0-o-0
Matthew lay on the ground, curled up in his jacket and shivering. He could see nothing, not even if he shined his phone around. Completely encasing him was pure black, though he could see outside if he was close enough to the edge, all he could see inside was black. He wiped his glasses-less eyes, as he has thrown them when he had first been trapped. He checked his phone again- the time set to all 0's and no reception within. In a small fit of anger, he threw that across from him as well. He had been there for what felt like hours, and nothing that he had done got him out. The material the dome was made of burned his skin; his hands looked like someone had lit them on fire, but worse. And he knew exactly how that felt- trying to teach Alfred to cook on a fire is a bad idea. He sneezed, the sound echoing around him. He had felt around the dome earlier and given an estimate of it being 20ft in diameter. 20 circular feet of loneliness.
He stood, shivering, for even though the dome burned him it absorbed heat, making it cold. His jacket slid to the ground in a heap, becoming colder without the heat of his body. He stood in what he assumed to be the middle and looked up. All he saw was pure black. He wove his fingers into his hair and gained quite the grip. His heart began to pound, quickly increasing in speed. He looked up again, the darkness flooding his eyes. Hands tugging tightly at his hair, he collapsed to the ground and curled up, muttering meaningless things to himself. His eyes darted across the invisible ground, wide and scared. He pulled at his hair more, one hand moving to the back of his neck. His nails dug deep into his skin, though the Canadian didn't notice the pain. Images of his friends raced through his head. All the happiness, sadness, fear, all ripping across his vision like a rip-tide. He screamed, loud and long, until the air ran out from his lungs. He gasped for air and coughed after a while. He fell over on to his side, curling up and heart still pounding. He pulled at his hair again, gritting his teeth and breaking out into sobs. Through the sounds, if you listened closely, you could hear him saying 'I wanna go home' over and over. As his eyes relaxed and his heart eventually began to slow, all he could do was cry. His vision faded out.
The Canadian man woke to find light. A bright light in his eyes to be exact. He was too tired to move, and his vision was extremely blurry without his glasses. He glanced away from the light to see a simple swivel chair and a man sitting in it. He squinted, but nothing came of it. He quietly managed a word, "H-Hello?"
The man's head shot up, red hair noticeable instantly. Matthew's heart began to race again. The man stood and grabbed a tool belt off the floor, allowing a larger weapon to clatter to the floor. "I see that you're awake Matthew Williams. I hope the panic attack was good?"
He glared at him, attempting to sit up but only to find his wrists and ankles pinned down. The red-head laughed, leaning really close to Matthew. Ruby, as he was visible fully now, flicked his nose and issued a yelp from him. He weakly asked, "W-What're you doing?"
"We're going to have a bit of fun there Matthew. I'm going to pull a tool from this bag and use it on you and you'll have to watch." He gave a Cheshire smile and slipped Matthew's glasses on, "You'll need these to see what's going on."
Matthew looked at him, seeing him still in his red clothing but with a white trench coat on. He bit his lip when he noticed the amount of dried blood on it. He then glanced to himself, noticing he was without his shirt. Ruby pulled out a pair of large scissors and a large old fashioned razor. The Canadian noticeably paled and issued a smile from the other man. "Shall I tell you about myself Matthew?" He asked as he quickly ran the razor down his stomach. Matthew screamed, his body convulsing as he did so. "You'll love to hear about it." Ruby grabbed a large towel from underneath where Matthew was and pressed it onto the new cut in his stomach. Matthew shrieked, thrashing under the pressure. His eyelids fluttered, threatening to close, but Ruby noticed and slapped him, "STAY AWAKE! I'm talking!" He said loudly.
He ran the razor across Matthew's body twice more, making more screams escape from the man's throat. Ruby dug his fingers in between the original cut and began to pull the sides apart. Matthew screamed louder than before, French profanities escaping his lips. Ruby laughed and ripped him open. Matthew's voice caught in his throat and he became silent, his lip trembling and his hands shaking. Ruby scoffed, "Tough boy. Usually they're dead by now."
Matthew looked at him, "W-Why?" escaping his lips.
Ruby laughed, "You see boy, I'm called a sponge. I have the abilities of Power Mimicry and Negation. You know what that means?" Matthew weakly shook his head, "Dumbass." He grabbed a pair of tongs from the bag and started poking at Matthew's exposed insides. The Canadian gagged. "It means," He said as he reached his hand in and pulled at something. "I can copy your ability if I see it happen in front of me. One of the best I might say!" He grabbed a scalpel now and began cutting into random places in Matthew. He screamed again, his breath heavy and shallow. "Calm down there idiot, I'm examining you. You're very nicely built." He threw his tools over his shoulder and grabbed around inside him. Matthew closed his eyes tightly, tasting blood and his lunch from the past few days go up his throat. He cleared his mind best as he could. "I'm interested in your abilities though, you seem special. Mother always said I was special. She seemed to like Platinum more than me though. She got us everything we ever wanted. And not I'm getting everything I ever wanted. And I want to see you perish right here." He gave a maniacal laugh, but a tap on his shoulder spun him around.
"Well all you'll get is this!" Matthew yelled, knocking his fist straight into Ruby's throat. The red-haired man stumbled back into the floor and knocked his tool bag all over him. Matthew delivered a solid kick to the side of his head and effectively knocked him out. He looked around and saw that he had been and still was laying on an elevated table. He undid the binds around his wrists and quickly patched himself back up, taking as much care as he could at the moment. He closed his eyes and faded away, returning to the body on the table. His eyes shot back open and he scrambled off of the table. He held his arms across his body and bit his lip hard. He grabbed a large knife from next to Ruby and turned to leave. He noticed a few jackets hanging on the wall and grabbed one, slipping it on and running out.
Ruby quickly regained consciousness and jumped up, twisting his neck sharply and making it snap. "Astral, eh boy? Well we certainly can't have that." He pulled something out from underneath the table Matthew had been on and ran out after the Canadian.
Matthew looked around, seeing a long hallway with many others connecting to it. He ran down the blue corridor, taking many sharp turns as he did. Trying to find a window. He panted hard, holding his stomach and trying to ignore the pain. He gripped his knife tightly, looking around again. He found very few doors, but they all had blood spilling out from under them. He paled more, trying to find a new hall. He froze as he heard a sound from down the hallway. A chainsaw, accompanied by the laughter of the one and only Ruby Kingdom. He screamed and ran as fast as he could, occasionally closing his eyes to try to find the right way. As he turned one corner, he met face to face with the man himself. With a scream, the chainsaw came down in his direction and his vision turned black.
0-o-0
"Turn left Lovino." Lukas said, his voice quiet in Lovino's head as to not give him a headache. The Italian man coughed harshly and turned, continuing to follow the dead man's voice. "Take a few more steps and then stop."
Lovino nodded, limping to a stop as he looked around. He had come to a tall hill overlooking a town, though not his own. The houses looked too nice for it to be so.
"Not what bastard?" Lovino muttered, his body shaking from the poison in his blood.
"Get down the hill and go to the house with a light blue outside and an old red car in the driveway." He said, his voice fading away. Lovino rubbed his legs carefully and slowly made his way down the hill. He ran his fingers through his hair, several strands coming off between his fingers. He coughed again, the feeling scratching his throat. He made it to the sidewalk and walked slowly, his eyes looking for a nice red car. His vision was failing, but he knew he would notice it for sure. He stopped, looking at one and was met with a quiet Yes from Lukas. He limped to the door and stumbled in. "Go to the third door on the right." He said.
Lovino stumbled down the hall, one leg giving out as he walked. He leaned heavily on the wall, eventually and slowly getting to the door. He flung it open and collapsed. He laid on the carpeted floor and coughed, a sour taste creeping into his throat. "You have to get up Lovino!" Lukas yelled.
"I-I c-can't..." He muttered, coughing once again. "H-Hurts too much..."
"Lovino listen. As soon as you get to sit down you can black out and stay there, but you need to get the hell up." Lukas said. Lovino groaned and managed to get up and stumble to a chair, the fabric engulfing him and making him comfortable. "Thank you. Now look to your left" Lukas said. Lovino did so, and could barely make out a leather couch with someone laying on it. They got up and ran out before Lovino could make sense of it. He blacked out before he could however.
The figure that had been laying on the couch ran from room to room and collected oddball things- salt, eraser shavings, lighter fluid, perfume, and others, and was mixing them into a large bowl. He ran upstairs to a room and grabbed some clothes and slipped them on before running back to Lovino. He threw the weird ingredients into a blender and mixed it thoroughly before pouring it into a glass. He ran back to Lovino and carefully managed to get him to drink most of it. The man sat on the floor next to him and waited. He watched as the colour quickly returned to his skin and his hair began to return. His body slowly, over about half an hour, returned to normal and finally he rewoke.
Lovino looked him over, his eyes widening and he sat back. He rubbed his eyes and looked both startled and alarmed.
"Before you say anything stupid, you're welcome." The man said.
Lovino shook his head, "Y-You died."
He nodded, "I'm well aware that I did Lovino. Not the first time it's happened." He said and pushed his silver blonde hair our of his eyes. "You're no longer poisoned so you should be alright for now. We need to find everyone before anyone else gets hurt." Lovino simply stared into his violet eyes. "You understand yes?"
The Italian shook his head wildly as if to clear the thought he was having away, "How...?"
Lukas smiled, a rare occurrence from him, and said, "I've got Fire wings right? Somehow within the spectrum of abilities it also made me somewhat of a Phoenix. If my body dies, I reappear in the last place I slept. Now lets think. Matthew?"
Lovino looked down, "Missing..."
"Who else was with you?" Lukas quietly asked.
Lovino thought, "Arthur, Alfred, and Francis were at the house and Ivan, Kiku, and Yao went to the school."
"We might not be able to get them," Lukas sighed, "There's black barrier domes everywhere and that's probably where they are."
"I-I don't doubt it bastard." Lovino coughed. The both of them slowly stood up, the Italian leaning on Lukas for support. "S-So lets go get them."
Lukas nodded and the both of them quickly got back to Lovino's town.
0-o-0
Francis stood up and stretched, his back popping loudly and a few times. Alfred cringed, shaking his head and continuing to hugs his knees to himself. Francis sat back down next to Arthur, who was now awake. The three of them sat in total silence with every window open. All they could see was darkness. Not even light would shine. The temperature had dipped quite a bit as well, and as Arthur had figured it was from whatever was surrounding them at the moment. He curled up more and gave a silent sight. Francis looked at him and rubbed his back, slightly warming the grumpy Englishman.
"This blows." Alfred finally said. Though it was too quiet for a man with his personality.
Francis nodded, "It does, oui. We can't even do anything, we're trapped."
Arthur coughed and spoke up, "And its not like its destroyable either. At least its warm in here."
"Yeah, it is I guess." Alfred sighed and pulled out his phone. He sent Kiku a quick message reading 'still stuck here. Wish we could do smthin.' He, however, was not met with a response.
Arthur got up and walked around the room, glancing out the windows. He sighed. "Well, what do we know?"
Francis looked at him, "What do you mean ami?"
"I mean about this situation. What to we know?"
Alfred scoffed, "That Ruby or whatever wants to rule the fucking world and he's got some major issues."
"He's also quite the prick" Francis added.
A small smile graces Arthur's lips for a moment. "He's kidnapped certain people probably for a reason and he also probably has helpers."
"How d'ya figure?" Alfred asked and got up. He sat back down next to Francis.
"Well think about it. There was a giant were...lion that attacked Lovino, Matthew. As well as there was the incident with Romulus and I don't think Ruby has any Vampiratic things with himself. And you probably haven't gotten a response from Kiku because I'm assuming something attacked them. He's very good at texting quickly even in an emergency but if something happened to them then he wouldn't respond."
The two men sat slightly dumbfounded at the logic of him, "Those are all very good points indeed Arthur." Francis finally said.
The Englishman sighed and sat down between the both of them, "Yes, I know. Deductive reasoning tells me that right about now he's done too much to handle. I can't think of why though." He said with a yawn. "Though I'm most likely wrong." He slipped himself underneath Francis' arm and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep. The Frenchman smiled and grabbed a blanket he had gotten earlier and cloaked it over the three of them. He and Alfred exchanged a small nod before they got comfortable where they were.
About an hour later Alfred's phone went off, though he didn't bother to answer it as he and Francis were talking about what they missed at the moment. Alfred sighed after he and Francis finished talking. With a small sight he fought off sleep and soon couldn't anymore and passed out from exhaustion. The message on the screen, however, read 'Srry, we were attacked many hours ago by a man named Feliks. Was talking 2 him. He says he was brainwashed by Ruby and that he's dying.'
0-o-0
Lookie dere, two in a row! How awesome am I?
… I finished this at 1:30 in the morning and I'm fucking tired. Goodnight and enjoy!
~ViraLayton