Austria pov.
The awful silence always disturbed me. I sat on my bed bored not knowing what to do. Usually I have nothing against being in my room. At least I'm still treated as a guest and I get my food from a staff member, but I can't stay alone for a long time.
I grew up in a big family with my father, brother and our far related cousins. Even when we all lived on our own I visited many times my nephews. So it was always loud and constantly something happens.
My violin was inside its case on my desk. The first couple of hours I spent playing and rewriting my music, but I grew tired of it. I could play again, but I already cleaned the strings from the rosin dust and I don't have the motivation to clean it up again.
I glanced over my wardrobe. No way could I put a knife in there. I'm not an idiot! If I would murder someone, then I would get rid of the weapon and not hidding it in my own room. Who could have put it inside? I remember that I closed the door after I walked out. So they had to know my room and open my door, but most important question is, why me?
In my whole life I didn't do anything wrong... Well except the two bar fights that I accidentally started. Technically my father started the first one after that guy nearly killed me and the second one was only a domino effect from the first one. Sooooo technically it was this one guy fault, not mine.
Welp it doesn't matter because the second fight ended with me having forever house arrest from the bar and my knee completely demolished. After countless surgeries I could at least move my leg, but it still hurts every time I walk around.
A knock sounded through the door. "Come in," I said and saw that Germany entered in my room. "How are you doing?" she asked. A heavy sigh escaped from my mouth while sitting, holding my chin, "Good so far, but I will bore myself to death."
"So they treat you well?" She sat on the edge of my bed looking at me worried.
"Yeah I can't complain. I get my meals and the personals checks every hour if I'm okay. How are you and the work?"
She answered a little bit dissatisfied, "I found a lot. Like that China was a patient of Portugal and made USA his enemy, but I don't have any touchable evidence. So far I have two suspect. USA and the mysterious guy who pushed me once."
"No evidence," I repeated under my breath, "What about the knife?"
Germany rubbed on her eyes and said, "I don't know what to think about it. It could be the murder weapon, but the problem is that there were more blood on the handle than on the blade. The wound went around the neck. Probably cutting the carotid artery. The whole blade should be blood covered."
"True, but if it wasn't the murder weapon, then how else got blood on it," I asked her.
Only a second of silence was needed before she opened her eyes in realization. She jumped out of the bed and spoke, "I Need to check something quickly."
Before I could say something, she was already gone, leaving me again alone in my room.
...
Maybe I play with my violin again.
Germany pov.
As quickly as possible I ran up to the kitchen. I know I should take a break, but I have to check on it. Inside the kitchen were some chefs working, but they didn't really gave attention to me. After opening the door to the cold room, I stepped inside and squad down to the body.
China didn't changed from last time I saw him. The only change was the now completely pale skin. The wound looked untouched. I moved the sleeves from his coat and pants up to see if he got some new injuries. He looks untouched and I also looked under his shirt. There are no new scars and there isn't any big puddle of blood underneath him. If the weapon in Austria's room was fake, then it needed from somewhere blood. But the body was untouched so it could only mean that the murderer had to get the blood from someone else. Most likely from themselve.
I stood up and walked out of the cold room. Up to the first floor I knocked on the door of the captain's office. Paname opened the door and looked at me questioning. Immediately I spoke, "I want to check up every person on this ship."
"Why?" He asked more confused.
"The murderer most likely hurt themselve to make a fake evidence. I want that every person need to be checked for scars or other wounds that could bleed." This explanation was enough for him to understand. He stood there frowning, thinking if it's worth disturbing the guests for this.
"Alright," he answered, "But we'll do it tomorrow morning when everyone is assembled in the dining room. That will be the last time I do a favor for you." I nodded happily and Panama went back to his office.
It's not great that I have to wait until tomorrow, but something like wounds can't get away over the night. Finally I will know who tried to frame my uncle.
I walked back down to room 33. On the hallway I already could here that my uncle is practicing on his instrument. Slowly I opened the door and stepped inside, not wanting to disturb him. He hated it when someone is disturbing his concentration. Austria stood next to the table and if I'm correct he's playing March in F major. It's hard for me to distinguish the difference between other violin music and he goes immediately on a rant if I guess it wrong.
I sat on the bed and waited until my uncle finally realized that I'm here. He was halfway through the music until he slightly turned around and jumped after seeing me. My uncle stopped playing and asked me, "How long were you here?"
I shrugged with my shoulders, "Only a minute or two. Sorry for scaring you."
"It's alright," he said, "Did you found something new?"
With a smile I nodded, "Yes and I can say that tomorrow I'm able to proof your innocents."
His face beamed, "That's great! Finally I can get out of my room." He placed his instrument on the table.
Without a warning my stomach growled. My uncle asked me worried, "Did you ate something today?"
"I forgot," I answered silently. He sighed, "How about we order something to us."
I nodded and as soon as a personal came to check on Austria we both asked to eat in our room.
Thankfully today I got a normal dish. Grilled steak with mashed potato and a salad. Austria also ate the same dish and we both spent the time to talk about other things that didn't related to the murder.
It's nice to have this little break. After a while someone knocked on the door and I stood up to open it.
Behind it stood Hungary and I let him in.
"Hey. How are you?" he asked to Austria.
He answered melodramatic, "Good actually. I'm surprised that my dear lill brother finally decided to pay a visit to me."
"Yeah yeah, you always have to overreact, "commented Hungary, "Oh and it's okay if my friends will come with a couple of drinks."
Austria smirked, "As if I ever say no to drinks."
We all sat together and they both told many different stories. Especially about the time when I and East were children.
"Damn he really painted on your wall?" asked Hungary trying his best to hold a laugh. Austria answered while holding a beer in his hand, "Yup I was really angry at East. Of course as punishment he had to clean up his scribbles."
Still giggling Hungary shaked his head and said, "I wish I was there. I would probably motivated him to do more stupid stuff."
"Oh yes definitely," Austria approved.
"How is he now? Germany told me he was still searching for a job." he mentioned.
My uncle looked at me questioning if I already told everything to him. I shook my head and he looked back to his brother and said, "Kinda. You see I couldn't be always present and he ended up in the wrong group."
He stopped for a second to see his reaction. Hungary looked confused, but didn't say anything. So my uncle continued," I realized too late, but those Bastards made him try different things and he ended up being addicted to a drug called krokodil. He spiraled down and was even once connected to the respiratory system to save his life. After that Germany and I tried to help him. He didn't want it first, saying he has everything under control. Thankfully we meet Portugal. He helped us and after a long fight East stayed clean. Now he's clean for 13 months."
Hungary was speechless. He couldn't really comprehend what Austria just told. East was probably 12 before Hungary left. So it's quite a shock for him to hear this.
"But he is alright now. He has us and Portugal helped us a lot," said Austria.
Slowly Hungary nodded, "Good to hear that."
The door opened and Poland with Czechia entered. They carried a couple of beer bottles. Czechia hold one bottle above her head and asked, "Who wants to drink?"
Hungary and Austria definitely enjoyed the moment to drink something together. I didn't want to be under influence so I only stayed with one small bottle.
An hour went by and Poland sat on the floor leaning against the wall with his fourth bottle. Czechia sat beside me on the floor drinking her third beer empty and talked a lot about various things with my two uncles. Even the two are drinking, but Hungary stopped after the first bottle, not wanting to wake up at a day full of nausea and headache.
A knock appeared, Czechia stood up from the floor and opened the door. Behind it stand Slovakia with a wide grin and carrying six different bottles. Czechia then sat on the floor next to me again, while Slovakia placed the bottles on the table.
I starred at the different spirituosen and I don't know why, but I swear I saw them before somwhere. Maybe I just imagine things up.
She gave each one a bottle, but I and Hungary declined. Slovakia accepted it and joked, "At least more for us." Then she sat on the table.
"So Ms Detektiv Germany," started Czechia, "Hungry there said you wanted to know more about us."
Hungary looked at her strange, "Did you call me Hungry?" Czechia didn't cared about his question and waved her hand at him dismissively.
"I do have some questions. First of all about the criminal records." I said and Austria looked surprised to his brother who only looked troublesome away.
"Ah it's easy," said Slovakia sitting on the table and pointed down at her sister Czechia, "This copy of a failure got arrested for beating the shit out of this one guy."
Czechia defensive raised her hands and said, "Hey it's not my fault he grabbed the wrong butt, but you aren't any better than me. You got caught when you burned a garage down."
"Actually I don't really regret about the fire," was her answer and took a sip from the bottle.
It's already staring great, I'm sitting with an arsonist. I then looked at Hungary. He guessed the silence that it was his turn and with a heavy sigh he spoke,"Car theft. To be more specific I dismantled stolen cars and sold the spare parts."
My Uncle starred at him unbelievable and asked, "And I thought I messed up with my life. How did you get those cars?"
Hungary pointed at Poland who already took many gulps from his spirituos bottle,"This guy has a talent for stealing and breaking any lock. He stole the cars, we dismantle them and I sell the parts. That's how we earned between our small jobs until we both got caught red handed."
"Daaamn," commented my uncle shocked.
"Yeah I'm not proud of it either," managed Hungary to say before taking a gulp from his water bottle.
I then looked at Poland. Czechia started to laugh, "Oh dear you probably need to write it down. He has a loooooong list."
"How many records?" I asked him slightly scared.
He started to count with his fingers and mumbled in between, "Let's see. Many car thefts, fight, housebreaking, robbery, fight again, stealing, participating on a stupid heist that failed, uhhhh housebreaking again and the rest I don't remember anymore, but two times I was innocent."
"How could that happen?" asked Austria slightly shocked mixed with confusion, "How did your parents raise you?"
That's when Slovakia started to laugh, "We three grew up in the same house. There isn't much what can go wrong."
I am confused. Are they related? Czechia saw my confused face and revealed what her sister meant, "Orphanage. We didn't have any parents."
"Oh! I'm sorry to hear that," I said which Czechia responded, "No need to apologize. It's probably for the best. Our 'mother' probably didn't expect a surprise and especially not a double surprise."
"Aye," said Slovakia and they both took a whip from their drinks.
Poland shrugged his shoulder and tried to answer, but I could hear that he slured slightly, "I got there at the age 5 or 6. I grew up with only my lill brother and my mom. She overworked, got sick and then died."
"That sounds horrible." Commented Austria.
Poland took one more sip and said, "Yeah but the orphanage wasn't always bad. Even though I got often into a fight with these two." He pointed at the girls.
Which Czechia started to giggle, "Yeah I remember how much we hated each other back then. You did once hurt me with a pocket knife when I was 10." She then pulled her right sleeve up and showed a long scar from her wrist up to the elbow.
Poland countered, "Yeah I also remember when you trapped me inside that one neighbor's backyard who had a giant German Shepard."
"Yeah that was a dick move from me," said Czechia and Poland rolled up his right pant sleeve, exposing a big distorted scar on his leg. Looking longer I slowly see the marks from where the teeth of the bite started, "This dick move nearly costed my leg."
"Yeah it's a surprised that we didn't kill eachother back then," said Slovakia.
There is a lot to comprehend. I still had one unanswered question, but I don't know how fragile this topic was. Well one way to find out.
"I have one last question for Poland."
He looked at me suspicious, guessing what I want from him. The others listened carefully.
"In the morning you avoided my question about your time before you meet Hungary. Can you answer it now?"
In his drunken state would be easier to get answers. However Hungary intervened, "I don't think it's worth talking about it."
Poland shakes his head and said, "Naahhhh I better answer now or she will be annoying again and I hate annoying people."
He pointed with his bottle at me and Hungary face showed regret, but he sat back on the bed.
Finally Poland answered my question, "I don't remember when, but Lith and I left the orphanage and we were without money and job. That bitch found us and offered work. We idiots accepted it and so we accidentally joined a gang. Thankfully I never had to kill anyone, only getting rid of the bodies. For them I was the can opener. I unlocked every door, window and car they have asked and I got paid for this. Because of them I was more involved into crimes including beating down peoples who didn't listen to us. It's not a life I wanted and I wanted to leave. The problem is if you are involved with the gang, you can't get out alive. Still I risked it and managed to run away for like a month until they found me."
He took a gulp from his bottle. Slovakia, Czechia and Hungary sat there in silence. They already know his story.
Poland continued, "I was in a bar drinking and before I could react someone grabbed me and pulled me out on the street. It was none other than the bitch, who is also the gang leader and her henchmen. They threw me into an blind alley. I don't remember much except that they beat and kicked me and she pulled out a knife, giving me this scar."
Slightly disoriented he tried to point at the long scar across his face." She also stabbed me a little bit and left me to die there. Later I don't remember. I blackout and woke up at Hungary's place."
Hungary breathed heavily and said," Yeah I remember. It was in the middle of the night and I was on my way back to home until I heard the sound of hitting and muffled screaming. I turned around the corner and saw how a small group left the blind alley. They didn't saw me and I looked carefully into the alley. There I saw him on the floor. He lost a lot of blood and I thought he was already dead, but to my surprise he was still alive. I brought him to my place and thankfully a friend of mine worked as a doctor. She helped me and stitched him together. He had eight broken ribs, both dislocated hands, skull fracture, six stab wounds, two of them went deep and of course the scar. It took months for his recovery and it's a miracle that he didn't got any internal bleeding."
"I'm immortal," joked Poland.
"No. You're not," countered Hungary,
As a response Poland pulled out his tounge and made a grumpy face. That's the moment I realized that the alcohol started to hit him and he acted more childish.
"Alright you drank enough," commented Hungary and walked up to Poland. He wanted to take away his bottle, but the drunk man didn't let him. He stood up and raised his alcohol as high above his head as possible.
Hungary was nearly a head shorter as the Pole, so he couldn't reach the bottle. Poland smiled triumphantly at him, but Hungary looked at him unimpressed. Without a warning his friend slightly kicked on Poland's leg. It's nothing for a person, but it was enough for a drunk one.
The pole immediately lost his balance and felt back on the floor. Hungary grabbed the half empty bottle and sat back on the edge of the bed.
Poland sat back on his previous position and with a grumpy face he mumbled to him, "Traitor."
"Trust me you will thank me for that tomorrow," was the only think Hungary commented after putting the bottle away.
Poland didn't said anything and only sat on the floor, starring grumpy at Hungary.
He is probably too drunk to give me straight answers, but I still asked him,"What Gang were you in?"
I live in a big urban city and so far there were two gangs.
"Uhhh wait," slurred Poland, concentrating how to say it. Unexpected he stood up, or at least tried to, he leaned against the wall and turned his back against us. Slightly he pulled his shirt up and showed a tattoo on his back next to a couple of old scars.
I immediately recognized it. The tattoo was a sickle. This gang didn't have any official name and the news are naming them the red sickle. It's surprising to see someone outside of the gang and still being alive to tell it.
"God damn it. We have tomorrow work," realized Czechia showing a shocked and grumpy expression.
I looked outside the window and saw nothing except darkness. We spent a lot of time.
Slovakia stood up and stretched her arms up until a pop sound came out of her back," I don't know how about you, but I'll go get some sleep."
The others agreed and we all started to clean up. Hungary helped Poland to walk back to their quarters. Czechia and Slovakia took the empty bottles with them and said goodbye to us.
"I will also go back to my bed. Have a good night," I said too my uncle. "To you too," he said back and I left his room.
I opened my door and went inside. Everything was like I left in the morning and before I went to the bathroom to change, I pulled out my note book and tried to summarize what I know.
Second night on the ship.
Murder weapon might be fake.
Suspects are USA who was angry at China and Portugal who got charged by him.
I wasn't sure if I should ad Portugal as the suspect because being charged by something minor without evidence isn't really a motiv to kill anyone. Still I should consider any possibility.
Mystery guy identity not found yet. Is he the murderer?
Russia out of suspect. No motiv and loose from his death, but might know something.
Tomorrow a body check up on every guest on this ship.
I closed my book and placed it on my desk.
Tomorrow I will finally find out who framed Austria.
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Please only drink responsibly and in safe places.
I hope 3620 words aren't too long to read.