Mystical Happenings

Chapter One – The Box
It was yet another stormy night in England, the wind shouting at all the things, tears from the clouds pouring down onto the surface; it was another wet night. It didn't seem to bother the people of the United Kingdom that much; they get this kind of un-holy weather nearly all the time that it came as a regular occurrence. It never bothered anyone, anyone that is, except for Arthur Kirkland.

Arthur sighed, and turning to the other side, staring blankly at the wall before him. Usually, he could all asleep in this kind of weather; he usually slept like a log, but for some reason unknown to him, he couldn't at all. Maybe it was because of the fact that he had to travel, yet again, to America's World Conference hall in Washington D.C, where he would have to put up with all the medalling countries.

He couldn't deal with them now; he just couldn't get his mind into the right gear like he wanted to. His brother, Alistair, had some trouble with his country at the moment; the Scottish Empire wasn't feeling well, so he had to stay with Arthur until he could get his mess dealt with, like the nation that he was, he had to. It wasn't bad as if he was tearing the world apart, far from the fact, but it was bad enough to send Arthur's head reeling every now and then. It was annoying to have the oldest around the house, but he could handle that, what he couldn't handle was the fact that his other two siblings had come for a visit. He groaned, maybe he could ship them back to their own countries so they could actually get some work done, for once.

Shaking that thought out of his head, Arthur groaned, facing the ceiling now, face palming himself. "Why can't I get to sleep?" he hesitated. He glanced at his alarm clock, 2am it said. He punched the bed, hissing, "This is bloody ridiculous…" He needed to clear his head, to make the thoughts walk away from him, and never come back. He needed a walk. He sighed, and got out of the warm covers and landed his two feet on the cold floor.

He walked around the house, glancing around at his surroundings to see if he could name each one in the dark. As he did so, he heard footsteps coming towards his way. The closer they got, the louder they get. He gulped, and remained where his feet lay; he was glued to the floor at this point, frozen with horror.

Was it an intruder? If it was, drastic measures had to be taken for this, and he didn't care if he hurt him. Slowly pacing, he made it to the wall edge, and peeked over the edge of the wall. The figure was coming his way, and his nervousness was growing into a higher level of anxiety by now. The unknown person came towards him, and his hand met the person face, quite hard. Yes, Arthur had smacked the person right in the middle of his face, and made his nose bleed. "AH HA! I've got you now, intruder!" he beamed his pride.
"You IDIOT! Why in Hell did you do THAT for?!" the voice complained, clutching the injury.
Arthur, realising it wasn't an intruder, rather it was his brother, Peter, he regrated, and apologised quickly, "Nathan, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
Nathan laughed, dryly, "Yeah, fine enough to get blood all over my face…"
"Did I hit you that hard?"
He rubbed his nose, "Nope," he then chuckled, "But luckily it wasn't Jett…"
"Why not?" His voice leaked in curiosity.
"Well, the poor thing had already broken it several times before, not with that Band-Aid he wears on it all the time…" he trailed off.

Arthur bit his lip. That was true, and he always wondered how he always to damage it so badly. He chuckled at the memory, the memory of how his poor dear son playing outside, and the odd colony slid in the grass, hitting his nose in the process, mud splattered all over his clothes and face. Not caring if he injured it or not, he kept on running all over the place, playing like good eight year olds should. It wasn't until later that afternoon Nathan found out that Jett had broken it, and Arthur had scolded him off for being so careless. He was so little back then.

Now, of course, he was Australia, he was Jack Kirkland. He was a lonely continent, floating on the water, so carelessly. Although, he seemed happy, not with the continuous gorgeous weather he always gets, then the fact that he had the most exotic natural places in his land, and most of them were beaches. He would have to visit after the meeting tomorrow.

Nathan, finding it amusing that his little brother was standing there, at 2:15am in the morning, with that memorisable look on his face, chuckled at the fact that his brother could be so… focused at times. He sighed, "Why are you up so early anyway, Arthur?"
Arthur snapped out of his daze, and turned to face the third oldest in the family, glaring, "It's nothing for your concern…"
"Oh really now, is that so, Artie?"
"Yes, it's none of your business." He started to walk towards the back door, opening it, "Now, why are you up so early, hmm?" he retorted, folding his arms.
He chuckled, "Okay, okay. I get it, I get it. I, in all honesty, don't want to tell you either. However, if you're going outside, I suggest don't. They say that creepy things happen at night, Arthur." Ignoring his brother's comment, he stepped outside, looking out towards the garden, smiling to himself.

The garden was the only place he could actually clear his head. He never knew why though, it's been this way ever since he was a little lad. He would always stand or sit on the grass, playing with his rabbit and his magical friends. Despite the rain, it was a really calm and peaceful place in his eyes. Now days, Arthur would sit in his chair, drinking his Earl Grey, reading or listening to the wildlife around him.

Arthur was glancing all around the scenery, until he spotted a mysterious black figure near the trees. He raised a brow, this must have been his imagination playing up due to the fact that it was 2:30 in the morning, and it was raining. However, that didn't stop him from creeping his way towards the figure. The umbrella above his head was keeping the rain off his head, but his feet were getting all muddy. He growled, and cursed the bad weather, before he made it to the bushes. "Hello? Anyone there?" he asked. No answer. Maybe he was slowly losing his mind; his mind was slowly getting eaten away by some monster inside of his head. He yawned, "Might as well go back into dreamland then…" With that, he went back inside, back into his imaginary slumber land.

Unknown to him, the unknown figure, or rather figures, were right behind the bushes and shrubs. "Master, he didn't see us. Do we give it to him the next time we see him or…?" a confused, girl voice questioned, looking at her master.
The man sighed, and answered, "No, we'll leave it at his doorstep. Don't forget the note, understand?" The girl nodded, and he stood, grabbing the object, and placed it on the front doorstep, placing the note on top of the object, before disappearing, both of them, into thin air.

The sun didn't come out that day, but it was morning anyway. He rolled over in his sleep, not wanting to wake up for, yet again, a torturous, awful day in Alfred's country. He didn't want to go to the meeting, not another day with Francis yelling in his ear, countries shouting at is face, and him getting an earthquake migraine, one that hit his head, and wouldn't go away for days. So, he kept his eyes shut, hoping he would be invisible for a day.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. A loud knock came from downstairs, and another came to his bedroom door. He growled, and told the person outside of the door to go away or he will hex them like he'd never done before. The door creaked open, and revelled a healthy Alistair, and he'd stepped into the room. Sighing, he folded his arms over one another, smirking, "Aren't ya going to get out of bed, laddie?"
Arthur rolled over, face facing his pillow, "Go away, I'm not going…"
"Really, Artie? Aren't ya, even when I got a call from Francis that he'll not be attending the meeting in America today?"
Arthur pushed himself up, going wide eyed, "You must be joking, right?"
The Scottish man laughed, "Nope. He's not invited to this meeting, lad."
"Well, I'm glad!" He slid out of bed, and ushered his oldest sibling out the door so he could get changed.

Once dressed, and fed, he strolled around the house for a little while before he travelled across the ocean to the God horrible country that they were having the meeting at. He sighed; maybe if he'd hexed Alfred, he might even get a day off of work! That would be one dream come true for Arthur. Alas though, no matter how hard he'd tried, he'd never got a day off.

A knock was at the door, and Arthur wondered two things. First; why hadn't anyone in the household answered it yet? Secondly; who was it? He sighed, and opened the door, stating, "Yes, may I help-" His breath cut short, because no one was there, not a soul in sight. Odd, he thought he distinctively heard the door being knocked. Maybe he was losing his mind after all. He stepped outside, that was, until he fell face first into the pavement on his front door step. He rubbed his forehead, glaring a sharp stare behind him. His eyes met with something that he'd never seen before.

It was a box, but not any box. It had his flag all over the faces of the box, and the edges were gold, solid gold. The Union Jack looked so grand with the gold plates on the edges of the box. It was really bizarre, opening the front door, only to find that Arthur been tripped over a box that was meant for him. It was the size of a regular sized laptop, but it was actually very deep. Raising a brow, he brought the box towards him. He was about to open it, until he met with a letter. Not knowing what he was going to get himself into later, he'd opened the letter, secured with red wax, and read.

The letter only said a few words, a brief instruction.
It stated –
Not under any circumstances, must you open this box. It must be closed at all times. If you do open this, however, you'll end up in a whole different world altogether.

Confused would be an understatement for what Arthur was feeling, he was baffled, his mind was fried. Not open this box? Why not, was it dangerous, or was it cursed? Would he die if he'd opened the box? He sighed in frustration, carried it inside, bumping into someone. He growled, "Watch were you're going!"
"I'm sorry, Artie. What's that you got there, hmm?" Chloe asked, Irish accent fairly thick.
He groaned, eyes narrowing, "It's none of your business, go away."
"Really, Arthur, really? I can clearly see that it isn't just, 'nothing'. What is it? A treasure chest?" She tilted her head on one side.
He sighed in defeat, really he could never get any privacy around his house anymore, "I don't know. It arrived on the front doorstep this morning, just now actually…" He rubbed the back of his neck, looking in the other direction.
She clicked her tongue, "Hmm ….. Why don't you open it?"
"I'm not aloud; this mysterious note came with the whole damn thing. It's bloody stupid, clearly stating that I'm not supposed to open it. Stupid thing…"

Chloe yanked the box out his grasp, and began to inspect it closely. It was really odd; even she'll admit that fact. It had this lock on it, a lock that didn't have a key hole in it, but some sort of puzzle on it. It was strange; it looked as if it was alien, from another planet all together. She bit her lip, "Does it say who sent it on the note?"
Arthur glanced down at the note, "No, no it doesn't…"
She flicked her orange hair away from her eyes, "Hmm…That is strange…"

Arthur sighed, and rubbed a hand in his messy gold hair. He hated waiting, and now he was at the door, waiting for his brothers to show up. Chloe sighed, "You know, today would be much better if it was snowing…"
He groaned impatiently, "Whatever, now get out of my way. I need to get to the God damned door so I can get to that horrible country that we're having the meeting in…" he sighed.
Chloe chuckled, "Aye, brother." She then looked the other way, and yelled to the other two residents in the house, "HEY! GET YOUR ASRES DOWN HERE NOW! WE NEED TO GO!"
Arthur went wide eyed, "Didn't know you still had it in you…"
"Shut up; I save my voice until I need it the most!" She fixed her dress to make it look presentable.

More time had passed, and it was Arthur's turn to yell, "GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Two figures appeared, one looking ruffled and the other pissed off, and Arthur smirked, "It's about bloody time!"
Alistair groaned, really annoyed that it was, yet again, another day of these horrid meetings, "Shut up! Now, let's go then!"
Arthur sighed, and followed Nathan out, closing the door behind him. He sighed, "What took you two so long, anyway?"
He chuckled, "Well," He pointed at Nathan, whom, at this time, was glaring into the oldest sibling's soul, "That laddie wouldn't get up, so I dragged him out."
Arthur stared at him flatly, "That will explain his attitude then…" Just as he said that, it started to pour down on them once more, drenching their shoulders in the process. He sighed, not bothering to get his umbrella out; he was used to this weather, "Let's just bloody go already."

With that he stormed off, not caring if the others were calling out to him, saying that he should get an umbrella. He didn't care about anything, except for the box, which he was now caring with him, to keep him occupied while he was at the meeting. Just what was going to happen today?