QUIET

4

After the meeting had ended Alfred simply walked out, still smiling unnaturally, and went to his room.

"Alfred!" an unmistakable whisper shout came from behind him. "Hey Alfred um, are you ok? It's just, at the meeting y-you were kinda staring at me weird, did something happen?"

".  .  .  .  no .  .  .  nothing happened" Alfreds spoke slowly.  His mind still wasn't quite present and everything he did or said wasn't so much him as it was his auto-pilot mode. But that blinding, goofy wide smile could fool or annoy people into not noticing anything off about him.

"A-alright, you will tell me if something's wrong, right?"

"coarse bro!" The American said, forcing more preppy energy into his voice.

"Alright, see you later then eh?" Said the Canadian walking away.

Alfred hated crying. He thought it was a weak thing to do and he wasn't weak, or he didn't want to be, so he tried not to cry. But right now, he had hit a really low point and the stress that he had compiled over this week came crashing down on him in a tidal wave. He felt like he couldn't breathe and when he closed the door to his room, ensuring privacy he sunk to the floor clutching his knees and sobbed.

One might've thought an earthquake was happening from the amount of shaking Alfred's body was doing. The room was deathly quiet and dark as Alfred shook with his face buried in his knees. It went on for a little while until it just stopped as if a switch was flipped that could simply turn off such things. But no switch like that existed so while it all appeared to be back to normal, it wasn't, and may never be.

Alfred was in the process of breaking, and that is a slow but exponential thing. Small cracks form and weak spots develop which slowly spread through the entire foundation, and then, with just the slightest catalyst, it all shatters. Who knows what that catalyst might be.

A soft knock on the door made Alfred raise his head from its buried position. "Hey, Al? Everyones going to out for dinner, Ludwig made reservations, are you coming?" came the Canadians small voice.

Alfred didn't want to at all... but that usually meant he had to... "Yeah, sounds cool!"

The Canadian's voice was pleasantly surprised and he explained where to go.
"so... great It starts at 6, I'll see you there eh?" Then there was the soft sound of his retreating footsteps. America sighed to himself and curled tighter into a ball.

He needed to be strong, he needed to resist at least for tonight. If he did anything now the people at dinner might notice. The sirens called him though and the alluring shiny metal was just so hard to resist. So, before he knew it he found himself in the bathroom connected to his room with the small sharp object in his hands.

... they won't notice just one... or two.

The rest of the day was spent wallowing about, watching the seconds tick by turning on the german tv and only understanding bits and pieces or scrolling online. The usual.

He checked the time, 5:50, and finally started to head out to the place. He decided to walk since it was only around a 20-minute walk and it would give him time to breathe in fresher air. He breathed in deeply letting the cold air burn his lungs. Of course, it wasn't completely fresh, car exhaust, and other city pollution mixed in, but that was to be expected at any high population density area. Still, Alfred enjoyed this better than that cramped hotel room where the walls trapped in his dark thoughts till it builds and builds so thick you might choke...