They had just finished dinner—Lithuanian kugelis with bacon—when Lithuania got up (the others didn't know how, after how much they had eaten) and placed a bottle of vodka on the table.
"Oh, that's good stuff!" Latvia smiled, rubbing his hands.
"I mean, why not? I'm at home and you're not driving." Lithuania said, serving three glasses.
The Kremlin seemed like a ghost building, so in silence. But president Olyanovski was still in there. Russia knew. Because he wouldn't have left without telling him. He wanted to go home after considering he had done enough for the day, and so looked for him. His search was unsuccessful.
Until he opened the right door.
"...The time has come. I am sending you the location. He is with his friends, the other Baltics...Well, kill them too, of course!...She knows what to do, you just do your job...They will come, I am sure of it...The witch? Yes, give her the right amount and she will sing like a robin...Close her mouth forever and make a mess at her house. And bring me the money back. That old hag cost a fortune..."
The man on the phone whispered something to the girl by his side and she took out her phone and made a call.
"...Execute the order." She said.
Not far away from there, the bodyguard hung up and glanced at the Lithuanian and the Latvian men by his side. He gave a nod to them and together they got into Estonia's car, right when, inside of the house, the Baltics raised their glasses.
"For us!"
Russia, with a push, opened the door and stayed there, still. Mr. Olyanovski went quiet all of a sudden and he too seemed to become a statue.
"...Vitali?"
The president opened his mouth but soon closed it. It was then, when he placed both his arms at his sides, when Russia saw he was using his cellphone. The human's Adam apple went up and down frenetically when Russia finally approached slowly, menacingly, like a storm.
"...What is the meaning of this?..."
"...Security!" Olyanovski suddenly shouted.
Russia had the time to pounce on his president and was choking him with his bare hands when he was pulled by a group of men. His men!
"What are you doing?!" He yelled. He got to send a couple of them to the floor with a push, but so many of them came in, and he was soon outnumbered. "What is all this?!"
Olyanovski got up from the floor touching his neck, gasping. The shook his head, then gave his nation a cold stare.
"I'm sorry, Russia...I am doing my part in the project of the millennium..."
What? Russia tried to stand up, but the guards who were supposed to be devoted to protecting him were keeping him down on the floor.
A rock broke the window, making the three Baltics jump. It was soon followed by the explosion of a molotov cocktail impacting against the facade, which made Lithuania draw back right when he was about to look through the window. But he could see the light of torches outside, and hear a cry.
"DEATH TO NATIONS!»
"What is happening?!" Latvia yelled, shaken up by that image, which he though they had left behind centuries before.
"I-I don't know!" Lithuania said.
Estonia had ran to the door to call the guards, but he soon returned with bad news.
"The bodyguards! They're gone!"
"What do you mean they're gone?" Lithuania said.
"I can't find them!"
"What should we do?" Latvia asked, shrunken in fear.
They could not stay there, of course. More and more rocks were thrown at the window, not leaving one glass intact, and the cocktails kept falling over the house; if one of them got in, it would start a fire.
"Here! The back door!" Lithuania grabbed Latvia's wrist and guided him and Estonia.
Estonia did not leave before grabbing his phone from the table and activate the S.O.S mode. Out of fear, he sent a message as well as he could while running.
Finland laughed with some cookie still inside of his mouth when his phone beeped. He glanced at it with a smile.
"Oh, it's Estonia." He said.
"Again?" Denmark smiled. "Go to bed with that man already!"
Finland chuckled and opened it. When he did, his smile disappeared so suddenly the rest of the Nordics stopped laughing.
"Hey, what's-?" Norway was going to ask, when Finland already got moving.
"He's in trouble. He sent me his location. Someone is attacking him!"
"Okay, calm down, I'm sure his security forces will..." Norway tried to say, but Finland already had his coat on.
"No, this sounds pretty bad! I'm calling my embassy in Lithuania! You call everyone you can! Denmark, tell England about this! Everyone who is near Lithuania now!"
But they could not keep him down. He had the strength of a bear! Russia managed to get up and punched everyone around him until he got to get up and started running.
"Get him! Quick! Don't let him escape!" Olyanovski yelled.
"This is your moment to shine, Baba Yaga." A man whose face was covered with a black balaclava turned his head to the old woman. "And to prove you are not a stupid fortune teller. Because if you have lied to us..."
The old woman showed him a disgusting smile with no teeth.
"Oh, no, my dear. You will see, the marvels I am capable of..." She paused to sniff the air and her smile grew wider. "...What a beautiful night! Do you smell that? It's the smell of death!"
They were surrounded! Those people were waiting for them when they got out of the house. Lithuania had no choice than to go through the crowd, knocking down a woman wearing a plastic Halloween mask.
"Come on, hurry!"
There was so much people in the streets! But nobody was going to help them! All of them were covering their faces, dressed in black, like ghastly apparitions. «DEATH TO NATIONS!».
The period they had lived in peace, without experiencing the cruelty of war, had also made them fall into the trap. They thought they were avoiding the mob, but they were being taken exactly where the protestors wanted.
"This is even more beautiful than I pictured it..." Olympia sighed.
"You are, too." Tomas smiled.
"Oh, hehe, you know there's no need for you to keep saying all that sappy stuff? I already said yes."
"I'm just being honest here." Tomas smiled.
Poland grunted a little bit when his phone ringing interrupted the movie he was watching. He paused it and took the phone, surely taking his time.
"A little late for-"
It was Finland, and it seemed he had a good reason to call at that time.
Poland's expression changed drastically with each word coming from the other side of the line.
"...Okay. Okay, I'll go right now."
He threw the phone away and quickly went to put his boots on, not caring about the clothes he was wearing or anything.
"What do they want from us?" Latvia used a bit of the little breath he had to ask.
Lithuania stopped for a second. His legs were sore and he couldn't breathe.
"Didn't you listen...to what they were saying?" He gasped. "They want to kill us!"
"They're coming!" Estonia said, pointing at the grim glow of the torches approaching, like a warm aurora borealis.
They had left the city and were now approaching the open road. Near them, there was darkness; they could only know a forestland started because of the barely distinguishable shape of the first trees. Having no choice, they penetrated into the shadows, practically blind.
A guard passed by. Russia waited until he disappeared from his view to get out from his hideout and run to his car, parked right where he left it that morning. He was so nervous he could barely put the key in its place to start the engine. All he was thinking about was the Baltics. He had to warn them!
Sweden almost shouted when the car nearly hit a white Toyota, but Finland didn't care that he was going too fast, or that he could not help Estonia if he had an accident.
"Nothing?" He asked.
"No, he's not answering." Sweden replied.
Finland pressed his lips, not taking his eyes away from the road.
Olympia leaned forward to whisper a few words in his ears, which made Tomas blush.
"Why did you get so red? We are married, Tom!" She chuckled.
"Do you think we'll be safe here?" Latvia asked.
"Maybe we can climb up a tree and hide among the leaves, or..." Lithuania was saying when he bumped into someone.
Those three people were dressing in black, so they could not be seen in the dark.
Estonia grabbed his friends and tried to draw back, but he found five other individuals were waiting for them.
The Baltics panted, their knees weak, covered in sweat.
They were surrounded.
A person approached them. Someone they had seen before, not too long before. The old woman from the conference.
Once again, she extended her finger towards them.
Then she started to speak in a language none of them even identified.
Poland stopped the car and rolled the window down because he could not believe what he was seeing. Lithuania's windows were all broken and a fire had started in the roof.
"LIET!" He cried.
He got inside, looking for his friend, right when Russia arrived. «Please, tell me I didn't come too late!», he said to himself when he saw the state Lithuania's house was in.
He turned his head to see a group of people marching out of the city, chanting.
"DEATH TO NATIONS!"
All he wanted at that moment was to use his car to run over as much as he could, crush their bones, blow their skulls...But instead he followed them.
Tomas was already waiting on the bed, trying to hold a sexy pose, but he looked like he was suffering a stroke. Oh, he was so cute...
Olympia undressed ceremonially in front of him. Maybe she did not have a model's body, but Tomas did not complain. When she got in bed, his hands caressed her thighs, her back, her boobs, her hair. Their lips touched as he positioned himself on top of her.
What was she doing?
Well, whatever that was, they were not going to stay to find out!
But something strange happened...They couldn't move! No matter how much they tried. It was as if they were glued to the spot and they could only watch that woman moving her lips, those gutural sounds leaving her throat.
Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia glanced at each other, desperate.
What now? What now?!
It was then when Latvia placed a hand on his chest, gasping. At the same time, Estonia started to tremble, closing his eyes firmly, and Lithuania opened his mouth to let out a silent scream.
It...It burnt! Their chest was burning!
None of the person around them dared to move. Some of them were a bit frightened, even if they would never admit it. One of them had his hand on his phone but couldn't record this.
The Baltics were burning from inside!
"LITHUANIA! LATVIA! ESTONIA!"
Russia couldn't see where he was going. There was no light around. More than once, he bumped into a tree. But they had to be there, they had to be close! He was hearing screams!
"Poland!"
Poland got out of the house, to find England, Hungary, Romania and Moldova in the street.
"They are not here!" Poland said to them.
"Finland just called! Estonia's phone is locating them in a forest near here!" Hungary told him.
Not waiting for anyone, Poland hopped back into his car, ignoring their calls.
"Come on, let's go, let's go!" Moldova shouted.
"I love you..." Olympia muttered with a smile, caressing Tomas' lips before kissing them.
Lithuania grabbed Estonia and Latvia and embraced them. The other two held onto him as tightly as they could, sinking their nails, even, because the pain was so great and they were so scared!
«THERE MUST BE A WAY TO HELP THEM ESCAPE!» Lithuania thought, and his last efforts went to figuring out a way to convince that woman to stop it and take him, and only him.
Feeling for the first time the certainty of his death, Latvia started to cry, and dedicated his last thought to the two nations by his side. All his life he had been alone. He had no brothers or sisters...But they had been his friends. Something close to family. «AT LEAST... I AM NOT ALONE...»
«TOGETHER TILL THE END...» Remembered Estonia at that moment, the frame of his glasses burning his skin, and that was all he thought about until he didn't think any longer.
In Paris, Olympia sighed with delight and rested against her husband, closing her eyes.
"Come on. The boss says the other nations are coming. We have to take positions. Remember, these people can't be killed with stones and kicks, so don't even try. Just make them learn who we are."
Russia followed the only light he saw around. He was out of breath when he got there, and his lungs seemed to shrink at the sight of what he found.
The howl he let out echoed through the woods.
He got on his knees and shook what lied in front of him.
"No...NonononoNONOOOOOO...!"
Someone was coming! Was it...the people who did this? HE WOULD KILL THEM! HE WOULD DESTROY THEM WITH HIS OWN HANDS! Oh, but what if...No, if someone saw him there, they would think he did it, and it was not true! He could explain...Could he?
He stood up with difficulty, glanced back at the corpses, then, panting, ran away.
He had barely disappeared when the other arrived. At first, they didn't think they had found what they were looking for. They just thought those were the remains of a bonfire. That is until, pale, Norway pointed at what he was seeing. A phone and a pair of glasses. Finland recognized them instantly.
"Oh, Christ..." Romania muttered.
Ukraine covered her mouth and drew back, pale like the moonlight.
"...You can't be gone...Tell me it's not true..." Finland whimpered.
He dropped on his knees, covering his mouth with his hands. Sweden wanted to console him, but like everyone else, he could just gaze at the remains in shock.
By his side, Poland took a step forward. The...bodies...were close to each other, as if they had died hugging each other. When he grabbed Latvia's arm and tried to separate him from the others, it turned into dust. He didn't move again and just watched the ashes in his hand.
"This is not...It's not possible...Right? It can't be...It can't be!" Finland shouted.
Was it late, really? England felt he had to try. It seemed like nothing would be lost trying. And if his magic couldn't do anything about this, what was it worth? So while the others were trying to assimilate what they were seeing and those who did mourned, he knelt down in front of the remains to mutter the words, his fingers touching what was left.
But he was interrupted by a series of cries, right when Belarus was about to ask what he was intending to do. Shadows with human form surrounded them. The nations became frozen, silent. Then, the individuals started shouting and running towards them. They had to move. England hesitated. The ritual had to be completed; interruptions could be fatal when dealing with magic! But when a rock his his head, he did not hesitate. The remains of the three Baltics were left there much to their friends' regret, even though there was nothing they could do for them.