Chapter 10
It was rare to see America so bloodthirsty.
"Who abused them?" the normally-cheerful country growled, his bright blue eyes flashing with a savage fury. "Are they still alive?"
England shook his head and pushed past America, his slender hand brushing gently against Alyson's trembling shoulder.
"Alyson," he said gently, his emerald eyes smoldering with repressed anger. "Will you please tell us what happened?"
The American girl shook her head and shot a frantic look towards the other teens, her muscles trembling with remembered pains.
Francisco lifted his head for a brief moment to meet her gaze and forced a tremulous smile onto his lips, his blue eyes slipping closed almost immediately as a tremor ran through his body.
"...None of us like to talk about it," he admitted quietly, immediately drawing the attention of the others in the room. Francisco flinched and turned away from the attention, his curl quivering.
Magnus sighed and pulled his twin close, his other arm trapped under Cielo's tight grip. Romano frowned and attempted to pull his son away from the German teen, only to freeze the moment he caught sight of the tears that gathered in the eyes of all of the young people and ran unhindered down Cielo's cheeks.
"Dio," Romano hissed shakily. "What the hell happened?"
There was no reply, only pleading glances cast between the eight teens begging for one of them to speak.
"...O-one of you has to s-speak eventually," Canada called quietly, his violet eyes narrowed with suspicion and anger.
Katerina flinched at the sound of her mother's voice and cast a timid glance up at him, her grip loosening around Kumajiro's body. The polar bear shot her a half-disgruntled look of sympathy and brushed the top of his head against her shaking shoulders.
"...Don't be afraid," the bear muttered. "...What's your name again?"
Katerina smiled shakily and slowly lowered the bear to the ground before straightening and fixing her parents with determined violet eyes.
"I-I c-c-can't tell you a-about it," she whispered. "I'm n-not g-good with words... B-but we all ha-have scars."
The girl reached up and pulled at the red-and-white scarf around her neck, revealing rows of angry red scars and burns carved into the surface of her pale neck. She kept her eyes locked on Canada and Russia, her eyes brimming with tears as she watched their expressions change from shock to horror and fury.
"D-d-don't h-hate m-me, p-please," she choked. "S-s-she d-didn't l-like m-me."
Russia shook his head vehemently and strode forward, his strong arms wrapping around his daughter, his chin resting gently against the silky surface of her silvery-blonde hair.
"Нет, мы не ненавидим вас (No, we don't hate you)," he whispered. "We could n-never..." The Russian's voice broke off and he bent to bury his face in Katerina's hair, his shoulders trembling. "I- I am so sorry. I never wanted you to be scarred like me."
Katerina stared up at him, her violet eyes drifting hesitantly to the edges of red and silver scars that were barely visible beneath the thick purple fabric of his scarf. She choked on a cry and dug her fingers into the fabric of his jacket, her tear-stained face turning to look at her brother.
"Mitka?" she whispered pleadingly.
Marc sighed and drew closer towards his family, his trembling fingers slowly pushing off his jacket. Without another word, he pulled his dirty t-shirt over his head and turned, revealing raised scars and scrapes were scattered across his skin like marks on a map.
"I got in her way many times," he murmured. "...Saichi?"
Saichi stiffened and moved away from Japan's protective embrace, her eyes widening in surprise when Achilles's hand tightened around her arm.
"...Together?" he sighed sleepily.
Saichi nodded to her brother and waited until his hand had left her wrist before she pushed the sleeves of her worn grey sweater up past her elbows and held out her arms, staring wordlessly at the remains of cuts that had danced across her veins.
"...S-she tried to convince others that I was not stable and needed to be put away," the Japanese girl whispered.
Achilles came to his sister's side and pushed back the locks of his unruly chocolate-brown hair until a scar was visible along the edge of his scalp. The Greek boy flashed a rare glare towards the watching nations, his deep brown eyes narrowed with determination.
"...I was good at hiding from her," he admitted. "But I couldn't hide when she hurt Saichi..."
Achilles's sister bit her lip and lowered her arms, her hands clenching into tight fists at her sides. Achilles sighed again and glanced over his shoulder, his eyes tightening when he saw Cielo watching them with narrowed eyes.
"...You don't have to, Cielo," the Greek offered quietly.
"Vaffanculo (Fuck you)," Cielo snapped. The boy pulled away from Magnus and Francisco and yanked at his own shirt, his amber eyes shooting fearfully towards his parents as he did so.
A low growl broke through Spain's lips when he saw his son's chest carved with burns and scars that reached from the tips of the boy's shoulders down to his stomach. The Spaniard took several shaky steps forward pulled his son into a tight embrace, his muscles trembling.
"...Los voy a matar, voy a matarlos a todos (I'll kill them, I'll kill them all)," he snarled. "El que te haga daño, te lo juro que va a morir (Whoever hurt you, I swear that they will die)."
Cielo shook his head and struggled to pull away from his father, his olive cheeks wet with tears.
"She hated me, too," he grumbled. "S-said I was too 'fiery'..."
Romano gritted his teeth and brought his shaking hands to cover his face, his eyes flickering towards Italy as the younger Italian twin began to weep.
"C-Cisco?" Feliciano whispered. "M-Magnus?'
The twins turned to each other, their hands tightening in supportive grips around their wrists.
"...She starved us both, just like the others," Magnus sighed. "Sometimes she hit us."
"V-ve... Sometimes we were burned," Francisco added quietly. The brunette reached down and pulled up one of his pant-legs, his fingers brushing gently against the barest hints of burns. "...We can't show you all of the scars."
"She hated my hair," Alyson added, her green eyes still locked on the ground beside her feet. "...Used to throw me near fires hoping that it would just burn off. Sometimes she cut it off herself with shears, and it always left scars. F-Francisco, Marc, and Magnus always tried to stop her before she could do anything worse."
"Mitka and Magnus would sneak in and visit me when she locked me away," Katerina recalled quietly.
"...Saichi was there to stop the bleeding when the wounds got too serious," Marc said with a sad smile.
"Achilles tried to protect me all the time," Saichi murmured.
"Cielo let me hold him when the pain became too much," Achilles sighed, his brown eyes softening as he sent Cielo a fond smile.
"S-shut up..." Cielo muttered. "...Damn b-bastard helped me hide sometimes..."
"Katerina... never let me give up," Magnus admitted, causing the Russian girl to stare at him in surprise. "She never let any of us give up."
Germany folded his hands into fists, his muscles trembling with the need to go after- to destroy every thing that had caused his children so much pain.
"Who was this person?" he demanded furiously.
"H-Her name was Annette," Francisco sighed. "W-we found out that she was Canadian... Probably why she h-hated Marc and Katerina so much."
Canada stiffened, his purple eyes narrowing dangerously behind his glasses.
"Is she still alive?" he demanded.
"None of us killed her," Cielo snapped. "...The others might have, though. They didn't want us to escape."
"Others?" America snarled. "What others?"
"There were always other people that came in, every week or so," Marc explained flatly. "To check up on us. We... we asked Achilles to listen to their conversations several times. He told us that we were supposed to be dead by now, but that there had been a change of plans. They... they said that the way we were now, it would be more painful to..." He stopped, his jaw tightening as his expression darkened.
"More painful to what?" England asked quietly, no longer bothering to hide the anger that was clearly visible in his flashing eyes and flushed cheeks.
"...They wanted to hurt our parents," Achilles murmured, his voice still thick with sleep. "For creating us."
"T-they called us abominations," Katerina added. "W-we... didn't understand what they meant for a while... I-I thought that they were talking about the dreams that we would have, or the fact that we were so different from other children..."
"...They called you abominations, because you were the children of countries, aru?" China wondered.
"No..." Japan sighed. "No, it wasn't that..."
"They called them abominations," England realized. "Because both of their parents were men."
I think that this is a bit shorter than last time, but I just had to end it there... Heh, sorry!
Okay, so, I feel like I should give you guys a warning right about now. See, the way I'm planning this, this story is going to start getting a lot darker in a few chapters... Like, probably some of the darkest things that I've written. So, yeah. Just a word to the wise: you've been warned.
But, that won't happen for another chapter or so~
Well, thanks for the reviews! You guys rock! Make sure to tell me how I'm doing, and please continue to keep my speech coach's wife in your prayers. She's not doing well...
Thank you all, have a Happy Easter!