Claire POV
I followed the noise into the kitchen to find America and France doubled over in laughter and England bright red in anger brandishing a large kitchen knife. There's a tray of scones on the counter that England must of made, but when I take a closer look I can see that someone has taken frosting and drawn pouty faces with huge eyebrows on all of them.
"_worked all afternoon on these and then you and the bloody frog waltz in and destroy a batch of perfectly good scones!" rants England waving the knife. "We just signed them for you Iggy, what if someone saw them and tried to eat one without knowing who made them?" says America sniggering. "Oui Angleterre, we improved them!" says France. France notices that I've entered the room, comes over and wraps an arm around my shoulder saying, "Don't you agree Claire?"
"Well it was rather rude of you to smear frosting all over the place, although it looks like America got the brunt of it." I say shrugging him off and pointing at the counter-tops and America, he has frosting down his shirt and face. They've even gotten some on the ceiling! "England I understand you're angry, and rightly so, but will you please stop waving that knife about?" I ask gesturing for England to hand over the knife. "Oh, sorry dear" he says quickly handing it over, I don't think he realized he was still holding it.
_
England puts America and France to work scraping the frosting off of everything and the rest of the evening goes down pretty smoothly, but I retreat to my room with some food to avoid the food war going on downstairs between everyone, France was insisting that his was best as usual, England loudly denouncing that, America making ridiculous amounts of hamburgers and littering every surface in the house with them, and poor Italy just quietly sitting in a corner slurping up spaghetti and occasionally saying "PASTA!" happily. I quietly run downstairs to ditch my plate and then run back upstairs since they're still going at it, how can they keep it up for so long?
I read for a couple hours before going to bed, when I wake up I've actually woken up at a normal time for once! Since America is having the party later today I put on the dress I bought with Italy the day before, I guess I am glad he convinced me to get it! Ever since I moved out on my own I've been a bit of a tightwad and never really spend much on myself, maybe I do need to start loosening up a bit like all my friends keep telling me.
After I finish getting ready I go downstairs and see that America has taken over the kitchen with a strange mix of breakfast foods and blue-prints, he's constructed a model of the house out of waffles and is using strips of bacon for what must be the people. "Shouldn't you have this all planned out already?" I ask sliding into a seat next to him at the table, I snatch a piece of bacon and start absent-mindedly munching on it. "Hey that was Germany!" he protests and tries to grab it back but I've already stuck the last of it in my mouth.
"Everything has to be absolutely perfect, no way something's going to go wrong at the hero's party!" he says rolling up the blue-prints, waffles, bacon, and all. "Hey, you just took like half the food!" I protest as he gets up, "I need lots of brain food for all the last minute checks!" he says leaving a trail of grease and who knows what as he walks out. "Englaaaannd-" I start to say, but England plops a plate of food in front of me and says "Here you go, I knew that pig would clear the table by himself". I poke at the food suspiciously, but it looks fabulous and seems to be perfectly cooked, how on earth did he make this? "I'm sorry you have to deal with such dismal cooking, America seems to have eaten everything I made, so France's "food" is the only thing left." he says with a disapproving look towards my plate and a tone of disgust as he says "food". "Whew!" I think, and dig in. It's crepes with strawberries and whip cream, I don't think I've ever had anything so good!
I'm still eating when I feel two hands on my shoulders and France leans over me, "What do you think cherie? I'm sure you haven't had anything decent to eat in days with what that bête calls cooking." he says looking triumphantly at England. "It's really good!" I say after swallowing the mouthful of crepe. "But mine was better, didn't you say so Claire?" ask England looking downtrodden, When does he think I said that! I think. "Your's was a very robust breakfast", I say trying to think of something pleasant to say, "Hohohohohon I think the mademoiselle meant to say repulsive" says France leaning farther over me, leering at England.
"Hey when you make me face-plant into your food I won't like it much anymore" I say pushing off France. "Hmmph" pouts France and he retreats into a corner for the rest of breakfast. After everyone finishes eating and everything gets cleaned and put up, America gathers the countries and me into the living room.
"Ok dudes and dudette! Everyone is going to get here later tonight so we have until then to get everything on a roll!" says America. "I still don't see why I need to be involved in this" grumbles England, "Hey come on Iggster! Your floor is going to be the second best!" says America clapping England on the back. "And who's will be first" asks England annoyed. "Why it's the hero's of course!" laughs America.
"Ok, Italy you're with me, England you have the fourth floor and Denmark and Prussia are coming over later to do the second and third." "What about me?" I ask. "You are going to stay up here until later tonight and then go through with everyone else!" says America. "What am I supposed to do all day alone up here?" I ask, I won't even have Italy being a dork to entertain me, I think. "You'll think of something!" he says confidently and then leads everyone to their floors leaving me alone.
I spend the day poking through all the rooms on the floor, the only weird thing I find are some drawers full of junk food, there was a dresser entirely devoted to Hershey's bars! Periodically I'd hear bouts of sawing, hammering, and a jack hammer for some reason. I had gotten through about two hundred pages of my book and was laying on my bed when my door opened with a slam revealing America. "Come on Claire, everyone's here!" he says and then drags me down a weird back staircase and out onto the lawn.
There are nations all over the lawn and cars are lined all the way down the street, everyone seems to be in clusters of three. Someone has constructed an entrance of sorts around the front door, it looks just like the entrance to one of those fun houses with the mirror mazes. Russia and Estonia are in charge of letting groups in, and everyone is too nervous around Russia to push or cut so everything seems to be going smoothly. China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan just went in and now Spain, Romano, and Belgium are getting ready to enter. "I'm surprised you guys got everything done!" I say looking around, "Anything's possible if the Hero's involved!" laughs America.
The number of nations outside has greatly decreased by the time America ushers me into the line, I end up with Japan and Greece, and in front of us are Hungary, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. "Yo Japan! Is it all right if Claire hangs with you?" asks America. "Oh hello America-san, that is fine." says Japan. "Hello Claire, pleased to make your acquaintance." says Japan bowing to me. "Hi, nice to meet you too!" I say stepping into line. Greece is just standing there looking almost asleep, and Japan gently nudges him with his elbow to alert him. "Hey" he says quietly with a small smile. I say hi back and fall into conversation with Japan while we wait for the line to move forward, they seem to be waiting five minutes between admitting groups. I talk about various animes I've seen and mangas I've read, and he tells me some of the American literature he has enjoyed reading. When we finally get up to the entrance Russia looks over the group and writes down something on a notepad he has, "What are you writing down?" I ask curiously. "Last year at Amerika's party nations disappeared, Lithuania wasn't found until two months later, so we are keeping track of who goes in this time." says Russia, he spoke pleasantly enough but he's emitting a rather menacing miasma, I wonder if he was the cause of Lithuania's "disappearance", I think. Greece is just standing there in a daze and I'm frozen under Russia's "pleasant" gaze, so Japan pushes us through the doorway and into the haunted house.
The door snaps shut with bang and Greece startles fully awake as we look around ourselves. Harsh bright white lights line the ceiling so we take a minute to adjust to the brightness before continuing down the hallway. The walls are all a pristine hospital shade of white and we're only able to see down a short length of hallway before it curves off in another direction. As we walk I start to notice something, a sort of muffled rubbing sound, like something is being dragged, "Do you hear that?" I ask, "Hai" says Japan stopping. "What do you think it is?" I ask nervously, after walking so long through such a barren silent space this seems weirdly frightening to me. "Hmmmm", Greece pauses to listen and then starts running down the hallway. "Where's he off to in such a rush?" I ask watching as Greece rounds a corner and disappears from sight. "I don't know, but we really shouldn't get separated, we need to catch up with him." says Japan and we both start to run to catch up with Greece.
After a couple minutes we're able to catch up enough that we can see him in between turns, "Greece slow down! We need to stay together!" I yell but he takes no notice. Japan has started to huff and puff, how long can this hallway possibly be? All of the sudden there are faint smears of red on the walls and floor, low to the ground like something brushed up against it while walking. "That's not blood is it?" I ask worried, I'm not very good around blood. The smears get more and more pronounced as we advance down the hallway, as were running I run my hand along the wall and some of it gets on my hand. I bring my fingers to my mouth to smell it, tomatoes!? "Japan, the red smears are just tomatoes!" I say holding my hand out, "I forgot Italy helped with this floor, so it can't be anything too terrible right?" I ask. "Hai, lets hope so" wheezes out Japan, all this running has seemed to take quite a toll on him, I'm getting pretty tired myself.
Greece lets out a triumphant yell as we round a corner and see something running along the ground, it's covered with a sheet soaked in "blood". Whatever it is is scuttling along the floor at a breakneck pace, it's kind of long and fat looking. Greece puts on a burst of speed and scoops up the thing and comes to a screeching halt, I slam into him but he's not affected in the least so I just fall over and Japan unfortunately has the same thing happen to him so he falls into a slump next to me. "Finally! I'm about to faint with all that running, what on earth is that thing?" I ask from the floor. "Mew" comes from the sheet, Greece unwinds it to reveal, "Corporal Cat" he says simply holding the cat up. "Is that the one that's been missing for months?" asks Japan. Greece just nods happily and sits down on the floor with the cat in his lap. "Well that was anti-climatic" I say getting up, I turn around and see that coincidentally we've come to the end of the hallway; a closed door. There's some catnip hanging above the door, that must be what got Copral Cat going, I think. "Well it looks like this is the end of this floor, come on guys" I say opening the door to reveal a flight of stairs. "I'm going to stay here with him" says Greece motioning to the cat. "Hey don't you remember what we said about sticking together?" I say indignantly. But he's already fallen into a doze, the cat snuggled into his coat and purring. "It's impossible to wake him up when he's like that, let's just proceed" says Japan. "Are you sure he'll be alright?" I ask, "He'll be fine, let's head to the next floor."
We leave Greece behind and climb the stairs into a much dimmer room, it's very small compared to the gargantuan course we just ran through. The walls are dark and the floor seems to be mired in some sort of stagnant slime, stepping-stones are littered throughout the room but they look difficult to get to, some are five feet apart! There's a door at the end on a platform, "That must be the exit, this doesn't look too hard to get through!" I say hopping onto one of the stones and starting across the room. "Be careful Claire-san, this is Prussia's floor after-all" says Japan, and he cautiously gets onto one of the stepping-stones. I hop from stone to stone, and I'm about half-way across when I come to a particularly large gap. As I'm gauging the distance and getting ready to jump I notice something in the mirky slime, something is moving through it winding it's way between the stones. "J-Japan, there's something in there" I says backing up and almost knocking Japan off the rock. "C-Claire there's no need to cling like that, I'm sure it's nothing" says Japan prying me off of him.
"Sorry" I say getting off him, whatever it is has retreated a bit so the path to the next rock is clear, "Come on lets get over before it comes back" I say and I quickly jump to the next rock and start heading to the door as fast as I can, I'm almost to the door when Japan grabs my sleeve and points soundlessly to the thing slithering towards us at a terrifying speed. "Hurry up!" I say pushing Japan in front of me, he advances to the door and is holding out a hand to me, I'm two stones away from the exit when I feel something slimy on my ankle. "AAAAAAaahhh!" I scream lashing out with my foot and a bright flash goes off in my face temporarily blinding me.
"Claire! Claire! It's just a piece of rope!" says Japan trying to calm me down. I stop thrashing and look down to see a thick wet rope wound around my ankle, I pull it up and see that it leads to a hole next to the door. "Huh?" I follow it and see that there's a panel in the wall and I pry it open with my nails, "Kesesesese" comes from within. I reveal Prussia crouched in the space on a laptop with a picture of my terrified face on the screen. "You!" I say angrily, marching over to him and grabbing his ear. "Ouch ouch, lemme go! It's was just for fun, come on" yelps Prussia as I pull him up. "Prussia you shouldn't be taking pictures of people like that" says Japan disapprovingly, he walks over to the laptop presses a few keys and then shuts the lid. "Hey my pictures! I had some quality black mail there!" yells Prussia. "You shut it or I'll be having quite an interesting conversation with Germany" I say and that sure shuts him up. "Hey wasn't Hungary in the group in front of us? How are you still alive with her coming through?" I ask Prussia. "Do you think I'm versessen? If I did anything to that she-devil I wouldn't be able to walk for weeks!" says Prussia. "Hmmph, well no more pictures!" I say and let go of his ear. I can hear him grumbling and swearing under his breath as we walk out and go through the door to the next floor.
The next floor looks like it was a maze of some sorts, but there's a line of holes smashed through in a straight line heading straight to the next exit, "What happened here?" I ask. "It looks like Denmark-san wasn't as smart about letting Hungary through" says Japan stepping through one of the holes. We walk straight through like Hungary must've, there are dangling dummies that must have been set to spring out and scare people, and a couple axes are hanging limply from the ceiling. When we get to the end Denmark is sitting in a folding chair next to the door sadly drinking from a flask. "Hungary?" asks Japan. "Hungary." answers Denmark depressed. "Well good try" I say and pat him on the shoulder. He just harrumphs and goes back to finishing his flask as we walk through to the final floor of the haunted house.
"This is England's floor right?" I ask, "Yes, I hope we can just get through easily, I don't think I can take much more of this" says Japan. "We'll lets just try to power through" I say grabbing his hand and setting off at a brisk pace. The atmosphere is dark like Prussia's floor, but has more of an abandoned feel to it. The walls have the same decorations as the floor I've been staying in the last couple days, but they look old and neglected, mildew spots the walls and the wallpaper is peeling in places. As we walk I start to notice darting shapes above us near the ceiling, but the lighting is too dim to make out what they are. "Eeehh" I gasp, something just brushed against my head! We speed up and both give yelps of pain as the things pull at our hair and clothing, we round a corner and when I look behind us I see a dark figure coming after us. "Japan look!" I yell and when he sees the figure he speeds up pulling me along. I keep throwing glances behind us, and it's getting closer and closer, I can see it's outstretched arms with hands ending in pointed claws, "Hurry! It's catching up!" I yell, we round another corner and see a door with light streaming from beneath, "There's the exit!" I shout and put on a final burst of speed. I feel the creature brush the back of my neck with its talons just as I pause to open the door, and then the minute Japan and I get through I slam it shut hitting whatever it is and knocking it back.
"Hey Claire! Hey Japan! You finally made it through!" yells America coming over to us. I've collapsed on the floor but Japan has someone remained standing and is fighting to catch his breath. "What did you think of the last one?" asks England coming over, "We barely made it out!" I pant. "Who did you have chasing us?" I ask. "Huh?" he says puzzled. "What do you mean who?" "I mean what country did you have dress up?" I ask impatiently. "Oh that, that wasn't one of the countries, I summoned one of my spirits!" says England proudly. "Dude seriously! Not cool, you could've of gotten someone killed with your voodoo!" says America. "It is not "voodoo" you twat!" says England and they start to squabbling as usual. "Ughhh" I moan as I flop over exhausted, will this never end?
Heeeeeyyy! I'm not dead (even though I might've led you to believe so!). Gomenasai gomenasai! I wrote an extra long chapter to make up, please review and tell me what you thought! This is going to get wrapped up soon, but I just got a new story idea so don't despair!
Translations:
bête: french for dolt or brute
Versessen: german for crazy/insane
The monster on England's floor was Black Annis, she's like the boogeyman of English fairytales.