The Masquerade

Chapter 5 - The Ball pt. 2

I stood in the middle of the hallway, trying to decide where to go.

I could go back to the ball, but there was a chance I could see Phil again and I'd rather not go through that again.

I could leave the party entirely and just hide out in my room until everyone left, but I didn't know how late everyone was going to be up, and I still wanted to hang out with some friends of mine.

I could run away from the castle spontaneously and live out in the woods for five years with my family having no idea where I'd gone, but that was unreasonable and not a good idea in the first place.

In the end, I decided to just hang out in the garden to clear my head before eventually heading back to the party.

So I stood in the garden, just admiring the roses, trying to think of anything but the party.

Suddenly, I heard a rustle come from some bushes behind me and I whipped around.

Someone was trying to get through the bushes into the garden!

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" I asked, putting on my best royal commander voice.

"Er... trying to get in?" The person said, straightening as much as he could in the awkward position he was currently in.

"Well I can see that." I said snarkily, before I sighed. "Alright fine, you can come over.

He tried to wiggle his way over the top of the bush, but only succeeded in making himself more stuck.

"Do you need some help?" I offered hesitantly, watching as the man struggled more.

"No thanks, I think I've got it." He tried again to get himself unstuck, but he slowly realized he wasn't going to be able to get out of the bush, and looked up to me. "On second thought, can you...?"

I got what he was getting at, and I walked over to help pull him out of the bush. After a second, he fell out of the bush.

"You know, there's a better way to get into the castle than the bushes on the side." I commented after a brief pause.

The man just rolled his eyes. "You think I would have come that way without reason? No. I wasn't invited." He paused, before rephrasing. "Actually, more like I was invited but wasn't allowed to come."

I laughed. "Man, I wish I could have skipped the party!" Then I sighed. "But my father insisted that I attend, something about 'finding a lady for me.' I think the whole thing is dumb, but there's no arguing with my father, that's for sure." I leaned down on the walls of the garden.

We were a little closer to the light now, and I could tell three things about him. First, he was tall. And by tall I mean mean he towered over me, and I was one of the tallest members of my family. Second, he was already wearing a masquerade mask, and it shimmered with three strips of color, white, blue, and red. Lastly, his eyes were an amber color, and in the dim light of the garden, they sparkled in such a way that had me immediately entranced.

Me and the man talked for a little, talking mostly about ourselves. I talked about my siblings, and he told me about his.

He said he had three siblings, just like me, but he had two sisters and a brother.

"They should be here at this ball, my siblings." He glanced toward the entranceway.

"You can go in if you want. I'm sure nobody will notice anything too out of the ordinary once you're inside." I shrugged, and he just nodded silently.

"Hey, if you want I'll come with you so it looks like we left the room together." I offered, and he looked relieved.

We walked inside, and I showed him the way to the ballroom. He looked totally bewildered the whole way there, so I figured he'd never been inside the castle before. Plus there was that rule that we couldn't get guests lost, and even though technically he wasn't a guest, I didn't want him losing his way.

As we walked into the ballroom, he looked a little nervous, but I ignored it, and told him, "Here we are, the ballroom. Hope you find your siblings, there's a lot of people in here."

Another silent nod, and then he walked away, looking for his siblings.

It was only after he'd walked away that he realized I never got his name.

I looked into the crowd for him, but there were just too many people.

"Hey Ame! Where'd you go, we've been looking for you!" Canada came over to me.

"I went to the garden for a little." I kept my response brief, still looking for the man I'd met in the garden.

Canada seemed to notice my distraction and smirked. "Did someone finally catch your fancy?"

I thought about the man's amber eyes and how they'd sparkled in the light of the garden, and I responded, "I think quite possibly so."

Canada wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Now that's what we're looking for!"

I looked at my little brother. Despite being younger than me, he actually was a few inches taller than me and had vowed to always hold it over my head, pun probably intended. But in my head I compared the height of my brother and the man, and even still the man was taller.

Canada must have noticed me looking at him weird, because he said, "Ame, are you okay? You're acting kind of strange..."

I looked my brother dead in the eye, before replying with a smile, "I've never been better."

Before Canada could respond, I walked away from him, determined to find someone else to talk to.

Luckily, I had walked over to one of my best friends, Germany, and his friend Poland.

Germany was wearing a black mask with almost devil horns attached to the top, and contrastly, Poland was wearing a white mask covered in feathers.

I'd been friends with Germany for a couple years, and while I didn't know Poland as well as I would have liked, I still knew him well enough to strike up a normal conversation with them.

"Amerika! Guten abend! It's been a while!" Germany gave me a warm smile.

"Germs, good to see you!" I gave Germany a cheeky smile, knowing full well he hated that nickname.

He gave me an unimpressed look, and I laughed.

"Germany, you know I meant no harm by it." I gave my friend a warm smile, and he smiled back.

"So how are you two doing?" I asked, noticing how close Germany and Poland seemed to be. "You seem a lot closer than when I last saw you two."

Then again, the last time I saw them was two years ago, and a lot can change in two years.

"Oh! Polen..." Germany trailed off, looking at the ground awkwardly, and Poland quickly jumped in to help.

"Niemcy and I are together now!" Poland smiled, looking at Germany with a loving expression.

I had to take a double-take. "Wait, you and Germany? Together like in a relationship?"

Germany nodded silently, clearly embarrassed by the whole situation.

"I thought your dad hated Poland." I looked at Germany questioningly.

"Oh, he does." Poland nodded seriously. "He absolutely despises me. But we have decided to take that risk." Then he looked around, before continuing, "So long as he doesn't know. If he finds out I'm as good as dead."

I hung out with Germany and Poland for the rest of the night. At some point Canada came over and spent some time with us too, but I couldn't really focus.

Something was nagging at me, and I wasn't sure what it was.

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