Canada smiled at Ukraine, reaching out to stroke back a strand of her platinum hair. She smiled back at him, her cheeks rosy. "Are you sure you're okay to spend the night at my place?"
She nodded. "Brother has been kind recently. I do not think he will mind."
Matthew sucked in a breath through his teeth; he'd just remembered something. "You know what, you just reminded me—I gotta check on Al."
Yekaterina blinked at him, her light eyelashes fluttering with confusion. "Doesn't he have a date with Ivan tonight?" Matthew nodded. She sighed. "Mattie, stop worrying. Ever since they got back together… Ivan has been nice. Good. No one's been tortured in—"
"Maybe he's found someone else to torture, eh?" There was a cold look in Matthew's eyes.
Yekaterina just shook her head.
Matthew looked at her skeptically.
She sighed again. "You do not understand him. If he was being cruel elsewhere, he would be cruel at home too. He is addicted to violence—addicted." She had learned the English of that word only recently, and she was proud to use it.
It seemed to make an effect on Matthew. He sighed and looked down, scuffing the street with his shoes. "I can walk her home." Someone was behind them. Yekaterina whirled, pulling out her pitchfork. After seeing who it was, she relaxed her grip. A ghostly white polar bear was peering at them through the darkness.
"Kumaji!" Matthew bent over to ruffle the hair on Kumajirou's head. He glanced up at Yekaterina. "Well? Do you want Kumanita to walk you back to my house?"
Yekaterina knew her answer already. "No," she said. "I want to stay with you."
Matthew stood up. "You want to help me check up on Alfred." He opened his eyes wide in surprise for a moment, then turned away. "Okay. Your choice."
The Soviet nation grinned, and then ran after her boyfriend.
America's house was empty when they arrived. Their footsteps echoed through the empty halls. Yekaterina had never seen the inside before, and stared in wonder around at the vases of roses and patriotic symbols hanging on the walls. Matthew was suspicious, and brought Kumajirou to his side with a low whistle.
It was when they reached the kitchen that Matthew became even more unnerved. There was no sign that it had been used in the past several hours. And that didn't fit. Even after having dinner, even just before a night of sex, Alfred would've eaten something.
"Katuyasha," he said. "Something's wrong here."
"What?" She was at his shoulder in moments. He explained. She frowned.
"I'm looking through the front rooms again. We might've missed something." And he left Yekaterina standing alone in the kitchen, worrying.
His concern was contagious, and she found herself wondering before long if something had happened. Maybe Ivan had spent too long sane, so he was going back to his old, crazy, Russian habits.
The phone on the wall rang.
She picked it up without a moment's hesitation. "Yes? This is Ukraine speaking."
"Yekaterina? Thank God." The caller spoke in Russian. She frowned. She recognized the voice, but not the tone.
"Eduard? What's wrong?" she replied in the same language. "You sound almost like Raivis. Is it Ivan?"
She heard him gulping, and a slight, nervous laugh. "Raivis? Heh. He's almost passed out. I gave him some cognac—God, I think we all need alcohol."
"Eduard. Focus," she told him sharply. Despite her calm outward mien, she was deeply unnerved by Estonia's hysterics. She had known the tech-savvy Baltic to be almost unflappable in most dire situations…
"Katuyasha!" Someone else was calling her, with the same note of panic in his voice. She automatically began walking towards the sound of Matthew's yell, still talking to Eduard.
"Eduard, calm down. Is it Ivan? Is he drunk?"
She came across Matthew in the room directly after the front hall. He was kneeling on the floor. Kumajirou was sniffing something on the boards.
"Drunk—no, he's not drunk, I don't know. But—but it's bad, Yekaterina, really bad."
Matthew gestured frantically at the floor. "Yekaterina, look—this is bad—"
"Hold on a moment, Eduard. What is it, Mattie?"
"Blood, Yekaterina—and on the walls too—blood!"
She stared in terror, but the horror was not over yet. Eduard had ignored her order and was still babbling.
"Raivis was the one to greet him—bad idea, very bad. He's almost passed out now—you should've heard him screaming—but Natasha's even worse. She's destroying everything she comes into contact with, she's so angry—"
"And Alina? Is Alina okay?" Yekaterina could never really hide her worry for the Crimean girl.
"I got her to stay up in her room—everyone else, you know, Nikolai, Misha, they've all hidden themselves off, I don't know where."
"I don't care about them, what about—" She swallowed. There were still two unaccounted for. "What about Toris and Ivan?"
Eduard's voice began shaking even more. "T-that's the worst. They're up in—in Ivan's room—Toris is—Oh God, it's bad—Toris—"
"What?" she screamed helplessly into the phone. She could still hear Matthew yelling "Blood!" but this was worse, this was much worse.
"Toris is being tortured—oh God, please get over here soon—and bring America! He'll help!" There was a pause. For a few seconds, Yekaterina could hear sounds in the background. Awful sounds—muffled screams, distant sobbing—and footsteps. Quiet footsteps.
"Estonia, who are you talking to?" someone asked in dulcet tones.
Eduard whimpered. Yekaterina stared straight ahead, unable to tear the phone away from her trembling, tear-streaked face.
"You shouldn't be calling America. That's bad," Ivan continued, still speaking softly and kindly. "Tell me, that was who you were trying to call, да?"
"N-no…" Eduard's voice wavered.
"Liar." Ivan was suddenly cold. There was a cracking sound, followed by a low clatter. It seemed the phone had fallen to the floor. Matthew stared nervously up at Yekaterina. There were tears running down her cheeks, but she was somehow managing to keep silent.
The phone clicked again. "America? Alfred?"
Matthew thought he heard his brother's name, and desperately pulled the phone away from Yekaterina's ear, turning the volume up frantically.
"My dear…are you there?" Ivan continued. "Are you all—" They heard a sudden intake of breath. There was another click. They kept staring at the phone until it started beeping, and Matthew hung up.
The phone fell to the floor, and Yekaterina slipped down beside it. She buried her head in her arms and sobbed quietly. Everything was going so well… Matthew covered his own face with his hands, taking deep breaths. He couldn't imagine what had happened to make everything go so horribly wrong.
Yes! New chapter is finished! I'd like to apologize for any wait. Hopefully it may have been alleviated by the other fanfic I uploaded, but...I made the massively unforgiveable mistake of impatience, and now I can't really read the end of that one without wincing. I promise to re-read these more thoroughly from now on...
I got a question a little while ago asking me what CART was, and for the person who asked- go back to the third chapter or so (the one where the road trip starts), and it's sort of indirectly stated. The road trip's official name is the Canadian Annual Road Trip, and that acronyms nicely to CART. (I just verbed acronym. ^_^)
Please review, and thank you for your patience!