~!~~~~*Chapter 4: gunshots*~~~~!~
"I can't help but get a very unpleasant feeling from this place." France admitted unhappily to Britain, who just remained quiet. "You've been really quiet for a while now. What's wrong? Is there something strange here?" he asked him.
Britain spoke slowly and softly, "… No. There's nothing… or no one at all…"
China frowned and reminded him of the others.
"Yes, I know that; when I said there's no one here at all I meant… How should I put it? …It feels as though everything has been… consumed." It was more than that, so much more. But what could he say? It was all he could do to not turn around and leave right away.
"You mean you can't see the usual illusions?" France asked, now thinking hard, "If even the illusions have been consumed, then maybe we really should keep out."
China sighed, "I agree, in that case I'm going to go take a look upstairs. What are you going to do, Opium?"
"I don't really want to stay on this floor; I'll go upstairs, too." Britain said quickly- too quickly.
"Huh, you're leaving me all alone?" France couldn't believe this, Britain knew it wasn't safe, but still he was going to leave him alone?! "Well then, when you're done checking upstairs we'll meet again here." Though there wasn't much he could do or say.
"Alright then, we'll leave the second floor to you."
"30 minutes should be enough, don't fall asleep on us, France." Britain instructed firmly.
"You can trust me 3, well, see you later." I hate you. France thought, turning on his heel.
"Hey, France, where are you going?" China took a hesitant step after him.
"That room is bad news, oui? I'll leave it for later." France waved his concern away, "Don't worry about me; I'll be fine."
Britain turned to face China, "Let's go, quickly; if we make America wait he won't shut up about it."
China frowned, he wasn't concerned, nothing like that, but, maybe… "You look pale, you really hate it here, don't you." He said at last.
"I never thought I'd envy people who can't 'see' so much…" Britain mumbled as he walked past.
"Huh? What was that, I didn't hear you?" China stared after Britain incredulously.
Britain pursed his lips, "Nothing." He said, because surely, it was nothing, right?
England and China walked quickly and silently up the stairs, a quick poke around showed them nothing out of the ordinary; a piano, a large library. In the attic Britain found a strange lever with a cryptic message written beside it: 'Up is Heaven. Middle is Earth. Down is Hell'.
"Oh that's-" Britain burst out in the last room, catching sight of a familiar object.
"How creepy…" China saw it as well, "It reminds me of a cursed chair I saw once." His lip curled up in distaste, and he glanced at Britain somewhat suspiciously.
"…Well…" Britain trailed off, searching for something to say under China's accusatory glare, "We've come all the way to the fourth floor, but everything looks pretty normal," except for Busby's chair, "The air is terrible, though."
"My bad feeling isn't gone, either. Let's just go back to France and go home!" China couldn't help but pout, he honestly didn't like this, or this place, one bit.
"Yeah, well, let's-" Britain broke off when a series of bullets sounded off somewhere else in the house.
"Th-that…" Britain trailed off again, unable to finish his sentence as the atmosphere around him threatened to strangle him.
"Is that the sound of America's pistol? He fired a lot." China asked, suddenly quite concerned.
Britain's heart skipped a beat painfully, "Th- that means something bad must have happened, right?"
China wasn't so sure, "Don't you think he just fell for Russia's provocation?"
"Oh, well… They do get carried away when they mess with each other…" Britain felt his heart ease, of course, in a place like this, what else could bloody well have happened?
"No, I feel it's something different from messing around…" China trailed off, not wanting to bring out to many destructive memories, "Anyway, let's join France and go take a look."
Britain just snorted, "Pfft, if you insist."
France was nowhere to be found, the duo sat and waited for 15 minutes, but they saw no hide or hair of France.
"What is the meaning of this?!" China fumed, "It shouldn't take this long to explore the second floor!"
"Maybe he got tired of waiting and went downstairs?" Britain tried to reason.
"Well…" China pondered this possibility, "He certainly gets bored easily enough. I'll check the rooms, you wait here!"
Britain nodded in agreement, "Otherwise we might miss each other again."
First of all, China headed down to the suspicious room they had noted before, after all, France did say he would leave it to last. China could only hope nothing bad had happened to him. The horrible stench was coming from the fireplace, cautiously he approached it, then China's stomach rolled in surprise and horror. Head reeling he stumbled backwards, "Th-th-this—Japan's clothes?! They- they're covered in blood!" Tripping over his own feet in his haste, China raced out to report to Britain.
"Well? Did you- China? You look frightfully pale! What's wrong, chap?!"
China couldn't think of anything to say, so he just thrust the bundle of burnt clothes into Britain's arms. "Something is not right here!" He gasped out at last.
"Th- This is blood, right? And… are these Japan's clothes?!" Britain took the limp material in his hand, inspecting it, it certainly looked like what Japan had been wearing last time he saw him.
"Japan was still at the Summit Place when we left, remember? There's no way he could be here now or these are even his, but there is little doubt! Look at them!" China's couldn't make heads or tails out of what was going on, but now he really wanted to go home.
Britain did remember, he only came along because America asked him too, and when they arrived he had texted Japan in hopes of getting him to come as well as well a bit later, but Japan had only texted back to 'be careful'. There was no way Japan could be here. France was missing, America had been shooting at something; it was all too weird.
Britain met China's eyes, "Let's go back." They said at once.
Once in the corridor of the ground floor, the two became aware of shouting from the kitchen and they both broke into a run. Feet scampering over the carpet so fast they barely touched the floor, Britain and China rounded the corner of the kitchen.
The stench was horrible, like something had curled up and died. Hulking and like something from nightmares a huge, ugly, stark naked monstrosity of a giant glowered down at Canada and Russia.
"Aargh! What the?! Uh?! Huh?!' Britain yelped out.
At the same time China screamed, "What the hell is that monster?!"
"Ah," Russia was the ever calm one, "You two sure took your time~!" His sing-song voice was at complete odds with the malicious look he wore, and the threateningly raised pipe he held. "As you can see we're in the middle of an assault."
At his side, Canada stiffened, "Y-you two had better run." He advised stiffly.
At once the creature lashed out at Canada, jumping in front of the other, Russia took the brunt of the attack to his side, hitting solidly but uselessly at the creature.
"Russia!" Canada screamed in fear for the other.
"Ah, that hurt… The water pipes in this place really are no good… But then again, it's a good thing I've got my own." Russia discarded the pipe he just struck with and took an old one with blood stains on it out of his trench coat, "Klolklolklolklolklol."
Russia struck, the pipe quickly changing into a sword and knocking the creature back several paces, "It's actually a sword cane~" He explained unnecessarily.
Russia sliced down with no warning, aiming for the beast's stomach, but despite his best efforts he made no damage to the creature.
Summing up his strength, China launched himself at the creature at the same time Canada did. Together they circled the thing, cutting and slicing where ever they could to no avail, the creature turned on Canada first, attempting to knock him away like an annoying fly, but Canada stabbed down hard into the thing's arm. Like rubber, Canada's blade almost bounced back, barely making a scratch- such an attack would have sliced any human's arm off. Eyes wide, Canada was completely vulnerable to an arm flying at him, it caught him in the ribs and Canada heard many of them crack. China, too, soon joined him, smashing into the floor away from the creature. Britain was on the ground, fingers drawing invisible patterns on the ground, a single candle magically appeared next to him as he desperately tried to jinx the thing. Soon, Russia took a harsh blow to the stomach and gasped, stumbling backwards, the sword in his hand was easily swiped away by the beast.
"Britain, why aren't you doing anything useful?!"
"I'm trying!" Britain gasped out, "This place is blocking my magic, and my spell book is the only weapon I brought!" The book was lying in front of him, darkness hovering around it, but nothing he could do would send the evil intent to the monster, the most he could manage was simple good and bad luck spells.
The thing rounded on Britain, despite Russia being closer. Britain shrank beneath it, fearing what would come next.
"Hiee-yah!" There was the sound of ripping flesh, but Britain felt no pain. Opening his eyes he saw Japan, crouched high on the things shoulders, sword buried within its neck. Gritting his teeth Japan scissored his sword, blood arced out but Japan ducked to avoid getting any on himself. Then he finally wrenched his sword out, falling to the ground with nothing to hold on to as the monster disappeared. The thing's silver eyes became bloodshot and blood dribbled out of his mouth as its head rolled forward, and separated from the body, blood still spurting from its neck. Britain had to blink to see the creature, then, it just wasn't there anymore. Japan sat on the ground for a moment longer, before easing himself up and offering Britain a hand up. "Can you stand?" he asked him quickly, very scared for Britain's safety.
"Y-yeah…" Britain clambered shakily too his feet, "Anyway, Japan, have you thought that monster before? That wasn't the first time, was it?" Britain held his breath, scared of the answer.
Japan just cocked his head to the side in a confused manner, "What? What are you talking about? You've fought that monster before, too, haven't you? After all, you got here before us."
"We…" It was China who spoke up now, "We've barely been here for an hour. And you… How could have you gotten here before us?" China looked about as confused as Japan felt.
"Um…" Japan trailed off, "Why don't you guys come join us and then we can discuss what happened together?" He looked at them all expectantly, breathing a sigh of relief when they nodded in agreement.
"'
"Italy, I found the others," Japan slid through the door that held the mysterious closet, "Right now, they're in the room we stayed last night."
"What?! So everyone is here?! Let's go back to the fire room then!" Italy exclaimed, not expecting such a positive report.
"Yes, some are missing, but we'll have an emergency meeting now." Japan carefully gaged Italy's reaction, seeing his face fall at the news of more missing people. "Germany, if you're ready, let's go- they can't wait." Japan called out again to Germany who was, once again, seeking refuge in that damn closet.
"Understood." Seconds later Germany clambered out of the iron closet, "Sorry for making you wait."
"Ve~, are you okay now?" Italy asked the German nation, concern etched upon his face, "Do you want to go in there again?"
"No, its okay," Germany reassured him, "And I probably won't come back here again, or rather, I hope I won't." he added cryptically.
"Really?" Japan murmured, "I hope so."Germany and Italy looked at him questioningly, not having quite heard what he had just said, upon catching their looks, Japan gave a small cough, "Now let's hurry up. We can't take our time here, we need to talk to them as soon as possible." Japan busied himself in walking towards the door, hoping Germany hadn't held him.
""
In the room where they were holding the emergency meeting, Japan began recount what had happened to them. "Sorry for making you wait, now without further ado I'll explain our situation." He pursed his lips, wondering just how to say what was going on. "The first of which you know I received a message from Britain saying you were here, and Italy thought it would be interesting and wanted to come as well. So Germany, Prussia, Italy and I came here." Japan took a deep breath, "First I went to take a look around, but then in the meantime that monster you saw attacked them."
"Were you alright after that?!" Britain startled, slightly surprised that they had found themselves attacked so early.
"Yeah," this time Italy spoke up, "For better or worse it seemed to be targeting me, and I'm good at running so I got away." Italy informed them brightly, from where he was leaning against the door.
"You were able to run away..? That's amazing, aru..." China breathed, seeming to view Italy in a little more respect.
"Eventually, while we didn't know the true nature of the thing, we all got together and spent the night in this room, with a sense of security because we had the key to it." Japan finished wearily.
"Th- That really is strange!" Canada burst out, interrupting Japan in the middle of his sentence "I- I mean, carry on…"
"When we awoke… Prussia had disappeared," Japan was now explaining with his head down, unable to face them," the door was open and there was a trail of blood that led down the hallway and then disappeared..."
"Should I burn this?" Italy interrupted tentatively, noticing that the fire was going out, holding up a small wooden box as they had used the rest of the wood."
"Yeah…" Germany trailed off, nodding at Italy, too tired to say much else.
"Is it just me, or… does that thing remind you a lot of America's friend? The one he claims to be an alien?" China ventured at last.
"Yeah…" Germany spoke up, "Tommy… was it?" he frowned, somehow, that didn't sound like the right name.
"N-No… that's not right." Canada murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.