Prussia's. Ended up with Germany's because I kinda wanted to explain how he felt about the prison situation they were in.

Just warning you, this story is about to get depressing, so keep your feels together.

Go where the grains of sand are flying.