Abducted

10

Why would Alfred do that? Why?

Hide him away and then go kill their parents. They might have been able to save them! He might have been able to meet his mom and dad.

There was a large door to this room, and he was surprised that the other nations hadn't found it yet. Koko pulled it open by it's thick knobs, the door creaking as it opened.

He walked in first, looking around. There was an assortment of portraits on the wall, each in paint. On the back wall, there were three large portraits of three tall women.

"Those are our, like, main moms," Koko said, "none of our parents were exactly loyal. The one in the middle is Winema. She's your mom. Old leader of us."

He noticed there was an assortment of men on the walls as well, and he looked up to Koko.

"That's Sahkonteic," he said, pointing to an Arabic looking man, "he's your dad, and he's Dyami's dad."

"I'm Arabic and native?" Matthew asked, looking at his hands before looking between his parents. He saw a white man on the wall, with fur around his neck, "I thought my father or mother or both would look more like that."

"That's Zaltana's father, Pavelu," Koko said, "he was a goddam beast, but he was hardly around. He was gone for years before you were born and he came back two years after, so I highly doubt it was him. I know for a fact it was Sahkonteic, though. All his kids were light, for whatever reason."

Matthew nodded, looking around the room. As he walked forward, his steps echoed, and he felt his stomach twist.

"He killed them all?"

"Yes. Fought them all at once."

"But," Matthew turned around to face him, "when England found him, he was still a child- or er, a toddler."

"He wasn't a child," Koko let a little giggle escape his throat, "he was an adult in a child's body. Much older than they guessed. He was born around two thousand years ago."

"Zaltana had let that slip," Matthew replied, "why did he stay so small for so long?"

"Why did you grow up?" Koko countered, and Matthew nodded. Ages for countries never seemed to add up- like how Romano was older than Spain, but Spain raised him. Some nations just stayed little kids for a long time, like Holy Rome.

Matthew continued to look around at the portraits, "Thank you for showing me this."

"Of course," Koko replied, "family deserves to know certain things."

"Sorry sir!" Nevada exclaimed, running into a man.

"It's okay, just watch where you're going next time!" the man yelled back, walking away. Nevada snickered, holding the bills that had been in the man's back pocket. He was sure people didn't do that anymore, but lookie here! Wherever in the bumfuck midwest he was, they still did.

He counted the cash, pleased with himself. Four hundred dollars.

He walked into the supermarket- he knew he was in a bigger town if they at least had a Smith's- and walked over to the pre-made food, standing at the counter.

"Hello young man," the old lady said fondly, standing in front of him, "what would you like?"

"Chicken tenders and potato wedges, please," he replied, and she went to get it, weighing it before setting it down on the counter.

"Anything else?"

"Four slices of margherita pizza," he said, deciding to get his food for tomorrow right now as well.