Author's Note- Wow, we have officially hit 200 reviews, so I thought I would thank you with a story on the longer side of things. It also involves the rarely observed scaredycat-America! But before for we get to that a quick shout out to Saiorsewolf, Fruitstogether, EverythingMath, Mayrna Maeve, Silver Crossbow, Infinite Happiness, and Aurora Chen for being wonderful reviewers.
Disclaimer-I do not own Hetalia, or Apple, or Haunted Places, or any Ghosts, nor do I happen to be a Ghost.
Haunted Places
The Idea
The United States of America was a diverse nation. It was the third most populous country on the planet with 317 million citizens, but unlike the majority of the rest of the planet the majority of the population was immigrants. When people came to the continents shores they brought their culture, their dreams, their food, and their language to add to the great American melting pot and out of that melting pot were born 50 unique states.
No two states in the nation where exactly the same. Each had their own preferences, their own skills, their own desires. Some chose to follow a particular faith, others were agnostic, and yet other had ceased to believe in a higher power somewhere along the line. From the outside they looked like the average Americans.
Outsides can be very deceiving. No human could ever have Nevada's unnatural luck or Tennessee ability to pick up and play any instrument on the planet. Add the fact they were also very smart and had dozens of human lifespan of experience, and you had creatures uniquely adapted to survive in the fast paced modern world. Then, of course, there was their wicked sense of humor (a sense of humor that they were perfectly prepared to turn on each other or their nation every once in a while) which made the states a force that nothing could avoid succumbing to pain of watching every human they interact with wither and eventually die.
Which brings us to the current situation…In general states are creatures of habit. The vast majority of them like there worlds to be neatly ordered. As a rule of thumb emergency meetings that force practically all 50 of them to stop whatever they were working on and fly halfway across the continent tended to upset said neat order. Now there were 45 tired, jet lagged, cranky, states
"We totally need to get back at Dad." Michigan whined. "I mean he keeps on dragging to Washington D.C. to attend these meetings and while international politics are important internationally, but why do we have to get dragged into it all of the time. It is not like most of it affects our day to day lives. Heck, most of it doesn't even happen on our continent."
"Pac-Man in the Library was fun and totally freaked out America!" Texas announced to the group of tired states. "We could play that."
"We are never going to get away with playing Pac-Man in the Library of Congress again." Florida rolled his eyes.
"What if we did it in the Smithsonian Institution instead?" Ohio suggested helpfully.
"We really shouldn't push it." California admitted bitterly. "If we are going to are going to play an elaborate game in the Smithsonian it is going to have to be something that America hasn't sworn us never to do again."
"What if we…"
The states then debated among themselves for another hour, but no one came up with a sufficiently
"Listen." Louisiana's French influenced accent was clear above the argument. "Brothers, sisters, I have an idea."
"Pray tell." North Carolina asked politely, but one of her eyebrows was cocked in mock amusement.
"We are going to drag America on a ghost hunt."
The Plan
The states actually managed to stay awake through the various meetings about the Ukrainian crisis, the Russian crisis, the Palestinian crisis, and the Ebola crisis, though they were getting pretty sick and tired of America tacking on the word crisis to any current event that he was focusing on at the moment. As their 'fearless leader' droned on about some international issue that most of the states could care less about they worked on their plan. Finally on the evening of the third day they decided it was ready.
"So, Virginia do we have a go ahead?" Louisiana asked the Mother of States.
"On one condition." The state said as she straightened the sheath of papers and set them down on the desk. "You will not do the tour in Washington D.C. It is difficult enough to convince Alfred to go into some of the cities buildings at night; if you scare the living daylights out of him he will become positively insufferable."
"I think we can work with that."
The Set Up
"I still don't see why we doing this in Baltimore and not in New Orleans." Louisiana pouted as he pulled out another box of supplies from the van and brought it into the old warehouse that Alabama had rented for the purpose of their ghost hunt.
"Because Baltimore is only an hour drive from D.C., while New Orleans is a two and a half hour flight." Michigan commented from the designated control room.
"But my city is more…" Louisiana whined as he started to unpack the EMP system.
"Come on guys, now is not the time to argue about whose cities is more haunted. We have a whole lot of work to do." California yelled down from the rafters where he was mounting the sound system.
"Thank you." Maryland shouted back up.
"You're welcome. Now can you send me up another two or three people? It is really hard to hold a bracket in place and screw it in at the same time.
The Finale
In many ways the actual event took less time than anyone expected. The evening of the ghost hunt Louisiana, Alabama, Maryland, and New Mexico piled into a van with America under the pretense that Maryland wanted introduce them all to a great new restaurant that had recently opened up in Baltimore. Dinner had been good and the company pleasant, but by the time that dessert rolled around New Mexico started complaining that she was bored.
It was Alabama who suggested the solution to her sister's boredom. She had heard of this great warehouse out by the water front that they should all explore. It had really cool architecture and there was an even rumor that it might be haunted. It was unanimous, the states wanted to go check out the old building so after the check was paid the drove the van towards the bay.
By the time they arrived at their final destination it was close to nine in the evening, the sun was setting but the sky was also rapidly darkening due to a gathering thunderstorm. They got out of the car and started to explore when the rain began. First a few drops, then a downpour pounded them causing the four states and one nation to flee into the shelter of the tower building. The cavernous insides were dark except for the states' flashlights and the occasional flash of lightning.
"This is really interesting architecture, but don't you think that it is about time to head home?" America did his best to hide a slight tremor in his voice. "It is getting kind of late and the weather isn't great for driving so it will take a bit of time to drive back…"
"But we have to find out if this place is haunted!" New Mexico chirped excitedly. "We came all this way and I have always wanted to see a ghost."
"I have just the thing." Louisiana whipped out his Ipad and booted up an official looking program. "The app is saying that there is a ghost over in this direction." As southern state panned his flashlight in the direction that the iPad indicated the light flickered and guttered out. "That is strange I could have sworn that I put fresh batteries in this thing before we left. Oh, well, good thing I brought spare batteries."
"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" America asked, uncharacteristically timid. "I mean trespassing is illegal and stuff."
"We are not trespassing; I got permission from the warehouse owners last week to come a photograph the place. That is why I had keys for the front gate." Alabama scoffed. "Anyway it is not like we are doing anything dangerous. We are just going on a fun little ghost hunt."
"Oh, come on sis." Maryland said with a roll of his eyes as he lead the group down a dark and winding corridor. "Everyone knows there is no such thing as ghosts."
Florida chose that moment to jump out from a shadowed doorway screaming bloody murder. America went down like a sack of potatoes in a dead faint.
"Well that was more successful than planned." Michigan muttered as they nudged America's limp form with their toe. "What do we do with him now?"
"We toss him in the back of the van and we drive home." Alabama stated.
"That's it?" New Jersey asked in disbelief. "That seems rather anticlimactic."
"Oh it is going to be anything but." Louisiana grinned.
"And how is that going to happen, pray tell." North Carolina drawled.
"Simple." The Gulf coast state smirked. "We are going to completely deny this day ever happened. When he asks we will act as though we don't have a clue what he is talking about. If we do it right Alfred will be convinced that he has a few screws loose by the end of the week."
It was an evil plan, which of course meant that all of the states instantly agreed to participate.
End Note- Boo!