Sorry for the lateness, I have been through a lot of physical and emotional stress. The physical is psycotic gym teachers, the emotional is the death of a loved one...
And then my other teachers had the wonderful idea of shoving assignment after assignment on top of us until we were practically buried under loads of homework. Fun, fun, fun... That put off the chapter even further...
AND THEN, as the proverbial "icing on the cake" my internet browser quit on me... out of nowhere. I had a very good start on the chapter at the time. I'm not exactly "happy" at the moment, my writing may reflect this. I guess I'll just save obsessively to prevent it from deleting the data on me again...
AND THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN. I keep telling you, my computer hates me! Is this not proof? ... Well, at least it didn't delete EVERYTHING that time...

At the rate my life was moving when I wrote this, I eventually said, "I am NEVER going to get this done! OTL"
But! I refused to give up, so here it is!

However... my issues are not something I should be forcing you to listen to. The story will now continue after one (or two) final notices.

OKAY! The Halloween Town I imagine is based off of the map from the "Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days" video game for the Nintendo DS. I do not own Nintendo, Disney, or Kingdom Hearts (although I do own systems and/or copies of games made by the companies).

I tried to write this in present tense. If it works out, I might continue the story that way. If it takes too long or flat-out sucks... well, then I shall change it to the tense the rest shall be in: past tense.

That's all I have to say, so...
Enjoy~!

As my scream dies down, my throat seems to plug itself up, preventing any other sounds from escaping. I struggle, squirming in a desperate attempt to loosen the fabric. If I manage that, perhaps I can cut it away with a knife...

A gunshot rings out, causing me to freeze in place momentarily. When my captors begin to flee, I begin to struggle once more.

"No!" I hear Prussia shout.

"P-Prussia-san!" I practically scream in response when my voice finally starts to work once more, even though I know he cannot hear my hoarse cries by now.

The trio continues to flee, ignorant of my pleas for them to just let me go, to allow me to return to my friends. Eventually, my head slams against a large, solid object - perhaps a large rock - and I am instantly knocked unconscious.

"YOU LET THEM ESCAPE?" a furious, familiar voice yells nearby, jolting me awake. Dazed, I struggle to recognize the speaker. "You promised five. You brought us two. Either your math skills seriously suck, or your stupidity allowed three captives to escape."

My mind finally stops grappling for a name, but the name it came up with does not make sense... There must be some mistake, Italy-chan would never be so cruel...

"Yeah, we let the first three get away, but the two we have gave us a hard time! One nearly beat us up with a metal pipe - " a childlike voice, possibly male, protests.

Oh, Kami... Please, let my ears be mistaken... The only person who fits that description is...

"Russia. Okay, he's pretty tough, damnit, I'll give ya that. What 'bout the other one?" a second voice, very similar to the first voice, snaps. It must be Romano-kun.

"The second got away the first time we tried to catch him, we had to wait for quite a while to get him alone and in a position where we can catch him," a second child-like voice proclaims, this one female. "He almost got away AGAIN, too, thanks to that stupid white-haired guy..."

Prussia is the only person who fit that description... had he been the one to fire the shot, the one who tried to save me?

"... but we bagged the pesky little Asian island this time!"

"Xiǎo dìdì rì? You brought him here?" another grown voice pipes up. The words of the male are slurred, but the voice is definitely Aniki's voice.

I shift slightly, praying they are not watching me, and find that, much to my relief, no one mentions my movement and the fabric is much looser, allowing me more movement. Carefully rolling so as to face away from the plethora of voices, I silently pull out a kunai and slice open the bag. Lifting the fabric so I can see outside, I scan the area for any and all available information. I seem to be in a dark, creepy graveyard with so many shadows, it almost seems as if they are there on purpose as decorations. That will be very helpful, the dark cover of night and shadows will make me very hard to notice. Hiding and escaping will certainly be made much easier by those factors.

Slipping out of the bag, being careful not to make even the slightest sound, I dart behind the nearest tombstone. I take a deep breath and peek over the top of my hiding place, praying I am not unintentionally attracting their attention somehow. In the distance, a curled up hill stands silhouetted against the full moon. The moon provides just enough light for my well-trained eyes to see clearly, the effect of the ninja training I went through so many years ago. Odd how it still affects me, but extremely useful, hai?

Not far from the grave I am hiding behind lies a large lump which squirms occasionally. Six figures - three children, three adults - stand near the bag I had been held in, arguing. I already know who the three children are - they are my captors: a girl in a witch costume, a boy in a skeleton costume, and another boy in a devil costume, all wearing masks.

The three adults worry me - they are people I know and trust, some of my close friends, yet some of them... some of them are people that I know are still back home. Nothing makes sense anymore... including the fact that two of the men I am spying on are the Vargas twins. Both are missing their curl for some odd reason, Romano-kun's hair is a shade or two darker than normal, both are wearing casual Italian suits, and both carry baseball bats - Romano-kun grips his tightly, his arm barely restrained by that of Italy-chan, who carries his own bat over his shoulder.

No matter how confusing I find the sight of the twins, the final figure is even more confusing. My older brother, Yao-san, stands next to Italy-chan, turned ever so slightly so I can see his face. His long, dark hair is tangled, disheveled... not unlike that of a yūrei, except that it is still held up in his usual ponytail. His clothes are also in a state of slight disarray, as if he had fallen asleep and gotten up to face a new day in a rush, or without even bothering to change from the day before. His golden-brown eyes hold a slight mist in them - this slightly glazed over, fogged up appearance. Tears pooled in the corners, threatening to spill over.

Tearing my eyes away, I take a deep breath and creep out from behind the headstone, heading in the direction of the second bag I noticed earlier. Grabbing the fabric, I drag the prone figure behind a nearby mausoleum, thanking the heavens it was placed so conveniently. Russia-teme is no longer limp - he struggles against me, probably thinking I intend to harm him.

"Sh! If they find us and recapture us, there is no guarantee we will be able to escape again!" I scold him quietly. "Hold still, I do not want to harm you accidentally."

Apparently, Russia-teme's panic is not strong enough to block out my words. He calms down, allowing me to slice away the cloth wrapped around him. As he makes his way out of the bag, I scan the area for an escape route. A tall, rusty-looking gate catches my eye. It is likely to creak if opened or even slightly moved, but the walls adjacent to it are low enough for even Russia-teme to climb without too much trouble.

"Come on, we should get out of here. Do not use the gate; if it creaks, they might catch us," I whisper, pointing in the direction of the aforementioned escape route. He nods slightly, shifting his weight as he begins the (somewhat slow) trek across the graveyard and towards the gate. I follow him at a smoother pace, glancing back to keep an eye on our captors. Just before we escape safely over the wall, I hear a shout from far behind us. Did it honestly take them that long to figure out we were missing?

"YOU LET THEM GET AWAY AGAIN? YOU... YOU BLOODY MORONS!" England-san's voice? But we rescued him, he is still back home! Did he turn against us?

"Hurry! It won't take them as long to cross the graveyard as it took us, da," Russia-teme warns me quietly, dragging me out of the cloud of panic my mind had formed around me and pushing me over the wall.

I land on the other side, turning to help him down as well.

"I can't find them anywhere, aru! Where could they have gone?"

When we hear the slurred shout, we share a momentary look and take off running. Standing around, trying to hear what they say, would only get us spotted and possibly captured. We both know that we must keep moving, keep running.

"We should... split up," I managed to gasp out as we rounded a corner, out of our pursuers' line of sight. "It will... make it... harder for... them... to catch us."

Russia-teme nods curtly before responding. "First... crossroad we... come to... da?"

"Be... careful... Russia-san," I whisper as we approach what seems to be a town square. Even if he acts like a jerk a lot of the time, the fact that Russia-san had followed me without asking any questions had earned some degree of respect from me.

As Russia-san turns to run in the opposite direction of me, I notice that his near-constant smile is absent from his face. I had never seen him without it before, save for once during the Cold War... during his final argument with America-san. This is obviously a very serious situation to him.

I pause in the shadows, trying to catch my breath. Sprinting like that for too much longer without any rests might get me caught rather than allow me to get away.

However, just as I am about to begin running again, I see four silhouettes coming out of the path I had marked as my escape route. I shrink further back into the shadows, my breath catching in my throat.

"So... you were taken from your homes? No warning, nothing? Just taken for no reason, without any kind of warning?" I hear an unfamiliar voice ask.

"Yeah, our only warning was them saying 'trick or treat' just before stuffing us in a bag," Lovino-kun's voice confirms. "We're not at war with anyone, either... For once, none of us are fighting except for some petty little arguments... Nothing major, just meaningless banter."

"Lovino's right, there aren't any reasons I can think of off the top of my head that would explain why someone wants to capture us," France-san agrees.

As the group approaches me, I slowly back up into the darkness, not noticing the bone beneath my foot until -

CRACK!

I wince as the echoes die away.

"Did you hear that? I think someone's back there," America-san's voice hisses. Wait... Is that really Alfred-san's voice? ... I cannot be certain, not with so much panic clouding my mind.

"No shit sherlock," Lovino-kun snaps. "Who's gonna go check it out?"

"I will, seeing as you two aren't going to even try without chickening out at the last second," America-san(?) snaps, clearly irritated.

"Thank you, Canada," France-san mutters, seeming relieved beyond belief.

Canada-san. That's who it was, America-san's brother. Alfred-san is still presumably on Earth, still safe. I take a silent breath in, trying to calm my racing heart.

One of the figures separates itself from the group, heading my way. It must be Canada-san, coming to check out what made the loud noise earlier. As he moves forward, I know better than to try to back away - there are probably more bones behind me, just waiting for me to step on them and snap them in half. Canada-san creeps closer and closer...

Just then, a loud shout shatters the suspenseful silence.

"Russia-san," I whisper, panic taking root. He must be under attack, I have to help him... I shoot a calculating glance at the small group. Lovino-kun could capture me, France-san has proven that he can overpower me, Canada-san is almost as strong as America-san, and the fourth person... I do not know who it is, but he or she would most likely be able to capture and subdue me using the element of surprise and brute force. I know that Russia-san needs my help, desperately, but...

Will I be able to make it in time?