Dropped Call
The phone began ringing loudly again and Gil hastily pressed the red "end" button with shaking fingers. Huddling in this corner he, for the millionth time, wondered what he had done to deserve a fate as cruel as this. Russia's house was full of trap doors and secret passage ways, as Gil had found out, and he was currently hiding spinelessly in one of them. In the back of the closet in his room, a portion of the wall, when pushed, opened up to a secret room just big enough to crawl into and sit in the cramped space. Gil could find no other creases or seams in the walls around him, and concluded after much searching that the only entrance into these tight quarters was the hole-in-the-wall he had entered through to get there. It had been but a day since Russia had let him out of the basement for the first time. For four long months, that dark, damp concrete box had been Gil's prison and torture chamber. Every night Russia had come in and forced himself on Gil, the chains leading from his wrists and neck to the wall keeping him from running away. No matter how hard he had fought – no matter how loudly he had screamed his protests – Russia had just smiled innocently at him and kept right on going. Gil shivered violently at the memories.
After a while, Gil's struggles had lessened, the knowledge that they did nothing but weaken him further ceasing his fighting spirit in his inescapable bondage. Noticing that he had finally broken the conquered country, Gil's obedience coming as a shock to them both, Russia had decided to give him a little freedom. Gil had absolutely no idea why. Maybe he wanted his prisoner to be happier? Gil laughed to himself – in his head so as not to make any noise that would reveal his location – at the absurdity of that thought. It was most likely because Russia knew what was transpiring right now would indeed happen, and he thought it would be amusing. Gil had time to waste, so he let his mind wonder and examined the events of the previous day and how he had ended up in this predicament.
"I'm giving you free range of my house" Russia had said as he unlocked the collar around Gil's neck. "But you must keep this with you at all times." A large device was then placed into Gil's hands shortly after the cuffs fell away from them - leaving strips of raw skin where the metal had torn it away in his many struggles against it - and he wondered to himself what it could be, though he was too terrified to ask the question out loud. Russia seemed to read his mind, however, and answered the unvoiced query.
"It's a phone, but it doesn't need a wire or hard line. I think the Americans call it a "cell phone". I will call you on it when I want to see you. You must answer it. Always. Do you understand, Prussia?"
"Y-yes." Gil was surprised at how meek his voice sounded. 'Then again,' he corrected 'It's no longer my voice, but the sound of a hollow shell…' Gil had looked up to see that same docile smile, but knew that if he made eye contact with the bigger country, something he tried never to do, that Russia's irises would show the malice underneath that pleasant grin. A gleeful voice sounded from the county standing over him.
"Good. Because if you don't answer, what I have done to you so far will seem like a walk in the park." Gil had felt himself shrink away at those words; said so cheerfully but striking terror into his very core just the same.
The first thing Gil had done was taken a shower, something he had rarely been allowed to do before. It felt amazing to be clean again; layers of sweat and grime gone from Gil's body after so many weeks of buildup left him feeling a lot lighter. After that, a guy named Lithuania then showed him where his new room was along with a tour of the rest of the house (Gil had been very pleased to learn that Russia's room was on the other side of the large estate compared with his own). And in some mild chitchat, the naïve but kind Lithuania had given Gil some very valuable information.
"Would you like to see something cool?" He had asked with an earnest face. Looking over his shoulder yet again to make sure Russia was not around; Gil turned back to Lithuania and answered in a mildly curious voice.
"Sure." Lithuania had then taken Gil to the hall with all the other countries rooms and led Gil into his chamber.
"I've been living here for years and I just discovered this a few months ago." Moving his night stand over a few feet, Lithuania then pushed lightly on the wall, the surface pressing in like a button and moving to the side behind the rest of the room; exposing a hidden opening. It was no taller than three feet, just big enough for someone to crawl into on all fours, and Gil stared at it in amazement. Suddenly snapping back out of his wonder, he looked behind himself again to make sure Russia was not standing in the doorway. When he turned back around this time, Lithuania had been looking at him funny, a questioning expression on his face. Gil had spoken before the other country could say anything about his compulsive paranoia.
"That's awesome, man, what's in there?" Successfully distracting the slightly ditzy country, Lithuania had gone on describing his discovery.
"Well it took me a while to get up the courage to go inside; the beginning part is so narrow that it's really scary crawling through it. But the tunnel widens out into a pretty big room, and then another tunnel at the opposite end leads into the kitchen! Isn't it cool?!"
"…Yeah…" Gil was deep in thought at this point, his brain already formulating a plan. 'This can't be the only secret passage way in this place, and if someone as dim as Lithuania can find one, it should be simple for someone as awesome as me.'
"Has anyone else found one of these? Do you know of more?" Lithuania seemed to have noticed Gil's urgency and answered with a weary look.
"…Not that I know of. And if other people have found any, they don't say anything. This house is kinda…stressful, what with Russia breathing down our necks all the time. It doesn't make us want to feel very trusting…" At the mention of Russia's name, Gil immediately glanced at the doorway again, searching for that terrifying smile; painfully aware of the large hunk of metal sticking out of his jacket pocket. 'God, I hope this thing never rings.' Lithuania's voice had brought him out of his thoughts, and he had turned back around to find the smaller country already disappearing into the opening.
"C'mon! I'll show you the inside, too." His voice was muffled and echo-y as he crawled away, leaving Gil alone in the unfamiliar room. Taking one last look at the door, finding no looming devil in its frame, Gil had made his way to the small hole.