Thirty-seven characters are thrown together into a detailed game of madness.
There will be no pairings confirmed. All Hetalia characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya. All quotes belong to William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Rated T with a strong warning for violence/gore, horror, and possible death.
They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air, as a time when play was good and life so full that hope was not necessary and therefore forgotten.
"I wonder how old it is?"
After Italy's comment, Germany focused in on the mansion they were arriving to. Underfoot, the gravel crunched as they continued down the straight, damp path with an irregular beat caused by the differing paces of the three walkers. As they moved onwards, more of the place was visible as the trees on either side of them began to thin out. The foliage pulled away and so suddenly the awe-inspiring size was no longer concealed. The building stretched tall and wide, with a completely flat face that gave it a bold personality which overwhelmed those standing small before it. There were gray windows topping each other as indication of the many floors, and the walls that were made of old stone were chipped and smooth from erosion.
The black trees were left behind as they strode into the open as the path now cut through an unkempt lawn of large, mossy stones and different shades of grass. The three padded up the two stone steps, and Prussia reached out to grasp the cold, curved handle. The door swung inwards before he could touch it, and their eyes were cast down at the small shape clad in soft fabric made of patches of baby pink and white. It raised its head, looking up under a floppy hood at them with wide, sparkling eyes of excitement.
The little mouth opened and exclaimed, "Hi, everybody! Welcome!"
At the sound of the voice, Romania turned from the table and strolled over to the arrivals at the door. He patted Moldova on the head affectionately before saying, "Yes, welcome! We're so glad you guys could make it."
Prussia, Germany, and Italy politely wiped their shoes on the mat before stepping onto the polished hardwood floor that glowed under the light of the chandelier. In front of the grand, mahogany-carpeted staircase was a long table that was covered with a hanging white sheet topped with fine dishes of pastries, cookies, custard cakes, and then bowls of candied nuts, glazed fruit, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and icy punch with frozen wild berries clustered at the bottom. Automatically Italy was drawn here, and he came up to the side of a group of chatting people already gathered there and tasting the delicacies.
France greeted him with a ring of merriment painting his voice, "Hello, Italy!"
Italy opened his mouth into a smile, and he momentarily forgot the food as he looked over the others.
"Wow! What great costumes!" he exclaimed.
The blood-speckled mime grinned from behind his makeup of white and black, and his eyes twinkled contently from the compliment despite the two fat, black tears that ran down one of his cheeks. Behind him, wild-haired Edward Scissorhands clacked his claws together experimentally. The makeup that gave the man pale skin and sunken eyes would have made the person hard to identify if it were not for the thick eyebrows that revealed the wearer to be none other than Britain. However, the ripped, black-robed figure beside him could not be identified behind the black-eyed and mouthed white mask under the hood.
"Who is that beside you?" Italy asked while swaying goodnaturedly.
A low voice stressed darkly, "Do you want to die?"
Italy stiffened and covered his mouth with a hand before the mask was ripped away and America's boisterous laugh rang out.
"Yo, dude!" he laughed. "Ghostface? Haven't you ever seen Scream?"
Britain scoffed through his teeth at America's idea of humor, and Italy shook his head as response.
"Classic American slasher film! Wow, you really haven't seen…?"
Germany stopped paying attention to the rest of the conversation as he and Prussia dipped their heads down to look at the food. Beside them, Bulgaria added extra plates and utensils onto the table with a clatter before retreating to the kitchen once more. Germany briefly looked after him before glancing up at the orange and black streamers that crossed the high ceiling in a web and dropped down ribbons that held matching colours of balloons. The corners and railings were decorated with stretched-out wads of fake cobwebs that had little black spiders nestled into them. Hardly any surface around the room, Germany noticed, was not in some way spiced up with Halloween merchandise. Models of rats and creatures hung by walls or peeked out from the darkness, and in front of them, a plastic skeleton sat crossed-legged on the stairs, next to one of the speakers playing out classic Halloween music.
"Really nice setup they have this year," Germany commented.
Prussia nodded as he slipped his archer's bow into his quiver to take a knife and slide it into one of the strawberry cakes.
From below one of Germany's golden wings, a voice piped up, "You really think so?"
Moldova was back at their side, and he sneaked an arm through the brothers to pull out a dipped strawberry by the leaf.
"Oh, er, ja," he confirmed.
The child beamed and said, "That's great!"
Romania, who had once again been close to Moldova's side, heard them and said, "Yes, my little brother did the decorating himself!"
"But I had some help," Moldova said modestly, and everyone's attention was switched to Bulgaria as he returned with more cups and then adjusted the position of a candle-holding skull on the table.
Romania drifted away to answer the door once again as Moldova sided Bulgaria and nibbled at his berry. Germany quickly gave a nod to Bulgaria and said, "Good job."
Bulgaria blinked in confusion, then broke out into a smile. He replied, "Oh, thanks!"
Prussia had dropped his slice of cake onto the plate, and as he turned to lean against the table with it, he immediately straightened with a perk when he saw a certain pair of people hanging by Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
"What?" Prussia exclaimed with a grin. "They're here already?"
He peeled away from the table and left Germany with the others as he crossed the room. Prussia stumbled when he nearly tripped over Sealand, who had excitedly raced by his feet while leading a feathered micronation that Prussia could not identify towards an interesting decoration. He continued on and dodged around Spain, Portugal, and Romano on his trajectory to the group he was keeping his eyes on. Soon it was that despite the music and distance, Germany could hear Prussia's classic, rambunctious laugh, and through the crowd Germany saw him poking at the prim, white cravat of Austria's somber butler costume.
"Good evening, Mr. Germany."
A samurai-armored Japan came up to his side.
"Ah, Japan," Germany nodded to him. "Nice costume. Is it authentic?"
"Why yes, it is…"
For an hour, guests only continued to flock in, create groups, and mingle. People commented on each other's costumes, showed off their own, and swayed slightly to the music while they conversed. More life brightened up the room as it got filled up, and once the Nordics arrived, the dance floor was considered more. Denmark pounced into the middle of the room where he had found a free space, and began to tap his feet while swinging his fake executioner ax in circles. Norway looked to the side and sighed while Iceland stood beside him with no interest obvious on his face, although Finland was smiling a bit at Denmark's energy.
As some others began to join in the dance, a grotesque scarecrow greeted Finland. Sweden raised an eyebrow and watched over from the side as the creature soon revealed itself to be Estonia. A less terrifyingly-dressed person had also followed Estonia here: a brown rabbit with a full and silky chest of white fur. Latvia said nothing as Estonia grew focused on the Nordics, deciding only to daydream as he stood by and was ignored.
If his floppy ears could have, they would have perked when Ukraine called him and snapped him back to reality. A witch with a pointed black hat, cloak, and flowing long skirt approached him while gazing over him with gentle eyes.
"What a cute costume!" she smiled.
Latvia started to say something polite in return, but his voice turned into a nervous stutter as a demon of black and dark metallic purple crept up behind Ukraine. He trailed off, then tip-toed after Estonia when the other drifted away after Finland. Latvia toned down his shivering as he created distance between himself and Russia, and meanwhile the sharp violet eyes only blinked after him curiously, wondering the reason for the Baltic's sudden departure.
When Ukraine wanted to grab some punch, Russia followed her again while the skeleton zombie still clung to his curved, wired tail. Some shied away from the table due to the demon's presence, but Russia did not notice this as he looked at the table with enthusiastic interest. He saw the dipped strawberries, and he picked one up carefully between his pointed black claws, and he showed it to the grinning skull face behind him. It accepted the fruit into its hand, and then Belarus slipped off her mask to eat it.
The music in front of them cut out to be replaced by Romania's voice as he strode towards them with a microphone in hand.
"Welcome, everybody!" he announced as he circumnavigated the table to stand on the stairs so that everyone could see him, "to this year's spooky Halloween party! I can already see the spectacular costumes here tonight, and we'll see who wins the vote for the best costume contest later this evening. Now, we'll get on with the itinerary and fill in anybody who arrives late, shall we?"
By now everyone had quieted and gathered by the main entrance.
"I was thinking that with this big mansion to explore, a real challenge would be a scavenger hunt, with a prize at the end for the person or group that brings back the most items!" Romania exclaimed. "The lists are ready, so go on, make your groups, and then get everything you need from my little brother!"
Immediately people turned to each other, waved their hands back and forth, and agreed or disagreed to groups.
"You would only slow me down!"
"Oh come on, Britain," France said. "With two of us we could get the searching done faster!"
"How 'bout four?" America piped up as he came over with Canada hovering right behind him.
Meanwhile, Estonia tried to get into the Nordic group.
"You have room for one more, don't you?" Estonia asked Finland.
"Well," he shrugged. "I guess we do, but you wouldn't want to be leaving Latvia alone, would you?"
"He can just be going with Lithuania," Estonia said. "After all, this is the Nordic exclusive group, am I right?"
Sweden stared down at the Baltic without saying a word.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein were the first in line to receive their paper and pencil. They drew back as Germany, Italy, and Japan came up, followed by Prussia, who had decided to go solo. Ukraine separated from Russia and Belarus to take her own, and Poland and Lithuania went up afterwards. Latvia caught sight of this and felt too awkward to ask them now if he could join, so he as well was one of the few who decided to go do the scavenger hunt alone.
Romania called out after a minute, "Everyone ready?"
He received confirmation, and then he raised up a thumb.
"Alright! Everyone has an hour. Listen up for the microphone, or just check the clocks around the house to be back in time!"
Moldova pattered up to Romania, who smiled and passed the microphone into his small hands. The little ghost exclaimed sweetly, "No cheating! Okay, everyone can start!"
Some people immediately took the leader role and waved their groups away. Everyone scattered in different directions with their groups, some splitting and going down the halls to the left and right while others curved around the table and flew up the stairs. Prussia was one of them, although he leapt over the table, barely avoided booting a pumpkin pie, then took the lead and charged far ahead of everyone else.
Germany shook his head and scanned at the paper with Japan analytically as they went up the stairs a little more calmly.
"Now this one," he said before beginning to read, "Fourth floor: Blood beside the square view over the graves. What do you think?"
"It might be a window," Japan replied. "I remember seeing behind the house a very big cemetery."
"Then the square would make sense." Germany nodded.
On the fourth floor, after coming up to the top of the stairs, a grand, square window did indeed meet them. The moment their eyes were laid upon it, a certain captivation overtook them all and they could not resist the influence that it had upon them. All they could do was marvel at its size and impressive view, and the three of them came up to it to look out past the dimming film of filth on the outside glass at a great, flat field that stretched on far out and wide until it crashed into the walls of forest at its sides. Tilted crosses covered the field alongside squat tombstones, numbering altogether into the hundreds.
Italy blinked over it longer after Germany and Japan had broken away from their trance and remembered the challenge.
"Blood…" Japan murmured before pointing at a slumped skeleton beside the window that had a bloody cleaver embedded into its skull.
When investigated, a little paper taped to the back of the cleaver was found. A grinning emoticon was there, to which Italy was told to quickly sketch. When other footsteps came up the stairs, the three drifted away from the spot so that they could not give any hints to the arriving Poland and Lithuania.
Poland leapt to the top and his eyes glimmered as he caught sight of the window. He ran up to it, exclaiming, "Wow, look at that totally creepy graveyard!"
Lithuania glanced up, yet he did not comment upon it but rather murmured about the clue he was reading. Poland put both his hands up onto the glass and he announced, "Like, it's so huge! And we're so far up too so- it would seem bigger walking through it!"
The window made a protesting creak as Poland continued pressing against it. Lithuania told him, "Come on, we've got to hurry if we are wanting to win this thing."
Lithuania led the way down the hall to the left, venturing into the dimly-lighted hallway that was silent from lack of activity. He looked around for a light switch, but he could not locate one, and so they were stuck wandering through the gloom. Here, all he could hear were their footsteps on the carpet; a sound that was calm and quiet for the air on this higher level was so still and contained little dust particles that floated about peacefully. The sounds of people further away, calling out at each other with dampened anger, were muffled and sounded so soft, as though they were murmurs from another plane.
Even Poland seemed to notice this, and the urge itched at him to add something to this sudden, almost unnatural silence.
"So anyway, what's your opinion about my costume? Don't you think it is just super cool?"
Poland fixed the police hat on his head and then tapped at the ring of keys at his hip so that they jingled.
"Yeah, if you say so," Lithuania agreed halfheartedly as he tried to maintain his train of thought.
Find the rot in your reflection on the fourth floor.
Now that he saw the rectangular mirror pinned to the wall at the end of the hall, the sentence was no longer so puzzling. He wished that he could have been able to find the light switch because now as he came up to the mirror, it was so hard to see his own reflection in the darkness. Poland stepped up beside him and looked at them both in the mirror with a placid smile on his face. Lithuania scanned over them, searching the mirror until Poland raised a finger and pointed at side.
"There," he said.
Lithuania focused in. Under his fingertip, a strangely-shaped form of mottled brown and grey was seen, and soon he recognized that this shape had a human figure to it. Above Poland's fingernail, two black eyes of empty orbits stared at them from under a veil of frizzy, gray hair. Lithuania turned his head slowly and checked down the hall for the figure, but he soon found himself having trouble locating it. He glanced back at the mirror, where Poland was still indicating the gaping, dark hole of a mouth.
Poland noticed his delay, and he turned and looked down the hall with him.
"What? What is the problem?" he asked.
Lithuania replied, "I don't see it."
Poland narrowed his eyes and searched with him. Then he pointed again and said, "It is right there, further down the hall. Do you see it now? In the shadows- we just missed it completely when we walked by."
A little further from where Lithuania had been focusing his search upon, it was indeed there. It stood still in the murk, with eyes that continued to stare down the hall blankly at them.
"The symbol must be on it," Lithuania uttered as they continued to watch it.
Poland said, "Yeah, but it might be like, so hard to see with all of this darkness!"
They both remained standing there, staring at the figure. They waited for the other to make the first move. There were a few odd moments where their feet felt detached and unmovable, but then Lithuania remembered that his still belonged to him. He set a foot forward, swallowing and then leading Poland forward. Lithuania neared it slowly, unconscious of the bunching of muscles in his legs as he neared it.
It made no movement as they came closer.
Lithuania hesitated a metre away from it, and he glanced up into its black eyes. When it remained motionless, he came closer and looked over its body. He reached out a pale hand and touched its arm. Under the torn cloth of its outfit, he felt plastic. His heart slowed as a calm swept over him, and he now circled around the figure comfortably until he found on its arm a square piece of paper that glowed in the darkness.
A screech rang out beside his ear and he jolted away with electrified muscles as hands snatched his shoulders. Poland had cried out a sharp yelp and now clung onto him from behind with a white-knuckled death grip as Lithuania stumbled backwards. Poland peeked over his shoulder and stared at the figure in front of them, and when it failed to turn and advance towards them with a convulsing mouth, he laughed off his quiver.
"Ah, it was just button!" Poland exclaimed.
Lithuania sighed and felt the hands release him. The Baltic came back to the arm and was more careful this time when he smoothed out the paper to identify what was there.
"It's a… an eggplant."
They heard footsteps approaching towards them from the direction of the staircase. They turned their heads and saw a tall shape stalking towards them flanked by a smaller one, and both were quite recognizable to these two.
"Is everything alright?" Russia's voice rang out innocently. "I heard the screaming."
"A-Ah," Lithuania said. "It was just…"
"Is this clue?" Russia cocked his head.
Lithuania did not respond immediately, however he did not need to, for Russia came up beside him and looked over the zombie, soon finding the paper as well. The creature screamed again when touched, but Russia gave no reaction to it as he went on to tell Belarus what the symbol was so she could draw. Lithuania edged away from these two and he cast one last final glance at Belarus's skeletal face as they passed by. Before they headed back down the stairs, Lithuania saw the clue for the window and swiftly found as well the emoticon behind the cleaver. Once he and Poland were both thumping down the stairs, sounds of the other groups grew suddenly louder.
They did not know what had provoked it, but as they came onto the third floor, they came across Britain and France bickering and at each other's throats again. America merely laughed in the background and Canada nervously raised his hands and gasped, "Be careful by the stairs!"
Somewhere downstairs a shrill scream erupted and was followed by laughter. Seychelles was heard now chuckling in relief then chastising the culprits with good humor. Similar instances could be heard all around the mansion on the lower floors where most of the groups were now crashing into each other.
When Denmark pounced around a corner and tried to attack the group of micronations with his ax, he tripped over a speaker's cord and tasted the carpet. His yell of surprise had been followed by a momentary buzz in the speakers, and as the music returned, Norway breathed out a chuckle while Denmark peeled himself off the ground.
It happened so quickly that most people stopped taking the competition so seriously. People took advantage of the dark corners, popped out and scared each other, and in certain places, roughhousing and chasing were common with a lot of laughter all around. People started vacating the upper levels of the house to leave behind the heavy silence and darkness to be where all the excitement was. Some even returned to the main entrance to take short breaks and sample the food while joking around and nudging each other.
"Hey, this is a really fun party!" Spain cried while smiling brightly at Romania, who was standing at the front with Moldova seated upon his shoulders.
Romania's eyes shone and he beamed at him in delight. Spain carried on with Portugal and Romano, now looking back at the paper and reading off the next clue.
Higher up, Prussia laughed and trotted up beside Austria and Hungary.
"Check out how many I have!" Prussia crowed while flapping his paper briefly in their faces. "I'm going to win!"
Hungary smirked and shoved him to the side, saying, "In your dreams! Like we would let you take the prize!"
Prussia skipped back to them and said, "Well, how many do you guys have?"
When he stood up on his toes to look over the paper in Austria's hand, Austria whipped it out of sight and said, "No, I will not let you copy ours!"
Prussia laughed again and hopped ahead to the next flight of stairs up. Hungary and Austria did not follow him, but instead took the stairs down along with Germany, Italy, and Japan, who were also departing from the upper floors. Prussia trotted up the stairs alone, and once at the top, he immediately noticed the change in atmosphere as he inhaled the heavy air that simultaneously pressed down upon him. He turned his head at a soft sound, and he watched Poland and Lithuania returning down a hall they had just searched.
These two walked up to him, seemingly pursuing another clue, or notably, Lithuania was. The other seemed more engrossed in conversation despite how the other was staring down at the paper in full seriousness. As Prussia stood there however, watching them approaching, there was a brief moment in where Lithuania's eyes lifted from the paper and met Prussia's rosy ones with a sharp, emerald gaze. They strolled past him slowly, and Poland continued to chat although he had also turned his head purposely to regard him.
Prussia began to walk, and he headed down the shadowy hall by himself to investigate the clue the other two had just pursued. He found the symbol stuck to a rat statue in the corner, and he whirled around and headed back. Yet, as he walked away, he became conscious of how his pace was slowing. There was something about the act of putting more distance between himself and the wall at the end of the hall that put a jitter in his heart and made him open up his senses. As though the amount of darkness being put behind him was sensed, palpable- and the increasing amount of it unnerved him.
He realized the silence of the empty level, as he was the only one now here on the third floor. So suddenly after the disappearance of everyone else's excitement and noise, did a certain air overtake the halls. Something felt different now to Prussia.
Something... off.
He peeked over his shoulder behind him. He saw nothing there, but still when he turned back to look in front of him, his eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were drawn out thin. He made it back to the staircase, checked his list under the light here, and then tentatively stepped towards the next flight of stairs. He looked up at it, and saw a piece of a large window. The piece grew into a whole as he headed upwards and more of it came into view. He stepped up to it and stared out over the expansive cemetery. His eyes floated over the uneven rows of graves before they then noticed far out into the very corner of the field a dirty, white building that stood alone. His eyes flickered over to the solitary, dark pines behind it, and he blinked rapidly in confusion, although what he had believed he had seen among them had already disappeared.
When he sneezed, his ears echoed with the sound of silence. He checked over the skeleton beside him and stretched out his paper on the wall to draw the symbol that was on the cleaver. The soft sound of his pencil sketching was soothing, and he felt a little calm from it. He turned and considered the fifth floor, which had some lights already on up there, but was as silent as the two floors below it had been.
If not... more.
He considered the paper once again. Many clues seemed to be situated up there. He looked back and forth between the paper and the stairs before him, wondering why the heaviness in his gut was rooting him to this spot. However, he soon was swayed by the growing temptation for victory, and he finally forced himself forward.
Prussia caressed his hand over the railing, and the first few stairs creaked underfoot as he walked up to the fifth floor.
The time grew near for all of the groups to gather in the main room. One-by-one, they returned and stood by, counting off the numbers of emoticons they had located, and some smiling as they appreciated the large amount that they had collected.
As the last few groups were returning, Romania paused the music and picked up his microphone. It was then at that moment, while the groups were communicating with their members, that a very low sound resonated very quietly throughout the mansion, as though muffled by a pillow. A few people looked up and around in confusion, trying to locate where the sound had come from, and they only caught sight of Romania looking at his microphone with a perplexed expression before glancing behind him.
He lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug and he tapped a finger on the microphone experimentally. It worked fine, and it brought everyone into a silence. He waved his hands at them, indicating that they were still waiting and would not begin yet. Romania watched the clock, scanning over the gathered people and noticing that many were running late. He decided to turn off the microphone for now and speak with Bulgaria, until the Nordics and the group of four composed of America, Canada, France, and Britain returned ten minutes later. Then, once the room seemed full, he got everyone's attention purposefully this time.
"Alright, let's see how everyone did!" He raised a hand up. "Now everyone who has gathered over five symbols, raise your cards!"
Almost all of the assembly raised theirs high with pride.
"Six!"
The arms stayed up.
"Eight!"
Many dropped until only four groups remained. They eyed each other and grinned as Romania called out the next number.
"Nine!"
Russia dropped his hand with the smallest exhale of disappointment that was echoed by Canada as his group went out of the competition as well.
"Ten!"
Poland and Lithuania dropped, and Italy gave a little cheer as he waved his group's winning card high in the air.
"And there we have it!" Romania proclaimed, and a polite applause arose in the room.
Bulgaria stepped away from Romania and went into the kitchen trailed by an eager and joyful Moldova. He returned with something large in his hands that was concealed by a black towel, although its glass bottom was slightly visible. Bulgaria held it in front of everybody for all to see while Germany was invited to step up and take a hold of the corner of the towel. Japan and Italy stood on either side of him, Japan with curious expectation in his eyes while Italy wavered in anticipation.
The towel was pulled off with a flourish, revealing but single content that stood in the center under the glass lid. People blinked at it and cocked their heads, unsure, and even Bulgaria's eyes drifted down to gaze at it in confusion.
"Huh?" he uttered.
Romania as well, seemed surprised at what lay there, and he strolled over to him.
"Oh, did you want to continue the game?" Romania asked. "I didn't know you planned this."
"No," Bulgaria murmured. "I… these were supposed to be cupcakes. Really cool, detailed ones that Moldova made."
A few drops of red were smeared on the bottom of the glass, and standing above it, a folded piece of paper faced the crowd with crimson-soaked edges forming an ominous and decorative border. In black ink cursive, a sentence stood out boldly for all to see.
It merely said, Find him.
Germany narrowed his eyes at it. When his voice exited his throat, it turned from a strong tone to a hesitant one.
"Is this… a joke?"
Romania cleared his throat and looked around the room. He then said, "Um… would whoever did this, please step up?"
People glanced around at each other, but no one said anything.
"No seriously," he continued. "Not that you will get in trouble, it's just that well, we want to know where the real prize went."
Still, only silence reigned in the room. People looked all around, searching each other's expressions, but only found the same confusion and worry. They started to murmur to those close by, commenting and trying to guess the culprit.
And then, a quiet voice lifted up that was heard by everyone in the room. Canada asked, "What if it isn't a joke?"
All voices were hushed.
Bulgaria placed the glass container on the table, and he raised the lid while Germany slipped his hand under to grab the note. He pulled it out, avoiding the red, and he glanced over it again. Carefully, he flipped it and looked at the bottom.
"There's more…" he muttered.
He turned the upside-down paper so that he could read it. In mere seconds, the blood had drained from Germany's face and his eyes shone. People immediately jolted, and began to shiver from panic.
France cried out, "What? What does it say?"
Germany's voice was hoarse as he finally read what was in front of him.
"If anyone calls the police or leaves this place, he will die."
Instantly the room erupted into yelps and cries of terror, and people pressed close to each other to stare around the room with wild eyes.
Germany called out, "Hold on! Quiet down, everyone. We need to figure out who is missing."
People glanced around, but it was hard for them to figure out who it was, for the crowd blocked out some people from their view. Romania instead took out from his pocket another piece of paper and passed it to Germany.
"This is a list of all the people who told me they could make it."
Germany checked out the guest list and he said, "We must do an attendance. Raise your hand and shout when you are called."
He then yelled out, "China!"
He waved and responded, "Yes, I am here!"
"Vietnam!"
"Yes!" she cried.
"Thailand!"
There was no response, but Romania said, "He hasn't shown up yet. Neither has India, Taiwan, and a lot of the Asian countries. I don't understand why though. They never called."
Germany skipped over the names Romania told him to, and then he continued with, "Russia!"
"Here."
"Ukraine and Belarus!"
For a long time, he just kept getting confirmations.
"Belgium and the Netherlands!"
"Not here either," Romania said.
"Greece, Turkey, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus!"
"No."
It turned out that about a vast amount of people who were supposed to be here had never arrived.
"That's… odd," Germany commented, to which Romania could only spread out his hands helplessly.
Then he started shouting out again, "Alright. North and South Italy!"
Two verifications.
"Austria and Hungary!"
Two more.
"Prussia!"
The only sound that returned to him was that of the rhythmic clicking of the grandfather clock in the background. Germany lifted his eyes and searched through the crowd, who had also started looking around themselves as well. Germany called out his brother's name once more, but still no answer returned to him.
It hit everyone so suddenly. Every ounce of happiness and fun was snatched away from them, and the most cold seriousness replaced it. There was now confirmation that someone was missing, and now the horror of what that note meant could not have been more real.
"Real blood," came the collective whisper. "That is real blood."
Coldness filled Germany, and his eyes focused in on the smears of red just centimetres away from his fingernails. He quivered, and the paper slipped from his hand, riding the air lazily until it slid calmly across the floor towards the feet of the crowd. They stepped away a bit from it as though it was toxic, so terrified were they to get anything from that stained paper upon them.
Britain stepped up and threw out, "When and where was the last time he was seen?"
Austria said, "We talked to him around nine-thirty on the second floor."
After a short pause, Lithuania cleared his throat and said, "We saw him just after then, on the third floor."
And then Britain continued, "Was anyone else on the third floor at this time?"
Everyone shook their heads and started replying on their own.
"No, no, I stayed on the first floor after that," China said.
"We were here by the table…" France murmured.
Seychelles added, "After I went to the bathroom, I never went back up to or past the second floor."
"We were all here, weren't we, guys?" Denmark said while glancing around at his group.
And now people were starting to ask for each other's confirmations about their locations.
"You saw me by the-"
"Yeah, I did!"
"You were by-"
"And then I was chasing you-"
No one in particular stood out. Finally, above the hubbub, America stood up and joined Germany and Britain at the front.
"Alright, listen up!" America said, a voice of authority overtaking his usual, carefree one. "This is serious. Someone here is responsible for this, and they are hiding among us!"
The people before him were challenged with sharp blue eyes. After he had said this, the nervousness and fear increased and people desperately glanced at the faces around them again.
America clenched a fist and yelled, "I say we figure them out, make them take us to Prussia, then we can bring them to justice, ending this as quickly as possible! Everyone with me?"
Having nothing else to do or offer, the people nodded back at him. France gained some motivation and he walked up and joined the front group to flank Britain's side.
France exclaimed, "That's right! If we can just single out the person who would do this, then there is no need for a search party!"
America added, "Alright, so who do we know here that really hates Prussia? Someone who would be capable of doing something like this?"
So quickly, eyes turned back. Russia stiffened.
"It was not me- I swear it!" he protested.
America said, "Where were you at nine-thirty?"
"I was on the first floor, with Belarus…"
"What?" Lithuania called out. "We saw you on the fourth floor around then!"
Russia inhaled sharply and quickly said, "Maybe I am a little wrong on the time. But after we saw you and Poland, we went right back down."
Belarus removed her mask and nodded in agreement.
America asked, "Did anyone pass by you on the stairs?"
Russia nodded and said, "Latvia did."
Latvia shrunk into himself as people quickly loomed over him.
"Did he?" Germany demanded.
Latvia clutched his hands to his chest and quivered.
"I-I, yeah… I think so…"
"You think so?" America challenged.
"Y-Yes- I mean, I did see him," Latvia stammered. "Er- them."
Canada stepped past Latvia, coming to the front to face America.
"Now hold on," he said softly. "We can't just start blaming each other when we have no real evidence. I say we should split up into groups and start looking."
"Quite right," Britain agreed. "Once we find Prussia, we'll find out who this bloke really is."
For a few seconds, nobody did anything. All the eyes stared at the five at the front, who had so quickly announced themselves as leaders and had started to handle the situation for them. At this time no one had realized it, but they had wanted nothing more than to allow this to happen for they wanted, or rather, needed- to have people take charge over them. To have people to pour all their hope and expectations on. The adjustment was all so easy to adapt to, so nobody argued when they were commanded into certain groups. These groups did however, resemble a lot the previous groups for the scavenger hunt, although now they had merged with others to increase their numbers.
Germany stared at the collection of groups before him, inhaling deeply and setting his jaw rigid in utter austerity. This golden-winged warrior had acquired something in his eyes that was dark and swirling behind his pupils like living mist. Whatever new presence that had overcome Germany in just the last minute now stared at everyone before it with a piercing glare. The rigidity and flexing of his muscles was more like him, but the mood was nothing at all alike what they were used to because of that foreign air arising from him.
The collection of costumed people stood before Germany like squads of soldiers waiting to be commanded. Through clenched teeth he exhaled harshly, a sharp hiss on the back of his teeth, and then he barked out at them all in a belligerent tone.
"No matter what, not one of us can leave until we find Prussia! The only way we are going to accomplish this is if we work together, is that understood? We will search every last corner of this place and tear it apart if we have to! We will stick together and watch each other's backs, so that when all of this is over, we will all get out of here with no one getting left behind!"