How America Became America

17

"What do you mean by that?" Ivan asked Alfred.

"You'll find out soon enough," came the response.

The scene ended with an ominous presence lurking over the nations. When the new one started. The ground was still soaked with rainwater, but the sun shining bright. The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln had just occurred. He was walking into this giant building with his wife, Mary, and three children, Richard, William, and Thomas 'Tad,' when he was greeted with a bright smiled Alfred.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir," he said enthusiastically to his new president.

Lincoln was of course a little unwary of the nation. He had no idea who this person in front of him was. That was until Buchanan came up behind him.

"This," he gestured to Alfred, "is our nation. I believe I already talked to you about him."

"Yes," he was still wary, "I believe you did. I just thought you were joking."

"Nope," Alfred interjected, like the puppy he was, "I'm very much real."

The scene ended with Alfred leading the family inside, talking a lot. The next scene was less bright. Rain could be heard harshly pounding on the closed window of Amelia's room.

"Say my name!" Came the southern voice of The Confederate States of America.

"No!" Amelia was curled into a ball on the floor, sobbing. She had her hands over har ears, "I won't give you a human name!"

Arthur looked over at Alfred, "you can't give that thing a name, it might just manifest."

Alfred, on the other hand, stayed quiet.

The voice didn't respond for a couple minutes, making Amelia, and the nations, think that it had gone away finally. But then...

"Fine," the voice said. "If you're not going to do that, then I'm just going to have to take over for a minute."

"Wha- what do you-?" Before Amelia could finish, she started screaming, face distorted in pain.

When Amelia stopped screaming, she opened her eyes. Except they were no longer her eyes. Instead of the bright sky blue, they were charcoal brown. She smirked as she started to stand up.

"This is what happens when you don't give me form," her voice seemed to echo in a deep southern tune.

She walked smoothly to the bed. There, she pulled out a London Jack Knife from under her pillow. When she flicked it open, it already had bloodstains on it. Amelia stared at it in fascination.

"This is why you listen to me," she said as she drove the knife into her stomach, slowly slicing from one side to the other, leaving a jagged cut.

Just then, a knock came at the door. That's when Amelia started screaming again, eyes squeezed shut, and dropped the knife. That caused the door to bust open with Lincoln on the other side.

When he saw the state of the nation, he dropped to his knees and called out for help. He was quickly trying to stop the bleeding. Amelia, on the other hand, had stopped screaming, looked down at the gash on her stomach and at her president.

"Atticus," was all Amelia said before passing out.

As Amelia passed out, the scene ended. The stayed in the quiet space, waiting for a scene to start, but it didn't. So, the nations looked over at the twins, who were standing side by side. Alfred was rubbing his stomach with a look of pain. Matthew was just rubbing his brother's back, comfortingly.

"Yo," Matthias, the personification of Denmark, interrupted the twins. "What's wrong?"

Matthew looked at his brother questioningly, who just nodded, "Sometimes- sometimes the scar still hurts. At least that's what Alfie's told me."