This chapter... is rather conflicting.
Iceland: Tell me about it. The way you cut it off is just strange.
Finland: It's a lot longer than the last chapter, though.
You have a point there... Oh well. Let's begin then. Take it away, Fin!
Finland: Here's Chapter Thirty-Five, readers! We hope you like it as much as we do.
Just as she had promised, Belgium was standing outside the house, gazing up at the first window they found on the second floor.
"Oh, hello there!" she greeted, waving cheerfully at the Nordics and Baltics. "Hey, everyone! There they are!"
The assorted nations and micronations outside all stopped whatever they were doing and gathered around the window.
"There's... so many of them..." Lithuania breathed.
Finland did a minor head-count. "That's all the micronations... Turkey, Egypt and Greece... Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Thailand and Vietnam over there... Romania and Bulgaria... are those Australia and New Zealand?..."
"Wow, that's like, half the world," Poland remarked, giving a low whistle.
"I don't think I even know half of those guys, much less half the world," Denmark agreed, "Man, are we really that important?"
"Of course you are, happiest nations of the world," Ukraine actually laughed, "The World Eight might be the ones holding up the world but the Nordic-Baltic Eight, known for your happiness, lack of civil strife, rich cultures and innovation, are unlike them. You remind us about the good things about life- things we can't live without."
"...We really need to escape from this mansion," Estonia muttered.
"Hey, Latvia! You come look outside too!" Sealand called, pulling his Baltic friend over to the window.
Latvia reluctantly slunk over to the opening in the mansion wall. There they were- half a world worth of nations- and micronations- here to help them finish something he had started.
"Wow... I'm all un-alone."
"Hey, short guy!" Turkey called from outside. "I heard you led them all here, is that right?"
Latvia caught his breath. "I-it's not my fault! I had no idea-"
"Nah, it's no big deal! You seem to be doin' a great job staying alive in a haunted mansion. Quite a feat for small shrimp like you! We're just here to back ya up outside so hurry up and show that house who's boss, alright?"
"...Yes. Yes, I will. I will- no... WE will escape this house together!"
I still haven't got some of my memories back... but I think I can remember enough to tell them now.
They won't get angry at me for telling the truth... right?
Latvia turned to face the nations in the mansion. "Um... Sorry for making you wait. I want to tell you everything. Every single thing I can remember about this whole mess. Everything from the beginning onwards. It will take a while, but could you just take the time to listen to me?"
Iceland sighed in exasperation. "About time you did that. Go ahead, and don't hold anything back."
"Yes, we'd like to know everything about what's going on," Lithuania added.
Latvia smiled. "Thank you. Let's see... It all began after the World Conference; I was just hanging around on my own and that was when the clock began ticking..."
"Wait. I don't know where to start... there are so many things I could tell you about..."
"Um..." Lithuania considered the problem for a moment. "I know. This isn't the first time we've been here, right?"
"Ah, I wanted to know about that too," Finland agreed, "Have we really been through all this several times over already?"
Latvia hesitated for several moments, wondering if he should own up to them. Finally, he decided that since he had agreed to tell them everything (and Iceland had told him not to hold anything back) he had to admit it.
"Yes... we have gone through this several, no... many, many times since after the World Conference."
"I thought so." Lithuania motioned for him to continue. "If you don't mind, what happened at the very beginning, on our first time here?"
"How this started... Oh, alright. If you insist. I was just hanging around on my own, wondering about what we could do after the Conference when America noticed me all alone. He came over and asked me if I wanted to try something exciting. The Conference was really tiring so I wasn't thinking too clearly and agreed to his proposal, but only if I could bring my friends with me."
"No difference so far," Estonia informed the group, checking his notepad.
"Oh yes, but for that first time we arrived here, I came here with nine of you. All of you... except Miss Ukraine and Belarus."
Ukraine nodded. "This really is the first time we've been here."
"We were just going to take a look around inside the mansion and come out really quick but as you all know that monster was waiting inside. All of us ran off in completely different directions and I got lost in the mansion. I was so scared... I just wandered around looking for someone, anyone who could accompany me around the place. Eventually, I found my first friend in that white Piano room- Lithuania. I was really happy to find him at first, but..."
"...He had already been beaten by the monster. I don't even know how I could have forgotten that scene... He was sprawled on the floor, his blood splattered all over the place. ("Oh my God Latvia, you don't have to be that blunt," Denmark cut in after noticing Finland and Estonia turning a little green) Before then, I had somehow forgotten he was even here with us. It was like someone didn't want me to know he had come at all."
"I had no choice but to leave him behind and find the others. Yeah, I managed to do that eventually, but all of you were either dead or dying every time I found someone... In the end, by the time we were finally able to escape, Estonia and Poland were killed too."
"I was the sole survivor of the mansion. I knew I could escape but... with all of you gone, I didn't know what I would do if I did so I just wandered around the mansion and before I knew it, I was in the library. That's when I found this."
Latvia held up his 'very thick book'.
"I know it doesn't look like it but this is a journal. There was writing inside it talking about time travel and all sorts of strange things I couldn't understand but I took it anyway."
"I was all alone... Everyone dropped dead before my eyes, grew stiff and cold in my arms... I wasn't really thinking straight anymore. That's when my memories start going all fuzzy, like those old antique televisions. I do know that I wanted to throw the journal away later on but... the monster found me and chased after me. I just ran and ran, carrying the journal with me instead of throwing it away. Eventually, I found the exit and escaped..."
"I was alone... so, so alone..."
Latvia sank down to his knees, clutching the journal tightly in his arms. Droplets of rain began to fall from the heavens, cry for his lost friends, wash their blood off his hands.
"Finally..." he gasped, "I escaped that house..."
The drizzle grew into a heavy downpour, blending with the salty tears streaming down his face.
"I'm the only survivor, the only one who got out... I shouldn't have been able to get out..."
The earth around him was slowly stained with scarlet-tinged water.
"It's not fair... They all had a better chance at living than I did! I'm so weak, I should have died first instead of them!"
The wind picked up, howling mournfully through the once-lush garden just beyond the mansion gates.
"It's not fair! I don't deserve to live while they're all dead! I didn't deserve their protection!"
"...It's not fair..."
SLAM.
"Huh?!"
The monster screeched threateningly. Leaping to his feet, Latvia ran for his life towards the mansion gate, still holding the journal protectively like his last lifeline with the monster hot on his tail.
But a second before he would be able to escape out of the gates, he stopped.
"You! Stop right there."
The creature stopped short of the Baltic nation, confused by its quarry's sudden behaviour.
"I won, right? You couldn't catch me. You're a sore loser. The moment I step through that door, you'll lose your little game. You can't do anything to me then. When I get out of here, as a nation, I will order for this place to be torn down, you hear me?!"
The Thing did not respond.
"Doesn't that frustrate you one bit, you despicable monster? I'm your last prize, after all. You lost to the one person whose only redeeming feature is his honesty!"
The Thing didn't even budge. Latvia's resolve finally crumbled, reducing him to a sobbing mess on the soggy, waterlogged front yard.
"...back..."
He jerked his head up to face the Thing. "Take me back! If you changed the flow of time in this place, you can take me back in it too, is that right? If you can take me back, you can have my life in exchange. I don't deserve to live, anyway..."
"And the next thing I knew was that I was back in the World Conference hall. I was still holding the journal, which told me that I had gone back in time. I became the owner of the journal. I know that, because it was written inside that the previous owner was the only one who could travel back in time, too..."
"Hold on. Like, let me get this straight." Poland shot Latvia a disapproving look. "You let it eat you so that you could, like, go back in time?"
Latvia nodded guiltily. "I tried to refuse America's offer the second time but he was so insistent on convincing me to come along. I failed; he still managed to get all of you to go to the mansion. No matter how many times I went back in time, I couldn't go back to before America knew about the mansion. It's always the ten of us coming here; no more, no less. Even if the groups change sometimes. That was what those memories of you coming with different people were about. We kept coming here in seemingly random groups. In the second time loop, I failed to save a bunch of other people and lived yet again-"
"What?!" Lithuania suddenly cut in.
Latvia ignored him. "So, once again-"
"No, stop! Stop!" Finland joined in on the interruption. "We all survived in the second time loop. Everyone lived, except..."
"...except you, Latvia." Lithuania finished the sentence. "You were the only one who died in that loop. You died in that room right next to that window..."
"But... but that's IMPOSSIBLE! I'm the only one who can rewind time!" Latvia objected indignantly, "If I died, who rewound time and restarted the time loop?"
"Maybe... you're confused," Norway suggested, "Having to go back in time multiple times can take its toll on anyone, even on beings like ourselves."
"No, the second time loop was definitely different in some ways but I can remember it perfectly well. Besides, if I died, how come time was still turned back without me?"
"But we saw it when we broke one clock!" Lithuania countered, "You said it yourself. It was our second time in this mansion!"
"I did? Well... there were several time loops where I told you the truth like I did just now but..." Latvia frowned, perplexed by the sudden development. "Where was that clock?"
"Remember that letter I gave you? I found it together with a small alarm clock inside the box in the basement."
Latvia gasped in shock. "There was actually SOMETHING inside that box?! It was supposed to be empty!"
"Not quite." Norway dropped in on the conversation. "The box was sealed with magic. My magic, to be exact. I cannot explain it, but some apparition claiming to be my 'past self' sealed it."
Latvia cradled his head in his hands. "This is so confusing... I don't know what to believe anymore..."
"Alright!" Denmark clapped his hands and called for attention. "To sum up, we all died first time around, which really sucks by the way, then Latvia went back in time and we don't know if he failed again because the Lithuanian says otherwise, is that right? Yeah, that's right. And Latvia is the only one who can go back in time."
Lithuania was indeed thinking otherwise.
No, I'm sure that loop Finland and I saw was real. Latvia did die in that particular loop.
But... if Latvia died...
Who on Earth went back in time, then?
Questions, questions... Oh, you probably already have an idea of what happened in the second time loop, if you know the original.
Iceland: I'm not dropping any hints.
Finland: Until next time, readers! Review if you can!