Iceland ducked under the large table and saw a key glittering on the dank floor. Victoriously, he yanked it up and left the confining space of the table to stand up properly, shivering. But as he touched the key, his mind was screaming at him that something is coming for him. Touching the gold key was like touching a forbidden treasure in a trap-ridden tomb, but Iceland disregarded the danger and sat down on a chair casually, twirling the metal object in his gloved hand. He recognised it as the Front Door key, the key to their freedom from this mansion. But Iceland's dark thoughts kept him in place, waiting to accept death. As long as he's in danger, then the other Nordics will sense his predicament and come for him, but if he's safe, then they won't feel the subconscious urge to seek him out.
"Come at me, bitches," he grumbled, seeing a reflection of his eye in the key's shining surface, "I'm waiting."
Norway made it to the first floor, only to suddenly trip up over something at the bottom step and he landed, banging his face off the floor and he curled up, groaning loudly into his hand as it's covered in blood rushing from his bruised nose.
"Norge!" Denmark yelled and kneeled down beside him, hugging him close and looked at his face, gently prising his hand away from his nose. "Shit, man! What happened?!"
"Yip!"
The bark almost made Denmark crap his underwear and he caught sight of the white dog that Norway tripped over. Hanatamago was yelping loudly in obvious distress and bounced up at Sweden just as he ran down to the first floor too. The Swede picked up the dog and hugged her, but noticed the journal tied to her neck.
"Island's ribbon!" Norway's eyes widened as he cried that out and scrambled out of Denmark's arms to untie the white ribbon and stare at it in his hands. The journal fell to the floor with a clatter and Denmark picked it up in curiosity. "Hana, why do you have Island's ribbon? Did he tie it around your neck?"
Hanatamago only cried out more and suddenly leaped out of Sweden's arms, running towards the west wing corridor.
"Hey, wait! Stay!" But not even Sweden's commands can stop the dog now. He only ran after her, warning the other males to hurry up and follow him, but Denmark seized Norway's shoulder, prompting the Norwegian to glare at him.
"Look at this!" the Dane ordered urgently and showed Norway the first page of the journal. At the bottom of the first page, the word 'Emil Bondevik' was written in dried blood and saw that it then written over and over again in pen. Norway grabbed the journal and looked at the repeatedly-written name, paling before turning the pages to random entries, taking in the horrors that are described in intricate details. He didn't spend time reading everything word-to-word, but he noticed that as the pages went on, the handwriting became more shaky and uneven, but the later paragraphs had more graphic descriptions of murders and suicides.
"Danmark…" Norway breathed. "I don't know what's going on here, but I think Island knows more about this whole place than he's letting on."
"Damn right!" the Danish man growled, "that kid has some explaining to do!"
Minutes passed, and Iceland was getting impatient. He even started to sing a little and walked around the room, imagining the other Nordics singing along with him and a dancing fridge that gives out unlimited supplies of alcohol. He doesn't notice it yet, but his mind was slipping into madness. He still held the front door key in his hand, clutching it to his chest.
"Hey… you know what, monsters?" Iceland called out suddenly and his voice echoed, "by now, I would be at the front door, getting out of this place alive and well. But you aren't doing anything because you want me to see my friends get killed again, don't you? Well, tough luck. You might as well come right now and kill me."
"I'm telling you, Island knows about this place!" Norway shouted to Sweden as the Scandinavians charged down the short flight of stairs.
"Then why would he bring us here?!" Denmark demanded breathlessly, "he wouldn't do this to us! He wouldn't lead us to our deaths!"
Norway didn't reply and only stopped short, looking ahead at the door at the other side of the room and at the slightly-open door to his left with darkness leaking from it.
"He's gone down there!" Norway suddenly exclaimed and ran towards it, yanking it wide open and suddenly whipped his wand in the air, chanting words in Old Norse and the wand lit up brightly like a beacon before he leapt through the open doorway. Sweden and Denmark had no time to take a quick breather and they stumbled after him.
"What about that other door?" Denmark asked loudly. The sound of footsteps on a wooden changed to the rapping of boots on concrete, catching him off-guard as he realised that he has entered the bottom floor of the mansion. Almost taken aback by the ghostly chill, he powered on alongside Sweden, who looked equally disturbed at the change in temperature. He stopped expecting an answer from Norway about the lone door.
To the men's surprise, the doors were not locked, but they were strangely stiff and squeaked loudly when opened. But Norway could still his head pounding with a headache from a premonition that someone is going to die very soon.
Iceland woke up with a start, looking around the room with the large table in before realising where he was and why. He has almost forgotten about his mission and succumbed to despair, but he swallowed a lump in his throat and stood up, gripping the key hard in his hand. Time may be awry here, but even he knows that something has gone wrong with his calculations.
He thought about a plan for the last 8 (or was it 6?) timelines and laboured over every minute detail in his mind and even wrote his plans down in the journal – it wasn't as if anyone's going to read it and know—
Oh.
So the others may not come down to the basement because if they do, Iceland will die and relinquish the front door key to them.
'Wait, no, they wouldn't have the time to read the journal! Not even if they skipped to the last page I've written in!' Iceland's mind geared up into major thinking mode and he bit his lip, cranking his conscience up into overdrive. 'What if the monsters have been watching me the whole time and saw what I've written? What if I went back in time and something's been reading my plans up until I got to the journal? Can those things even read Icelandic? Shit, they would! They got all those strange books in the library in different languages!'
While he thought carefully, the heavy footsteps of something large approached the door from the corridor leading to the jail cells, but he didn't take notice.
'So what should I do…? I can't just tell the guys about everything of this place! I did that in the second timeline and they didn't believe me! But after seeing all these monsters… and being chased and injured by them… maybe…'
The plodding steps stopped suddenly from behind the door.
"…I'll tell them the truth, and they'll get mad at me, or hit me, and then Norway will hit whoever hits me, but maybe they'll forgive me… and then we'll all fully co-operate and get out of this mansion altogether…" Iceland spoke gently, feeling a soft smile cross his face before the door smashed open with splinters flying everywhere.
"Did you hear that?!" Denmark gasped when he heard something break in the distance.
Norway quickly dove through another wooden door, ending up in a small concrete room with another door ahead of them and stopped short. His companions almost ran into him from behind, but stopped.
"It's coming!" the Norwegian hissed and the glowing light on his wand flashed red, ready to attack. Sweden changed his fighting stance while held his staff out in front of him while Denmark took a deep breath and readied his axe.
But the door burst open and a blur of something charged inside before leaning back to slam the door shut, hurriedly locking it with trembling hands. The boy was breathing heavily with matted, blood-soaked hair on one side of his head. Norway's eyes widened and he dropped his magic wand in favour of running towards the individual and embracing Iceland tightly.
"Ice…! Oh, Ice…!" Norway's throat constricted with sobs and he buried his face in the boy's soft white hair. Iceland hesitantly hugged him back, hands balling into fists into the fabric of his shirt, not loosening his grip once.
Behind them, a smile finally broke out on Denmark's face and Sweden let out a small laugh of joy, earning him a shocked glance from the Dane.
"Sve? Are you feeling okay?" he asked incredulously. Sweden only nodded at him with a smile.
"We're all together again. I'm feeling more than okay."
"N-Nor…" Iceland's weak voice croaked and his brother let go of him to hold his hand in his hands.
"Yes, bror?" he breathed while his thumb brushed some blood away from his left eye.
The boy shivered and stepped back, breaking contact with his brother and stood with his back to the door, handing over a shining key to the Norwegian.
"What's this key for?" he asked.
"The front door of this mansion."
Denmark and Sweden looked at each other before glancing back at the boy. Norway didn't say anything but accepted the metal object.
"And you didn't think of telling us about the key's location before? Did you have a reason for not telling us sooner?" Norway didn't sound angry, but his low voice took on the tone of an understanding teacher.
Iceland gulped and fidgeted on the spot, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. "It's… because I didn't want any of you to get hurt," he mumbled.
"I read some parts of the journal. It doesn't make sense to me, but I'll ask you this to clear things up. You can travel back in time, can't you?"
The Icelandic teen nodded.
"And you did that a number of times because… what?"
"Some of you died or all of you got killed by those monsters."
"Or committed suicide."
Iceland took a deep breath as he heard that and nodded shakily. "Or killed yourselves."
"Did I die too?" Denmark spoke up out of curiosity.
The Icelander snapped angrily. "Of course you did! You died protecting everybody at least once!"
"I don't get it," Sweden suddenly jumped in, "during 3 whole hours we spent walking up to find this mansion, couldn't you have told us or tried to persuade us from not going here?"
Iceland's feet scuffled together in discomfort. "I tried that the second time I wrestled time in reverse. You wouldn't listen though and some of you thought I was going mad… I don't know who, but someone told me to shut up and go to the asylum."
Norway frowned with a dangerous look in his expression. "Who said that? I'll give them a sorting out—"
"I forgot!" Iceland argued, but he looked uncomfortable to the point he's leaning back against the door he has locked. "But guys, please! You have to get out of here! You have to take the others out of here and out of this mansion! I want you guys to burn this place to the ground too from the outside so nobody will ever die here again!"
"You're coming with us too!" Norway snapped, eyes looking teary and he grasped Iceland's hands, "I had enough of all this running and hiding! I set out to look for you, never mind a way out of this place! I needed to find you first!"
"B-but… it was my fault you guys ended up here…" the other male weakly protested. He didn't bother to pull his hands away. Norway squeezed them gently.
"Yes, it was, but now I forgive you," he spoke with sincerity, "all I want us to do now is move on, forgive and forget, and then return home and have some drinks to celebrate our escape. Would you like beer? I'll even buy you the type you love and keep Denmark away from the other bottles—"
"Hey!"
"And we'll all have a big party before having a sleepover. We could make it a movie night, though we'll have to go to Sweden's house since he has the biggest TV out of all of us—"
"Damn right."
"Plus, we could watch crappy horror films and laugh at the poorly-written scenes and critique the best and worst parts," Norway slowed down, smiling slightly at the grand idea, "so what do you think? Even if you did wind us up in this place, you're getting us out. I want you to be the one to unlock that front door and be the first to taste the sweet, fresh air of freedom as you run out with all of us, unharmed and alive."
*Iceland stared at Norway, feeling his eyes sting with tears. It was as though a new dawn has risen within his heart with realisation of new lives and possibilities.
He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks, but he didn't let go of Norway's hands.
"B…Bróðir …" he sniffed, "I-I'm so sorry… so sorry…"
"Shh…" Norway shushed him quietly and stroked his cheek, "I forgive you… now let's go back upstairs and get everything packed together, okay?"
"Okay…" Iceland smiled and nodded.
Denmark smiled brightly. "Well that's a relief! It comes to show that staying calm can really help out instead of losing our heads!"
Before Iceland can laugh, the door behind him suddenly slammed open and he spun around in horror. One of the monsters appeared at the doorway, but it wasn't like the other ordinary ones – it was as tall as the ceiling and its muscles looked gigantic. The boy froze like a deer in the headlights. His mind blanked out. He lost all sense of self-control.
"ISLAND!" Norway screamed and slashed the air with his magic wand, sending a jagged ball of burning energy dashing through the air and it collided against the monster's face, making it stumble back and violently scratch at its own face. Norway immediately seized Iceland's hand, snapping him out of his trance and began to run out the room with him and Denmark and Sweden in tow.
CHAPTER END.
*Iceland stared at Norway, feeling his eyes sting with tears. It was as though a new dawn has risen within his heart with realisation of new lives and possibilities.
He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks, but he didn't let go of Norway's hands.
"B…Bróðir …" he sniffed, "I-I'm so sorry… so sorry…"
"Shh…" Norway shushed him quietly and stroked his cheek, "I forgive you… now let's go back upstairs and get everything packed together, okay?"
"Okay…" Iceland smiled and nodded.
Denmark smiled brightly. "Well that's a relief! It comes to show that staying calm can really help out instead of losing our heads!"
Before Iceland can laugh, the door behind him suddenly slammed open and he spun around in horror. One of the monsters appeared at the doorway, but it wasn't like the other ordinary ones – it was as tall as the ceiling and its muscles looked gigantic. The boy froze like a deer in the headlights. His mind blanked out. He lost all sense of self-control.
"ICELAND!" Norway screamed and slashed the air with his magic wand, sending a jagged ball of burning energy dashing through the air and it collided against the monster's face, making it stumble back and feel its own face.
Norway hesitated, but then he reached for Iceland's hand. Suddenly, the tall monster recovered and lunged forward, snapping up the Icelander by his head, lifting him high off the ground.
His body twitched violently and gargled screams were heard from inside the purple monster's mouth. Norway, Sweden and Denmark watched on in paralysing terror as the monster merely chewed on as slow as a cow eats its grass and the limp body separated from Iceland's head, collapsing to the floor in a bloody heap.