This idea took place in my head when I heard about the three women in Cleveland, OH finally escaping to freedom after ten years in captivity, but what got my gears whirling was when I heard there was a child with one of them. Instantly we all knew the man had raped them, but what I was worried about was how many other children could be in there, how many could-have-been children had been there and this idea came to life. I can't imagine how a child born into captivity would feel as they grew up and what they would feel if they were ever freed and I won't say I was able to.
So, here is a little ditty on a child's point of view of life living in captivity.

I don't own Hetalia.

Mama's name was Madeleine Williams. I always thought it was the prettiest name for a Mama to have. But The Man never called her Madeleine or Miss Williams or Ma'am, like lots of people do now a-days. He called her bitch and when I asked Mama why he called her that, she slapped my bum and said it was a bad word. But he still said it all the time. He even called me that a few times. But Mama insisted it was a bad word and I never said it after that.

"Bitch! Get dinner fixed up, now! And put that brat to bed. I've heard enough of him." The Man shouted that at Mama from the living room and she hurried me into our bedroom where she tucked me in with promises of a peanut butter sandwich later. I smiled at that. I love peanut butter sandwiches. Especially when they had bananas and a little bit of maple syrup.

As I waited for Mama to come to bed after feeding The Man I could smell what she was making. I guessed it was steak, because he liked that a lot. Yeah. She was making steak and potatoes with a big bowl of ice cream for dessert.

I knew the steak was done because I heard The Man say, "Took long enough, bitch! It'd better be a damn good steak." And then Mama said something I couldn't hear, but I knew it was her because the voice was soft like hers. Next Mama was in our bedroom and she was handing me a sandwich with bananas in it but no syrup.

~0~

Two other ladies lived with us. They each had a kid of their own and we were all friends.

Two other beds were in our bedroom. Even though I called it mine and Mama's bedroom it was actually mine and Mama's, Arthur and Rose's, and Alfred and Amelia's too. There were three large beds in the room and we all had a dresser for ourselves.

Arthur was the oldest of us three kids. He liked to remind us of it too. Every day when we went outside to the backyard to play, he would say he was in charge and boss Alfred and me around. But it didn't really bother me that much. I knew Alfred and Arthur would be my only friends so we all had to keep on our good sides.

Alfred was the middle child and he was really loud and loved to talk about everything. That wasn't always a good thing and he sometimes got hit by The Man when he annoyed him enough. There was nothing any of our Mama's could do to make him stop so they would just take us to our bedroom until The Man calmed down again.

I was the baby and everyone, even The Man, reminded me of it. Arthur and Alfred liked to boss me around and our Mamas treated every scratch like I'd lost a leg. The Man liked to call me a baby and call me stupid when I tripped over my feet. That always made me so angry because I was six, not a baby! And just because I'd never gone to school didn't mean I was stupid! Mama said I was very smart (maybe even more than Arthur!).

~0~

Sometimes our Mamas wouldn't sleep in our bedroom. Usually we all would be in bed together, me with Mama, Arthur with his Mama, and Alfred with his Mama, but sometimes it was just me and Mama, and Arthur with his Mama, while Alfred laid alone, or me with Mama, and Alfred with his Mama, while Arthur slept alone, or worst of all, Alfred and Arthur with their Mamas and I was sleeping alone.

One day all our Mamas were occupied with The Man. They were in That Room and they'd been in there for a long time. Bedtime came quickly and our Mamas were still in That Room with The Man so Alfred, Arthur and me all curled up in one of the beds and slept like that.

I wouldn't actually call it sleeping, though, because I knew we all stayed awake wondering what our Mamas were doing in That Room. We were never allowed in That Room, but we all knew nothing good happened there because when our Mamas finally came to our bedroom the next night they were all crying and holding each other and us and we all squished together on two of the beds they pushed together.

~0~

One day The Man got us three kids together and he took us to That Room. Our Mamas didn't know because he had locked them in our bedroom. I remember hearing them shout through the door, begging. I remember them crying over us that night.

That Room was actually just The Man's room.

When he had led us into That Room (which I now dubbed His Room) we had been outside, Alfred, Arthur and me. We had been playing house and I was the baby again. I hated playing house because Arthur always got to be the daddy and Alfred was always the mommy and I always had to be the baby or the dog. So I was glad when The Man had called us in.

He told us he had a treat for us and to close our eyes. He'd never given us a treat before so we all closed our eyes and he led us around the house. I could hear our Mamas shouting things that I knew I wasn't supposed to repeat, but I kept my eyes closed because I wanted to see why The Man had decided to give us something.

That night, while my Mama hugged me close and cried over my hair and rocked me in her arms, I couldn't help but wish our bath time had lasted just a little longer.

~0~

Other men came to the house to visit sometimes. This was after The Man took us to His Room. He invited friends over to his house and they would play card games and smoke cigars that made the whole house smell bad and then they would take our Mamas into His Room in turns. Even though I was just six, I think I finally understood what it was it meant when they went in His Room.

That night, when Alfred was in bed with his Mama and Arthur was with his Mama, I cried in my bed while Mama was in His Room with one of The Man's friends. I feared he was doing the same things The Man had made me and Alfred and Arthur do and I hated it. Mama was so nice and she shouldn't have to do those things. Especially if she didn't want to.

I curled up and hugged my knees to my chest and cried quietly into them. I hated how the bed felt so big without Mama.

It didn't feel like that for long though, because I heard Alfred whisper, "Come over here, Mattie," from his own bed with his own Mama. "Come sleep with us until your Mama comes back."

I uncurled a little bit and sniffed. "Can I?"

"Uh-huh. I'll scoot over and you can sleep in the middle." I heard him move and I scurried across the room to their bed and crawled under the blankets.

Miss Amelia pat my head and shushed me until my tears disappeared and I slept there that night and I woke up to Mama shaking my shoulder.

I gave her the biggest hug I ever gave her.

~0~

Mama taught me how to cook. I watched her when she made The Man his meals and I picked it up real quick. She said it was because her Mama was a really good cook that I was able to learn so quickly.

In the mornings, when I was almost seven, I made pancakes for everyone, with Mama making sure I didn't burn myself of course. I had learnt the recipe all on my own and I even had a secret ingredient, but Alfred was able to guess it so it wasn't really secret.

Sometimes I even made them for The Man when Mama was sleeping in. He was always in a good mood when he ate my pancakes and that felt nice that I was able to make him happy because when he was happy he didn't take our Mamas to His Room.

After pancakes I learnt how to make chicken soup. I learned that on my own too because when The Man wasn't, I was watching the T.V. and I always watched the food channel. The smiling ladies on the shows made yummy food all day long and it always made me hungry.

I even learned how to make The Man's steak just the way he liked it and Mama was able to take a break from cooking sometimes.

~0~

The Man found out how much I liked food and how to cook. At first he would thank me and pat my head like Miss Amelia did, then he would sit me in his lap and feed me his food I'd made for him. It was uncomfortable from the start, but I was terrified to say anything about it. I didn't know what he would do. Then he said he had a present for me.

I knew he was lying even before he had said it.

He had been smiling really big, like he was trying to make a baby laugh, but honestly it was a little scary.

He'd said that since I liked cooking so much he had gotten me something extra special to use, but he wouldn't say exactly what it was. I knew he was lying.

He led me to His Room. No one noticed.

I tried to think of all the ingredients and instructions in my favourite chicken soup when he was touching me.

There was chicken of course. And salt and pepper…

He pressed kisses on me and it made my stomach churn.

Noodles and chicken broth.

He touched my stomach and around my belly button.

Flour and butter and onion and garlic and lots of vegetables. I loved vegetables. Lots of vegetables.

Before I could even think of the steps, he had touched me there. That was new. The last time, when it was Alfred and Arthur and me, he'd just kissed us. I started crying and all thoughts of chicken soup were lost.

~0~

He did that a lot with us after that. Mama didn't know about that second time, but she knew about the others. We didn't blame our Mamas for not being able to stop him. We all were scared in that house. It wasn't our home and our Mamas told us that. It was our prison.

On restless days, Alfred begged his Mama to lets us outside to the backyard to play, but we were only allowed out if The Man said so. And he hadn't said so, so we couldn't.

We hadn't been outside in more than a week.

It wasn't raining or anything. The sun was always out and shining and birds and bugs were loud and reminding us that it was spring, but we weren't allowed outside.

The Man was usually in his chair and watching the T.V. so we stayed clear of that room and stayed in our bedroom when he was out there.

There were only so many games a group of boys could play quietly in a room and we were bored quickly.

It was Miss Rose who had the idea that we all learn to write on days like that. Miss Rose was very smart and she was a great teacher. She got us writing and spelling in just a few weeks.

On days when we weren't allowed outside, Miss Rose taught us just like we would learn at school, if we had ever gone.

~0~

I remember the night we were saved just as clear as it was yesterday. But I also remember the nights leading up to it.

The Man had Arthur, Alfred, and I in His Room a lot lately. He did more touching and kissing and we all just stayed quiet and tried to think of our favourite things while he did it.

He took our Mamas into His Room a lot more too. None of us understood why he started doing these things more frequently until one night, when Mama was giving me a peanut butter sandwich with bananas and maple syrup there was a knock on the door. The front door.

We all, Mama, Miss Amelia, Miss Rose, Arthur, Alfred, and I all froze and held our breath. No-one ever knocked. Not ever The Man's friends.

Suddenly, The Man was at our room. He told us to be quiet or he'd kill us. Then he locked our door and went to answer the front one.

We all had our ears pressed against the wall closest to him to try and figure out what was going on.

It was quiet and everything was tense, until someone shouted and then there was a bunch of noise that sounded like a group of people storming in.

~0~

We cried when they found us. Well, our mothers did.

"POLICE!"

Arthur, Alfred, and I all stared at each other. What was going on? Our mothers gasped and fidgeted nervously.

There was a gunshot and we all ducked to the ground.

There was more shouting, but it was all jumbled up and we couldn't understand it. We all just stayed on the ground, huddled together.

"Mama?" I asked, very, very quietly. I was so scared. Tears were in my eyes and I couldn't see past them.

She shushed me just as quietly, but she held me closer.

The doorknob jiggled and Miss Rose let out a sob.

It jiggled again and then a voice said, "This is the police, we're going to break the door." And then they did.

Three men in uniforms walked into our room. They had guns and helmets and wires on them. Miss Rose sobbed some more. Then Miss Amelia did and then even Mama cried a little.

One of the men knelt down and asked, "Are you Madeleine Williams?" My Mama nodded and then everything became a blur.

The police said that our Mamas were okay and that we were too. As they led us out of the house, we saw The Man in handcuffs and sitting in a police car.

~0~

Once we were taken from the house, a woman in a suit gathered us kids in a room across from the one our mothers were in. She told us something that I hate to this day.

I held Alfred and Arthur's hands as the woman shut the door behind her. We all shivered as she sat down in front of us. Would she touch us too? Was she like The Man?

"Hello, little ones," she said softly. "I'm Miss Bonnefoy. Could you tell me your names?"

Alfred, the brave one like always, said his name and introduced Arthur and me.

"Those are wonderful names. Your mothers chose them, no?" She smiled and looked very pretty. "Now, I have a few questions for you boys. Do you think you could answer them for me? If you can't or don't want to, that's fine. Now, the house you were living in, was that your home? Is that where your mommies lived?"

We nodded collectively, but all had grimaces. Alfred spoke up again. "It's not our home, though. Our Mas told us it wasn't our home."

Miss Bonnefoy nodded. "Do you know who your daddies are, dears?"

We all shook our heads. Our mothers had never said anything about daddies. What… What were daddies?"

Miss Bonnefoy frowned and we all cringed, but she fixed it back into a smile quickly. "Sorry, dears. I'm just worried that that man – I think he may be each of your daddies."

~0~

We learned a lot that day from Miss Bonnefoy. Things we all didn't really even want to know.

"You all look like big boys so I'm going to treat you like big boys," Miss Bonnefoy decided. "I promise not to baby things for you," she winked at me. "Can you tell me why your mothers said that house wasn't your home?"

We all glanced at each other and I surprised myself by speaking up before even Alfred. "My Mama said it was our prison."

"Do you know what that means?"

"That… That we were there because The Man took our Mamas from their real homes."

Miss Bonnefoy nodded and smiled sadly. "Yes. He did take them from their homes and their families. Can you tell me anything about how you lived there?"

She kept asking more and more questions. Sometimes we answered, sometimes we didn't. We kept tight-lipped when she tried talking about The Man in detail.

We learned that our mothers had families in the real world. They all had mommies and daddies and Miss Rose even had a bunch of brothers.

We learned that The Man had stolen our mothers away a long time ago, more than ten years, and the whole world had been looking for them. Miss Bonnefoy showed us pictures of them before they'd been kidnapped.

At one point she had us stick a cotton swab in our mouths and she sent them out the door. Later she came back with a stack of papers and a sad look in her eyes. "I have confirmation that you all have the same father," she said quietly.

The Man was our father. Mine, Alfred's, and Arthur's. We were brothers. We were all connected.

~0~

We met our mother's families in the next few days.

Mama held me tight in her arms as she sat in a chair. She rocked me and flexed her hold occasionally. Soon, the door opened and a trio of people walked in. Two of them looked like Mama and me and the third looked scary with red eyes and white hair.

Instantly, Mama was up, me still in her arms, and she was hugging them all while I was squished between everyone. She began crying and the two older people cried with her as they hugged her. The scary man cried too, but he kept rubbing his eyes and laughing.

"T-This is Matthew," Mama introduced. I blushed and ducked my head into her neck. "Matthew, this is my mama and my daddy and this is my cousin, Gilbert. They are our family, Matthew." She was still crying, but she was smiling – something she'd never done while we lived with The Man.

I peeked at the three people and they all greeted me with smiles and tears. My Mama's mama even held me and petted my head like Miss Rose, which felt nice and soothing.

My Grandma and Grandpa were nice and said they loved me and my Mama. Gilbert, he was nice too, even though he still looked kind of scary. He had a funny laugh and he told me about his pet bird. He even called me Birdie. He told me he called my Mama Chickie and so I liked Gilbert because he loved my Mama just like my Grandma and Grandpa.

~0~

We were told we didn't have to, but if we felt strong enough, we could testify against The Man as an eyewitness. We all said yes.

Sitting in the big chair next to the judge was scary. The courthouse was full to the brim with observers and jurors and defendants. I could see The Man sitting at the table just to the right of my Mama and Miss Rose and Miss Amelia. He stared at me and I almost couldn't speak because I was so terrified.

But I did talk. A man asked me questions in a nice voice and I answered them. Then he held up a doll with no face and asked me questions about His Room and what happened behind its door. I couldn't pick my head up as I answered because I didn't want to see Mama's face when I told the man what all The Man had done.

I could hear murmurs around the room as I answered all the questions asked of me. I'd never seen so many people ever and while it was scary, I knew what I said was important and so I did.

(Later I heard what the people were saying and they had felt sorry for me and were very angry with The Man.)

~0~

We never saw that house again and The Man was sent to prison for a very long time. Mama kept in touch with Miss Amelia and Miss Rose and Alfred, Arthur, and I all grew up together.

The Man was a figment in the backs of our heads now. He was gone and never coming back.

Living with Mama's family was scary at first. It was loud and always moving and people would leave and come as they pleased. We were allowed to too. I could even play in the rain if I wanted to, as long as I wore my coat.

I started school after a while too! Alfred and Arthur came with me and we all had the same class. We met other children and played with them at recess. It was nice to meet other kids our age and who were not related to us. We also learned to write and read and even do maths and science.

At home (because that was what Mama said it was), we made food with everyone in the kitchen. Grandma let me help her bake cookies and dinner and I even showed her my pancake recipe. She was very happy I knew how to cook.

It was happy there and Mama always smiled and laughed and so I smiled and laughed with her.