Chapter 6

Hong Kong – Leon
Canada – Matthew
USA – Alfred
Seychelles – Shelly
Australia – Kyle
England – Arthur /Artie
France – Fran / Francis

Arthur did not return until late at night and even then his work could not let him rest. All the kids are already sleeping nuzzled in their beds and Francis enters the kitchen where Arthur is talking to his boss. As he hangs up, Francis steps to him and strokes gently his arm.
"Who was it?"
"My boss," Arthur sighs. "He wants me to replace my coworker Antonio again. I'll be away for a week." He looks at his husband apologetically with a lowered head.
"We'll get through this" reassures Francis and rubs his arm gently. "Come on, let's go to bed." And with this he gently drags his husband with him up the stairs.

Only a few hours later everything is dark and calm again. Alfred and Matthew too who were since long asleep with an open window to let fresh air into the room. Alfred, who has his blanket lying crossways over him, breaths calmly and is deep in dreams until his foot gets dragged some down the bed with a short jolt. But he only turns around, fiddling some with the blanket and murmuring.
"Stop it Matthew. It's not funny anymore." He snuggles some on the pillow and continues his late night rant:
"I'm trying to sleep. Please stop grabbing my feet." Everything is silent again.
Rsshhh
Alfred's foot gets tugged again and this time his whole body gets dragged along over the bed. He jolts up and quickly pulls his legs close to him again, sitting now on the bed and looking around to find the obvious culprit. But as he turns his head he finds his suspect. Sleeping in his own bed, back turned towards him. Alfred's breath hitches in realization and his eyes search frantically for the real culprit. He scrambles slowly to the end of the bed and dares a look down, with a shaky breath and trembling hands.

Nothing. He leans slowly back in his bed and sits on his legs. He rubs his forehead and decides to check again. This time he leans with his whole upper body on the side and looks over the edge of the bed and underneath it. Breath hitching and the heart skipping one or two beats, he sees nothing. Only the dark and somewhat dusty floor under his and Matthew's beds. His gaze wanders from underneath the bed to the lower part of the door as it moves ever so slightly with a low creaking noise.

Alfred quickly sits up again and locks his stare on the door. It moves again, this time with a long and high creaking and reveals Alfred what stands behind it. He scrambles backwards as far as he can, pulling his legs close to him and eyes fill with water. His breaths are shaky and quick and his whole face turns puffy as he is on the edge to cry. With quivering lips he whispers:
"Matthew…"
The called turns his head lightly.
"Matthew…" he repeats more urgent and his voice is hitching slightly.
Now Matthew sees his brother sitting tensed on the bed, his hands gripping on his red blanket. He props himself up on his elbow, lightly squinting without his glasses.
"What are you doing?" He does not receive a reaction and leans over to his nightstand to get his glasses and puts them on.
"Alfred? Are you alright?," he asks, seeing that Alfred does not even turn his head and just keeps staring towards the door shaking in suppressed sobs. Only after some seconds does Alfred raise his voice some:
"Do you see it?"
Slightly confused, Matthew turns his head and looks into the same direction as his little brother does.
"See what?" He turns his head, even more confused now, back to Alfred.
Alfred only points with his finger to what he sees, earning a frown. Sighing, Matthew looks again, but only sees the brown wooden door, poorly enlightened by a single light, out in the hallway. Everything else is dark.
"Behind the door," whimpers Alfred.
"What?"
"There is someone standing over there" whispers Alfred, not trusting his voice. His still raised hand shakes as he points again towards the dark spot, right behind the door and his breaths are coming out jerky.
"I don't see anyone…," Matthew replies, seriously worried now about his brother. The thought of a prank that Alfred could possibly be pulling on him is diminishing as the state of panic in which Alfred is in right now seems far too realistic.
Alfred tries to explain further between his sobs:
"It's looking right at us." He does not even try to stop his tears, running down his face. Matthew however has enough and is determined to settle his brother's fear. He pushes the blanket off himself and stands up. Slowly he walks towards the dark spot.
"Matthew, don't. Matthew!" Alfred whispers in panic but Matthew does not listen. Determined he takes a grip on the door and pushes it some aside, giving his brother a better look of the dark spot behind the door. He gestures:
"Look, look!". For him there is nothing than the dark floor and wall but Alfred's face is still full of terror.
"Look. There's no one. See?" He opens his arms and gestures around him. He wrinkles his nose though and looks around, raising one hand to hold it before his nose.
"Ugh… It's that smell again…"
Alfred cannot let his eyes wander off of what he sees. His eyes widen even more and he stammers:
"Oh… my god…" Matthew stops from looking around, and watches now his brother from the other side of the room.
"It's standing right behind you." Matthew slowly turns his head and lowers his hand. And just when he could face whatever his little brother could see, the door slams shut with a loud bang.

The loud scream of Alfred rings out through the whole house, waking up Francis and Arthur with a jolt. Francis is the first on his feet and runs down the hallway in his boxers, shouting Alfred's name. Arthur is not far behind and as they arrive at the door they first have to bang against the rusty door before being able to open it. Through all that, Alfred cannot stop screaming. As the parents barge into the room, Francis storms to his little kid and hugs him tightly. Arthur switches on the lights and stands in the middle of the room, taking in what he sees. Poor little Alfred is clutching his blanket and Francis and has finally stopped screaming his lungs out, Matthew standing in the corner and watching with a confused and scared face.
"No, no, no…." is the only thing Alfred can stammer. He sobs and still has the look of terror in his eyes.
"What's going on? What happened?" Arthur asks, trying to sort the situation.
"There was someone else in here!" half screams and half sobs Alfred. Francis pulls him even closer and strokes his arm. He looks up at his husband with a worried face.
"What?"
Arthur takes no time and starts looking around.
"Behind the door…" whines Alfred and snuggles into his Fran's embrace. Arthur immediately steps towards the spot. Naturally there is no one else there. He turns again to his son.
"Al, there is no one in here…" Arthur gets cut by Alfred's whines.
"Dad, there was someone else in here! I was just sleeping and then I felt someone grab my feet. So I thought it was Matthew." Arthur looks between them both. Matthew, still standing at the door, looks at Alfred with wide eyes. Behind him gathered the rest of the kids, Shelly holding tightly Leon's arm and the much taller teenage boy has a protective hand lying on Kyle's shoulder. He may be sometimes indifferent, pissy and the typical teenager but he still cares about his very different siblings. And what he sees here is worrying him. Not even the easy to scare Alfred would react that much towards any prank they would pull on him.

"I am sure it was just a nightmare…," tries Arthur to calm his son down and sits across him on the bed, but he does not listen. Alfred only shakes his head wildly:
"No, no! It talked to me." He looks at his father and grips on his shoulders.
"It said," he sobs and hides his face in the chest of the man, "that it wants my family dead." And from there Alfred cannot retain his sobs and tears and it will take an hour and a hot cup of warm chocolate before he is ready again to go to sleep.

Thank you so much for the reviews and comments!
It is always encouraging for writers to hear that their story is appreciated!
From now on i am not quite sure if it is still T or if i should raise it to M to be sure...
But at least, that means that it starts to have more action in it~