"Turn around…slowly… very slowly." The voice barked, France then heard the gun click as if it had been primed for firing.
France complied with the demand of his captor albeit a little sluggishly. "I shall turn around at whatever speed I want to." He snarked, when he eventually did turn around completely, he saw someone who may have been England. Well, he wasn't quite sure who it was. It certainly looked like England, but it wasn't the England from the 21st century.
His garb was like that of a pirate of the late 1500's. The various swords and guns about his person were definitely from that period in history, not to mention the cocky smirk that seemed immovable from his face. France came to the conclusion that it was England, but from an extremely unsettled period in his history. (In France's mind, this was anytime before the Entente cordiale).
"It's… you…En-England… cut it out… that's not funny you know." He said, nervously. "You should get out of that ridiculous outfit... you can't go around wearing stuff like that anymore…"
"I beg your pardon?" the voice sneered, still pressing the gun to the back of France's head. "What do you take me for? You should show a little more respect… you always have been indignant, France."
The way that the word came out of his captor's mouth began to trouble France. He knew that he and England had their differences, but he hadn't heard such an aggressive tone from England for a good while.
"So…. Err… How should I refer to you then?" France said, with a slight smirk curling on his face. He would stay defiant in the face of danger… after all… he was French at the end of all things, and refused to show weakness to England.
" -You think it's funny do you?" the voice of the pirate spat aggressively. "I don't see you with anything to defend yourself, if this bullet does penetrate that thick skull of yours, then you will be extremely sorry." France seemed to become tense as the voice seemed to come closer and whispered into his ear. "Not laughing now are we?"
"Stop being such a delinquent England!" France said, his voice trembled embarrassingly as he felt the cold metal on his neck.
"A delinquent?" the voice sneered. "Just because I have power…"
France felt the pressure of the gun disappear, England had obviously stopped for some reason or another, whatever that reason was, was unclear, but at least it was a moment's reprieve. He tried to regain his confidence and spoke again. "Seriously England… this has to stop... I'm sorry for poking around… but I didn't think you'd go into some weird… probably alcohol fuelled… frenzy."
"…" The man sat on a lavish throne that was in the room. He dropped the gun at his side and sighed heavily. "Isn't that so like you France? You've always been jealous of my power…" completely ignoring what France said and carrying on with his previous line of conversation.
France considered bringing up the hundred years war… but then decided not to on the grounds of his better judgement. "…Bu-but…" France took a second to think, to think about what the normal England had said previously when he was in the study.
"It's midsummer solstice… spirits and ghosts like this time of year…"
"Wait… you're not… England are you? I mean… you're…" France looked at the clothes, then manner in which this England spoke, his demeanour and finally realized. "…The crazed tyrannical England from the old days…"
"So the penny has finally dropped has it?" The man's facial expression of indifference turned into a wide wicked grin. "At least I know that my dearest enemy hasn't lost his memory…" he said, advancing towards France and then stopping causing France to cower into the corner of the room. " But yes you are correct. That's exactly who I am… And what can I say? In 'my day' as you so crudely put it… The Spanish Armadas was long over, with God himself declaring me the winner and I had begun to establish colonies in the Americas…the 1660's were a good time for me." he looked his hostage in the eye, which as a result made France wince in a slightly nervous manner.
"As well as enslaving thousands of-" France said looking away, not able to look into England's intense stare.
"I don't recall you complaining at the time." He snapped, before France could continue.
"Do you know that there is another… well…you hanging around right now? Like the actual modern day England? Don't you want to see him?" France said, urgently trying to find a scapegoat to rid him of this rather unpleasant blast from the past.
"Hardly! He's the last person I'd want to see right now… it would be more than my pride could stand…to see myself so small… so horribly weak…" the man looked in the mirror bitterly. "The fact that I resemble him so much irritates me…"
"…So… err… I suppose you seem him once a year then?" France answered, trying to distract himself from his paranoia that he was going to be shot by a ghost… despite thinking over and over again that being shot by a ghost was impossible…
"Oh yes… once a year, he comes to see me and tells me the state of the world…" he said, pulling one of his sword's out unceremoniously in order to look at his reflection. Again causing France to flinch uncharacteristically "But I wonder… does he tell me the truth? or does he lie in order to appease me?"
"Well that would depend on what he's told you…" France said, becoming concerned by the way the conversation was heading. He had forgotten how crazed and insane England was, not to mention his intimidating presence. "So… you're not real? I mean not alivel?"
The pirate glowered and then uttered the words in annoyance "I'm a ghost… So the answer is partially yes… I'm not alive… but I'm certainly real… why do you think the current England was so reluctant for you to find me?"
"Because you're an insane megalomaniac?" France muttered to himself.
"Because he can't stand to face me… " England continued to speak, ignoring France's snide comment and stepping away, turning to the window. "…And do you know why he thinks like that?"
"Erm… because he's a coward?" France said, eying the door.
The pirate smirked. "Because he's a coward." He replied in an affirming tone. "No matter…" he said lazily, turning back around, pointing his cutlass at France. "You're here now and at my mercy… and he'll come and get you eventually…"
A disturbing though occurred to France 'NO HE WOULDN'T… HE HATES ME…'
"Oh he will…" The pirate replied. "… it's in his best interests for you to be safe… in order to prevent your… what is that quaint modern phrase you use? Ah…. That's it mutual destruction…"
"But… you just said that you're a ghost and ghosts can't hurt real people… right?"
"It seems to me you don't know very much about the occult France…" The pirate picked up his gun again and pointed the barrel at France. France was now extremely concerned that he had two deadly weapons being pointed at his face rather than one. "I may not be able to physically do anything to you… but you should never try and postulate what a ghost can or can't do… Does that make it clear?"
"Err… As in I can't run away? Yes... you've made it immaculately clear to me…" France said quietly, glancing at the clock.
"You're not in a hurry are you France?" The pirate sneered as he withdrew his weapons. "Why not relax… It'll be nice for us to reminisce… I haven't seen anyone for hundreds of years… well except for my lesser self, and that is a thoroughly disappointing experience… let's hope that you are equally if not more shoddy than he is."
"I don't think you'll be disappointed." France mumbled to himself.
A wicked, delighted laugh left the young man's voice which caused France to jump. "Ahhh! How I have missed this… You know… I don't completely despise you France… I just… like doing things my own way…that's all…"
"You always have." France answered drolly. "No one tells England-sama what to do."
"Quite so." He answered "You know sometimes I-" the man stopped abruptly and clutched his throat and began to cough heavily. This caused France to make a noise that resembled a girlish scream, but wasn't quite loud enough for that.
The coughing seemed to incapacitate England, he fell to his knees. Despite this, he covered his mouth as if embarrassed by his display of weakness. At first France assumed this was some form of melodramatic display, but began to realize that England seemed to be very sick indeed.
France cringed as England's coughing began to sound exasperated, he could see speckles of blood all over the floor. The pirate began to shake slightly
"Damn… Damnit." He murmured to himself, desperately trying to push himself back to his feet, but failing. He eventually collapsed on the floor, his complexion pale and his breathing ragged. France took this opportunity to leave as swiftly as possible. He slammed the door shut and prayed that the ghost couldn't leave the room. He let out a sigh of relief after about a minute, as it was quite clear that either the ghost had gone, was incapacitated or couldn't leave the room. 'Can ghosts even be incapacitated?' He thought to himself 'Wait… he said the 1660s…?' France cast his mind back. '…It couldn't be …that he's suffering because of… the Great Plague of London…?'
France began to fret. Would this be affecting the modern England too? He almost felt compelled to go back in and check on his captor. But he almost instantly reconsidered his idea and thought it would be better to find the modern England, 'He must have some sort of ritual for sending that… whatever it is… back to… whenever or wherever it's from…'
Meanwhile, the others were having a much more pleasant experience. Japan had convened with Italy and was desperately (but rather pathetically) trying to reassure him that there could be no 'small child' in England's house.
"Honestly! Japan! I'm not lying! There was a little boy hanging around in one of the corridors earlier! Do you think England keeps children in his house?" Italy gasped. "Do you think he works them like little slaves? I mean it wouldn't be too surprising… he's pretty scary… who knows what kind of weird things he has in this house of his?"
"Italy-kun… please don't scare yourself into thinking these things…it's not good for anyone, but especially you… you are susceptible to scaring yourself over things that don't exist."
"Unfortunately England does exist… he's very real…" Italy said, with a slight comedic tremor in his voice.
"I thought you and England-san were friends?" Japan said, sounding only vaguely interested.
Italy took this vague interest as an improvement on Germany's complete lack of interest. "Well we are… but I can still find him scary! I mean he loves all these occult things!"
"They aren't occult Italy-kun… they are simply supernatural…" Japan corrected.
"So long as he doesn't do anything weird while we are here… LIKE SUMMONING CHILDREN!"
"He isn't 'summoning children' Italy-kun… you just made that up."
"Let's get Germany in here! Even if there was a ghost… he'd scare it away!" Italy said cheerfully.
"We are not going to inconvenience Germany-san over something so trivial (and possibly fictitious)." Japan sighed heavily. "Why don't we talk about something else?"
"B-b-b-b-b-"
"We aren't going to discuss it anymore…" Japan said, in a strict manner as he could summon.
"…Japan?"
"Yes Italy-kun." Japan said, praying that Italy would say something slightly worthwhile.
"I'm bored." He rolled around on the bed. "I want to go to clean myself up a bit and freshen up… but America's still in there."
"Why don't you go and tell him?" Japan said eagerly, he felt this was a perfect opportunity to benefit from European honesty, without having to embarrass himself… if could save himself from asking America to get out of the bathroom... he'd at least feign some faith in Italy "I'm sure he'll listen to what you have to say."
"…Come with me?" Italy said, sounding slightly encouraged that Japan had faith in him "I don't want to walk down there alone!" Italy begged.
Japan rolled his eyes, " I suppose… I can come, but I'll definitely not say anything."
"Okay!" Italy smiled positively, jumping off the bed and running to the door in a hyperactive manner that caused Japan to pity him.
"He has far too much energy at the wrong times…" Japan muttered to himself as he straightened Italy's bed and then locked his door, taking his keys. He walked up the corridor and followed Italy, who rather than knocking on the door in a subtle fashion, decided to bang it loudly and shout in a semi- angry fashion.
"GET OUT OF THE SHOWER!" Italy shouted. "YOU'VE BEEN AGES!"
"It's… Canada… and I only got in 10 minutes ago." Canada said, hardly above a whisper as he spoke through the locked door.
Italy whined in an unsatisfied manner, but continued to speak. "HOW LONG WILL YOU BE?"
"I don't know… maybe 30 minutes or something…" Canada said. "I'll try and be quick…"
Italy directed his answer at the bathroom "Okay!" he then turned to Japan. "America must have been 3 hours or something in the shower…"
"No… I was in the bath… for 2 and a half hours… I need to wind down… my job is really stressful! You know what I mean?" America laughed and smacked Italy on the back, which caused him to lose his footing. "Of course you don't know! You're not a hero like me!... Oh man! " America said, trying to help Italy up "I'm so sorry about that! I don't know my own strength sometimes! I didn't mean it… honest! Japan help me get this little guy on his feet?"
"Yes of course America-san." Japan said, finding America's 'accidental' display of strength slightly embarrassing.
"There you go Italy! Sorry about that…" he repeated. "I mean well… I just get a bit carried away!" he said with a grin on his face.
"I guess it's okay." Italy replied. "You seem like a nice guy."
"Likewise!" America answered positively. "Don't you love it when people get on so well despite being so different?"
"Yeah! I know what you mean! I said that to Germany earlier and he disagreed with me." Italy replied in an excited fashion. "Everyone is like so serious at these meetings… It makes me feel on edge."
"Yeah… me too… I just try to stay upbeat and positive! You'd be surprise what a difference that can make in some situations!"
Italy and America continued to talk at a high volume that caused Japan to feel extremely conscious of the fact that they would probably wake everyone up. "I didn't realize you two were so similar." He said quietly.
"Well! Me neither! But it's nice to find someone who doesn't think I'm stupid and irresponsible." America started. "Not like Eng-" America stopped dead in his tracks...
He caught a flash of something in his eye. It was like a shadow at the end of the corridor, it looked like a tiny shadow… something that may have belonged to a small child. "Hey… guys… this might just be me… but… did you see something down there?"
"Like what?" Japan asked bluntly.
"Like… well… a kid's shadow…"