Norway knew about torture.
All kinds, actually, but especially those that involved causing the victim to go crazy.
Actually, it wasn't difficult to make someone, even a country, go insane. All you had to do was deprive them of light, sound, food, a sense of time…
There was just a little bit of light in the basement. It was provided by the little glowing orb that followed Norway everywhere.
It was not bright enough to really see anything.
But sound? There weren't any sounds. At least not for a while. (A few days? A week? Norway wasn't sure.) Then he began hearing things.
Scrabbling sounds, like rats…Did America have rats in his basement? Norway hoped not; rats were the most terrifying things in this world.
Then he heard voices. Almost familiar sounding, but he couldn't place them.
The mere possibility of rats terrified him enough that he remained sitting close to the stairs. He didn't dare trying to explore the basement.
How long had he been down there? More than a few days, probably, but due to Canada not showing up to bring food (a good thing, probably, since the rats would be attracted to the smell) and his less-than-regular sleep habits, Norway couldn't be sure.
He knew better than trying to count seconds- people who did that usually got obsessed and went crazy…
So, he really had nothing to do, nothing to occupy his mind. He tried sleeping, but the nightmares proved to be about rats.
So, he sat awake, back to the wall, softly reciting various fairytales to himself.
Eventually, he ran out- even with the Danish and the German and the French thrown in.
So, on to plays. A Doll's House first, then…
He had to stop in the middle of Act 4 of Hamlet because his throat was too sore.
That really did leave him with nothing to do, other than listen to his auditory hallucinations. Always fun, listening to what one's brain could make you hear.
Well, not really, when it made you hear all of the various things you had phobias of: rats, your family members dying in various painful ways…
Really, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For instance, there could have been visual hallucinations.
It was all good until Norway's brain realized that.
A flash of motion caught Norway's eye. Something had moved just outside the circle of light. Something small and quick and…
He jumped up onto a crate, wanting to scream, but his throat hurt too much.
He hated rats. He absolutely could not even think about rats without shuddering. Disgusting, frightening, disease-ridden creatures…
Another flash of movement caught his eye. And another. And another….
Gods! They were everywhere!
He tried to summon his magic, any magic (hell, even using blood magic would be better than rats), but it would not work. Something was very, very wrong.
He wondered if he could break the door down. Probably not; it seemed to be made of iron sheet.
A strange sound seemed to be echoing around the basement. A song? Yes. And it actually sounded rather nice for being "Fly on the Wings of Love."
Where was it coming from?
Wait, why was he singing bad Danish Eurovision songs?
Shaking his head, he switched to something better- "Suomi", by Rybak -and wondered why he'd started singing bad Danish songs. That was so crazy.
A/N: As I hope everyone knows, rats were the main carriers of the Black Death, which eventually led to Norway being forced to join the Kalmar Union (the first one). This is why Norway has a phobia. OOC-ness is caused by Norway going, to quote my friend, "bat-crap crazy."