«A turncoats return»

27| Cracking

Indonesia's POV

With my body half turned, I stare her down. Well, actually, she stares me down more than I do it with her, but that is not the point. Oh dear, this is so unbelievingly bad. Terrible, horrible! Horrendous!
"Wh-" I only manage to bring out, the fear paralyzing me. As soon as I had started stuttering, the fast I stopped, as she lifted her head to look at me, almost as if forcing me to look right into her face. Into the real her. Shock runs through me like a lightening and I almost forget how to breathe at the sight.

Her face is disfigured into a distorted with pitch black eyes, mouth, goopy tears and uneven twitching, something straight out of one of these analogue horror series on the internet. There is a dim, red glow shining from the inside of her, as if she was hollow. A mere shell of everything that exists around her. Truly, a terrifying sight. Looking back at me, she lets out a shrieking laugher once more, making fun of me and fun of the situation we are in. Her eye sockets and mouth distort further, painting most of her face in a dark black. The loss of the identity tied to the being makes me panic, as she turns completely black, that faint glow remaining, the distorted features replaced with sharp, red eyes and a grin. Her weapon of choice is equality as boiling of a red, it seems as if she could barely contain her excitement about all of this! T-THAT'S CREEPY AS HELL. I look around quickly to determine any route of escape.
"Just try to hide, I'll always find you, Indonesia."
"Sh-Shut up! Stop that!" I yell at her, just to earn another laugh. Her eyes shift to Phil, who is standing a little bit behind me.
"And you have outgrown your usefulness, there is nothing left for you, you prick." the monster exclaims, reaching back with the knife in her hand, throwing it not much later directly at him. We three yelp in surprise collectively as a group at the attack, the knife ramming into Phil's shoulder, pinning him against the wall. Phil gasps, a stuttered scream emitting from his lips. I remain frozen as the black thing closes the distance rapidly, ramming what used to be their leg deeply and forcefully into his stomach, causing my friend to spit up blood, breathing stertorous in the process. An awful sight to witness. Before I can even do anything further, she takes the knife out of his shoulder, slicing it open in the process, earing a blood curling scream from my friend. Despite the power disadvantage Phil narrowly dodges the knife being ramped into his face by turning his head away, yet he is not as lucky as the blade still hits his ear, slicing it off cleanly. Phil continues screaming and wheezing in pain, trying to free himself, yet he is too weak to do it. The cruel laugher is ringing in my ears.

I myself suddenly snap out of the trance I was in.
"Leave him alone!" I yell and move forward in attempt to push her out the way. I don't really succeed either, yet the black mass of matter shifts her... more like their attention to me. With a single push from that outer worldly being I am thrown back a few meters, stumbling backwards over the cobblestone onto the ground.
"Oh! I'll enjoy finally getting rid of you, you little pest!" the monster screams in delight, moving to me in a single swift motion, raising the weapon high above their head. I fail to shuffle out the way and shut my eyes close, not ready for the impact. The air buzzes and impact are heard, together with a shriek, following by the sound of prospecting over the cobblestone, as if something stops rapidly after acquiring immense speed.

Also, it feels like I am not dead yet.

Really, REALLY carefully, I open my eyes once more, freezing again, as a familiar yellowish poncho flaps in the wind, combined with the iconic orange scarf. Vastly eyeing my surroundings, I notice the monster sliding down a wall at the end of the street. Wow! What the hell?! I look up, seeing Netherlands. He hasn't even bothered to hide his identity anymore. His face seems full of grief, anger and an unending sadness, yet it also radiates calmness. Suddenly, his expression hardens. He reaches back, and I watch a fire igniting in his hands. My blood goes cold seeing what Phil had previously said turns out to be true. No way. Neth flings the ball with incredible speed at the monster, exploding half the house in the meantime. He evaluates the situation, then rushes to Phil, who had slid down the wall, completely exhausted, bleeding badly.
"Phil! Hang in there!" he stammers, pushing the hair out his face.
"Neth... I'm not going to die, really."
"But your ear!"
"I'll- I'll survive. Go and make sure 'she' doesn't claim other people's lives." Phil wheezes with dry throat and Neth proceeds to gently lay him in Malays arms, giving him quick instruction on where to hide and how to aid Phil, if he'd find a first aid kit.
"NETHERLANDS!" the monster screeches in a deafening tone, dashing to attack him. Black matter is evaporating from their body, making them seem more like a ghost than a person. Neth takes steps back and away from me, to draw the attention furthermore to him, and he dodges the dash, sending another fireball after them. The fireball misses, crashing into another building. Catching my breath, I shuffle back against the wall of the building behind me, watching them fight, trading blows. Netherlands' movement is swift and well calculated, yet firm and strong, I stare in awe how dodges and counters the attacks in such an unnatural manner while keeping himself collected. The monster meanwhile is the complete opposite of him, moving almost unpredictable and rapidly, as if fighting without any strategy. Yet, Neth remaining mostly defensive tells me just how much power imbalance there is between them. This 'thing' is much more powerful! How brave of him- but why would he want to stop her? It's not like he has any reason for it...
I suddenly feel very bad for my actions and remain silent. The fight keeps on going in a fast pace with little contact between them, at least I find it hard to follow. After handing a good, flaming fist into the abyss that has the beast become, it screeches, moving back, closer to the middle of the city. Neth proceeds to move after them, to give them as little time to recover as possible.