"I've never had a Magic 8 Ball before…" Finland sat on the armchair in his living room holding the plastic toy "I wonder what I should ask it? Hopefully I won't have to put myself on the "naughty" list for messing with pagan magic." He giggled to himself.

"Let me see. Well it has to be a 'yes or no' question yah? Okay then. Oh! I know a good one. Are Norway and Iceland really brothers?" He shook the Magic 8 Ball and then looked at the answer circle.

-Yah-

"Ha ha! I knew it! Though I guess it's a silly thing to ask a Magic 8 Ball when it was already confirmed with a DNA test. Alright then…is Denmark extremely obnoxious?"

-V'ry yah-

"Ha ha ha ha ha! This Magic 8 Ball is silly! I like it. Do you like me too, Magic 8 Ball?"

-I l've ya.-

Finland froze and the plastic ball fell out of his hands.

Had the Magic 8 Ball just told Finland that it loved him? Or had Finland just had one too many glasses of eggnog at the Christmas party an hour ago?

He picked the toy back up and looked at it again.

-W'll ya m'rry me?-

"AIHH!"Finland shrieked as he chucked the Magic 8 Ball across the room, narrowly missing the Christmas tree.

Finland had to take a moment to catch his breath as the Magic 8 Ball stopped rolling and became motionless. He sat in his chair quivering for a moment, then breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Ah ha ha ha! Look at yourself Finny! You're getting all worked up about this when it's probably nothing. It's a toy, yah? It probably just has those answers on there as a joke. Just a couple of coincidental responses was all."

He got out of his chair and knelt down by the Magic 8 Ball "Sorry for throwing ya little guy. Don't ya think it's a little early for us to get married?" Finland laughed as he picked the Magic 8 Ball up. "We only met tonight after all."

Then he looked at the answer circle.

-N't too 'rly f'r me-

"AIHH!" Finland slid back to the opposite side of the room and hid his face inside of a throw pillow. "Holy Martin Luther! This is one scary toy! Someone must've hexed it before it got to the gift exchange. Who would bring something so creepy?"

Finland stayed shaking for a minute with his face buried in the pillow before he was able to pull himself together again.

"Okay Finny, calm down now. This thing is creepy, but it's just a toy. You're a country, you can pick it up and throw it somewhere very far out your window. Yes! I can do that. I'm going to take my face out of the pillow now, on the count of three..."

He lifted his face up and saw that the Magic 8 Ball was right at his feet.

"AIH! AIHH HOLY AIHHH!" Finland screamed for the third time with in the last five minutes. This time was the loudest and the most panicked though. Not only had the Magic 8 Ball moved on its own from the opposite side of the room to the floor next to Finland's feet, the answer circle showed this most scary-looking scowling face.

"WAH HAH HAH!" Finland cried as he yanked a coat off the floor and frantically wrapped the Magic 8 Ball up. He stuffed the bundle under his arm, ran out the door and across the country. He stopped when he reached the top of MountHalti and hurled the Magic 8 Ball as far as he possibly could.

"Whew." Finland sighed with relief. "There we go! Problem solved. Creepy toy has been tossed high off the mountain so it can't scare anybody ever again, especially not me." Finland smiled to himself as he started walking back home, unable to hear the far off sounds of a small plastic ball rolling back over the icy rocks.