Ludwig and I both stared at the phone and then looked at each other. Neither of us wanted to answer it. Slowly he got to his feet and picked up the phone. I saw relief wash over his face as an annoyingly familiar voice emitted from the receiver.
"Hello, Italy. Yes. Uh-huh. No, Italy I'm kinda busy right now. No, it has nothing to do with that. Yes I'm sure. Ok, now, bye Italy." West hung up the phone and crumpled his chair. I hadn't realized that I was holding my breath until I let it out. We were both willing to admit that we were scared.
"What did he want?" I asked.
"He invited me over for dinner and he was worried that I didn't accept because of you." That was the truth but we couldn't let Italy know that. There was an awkward feeling to the air. I could feel that we both wanted to speak but we just couldn't find the right words. I decided that if things were going to go south then I needed to make the most of the time that I had left with West. I got off the couch, walked over to him and grabbed him by the hand.
"G-Gil, what are you doing?" he stuttered as I pulled him towards the door. He resisted only slightly when I opened it and pushed him outside in front of me. "I have things to do bruder. I can't go anywhere."
"Says who, the boss? For all I care right now, that man can disappear." I smiled as I pushed him around the corner to the drive way, however, the smile immediately dropped from my face. Standing there in all his fake glory was the Fuhrer. His personal surrounded him while he looked down on us. The smirk he wore chilled me to the bone and filled me with more hatred than I ever thought I could ever feel. West froze and snapped to attention like some trained dog with its master.
"What do you want here?" I asked him. His head slowly turned towards me with his cold eyes bearing down on me.
"Is that any way to speak to me? I am, after all, the man who holds your life in his hands."
"Ha! You hold nothing! You're losing the war; less and less people trust you. You're a fraud and the worst leader this country has ever seen! You are not worth of the title 'Fuhrer'. Go back to Austria!" All my pent up anger and frustration was coming out at once. I couldn't stop myself from saying the hateful things that had been on my mind for years. What was making me feel worse was the fact that West stood there and did nothing. He quietly sits and obeys this cruel man while he's killing innocent people. I loved my brother dearly but I couldn't stand his faithfulness anymore.
There was only one way I was escaping this. I turned around and bolted for the woods. I could hear all the shouting going on behind me that sounded like confusion and orders. Above them all was one voice; West's, shouting my name and telling me to come back. His was the only voice that stayed at volume as I gained distance from my dreadful future. West was chasing me, and while I wanted to turn around and run to him, I knew he was on orders to return me. I wasn't going to let them take me.
As I entered the woods the voices died off. Even Ludwig's disappeared. The woods were really thick and they didn't go very far, but it put a barrier between us. I burst out the other side to be clotheslined but a pipe at the end of a beige clothed arm that put me face first in the snow. As I pushed myself up I could see red in the pure white. Menacing purple eyes started at me from a face with a happy grin.
"You were trying to run, da?" Four other figures stepped out from their hiding places. The Allies had finally come to play. Alfred and Arthur stood behind me, while Francis and Yao stood directly to my left and right. I looked at Francis, who was once my friend. Whatever feelings that were there in the past no longer existed. Ivan stood in front, towering over me. I knew that his innocent face held many dark emotions behind it.
"Give up Gilbert; you and your brother have lost." Arthur said.
"You can't take me!" I charged Francis knowing that he wasn't a fighter. He jumped out of the way and I took the advantage to run. I would only have to be afraid of one of the Allies. Ivan was strong like a bull, could run quite fast despite his size and snow was his element. Something hooked around my leg and back in the snow I went. A heavy figure jumped on top of my pinning my arms while the pipe slid under my throat, pulling my head up.
"You make my pleasure smile. Prey is much more fun when you have to chase." Ivan slowly got off of me, never removing the pipe from my throat. Alfred cuffed my wrists together.
"Will you leave him alone?" Five faces turned towards me quizzically. "If I go with you will you leave my bruder alone?" They all nodded. I laughed at myself in my head. In a situation like this all I could think about was West. A car approached us and came to a stop. West and the Fuhrer got out.
"I believe this matter is settled then?" the Fuhrer asked. West walked forward as I pulled off my Iron Cross. He looked pained and helpless. I knew there was nothing he could do. I handed him my pendant and gave him a salute. He looked down in him hands and then back at me with tears in his eyes. "Ich will euch wieder sehen" Alfred and Arthur turned me around the lead me away when the tears flooded over. One by one as we walked away, the Allies left. The last one, was the one that I dreaded and hated the most; Ivan. I figured that the Fuhrer made a deal with the Allies in order to get them to cease. I was a simple pawn in a long and complicated game of politics and war.
"You vill like my home. However, you are not allowed to know vhere it is."
My world went black.
