9
Finland walked down the hallway, glancing around himself nervously. His eyes darted around, examining every dark corner, every concealing shadow. Electric fear ran under his skin all the way to his fingertips and made his hair stand on end.
There was something odd about that body, something not quite right and Finland had to admit that he didn't think America had taken his own life. There was someone in that building who was willing to kill.
The others didn't think so. They thought it was America who had done it all and in the end killed himself out of guilt. They wanted to go home, thought it was safe again. Finland knew better. Sure, he wanted to go home too, but for some reason he had a feeling that going home wouldn't be any safer than staying put.
"Peter?" he called out loudly as he dared. Where was he? "Peter, come on, this isn't funny. Where are you?"
A noise behind him made him swing around, eyes wide and heart pounding. There was nothing there, but he was sure he could feel eyes on him. Another noise made him turn again and again there was nothing.
"W-who's there?" Finland called out feebly. "Peter? Is that you?"
"Oh, Finland," came a voice from behind him. But still when he looked there was no one there. "Why did it have to be you? Why couldn't you just have accepted it?"
"Where are you?" he asked, spinning around, trying to locate the voice. But the voice seemed to be everywhere at once. And he recognized it. Who was that?
"I'm so sorry, Fin. I really am."
And then there he was. He appeared right behind Finland, but when he turned to look an arm reached around and grabbed his tie, pulling it around to hang down his back and then a knee contacted his spine. The wall smacked his face and he put up his hands to push away, but the knee remained where it was, holding him there like a trapped animal.
"You know," said the voice. "I've never understood ties. They always seemed like a hazard to me."
The nation grabbed his tie and pulled. And the tie tightened. And tightened. It dug into his skin and cut off his air. All he could get out was a quiet squeak as he clawed desperately at his neck. Black spots appeared in his vision. The whole world began to fall away.
And then there was a voice he did know. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" it shouted. Switzerland shouted. It was Switzerland. But he was too late and Finland died.
.oOo.
It was rather vague who found them because the kitchen was the most used room in the building. It may have been Romano going back to check on his pasta sauce or Russia going to grab some vodka from his secret stash, but whoever it was it didn't take long for word to spread. Two more were dead.
And these weren't as well taken as would be expected because not only did everyone expect it to be over now that America was dead, but the fact that whoever it was was able to kill a fully armed Switzerland. It just didn't seem right.
He had been found leaning up against a kitchen cupboard with blood trickling down from above his hairline and from the gaping cut in his throat. A revolver sat next to him, well within reach and loaded in preparation. For what? Who knew? There was no way of knowing now why the gun was out and loaded and yet he didn't use it. Maybe it was loaded because he was trigger-happy and maybe he didn't fire because it jammed, but there had to be something more. England was sure of it.
So as he walked down the hall to Prussia's room he wondered about this. He also wondered why the killer had just left Finland laying out in the open like that and he wondered how Sweden was going to react when someone finally told him. But mostly he wondered where Germany's car keys were.
He and America had taken a cab down to the meeting hall, but Austria had told him that Germany, Italy and Prussia had ridden together in Germany's car. The keys hadn't been in the dead nation's room so England assumed his brother had them.
When he arrived the door was locked as it had been since Germany was shot so, trying not to look behind him to where America had once been, England knocked on the door. There was no answer. He knocked again. Still no answer. He put his ear to the door to listen for any sounds of the ex-nation, but it was utterly silent.
"Prussia," he called. "Prussia, open the door, I need a word with you."
Nothing. He knocked again, more insistently. "Prussia! Open the door for God's sake!"
"England?" He turned to see Italy looking out at him from a few doors down with a sleepy look on his face. He must have been taking his siesta. England cast a glance at the closed door before walking down the hallway to speak to Italy.
"I'm sorry, Italy," he said. "I didn't mean to wake you. But have you seen Prussia lately? I need to talk to him."
Italy rubbed his eyes and hummed. Then after a moment's thought he shook his head. "No, sorry. I haven't seen him since…" For an instant a look of incredible sadness came over him, but it was quickly replaced with a determined fatigue. "No. Why?"
"I'm trying to find out where the keys to Germany's car went. I want to end this once and for all, but to do that I need a car. I thought perhaps Prussia would have the keys, but he doesn't seem to want to answer the door."
Italy smiled a bit and nodded. "He's sad. But I think I can help you with the keys." England looked on in surprise as Italy retreated into his room and returned with a key ring dangling from his fingers. He held them out and dropped them into the Brit's outstretched hands. "I thought I would need a way to get back to the airport when it was all over so I took them from his room."
"Well… thank you, Italy. This proves most helpful. Thank you."
Italy smiled his sad little smile again. "De nada."
England turned and headed back down the hall his head racing with plans and ideas, but a small voice stopped him. "England?"
He turned. "Yes, Italy?"
"Do… Do you think you can really end this? Can you stop this? Do you know how?"
"I'm not sure. But I think I know where to begin."
Wow. So it turns out everyone has ideas of what's going on and some of them are incredibly descriptive *cough* Crazy Tomato *cough*. But unfortunately I can't say who gets cookies until the end without giving it all away, so you'll just have to wait. But don't worry. Not much longer now.
I don't own Hetalia and I'm pretty sure I never will.