An: I'm sorry that I have not updated my other story in a while, but I have been on holiday, and I did not have much time to write. I also have had a lot of homework and this is my English project! Unfortunately, the WiFi in my area went down for about 4 days on the last week of school, and since I use google Docs, I couldn't write. Well, I'll try and update my other story soon and I hope that you enjoy this story. Please review!
Disclaimer:I don't own Hetalia.
It was a dark night in London town and the moon was hidden by the thick fog. No sane person would dare to step into that darkness without a source of light, since the narrow streets were full of thieves and murderers who waited for innocent travellers to prey on. People tended to travel in packs around these dangerous areas, wary of the predators who hid in the shadows.
On this gloomy night, three men were walking through the twisted alleyways of London docks. They were sailors and had just arrived back in London after traveling with their crewmates over to China on the Cutty Sark. Pleased to be back on dry land after spending months on a ship protecting their precious cargo of tea from pirates and the sea, they had gone to a pub for a celebratory drink.
After spending a large amount of money on booze, the friends decided to leave the pub and spend the night at the home of the family of Arthur Kirkland, who was the only sailor in their small group who came from England (the other two were from France and America). They had brought a lantern from the ship with them, and hastily lit it with a match before they left the warmth and safety of the pub and ventured out into the dark London night.
The cold night wind tore at their faces and they huddled together for warmth. Beginning to regret ever leaving the pub Arthur, Francis and Alfred started to jog to keep themselves warm and to help them reach their destination faster. Suddenly, a large wall loomed up in front of them, and the men realised that they must have taken a wrong turning and gotten lost in the dangerous alleyways of London.
"I thought you said that you knew how to get to your house!" whispered Francis angrily, upset about getting lost, but not wanting to attract any unwanted attention.
"I do!" Arthur started to yell, before realising where he was and lowering his voice,"It's just that this damn fog is confusing me!"
"Guys, you need to calm down, I'm sure that everything will be alright." comforted the tall, blonde American called Alfred as he started to snack on some bread that he had kept in his worn leather jacket.
"Everything will be alright, you say, hmm." muttered Arthur with a sarcastic tone of voice, "We are lost in the middle of London at night and have nothing to protect ourselves with. How is that alright!" By the end of his comment, Arthur's voice had become very loud, and Francis soon ran over and shoved his hand over Arthur's mouth to prevent him from drawing dangerous people towards them.
Unfortunately, Arthur - who was very nervous and highly strung at that moment in time- saw this as an attack since the fog was so thick that he could not see who was in front of him. This caused him to shove Francis backwards onto the dirty pavement, and because Francis was holding the lantern, it also fell down. Suddenly the alleyway was cast into complete darkness.
The three men started to desperately scramble around the ground, hoping to find the missing lantern before anyone found them. It was quite an odd sight to see, if anyone was around to witness it. Three grown men were down on their hands and knees blindly waving their arms and crawling around the dirty pavement of a short London alleyway.
Finally, Arthur found the lantern. Picking it up swiftly, Arthur reached into his brown overcoat pocket and pulled out a match. He then quickly proceeded to light the lantern, but then he did something that shocked everyone. Arthur dropped the lantern and again threw the alleyway into shadows.
"Arthur what did you do!" yelled Francis, confused about what had just occurred, "Why did you drop the lantern?"
"I...I don't know." stuttered Arthur, who was feeling very scared about why his hand moved without him telling it to,"My hand just moved by itself."
"That's impossible Arthur, stop making excuses."
"I'm not making excuses Francis that is really what happened!"
"Guys, guys calm down. Stop arguing; I'm sure that it'll be alright. We'll just find the lantern again, right? I'm sure we'll be alright, and even if a bad guy finds us, we'll be fine because I'm the hero and I'll save you!" Alfred stated enthusiastically as he resumed the hunt for the lantern.
"Alfred you are way too optimistic." Francis muttered darkly as he also continued to look for the precious lantern, "Right Arthur?"
Plink! A short, sharp metallic noise echoed around the alleyway growing gradually louder as it got further and further away from its source. Alfred and Francis stopped searching for the lantern immediately and turned their attention to the place where the noise had originated from. Francis lit a match to try and see what was going on, but it was immediately snuffed out.
Suddenly Francis noticed that something cold was touching the back of his neck. It felt like a knife blade, but slightly different. He slowly turned around, wanting to see what was behind him without aggravating it, and looked at the most horrifying thing that he had ever seen. The beast that was standing behind him slowly raised its terrible claws and plunged them into Francis' throat to the beautiful sound of his prey's blood-curdling screams.
Alfred heard the scream of his friend and tried to run away, afraid of what was hidden in the shadows. He was no longer feeling very heroic as he stumbled over a heavy metal item that was hidden in the fog and fell onto the cold, harsh ground. Reaching to pick up the item and see what wretched thing had caused him to fall over, Alfred realised that he had just tripped over the lantern. Grateful that he had found it, he picked up the lantern and lit it, but what was illuminated terrified him to his very core.
A horrific beast was crouching over Francis, slowly tearing away strips of skin to feast on. Francis' face was already half skinned and his silky shoulder length hair had been pulled out, but the monster did not look like it was going to stop there. When it finished chewing it turned around and Alfred got a clear view of its head and its devilishly sharp horns. Looking straight at Alfred with its blood red eyes, it reached down to one of Francis' clear blue eyes and dug into it with its razor sharp claws. Then the beast pulled Francis' eyeball out of the eye socket and watched in amusement as the ligaments stretched until they snapped and flicked blood everywhere. Alfred started to shuffle backward to try and get away from the terrible beast, but his back hit the wall behind him. Why did he have to be the person who was closest to the dead end?
After finishing eating Francis' eyeball, the bloodthirsty beast ambled over to the trembling mass that was Alfred. Grabbing him by his hair, the beast pulled Alfred up so that he was facing it.
"Wh...what do you want?"Alfred stammered as tears streamed down his face. The beast smirked and looked at Alfred like a tiger would look at its prey.
"Poor little thing." it said in a surprisingly clear voice, "You seem so confused. I was just feeling a little bit peckish and decided to get some snacks. Oh, and sorry about this, but I do love to play with my food sometimes. Do you?" The beast tilted its head and looked at Alfred, showing his huge canines in a wide smile.
"But we're humans, not food so why did you eat Francis?" inquired Alfred, feeling slightly braver since the beast seemed to have some human aspects, as he shuffled to the corner furthest away from the monster.
"Well to me humans are food and I do just love to hear them squeal when I stab them. By the way, I'm going to eat you too, so don't think that you will be able to tell anyone about me."
"Please don't eat me, I'll do anything. Just...just please don't kill me like you killed Arthur and Francis." Alfred begged as he fell to his knees.
"Silly boy, can't you see? I am Arthur. Well, kind of." revealed the monster as he looked down at the sniveling heap at his feet.
"That's not possible! Arthur isn't a monster, and he definitely wouldn't try to kill us! He may be a bit grumpy sometimes, but he's really a nice guy! You can't be him, you... you just can't be!"
"Well, have you heard of werewolves?" queried the beast as Alfred nodded in assent, "I'm kind of like them, but more, how should I put this, devilish."
"But you can't be like a werewolf; it's not a full moon. Also, Arthur didn't do anything like this on the ship." Alfred argued desperately.
"Unlike a werewolf, I can only change during a new moon and I didn't change on the ship because there were too many people and running water gives me a migraine. Anyway, you're getting a little bit boring now, so I think that I'll finish what I came here to do." The beast said, ending the conversation.
Frozen into place, like a deer caught in the sights of a hunter, Alfred could only watch as the beast with the crimson hair unfurled its huge, leathery blood-red wings and tore out his beating heart. A final scream rose above the rooftops, causing several startled birds to take flight, before all was silent.
The next day two skeletons were found in a small alleyway near London docks. There was a short investigation into the murders, but nothing came out of it, since there was absolutely no clues to point the police in the right direction. It was a very unusual case, because most of the bones in the skeletons had been cracked open and the marrow had been drained. Whatever killed the two people also seemed to have taken the deceased's brains, as the skulls were empty. Despite the fact that this interesting murder might have made the front page of many newspapers, it was kept quiet because the police did not want the citizens to panic because the murderer was obviously someone who was very powerful and dangerous.