Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 1

Ivan glanced out of the window in the back of his car, watching the Russian countryside roll by. Quite a few people didn't think Russia as having much countryside to look at , just snow. That was in the winter. In the summer, it was huge fields of grass, colourful flowers and flowing streams. Never any sunflowers though.

Normally he wouldn't be alone coming back from a world meeting. Normally Viktor would be with him, but he'd refused to come out the house that morning, complaining of a headache. It was unlike him really. It didn't mean anything though. It probably was just something like a headache as he said, but something was chewing at the back of the Russian's brain. Something definitely wasn't right. Ivan frowned out the window before shrugging it off. It wouldn't be anything important if it was anything.

Katyusha had left the meeting early, whispering something to him about suddenly remembering something or other. He hadn't really been concentrating on anything today. It wasn't odd for Katyusha to easily forget things. She usually forgot something or other, panicked about it and raced home only to find that it didn't matter that much at all, that it was just some normal  thing like she hadn't fed the chickens or had left stuff out everywhere. Natalia had gone with her, also not uncommon. It was a well known fact that Natalia hated the meetings. She didn't hate them anywhere near as much as she usually did, but they were still in her top three most hated ways to pass time.

World meetings hadn't changed much since the other countries had come back. They were almost normal in fact. Arguments, cursing and words of hatred were bounced off all four walls of the conference room, fired by the usual suspects. Maybe not at the people they'd usually shout at, but still there.

Alfred was a lot louder than before, still shouting about heroes and what not. Yao was still quiet, except not as quiet since Kiku had come back. When Kiku had recovered, he almost forgot about people he didn't like. There were times when it was confusing, his face just as blank but his eyes almost glaring at others, but normally that never happened. Then there was Viktor, who sat silently in one corner like he couldn't talk. Of course, he could. It was hard getting him to shut up sometimes, not that anyone believed that when he mentioned it though. To them, Viktor was just the second, silent personification of Russia, sat in the corner of the meeting room.

Recently, he'd been quieter than normal. Like when they'd first taken him in. Was something bothering him?

Ivan sighed and opened the door to the car as it stopped next to the smaller one that Katyusha drove herself. He stepped out onto the gravel drive and entered his home. It was quite dark for a change and quiet. He shrugged. Katyusha had probably simply forgotten to feed the chickens again and Natalia and Viktor had gone with her. He dumped his signature coat over the banister rail and stretched. The singular flaw of living in the middle of the countryside: car journeys were so long.

"Hello?"

He knew they weren't in the house, Katyusha liked everything being light, but it was worth a shot anyhow. As he predicted, nothing. Ivan smiled and walked around the side of the house to the back. Normally, Natalia would hear him coming and come charging to him. Sometimes it was a 'welcome home big brother', sometimes it was a creepy 'marry me', but that was getting less and less often as the days wore on. Katyusha would be behind her, grinning and asking how the end of the meeting went, or talking to Viktor.

Today, there was nothing.

"Hello?"

Ivan frowned as he peered down to the end of the garden. There was no one there. But... they had to be here. There was no where to go for miles and Katyusha's car was on the drive. He'd seen it as he'd walked in. If they had for some reason started walking somewhere, he'd have seen them on the way and stopped the car to walk with them, where ever they were going. 

"Hello?"

Again, nothing. The back door to the house was wide open, pushed back by a door stop in the shape of a sunflower in a vase. They'd definitely been here recently. They were definitely here. Natalia always made sure every single door was closed before they left, always using the excuse that 'someone could get in and wait to murder us'. She was slightly paranoid about things like that sometimes.

He made his way inside again, through the back of the house and stood in the kitchen for a second, listening. Could they be hiding? Why would they be hiding? Either a surprise of sorts, or they were scared of something. It couldn't be a surprise. Today was nothing important, which left them being scared. It would take a lot to scare his sisters, yet they were obviously here, obviously hadn't left the house, but hadn't shown face.

Something definitely wasn't right.

"Hello?"

Ivan started to panic. The house was never this quiet. If they were hiding from something that had scared them, they would have come out by know, knowing it was him. And then there was Viktor. Him and Natalia were always arguing. There was no way they could be in the same house and not argue in a time this quiet.

"Katyusha? Natalia? Viktor?"

Ivan ran through the kitchen and into the living room, then the room next to it, and then room next to that. They had to be here somewhere.

"This isn't funny now"

Maybe... they were upstairs? But they would have heard him shout. He ran to the bottom of the stairs and ran up, knocking his coat off the rail in his speed, leaving it slumped mournfully on the ground. It didn't matter at the moment. He reached the top of the stairs and stopped, listening again.

"K... Katyusha?"

Ivan spun around. There was no way she wouldn't have been able to hear that if she was up here. Then, there was a noise. It wasn't much, but it was all he needed. He gave a loud sigh of relief and went into the bedroom opposite.

"Thank Богу. I was starting to wonder where you were. Don't scare me like that ag..." he trailed off, staring. The window was open. Wide open and banging against the wall, the curtain flapping. In the middle of the room, was Natalia, surrounded in a little pool of her own blood that dyed the cream carpet a dark red. Her limbs were bent at an awkward angle, her neck at almost ninety degrees. Across her body were thousands of long red gashes, some still dripping blood, her eyes blank and staring. It was sickening

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no" Ivan sank to the ground at the door, clutching at the wall. "No this... this isn't happening." He jerked upright and hauled himself out the room again. "Katyusha."

She had to be alright. She had to be. He refused to even contemplate the thought. Ivan stumbled along the hall, dragging himself along by radiators. Every room was empty. Empty or dark. He supposed that was alright. Maybe Katyusha had climbed out the window when Natalia had been killed. Maybe she was alright. Maybe...

Everything 'maybe' stopped when he found Katyusha. Countless stab marks oozed blood over the floor, a long smear running down the wall she was slumped against. One of her arms looked floppy, the shoulder dislocated. The same dull, lifeless eyes greeted him as they had done with Natalia. To one side of her neck, a pin was plunged into flesh, a white and red note attached to it. Ivan wasted no time in seizing it.

This couldn't be right. Couldn't be happening. It couldn't. His sisters were strong women who could defend themselves given any situation, and here they were lying in a pool of their own blood. Ivan's eyes glazed over and the first few tears leaked out, sliding down his cheeks, making the note hard to read, but eventually, he got it:

See you soon
V

So... what did you think? Please vote, comment etc. I love knowing what people think of my work. I'm probably going to do a part a week with this so that I don't overwhelm myself (I usually end up doing that at some point XD). Thank you for reading, and I hope you go on to the next chapter... when it's out ^-^

MiddleEarth4eva