In the safe room, Finland finally woke up and Sweden hugged him close and gently, patting his back while Norway and Denmark watched on. Ladonia even cheered along with Sealand and they quickly chatted with Finland even though his responses were short and quiet.
"Boys, calm down, I'm awake now…" The Finn was smiling, but his smile looks forced as his forehead burned. "I think I have a headache…"
Sweden kissed his forehead and Finland's eyes widened at the affectionate gesture, but just accepted it. "Understandable. You got seriously wounded…"
"No… it's something else… I had a disturbing nightmare…" Finland murmured, "it's about Islanti, running away from something…"
Norway was immediately at his side faster than you could blink. "What was he doing? Who was he running from?" he demanded quickly, paling.
"I don't know… but it's nothing human or animal…" the blonde replied, "it's… some sort of massive, blob-like monster, and I saw millions of eyes looking from all directions too." Sweden pulled Finland into another careful hug, stroking his hair.
"Well I didn't see anything like that, just these tall monsters with arms and legs…" Denmark remarked, rubbing his head, "but I'm really worried about Hana… we should go look for her."
"And Island," Norway added.
"And Island," Denmark repeated with a nod and he stretched his limbs. "Let's go kick ass and save those two. Chances are that Island will be with Hana."
"Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Sealand demanded and marched over to the trapdoor, but Denmark gripped his shoulder firmly.
"Now hold on! Let me go first!"
"Why?" the boy grumbled angrily, "I'm strong too!"
"Ja, but I'd rather you stay behind," said Denmark, "there's no telling what kind of monsters we'll be up against."
"I agree with him," Sweden stood up straight, looking at his son, "you and Ladonia should stay here with Fin."
Ladonia spoke up, unimpressed. "I ain't staying! I'm going to get us out of this stupid place!"
"No, that's not what Sve meant!" Denmark smiled, sending the Swedish man a quick wink, "he wants you two to stay here and defend this fort at all costs as well as protecting Finland! This is a huge mission that could turn sour very quickly – do you think you can handle it?"
Ladonia was going to argue, but Sealand grinned brightly and saluted. "Yes, sir! We'll protect the fort!" His adopted brother only rolled his eyes and walked away to sit on one of the beds in a huff, crossing his arms. Sweden sat down beside Finland again to kiss his forehead.
"We won't take long."
"Be careful…" the Finn murmured.
"I will. I promise."
Sweden, Norway and Denmark set out altogether down the trapdoor and into the bedroom. Their Swedish companion couldn't help but look around with an unsettled feeling in his expression.
"What's eating you, Sve?" Denmark asked jokingly, "we haven't even found one of those bastards yet."
"Nothing… I'm just wondering about the previous owner of this house," Sweden replied, grunting.
"Well whoever owned this place might as well be long dead," Norway said and he walked towards the bedroom door, followed closely behind by his team mates.
"So what's the plan? We split and search different floors to speed up time?" Denmark suggested.
Sweden glared at him. "Not after what my sons just went through."
"Fine, then we don't split up," the Dane sighed, "then let's start from the top floor!"
"Hold on," Norway stopped short after entering the second floor and turned to face them. "Don't you guys feel as if… we've been here before?"
Sweden's heart skipped a beat. "What do ya mean?"
"I mean…" the Norwegian bit his lip before carrying on, "the monster… the chase… us being separated… it seems familiar, doesn't it?"
The other men glanced at each other, thinking quietly before turning to him.
"It does…" Sweden muttered and he took out his weapon from his coat pocket, extending the staff to its full length. "It's too familiar. Something's wrong with this place, and it's not just the monsters themselves."
Denmark shivered. "That's freaking scary! But I ain't making any mistakes this time!"
That declaration wrought a horrified look on Norway's face, but he just shook his head and rubbed is temples. His hand drew out his magic wand from his pocket.
"We'll explore the top floor first. We will not leave any stone unturned nor shall we leave any room without even checking out the cupboards. Hana's a small dog, and you'll be surprised to know this, but Island's body is really flexible so he can hide in deceptively small places without trouble."
"He's flexible?" Denmark blinked incredulously before grinning and nudged Sve, "he gets it from his brother, I just know it—" Norway elbowed him hard in the stomach, winding him and made him double up, wheezing. "S-sorry!"
Sweden rolled his eyes at the Dane for his inanity of cracking jokes at a time like this.
Iceland looked back at the door he previously walked through, staring at it long and hard. He isn't worried anymore. He knows when the monsters come to get him, like his body's become a clock since signing that damn journal. But his powers of mentally seeing everybody's locations have waned on-and-off like static on a barely-functioning TV. He tried to concentrate and think, closing his eyes, but it only brought on a gushing stream of blood running from his nose from the intensity of thinking so hard and he stopped, breathing heavily. He wiped his nose on his jacket sleeve, long past caring on staying clean and pure, before walking away from the door and down the short flight of stairs.
From a couple of visions that he managed to force to surface in his mind, he could see Hanatamago still scratching at the door and another vision of the Scandinavian trio taking a flight of stairs to the third floor – the completely opposite direction from what he hoped they take. Iceland facepalmed; he wasn't expecting them to go upstairs, but at least they're not diving headlong into danger right away. His gut was telling him that the monsters are still lying dormant in the higher, unreachable rooms of the house, rooms that he hasn't seen with anyone else…
He wandered into the small room, looking at the door right at the other side of the wall and at the door just beside the staircase he's standing at. Ignoring the door closest to him, he went straight ahead through the unlocked door, entering another room that's equal in size. It's not much, but Iceland simply skirted around the table to reach one of the drawers against the wall and tugged the draw out, quietly picking a lone key out. The words 'JAIL KEY' are engraved onto it with blood staining the iron. He shivered at the dried substance and hurriedly pocketed it, trying not to think of the rusty smell that came from the item. He was sure that the blood wasn't on there in the last timeline… or was it 4 timelines ago?
Carrying on and leaving the room, Iceland advanced to the other door and rested his hand on the doorknob, giving the short-flight staircase one last look before opening the door and descended into darkness.
"Sverige, have you found anything?"
"Nej. There's nothing behind this curtain but a smashed wooden box…"
"I haven't found anything either – dammit! And the other door on this floor is locked too…"
Norway gulped and took another hasty glance in the cupboards underneath the wide table, but found nobody. "Well, look again! He has to be here somewhere! I just know it!"
Denmark and Sweden glanced at each other worriedly before looking back at the Norwegian.
"Nor, there's no way that he could fit in those cupboards. I know you said he can fit in small spaces, but—"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT AND WHERE HE COULD FIT AT! I KNOW HE'S FLEXIBLE!" Norway suddenly screamed at them, red in the face. The two men stepped back in shock. Denmark took a quick breath.
"Calm down. We WILL find Island, no matter what. All we have to do is proceed calmly and with common sense…"
Sweden glanced at the Dane, saddened that his serious side is finally showing up. A serious Denmark can only mean one thing – things are not and probably will never be going well.
Walking down the stairs, Iceland shivered as though he entered a mist of artic wind. His feet touched the cold stone floor of the basement level of the mansion, the most dangerous place in the entire mansion (in his opinion.) His footsteps created rhythmic taps that echoed around the walls of the tunnels. For a brief moment, he swore he saw a monster right in front of him and he gasped loudly, heart racing extremely fast, but it was just a flaming torch hanging on the wall. He took it into hands with a frown, not remembering there being any torches hanging on the walls. He just ignored the thought of the unusual addition and walked on, feeling an ominous ball of worries and hidden fears swirl in his stomach like a violent foetus.
He chuckled nervously to himself. "I walked a lonely road, the only road that I'll have ever known. Don't know where it goes, but there'll be painful deaths so I walk alone…"
As they walked back down to the third floor, Sweden, Norway and Denmark felt as though a wave of silent dread washed over them. Norway took it the hardest and he tried not to wail, covering his mouth. "Island…! Something's going to happen to him!"
Denmark seized his wrists, looking at him in his eyes and trying not to get knocked over. Sweden assisted him by holding Norway around his waist while he thrashed about.
"Calm down!" Denmark yelled, "Island is fine! He is absolutely fine! We'll find him alive and well, and we'll all get out of here together and we'll never have to speak about this place again!"
But Sweden didn't feel reassured enough either. Something was jabbing his conscience that Iceland's in mortal danger. He let go of Norway and Denmark gave him a quick glare and the Norwegian yanked his hands away from the Dane.
"No! We need to go the basement!" Norway declared, looking at both men. "I know he's down there! I can feel it! He really is down there and he's going to be killed by one of those things if we don't hurry!"
Iceland felt silly, singing about death and doom in Norwegian, but he felt… strangely cheery about the prospect of death. If he could, he'd embrace it or allow death to make love to him. That thought made him snort and laugh loudly, swinging his arms like a child.
"How funny… it's as if accepting death has finally made me free of everything in this damned existence…" he chuckled, "I don't feel worried… I got nothing to go back to… doing this job means my family will leave this place alive… Not having the journal means no more taking chances in this stupid game and no more putting those guys through more suffering…"
He walked closer to another room (he's not sure which one, he lost count from singing so much) and stepped close by a large table with four seats situated around it. He rested his hand on the wood and sighed softly with a slight smile, but his eyes looked dulled.
"It's almost over. Everything's going as planned… and nobody will interfere again."
His hand automatically crept into his pocket to feel for the leather of the journal, to feel safe, but it's no longer there and he supressed a shiver upon remembering that he gave it to Hanatamago. He has reached a point of no return the moment he relinquished the journal to the canine.
Norway ran the fastest out of the three Scandinavians. He was panting heavily as he flew down the stairs and onto the second floor. As seconds pass, his heart rate panicked more as the dreadful sense of death thickened in the air. He could hear Sweden and Denmark shouting after him to slow down, but he only ran faster and stopped paying attention to personal safety. He completely threw out the idea of staying on guard and replaced his steeled resolve with a mission – a mission to find Iceland at all costs.
"Norge! Slow down!" Denmark screamed at him, but the man vanished from sight as he made a quick turn at the corner to get to the descending staircase and his heart skipped a beat. "Stop!"
Sweden gave up shouting long ago and only focused his energy into running faster as though his life depended on it. But even he could feel the sense that something is going to go horribly, horribly wrong if he doesn't get to the youngest Nordic on time.
Time has been against them this whole time. Will it be worth fighting against it constantly?
CHAPTER END.