Shinigami-cat: Hey people! Well I don't have too much to say on this chapter so… I OWN NOTHING!
Church Bells
Neko sighed dramatically as she stood over a cauldron whittling little wax figures. "Another day another dollar." She muttered. A few seconds later her sister appeared. "And where might you have been?" Demanded Neko. "I already told my people the rules ages ago!"
Lapin shrugged and ran her fingers along the cauldron's edge. "I had more people to talk to… And I had to go over the basic rules… How did you go?"
"I swore at Romano and gave Canada some vital information. Nothing special."
Lapin's jaw dropped. "Neko! You're not allowed to do that! It's against the rules to do that this early in the game! By going that you've ruined everything!"
Neko scoffed as she started to dig out an eye on her wax figure. "Excuse me, but I didn't tell him about the overlap world or the memory pulses or anything extensive about the Beast… Besides you know me, I believe that all rules are meant to be broken, no matter how taboo they might be."
Lapin huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine… So you didn't tell him about the really important stuff… But how long until we can add the monsters into the mix?"
"As soon as I've finished this." Muttered Neko. "All done!" She happily held up a small figure of a tall skinny person, whose arms were melted into its face, giving it the impression it was screaming.
Lapin clapped her hands in delight. "It's so fitting! Put it in! Put it in! Put the others in too!"
"With pleasure." Neko smirked and picked up a small box full of wax figures. She dropped the screaming figure into the cauldron and started to toss in other similar figures; a mannequin covered in a cloth, a little baby doll, a rotted figure holding an axe, a round person covered in stitches, a bed with two bulges in it, a figure curled up in the foetal position, an anorexic person who was reaching out, a crying girl and a monstrous gorilla sloth hybrid. The water in the cauldron bubbled and boiled, popped and hissed turning a murky yellow colour.
Lapin sighed as she watched her older sister work. "Do you think it will learn anything from this?"
Neko shrugged. "Does it matter if they do or if they don't? I'm afraid that they must go, we must appease the Beast below… Besides, I love watching these idiots die in horrible ways… How long until you think they start to kill each other?"
"The Beast doesn't like it when we take bets." Said Lapin. "Says we become too competitive and end up killing the sacrifices before their time."
Neko sighed. "Fine. No bets… Let's just go for a walk and see if any of them die…" A sadistic smirk stretched across her face. "All my people were left out in the open, exposed."
Lapin giggled and clapped. "How wonderful! I want to see their brains colour the pavement and flavour the water!"
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Feliciano slowly walked down the halls of the office holding on tight to the pipe. The lights kept flickering and he could hear small creeks and groans coming from inside the walls. It was almost as if the building was alive. The sound of something shattering made Feliciano jump. It came from a room down the end of the hall.
Feliciano gulped and slowly walked towards the room. Chills ran up and down his spine as he slowly reached towards the door, his hand was shaking. He gripped the cold metal of the doorknob and twisted it, slowly pushing it open. Inside the room was an overturned desk and more blood on the walls.
He cautiously walked into the room clearing his throat. "Hello? Is anyone in here?" There was no response. Feliciano gulped and walked over to the overturned desk and started to look through the draws in the desk. He found a note.
I didn't know what they were at first, I thought they were people but I was wrong… They scream just before they attack. It's not too hard to kill them. Just hit them really hard in the head with whatever you have handy… I hope the others are still alive. If they have succumbed to insanity again… No I can't think about that. If they have gone insane I have to look after myself. I will not lose. Not to those witches, not to monsters and most importantly of all I won't lose to the Beast below. I have to stay strong I
The rest of the note was torn, making it impossible to read. Feliciano shuddered. Growing up with a strong Catholic background he could only associate 'the Beast below' with one creature; the fallen angel Lucifer, Beelzebub, the devil, Satan. A hundred names in thousands of languages but all meant the same thing. Was he dealing with some kind of supernatural deity?
He stuffed the note into his pocket and walked out of the room, catching a glimpse of something stumbling around a corner. With his heart racing, Feliciano slowly walked towards the figure. He could see its elongated shadow being cast across the walls and froze.
The body was twisted and warped as it slowly staggered down the hall. With fear gripping him tightly, Feliciano peeked around the corner. He felt his blood run cold; down the hall were three horribly distorted and warped figures, hands moulded into their flesh coloured faces, mouths wide and gaping like a fish out of water. It was terrifying.
Feliciano shuddered in fear. 'What are those things? Who cares I have to get out of here… Hopefully I won't see any more of those things.' He turned around only to come face to face with one of those monsters. Feliciano screamed.
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Matthew quickly pulled open the door to the church and slammed it shut. After years of living with England he had learnt a few things about witches, one of which being that they grow weak and can even die from entering a holy place. The church seemed like the safest place to be.
The interior was covered in a fine layer of dust and grime. Not the most well-kept church in the world, but it was still a holy place. He walked over to the alter and sighed. "Maple… What am I going to do? What can I do? How can I get the others here? Maybe my phone…" He quickly checked his phone and sighed disappointedly. "No reception? How can I get them here?"
With nothing better to do he started to look around for something, anything that might help. The only things that he found that were remotely useful were several metal crucifixes that had some weight behind them. They could make good weapons if the time came. Hopefully it wouldn't.
Once he was done searching the main hall of the church he started to look through the smaller back rooms. There was nothing of real interest or too much importance in any of them, but there was a key to the bell tower. Matthew smiled. If he rang the bell the others would come… well they might come. Had to find out who else was here.
He walked down a small hallway and opened up the small door at the end. It was grey and the paint was flaking a little but he could easily open the door with the key.
When the door was open he quickly made his way up the weathered steps. When he got to the top he was disappointed to see that the rope had rotted away making it impossible to ring the bell. "Maple… How could this day get any worse?"
He walked over to the open window, as he gazed out at the surrounding buildings fear cut through him like a knife. Creatures were crawling across the sides of the buildings, human like figures were stumbling, dragging themselves and limping around the place.
The blond gulped. 'Damn it… There are so many of them already. Is everyone okay? I have to find a way to get them here!' He looked down at the bat still in his hand. He shrugged and turned to the bell raising the bat. 'This had batter work…' With as much power as he could, the blond struck the bell.
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Arthur and Alfred looked around in confusion. "Dude… Who's ringing the bell?"
"That's not just any bell…" Murmured Arthur. "That's a church bell. Someone else is here and they've found a safe place! Come on!" He grabbed Alfred and started to pull him towards the sound.
Alfred frowned and quickly tried to pull himself out of Arthur's grip. "Dude! Calm your tits! Have you forgotten that there are supposed to be monsters everywhere? Did you hear that little girl?"
"She isn't a girl." Muttered Arthur. "She's a witch… I'm pretty sure she's half of the equinox."
"Equa what?" Asked Alfred.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "You lack of vocabulary astounds me… It doesn't matter anyway. Unless we see her other half I can't say for certain that she is half of the equinox."
"Dude! Stop using big words!" Whined Alfred. The sound of a branch snapping made them both jump. Alfred held on tightly to his axe and gulped. "Dude… Do you think that's one of the monsters?"
Arthur shrugged. "I don't know… But we should be careful… We still need to get to that church."
Alfred shook his head. "Why are you so obsessed with that church? I like know that someone's there, but you need to calm down!"
Arthur glared at the American. "Despite what you might think of believe magic is real and that girl was a witch. I don't care about the monsters that may or may not be here, all I care about is getting to the safe zone! Even you would have to understand a safe zone!"
Alfred sighed. "Yeah I guess…" Something moving just out of the corner of his eye made him jump. "DEMENTOR!" He screamed as he swung his axe around and slammed the axe into a tree.
Arthur face palmed. "You are an idiot!"
"Hey I thought I saw something!" Whined Alfred. He pulled the axe out of the tree and froze. Blood started to ooze down the tree as a translucent shape started to slowly appear. It looked like a mannequin covered in a clear cloth. It slowly slumped down into a bloody pile at the base of the tree. "S-see?" Stuttered Alfred. "Told you I saw something…"
Arthur gulped. "What the hell is that thing?" He walked over to it a crouched down, poking it with a stick. It was soft like flesh, but at the same time it had a plastic shine to it. Its claw like hands weren't making it look any better either. "This was definitely made with magic. There's no doubt about it."
"No way." Said Alfred. "It has to be some kind of freaky government conspiracy or super soldiers!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe Alfred's stupidity. The truth was right in his face, yet he couldn't believe it. "There are some things that science can't explain you git!" He stood up again and quickly checked the revolver. There were bullets, but not enough to waist on anything. "We need to keep moving to the church. We can't afford to delay this any further."
Alfred nodded in agreement and the two started to make their way towards the church. Hopefully they would make it there alive.
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Gilbert and Ludwig quickly looked around. "What's with the church bell?" Asked Gilbert. "Think someone else is here and trying to get help or do you think it's a trap? Wouldn't be surprised if was a trap."
Ludwig shrugged and took the safety off his hand gun. "I have no idea… But it wouldn't hurt to check it out."
The brothers exited the house and slowly started to make their way down the street of the residential area. Gilbert wasn't sure what freaked him out more; the fact that there was supposed to be monsters or the fact that everything looked like some strange cookie cutter picturesque 1950's village.
"I fucking hate this place." He growled. "This place is insane! I swear I'm going to murder that little white haired girl when we next see her. Take this shot gun and shoot her in the forehead."
"Calm down Gilbert." Muttered Ludwig. "If you kill her we might not get any answers."
Gilbert shrugged. "I guess… But that bitch is going down!"
The sound of something wheezing caught them both off guard. It was raspy and sounded unnatural, like they were gasping and struggling to breathe. They shared a look and slowly continued down the street towards the sound. Cautiously they walked over to an alleyway and looked down it.
Crawling across the ground were several anorexic looking figures. They skin was dark green, almost black and leathery, eyes had yellow film over them, a thick white foam flowed out of their nose as tears streamed from its eyes and a noxious green gas spewed from its gaping mouth.
Not wanting to waste any ammo the brothers decided to avoid those creatures. They walked past the alleyway as quietly as possible. If there were more monsters around they wanted to waste as little ammunition as possible. As they walked towards the sound of the bell they moved out of the residential area and towards a series of office blocks.
The sound of several glass objects shattering and shrieking from one of the upper levels of one of the taller building's made them both jump. "What the hell is that?" Questioned Gilbert.
Suddenly a window shattered and a body fell out, screaming and shrieking at the top of their lungs "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The body of the person hurtled to the ground. In the blink of an eye they slammed into a car crushing it and bending it to their shape. Any normal human would have died from the impact, but this person wasn't a normal human. "Germany…" He whimpered. "Germany…"
"ITALY!" Cried Ludwig. He ran over to Feliciano. "Italy! What… what happened to you? You need to stay awake!"
Gilbert ran over to his brother and looked down at Feliciano's body; bruises and cuts covered his face arms and visible skin, blood covered his face and he was clutching a bloodied pipe. "Shit."
Feliciano coughed up some blood. "I… I was so afraid… I tried to outrun them… but… I… I guess that they were faster…"
"Don't talk." Whispered Ludwig in a calming voice. "Nod if you can stand up, shake if you can't." Feliciano shook his head. "We need to get him to a hospital."
"There's no one here." Said Gilbert. "Besides, we are nations right? As long as he doesn't move too much he should be okay… But we can't stay out here. Whatever hurt him is still in that building and those weird gasser things are still around. We need to get to that church."
Ludwig nodded in agreement. "Feliciano, is anything broken? I'm going to try and lift you up."
Feliciano shook his head. "I'm fine… My back just feels weird… Like I popped something out of place." He reached up a little and smiled. Ludwig nodded and carefully picked up the injured man, doing his best not to hurt him further. It wasn't safe here. It wasn't safe anywhere.
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Kiku and Yao managed to make their way out of the hospital and to the church. Their clothes were slightly torn and singed a little, but apart from that they were okay. "There are so many monsters here." Said Kiku.
Yao nodded in agreement. "I know… Those screaming ones are insane. They were so fast, like a blur."
"But they are easy to kill." Said Kiku thankfully. He pushed open the doors of the church. Inside was nothing like they expected. Ludwig and Gilbert were standing over Feliciano's body while Lovino sat next to him, holding his hand. Arthur and Alfred were there too, they were more concerned with Francis who seemed to be bleeding heavily from his head. Ivan and Antonio were looking around the room looking for anything they could use to help the two. After a while the church bell stopped ringing and someone walked into the room, entering from a side door. He looked like Alfred, but he looked different. It was his brother, but his name had escaped Kiku at the moment.
Alfred looked up at Yao and Kiku grinning. "Dude! Looks like that's the last of us. We're all here!"
"And where is here?" Asked Yao.
Ivan shrugged. "I believe we are on a cursed island, da. It looks like that little witch girl and her monsters are here… Seems as though she wants us to die here."
"Can't say we've done anything to provoke her though." Muttered Arthur.
"I know I've done nothing." Muttered Francis as he pressed the sleeve of his shirt against the cut on his forehead. "But they still sent those creatures after us…"
"What the hell is going on here?" Snapped Lovino as he pulled his hair in frustration. "It's all that bitch's fault! I swear I'll fucking shooter her in her fucking yellow eye!"
Gilbert rolled his eyes. "The bitch had grey eyes. Not yellow eyes."
"No she had yellow eyes you fucker!" Snapped Lovino.
"Shut up!" Snapped Arthur. "Everyone just shut up! It'll be best if we just sit down and talk about what the fuck happen when we woke up here! That way we'll all know what the fuck is going on or at least have a better idea!" Everyone nodded in agreement.
Feliciano coughed. "I woke up in an office building… There were creatures that kept screaming and running and… I killed a few of them but I was knocked out a window… Ludwig and Gilbert found me, they saved me…"
Lovino snorted. "If those bastards actually saved you, you wouldn't have fallen out a window!"
"At least you were with a group." Hissed Gilbert. "Be fucking thankful that Antonio and Francis were there! Feliciano had to survive on his own!"
"Calm down." Said Antonio. "Why don't you tell them what happened to us Lovino?"
Lovino huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine… The tomato bastard, the wine bastard and I woke up near a lagoon. Next thing we knew some creepy girl showed up and gave us some weapons. We heard the bell ringing and followed it… But not before some fucking psycho with an axe tried to kill us. It almost got Francis, that's why he's like that… Then there were these crying bitches that tried to claw us to death. Then we got here."
"I saw those crying things too da." Said Ivan. "I woke up in a school. There were bloody messages and scratches on the wall talking about the horrors that await us. It is quite a scary thought… But as I tried to leave I found some weird dolls." A dark aura surrounded him. "Those dolls started to attack me but I smashed in their skulls. After that I left the building and had to kill the crying creatures."
Gilbert frowned. "Did anyone see those freaky things that were spewing green gas everywhere?" No one responded. Gilbert sighed. "Ludwig and I woke up in a house and found those things in an alleyway. After that we found Feliciano falling out of a building."
"What about you two?" Arthur asked Yao and Kiku. "What happened to you two?"
Yao shrugged. "We woke up in a hospital. There were lots of strange creatures in there… A bed that looked like there were two figures on it and a creature that rocked back and forth, spitting acid when anyone got too close… What about you Arthur? How did you get here?"
"Alfred can explain." Said Arthur.
Alfred sighed. "Dude… we woke up in this park and then we heard this bell going off, then I like totally killed this thing that looked invisible until you killed it… Then we saw these huge giant fat things that just blocked our path and when we killed them their bodies ripped open and all these festering dead rats spewed out of it!"
That imagery made everyone cringe. It was just gross and disturbing. Matthew cleared his throat. "There are two witches… Neko the black witch and her sister Lapin is the white witch… Everyone here is a sacrifice for a creature called The Beast."
Arthur frowned. "Black and white witch… sisters…"
"What are you thinking Arthur-kun?" Asked Kiku.
"Nothing." Muttered Arthur. "It's just a thought… But it's nothing important. I'm probably wrong… Yes, definitely wrong."
"What are we going to do now?" Asked Francis. That question seemed to be on everyone's mind. Could they really do anything at all? There were monsters everywhere and so were the creepy witches.
Laughter broke the silence. Everyone looked over at Gilbert with confusion. "It's fucking obvious what we need to do! We need to survive! There's no fucking way I'm going to let some fucking monsters and two fucked up witches get in my fucking way. Besides, we are countries aren't we? We can't die! I'm more than living proof of that! Those witches will regret the day that they tried to cage awesome Prussia!"
Gilbert's light hearted attitude seemed to lighten the mood a little and boot their moral. "We need to get some medical supplies." Said Ivan. "Feliciano and Francis need them and I'm sure that we will need it later on too."
"I will volunteer to go." Said Kiku. "I can defend myself quite well and I know the basic layout of the hospital."
"I'll go to." Said Matthew quietly. "I have to help papa…"
"Then the hero goes to!" Cheered Alfred. "The hero always helps those in trouble!"
Gilbert grinned. "Then I better go to. Alfred's going to end up killing someone at this rate." With the group decided they bid farewell to their friends and headed out to the hospital.
TBC
Shinigami-cat: Well… they are so fucking screwed. Please review!
