Where Thou Art, That Is Home (Hetalia Fanfic, Part 2)

Chapter 125~!

This chapter is gonna be kind of creepy, guys. I hope you're not gonna get too SCARED :P

---------------------------------------------

"Blast that infernal meeting," England grumbled as he stretched and checked to make sure his bracelet was securely on his wrist. A door, his next target, stood before him resolutely, just like all its siblings lining the hundreds or even thousands of hallways in Kadi's humongous mansion. 

"Alright, let's see what's in this dimension."

He pulled the door open and stepped through, blinking rapidly at the sudden change of lighting. It had been bright as day, but all at once it was so dim. Darkness like that in an underground cavern, or a tomb, made him feel like cotton had been shoved into his ears and that his eyesight had been stolen away altogether.

Hands out in front. He was going to need to feel his way around here until he could locate a light source of any kind. Step, step, step, st-THUD.

"Agh, that's a wall," England stated, but in the vast murkiness his words were swallowed up instantly.

His right hand firmly on the wall, he followed it along to try finding a door or some sort of passageway. 'Am I in a hallway? I wish there was a light around here somewhere...'

As if being called upon by mental cue, his hand against the wall was suddenly touching nothing and he stumbled forward. A doorway! The Brit regained his footing and tried to strain his eyes for any sign of a light anywhere around. So far, nada. "Blast it."

"Come on, this is getting tedious," he groaned as he continued along the wall and down the hallway. What in the world was this building like? Without any light to illuminate anything at all, England felt totally blind and clueless.

'Maybe I should call out and listen to the echo? No, that wouldn't be wise. There might be predators that I can't see, lurking in the dark, and they could find me with more ease. Well, not that they wouldn't be able to find me anyway with all this bumbling around I'm doing at the moment. Ah, forget it. I'm listening for an echo.'

"HA!"

Ha... ha...

"This place sounds... odd," England decided, frowning sternly. "A long hallway, I'm guessing. But how can someone-- anyone --be in a place like this? It's black as pitch."

This continued on for at least twenty minutes, during which he found the end of the hallway and turned left to follow it longer. Arthur continuously checked his wrist for the band to make sure it was still there; heaven forbid that he be stuck in this dimension any longer than he needed to. An hour in this darkness was plenty.

More than just plenty, to be honest.

"Is that...?" England wondered aloud, bending over a bit and tilting his head to the side to see better. What he saw couldn't exactly be considered a light, per se, as it was more of a less-dark spot in utter blackness.

Nevertheless, it was good enough. He speed-walked over to it and got down on one knee to see what it felt like. That light was coming from the crack under a door! Maybe it was a way out, or at the very least it might offer an explanation for his whereabouts.

The knob twisted under his hand, and a hazy glow billowed out around him. Particles of dust gathered like swarms of tropical insects, making him cough and shut his eyes against the discomfort they brought to his lungs and eyes. But still, the sepia-colored light was a relief, and it showed just enough of a table and a few chairs to hint at this room being a meeting place of some kind. A tall, thin window, cracked and dirty, with a pane missing in the lower left corner, was what allowed the weak tea light to fade into the room.