Mexico gasps awake in the middle of the night. 'What the hell was that?!' Mexico asks in his mind. He's got goosebumps from the nightmare he just had. He remembers it all so clearly. Because of how creepy that dream was, he darted out of his room to wake up Germany and the others.
None of them were happy getting woken up in the middle of the night. Mexico gathered them all in the kitchen.
'So what the **** did you wake us all up for?!' Zeal doesn't usually show his aggression but he won't tolerate being forcefully woken up because of such a stupid reason.
'You are not a kid anymore. grow up, dude! You shouldn't be waking everybody up all because you had a stupid nightmare!' Germany says.
'I swear it's-'
'Mexico, hurry up! We all want to sleep!'
'Then how can I speak if you cut me off?!'
'Okay, okay, everyone shut the hell up! please! Let this motherf***** talk!'
'I had a nightmare where Phil was.... Was....'
'Mexico, come on... Hurry up! We don't have all day, dude!'
'I.... I can't remember' Mexico says in his mind. 'It felt so real....' he continue to speak in his mind, trying to remember his nightmare. If he doesn't remember, then waking everyone up will be useless and they would punch him in the face. He's feeling immense pressure as everyone second passes that he cannot remember, As if the darkness is consuming him... The feeling of the darkness consumung him all disappeared when he remembered Phil's smile.
'Phil was in my arms.... Pale... his skin seemed so pale... His lips were turning kind of blue... He was just laying motionless in my arms.... His eyes were open... It's like he had no blood.... As if he was drained of all his blood-'
'Okay, so you're basically telling us that because of your paranoia, you actually had a nightmare about Philip dying? Dude... I think you're the creepy one, not your nightmare...'
'Are you don't now, Mexico?'
'If that's all there is to it, then just zip your mouth and go back to sleep. It's the middle of the night'
Everyone left to go to bed and go back to sleep. They didn't really react like it was a big deal since it was just a nightmare. Germany told him that he shouldn't worry about anything because nightmares don't come true.
Mexico sighs deeply in his room. The bed is very comfortable but he's still feeling quite tensed because of the nightmare he had. 'They acted as if it was nothing..... How would they like it if they were the one who had that nightmare?!' Mexico is quite pissed off because of their reactions. But then again, what was he expecting them to do? Panic?
'I'm so f****** stupid...'
Mexico says before forcefully shutting his eyes even though he's not really sleepy anymore. Phil thought him a trick to fall asleep faster. Phil told him to close his eyes and don't open them, then he should imagine everything that he likes, everything that makes him calm. Phil told him to try his best not to think of any problems and or anything that could stress him our. He did just that, and he feel asleep about twenty minutes later.
Very far away from them, Malaysia and Indonesia have finally found each other but still not luck in finding Philip.
'Damn, where is Philip? Oi, Indo, have you seen Philip?! I've been running around trying to find him but I don't have any luck.... What about you?'
'Me neither.... Let's just hope that he's okay... And that, America hasn't found him before us'
'If we don't find him then it's all your fault. Everyone's going to blame you, you know. There's no way our, Indo. You will be blamed wether you like it or not'
Malaysia and Indo aren't on good terms as of now, because of Indo's grave mistake. They both know that they have a high chance of dying in this forest, but they are willing to take the chance to save Philip.
Before going on their separate ways once again, they bought had the same thought. They both turned to each other slowly. 'Do you think....' 'She's here?'
The two gulps at the fact that, Bela would kill them if anything bad happens to Philip. Bela is one of Phil's closest friends, and she's very protective over him. 'Oh sh**....' They both cuss in annoyance.
'What the hell would Mrs. France and the others say?!' The two of them went on their separate ways, continuing their journey to find Philip.
On the other side, the news had already reached UK, and Mrs. France. They told the families of the children to keep quiet about the situation. Instead of making the news public, they chose to keep it a secret to only a few people.
France sips her 8th glass of wine for the day. France is extremely unhappy with her husband. 'Uk! We've lost three! Three! They are still not back!' 'UK, what are we going to do?! We can't possibly just WAIT!' 'They are going to die there!' UK is getting more and more stressed by each day. Asean is going to visit soon, and Phil is still nowhere to be found.
'And why the hell did we let America back?! We should've taken zeal!'
UK sits on a chair while covering his face with his hand. He abruptly stands up, then slams his hands on the table, loudly. This made France shut their mouth and stop babbling.
'I know! I know, France! It's terrible!'
'I don't know what to do.... It's been years! We can't go in and command them to find Philip and the others! They don't respect us anymore! They will kill us! We can't do the same thing when America ran off to the forest just for fun! I don't know what to f*cking do! Asean is going to kill me when he finds out that his favorite son is gone!'
UK clenches his fists, he feels so powerless... He doesn't know what to do, he's at lost...
France puts down her glass of wine, she feels bad for her husband. She feels like a terrible wife, instead of comforting her husband and telling him that it's not his fault, she stressed him out even more by shouting day and night.
She went up to er husband to pat him on the back. 'There, there, UK.... I'm sorry..' 'It's not your fault....' 'You're right.... The only thing we can do is to 'ope that they will be okay....' France hugs her husband to comfort him. UK feels so powerless. After so many years, he finally cracks and sheds tears.
'I'm sorry.... I'm sorry... I'm sorry Philippines Indonesia... Malaysia...'
Tears can't stop falling from his eyes. He feels so bad about not being able to do anything. Him crying and saying sorry is basically saying that he's given up all hope that they would beer come out of the forest alive.... It's as if he's grieving them already, even though they don't know if they are still alive or not.
-------------
Phil stands still as he takes a look at the beautiful view in front of him. He can't wander off somewhere, since he has a rope tied around his waist. The end of the rope is tightly held and wrapped around Forget me not's wrist. Forget me not tied the rope tightly around Phil's waist, but not supper tight that could make Phil uncomfortable.
Phil snaps out of his trance when the man throws an avocado at him. 'Oi, soybean-' Philip cuts him off. 'I'm sorry, forget me not, but I can't eat avocados' Phil can't help but smile awkwardly since he doesn't know what to say next. 'It's not for you, soybean. It's for me. This banana is for you. I gave you the avocado so you can cut it open' The man explains. The man seems to want to throw the knife at Phil, but he decided not to since he knows Phil isn't capable of catching it without hurting himself.
'Oh...' Phil feels quite embarrassed now. Phil did what he was told to do. First, he sliced the sides to reach the seed. Then, he split the avocado open. After that, he carefully took the seed out. And finally, he cut it vertically before giving it to forget me not. 'Here you go, forget me not' Phil says with a light smile.
After a while of eating, the man seems to have reached his limit. 'Can you choose another name to call me?' 'How about an actual name' Phil raises a brow at him. The man gruntsbin annoyance. He stands up to get a stick. He goes back to sit on the log that he was sitting on a while ago. Phil watches as the man starts to write something on the dirt, with the stick. 'Well, soybean is a legume. It exists and it's only 2 syllables, unlike "Forget me not". "Forget me not" is too long and.... And... Come on... It's dumb! It's a phrase!'
'It's a flower'
'What?'
The man looks at Phil with a mix of confusion, interest, and curiosity.
'Well, Forget-me-nots are blue wild flowers. For me, they are special and unique. Something that exists but not all people know about it'
The man has just finished writing on the soil. He feels quite embarrassed to be so shallow and quite childish about the name he picked. 'Oh, are you finished?' the man is quite thankful Phil continued to speak, if Phil were to not speak, he (Forget me not) wouldn't find the right thing to say and shall cause a very uncomfortable, awkward silence.
Phil reads the writing on the floor.
'Z - A - C - K'
'Zack?'
'Yeah, Zack. Just call me that'
'Zack? Is that your real name?'
'Not quite...'
'Then... In this case...'
Phil takes the stick from Zack's hand to write on the soil as well.
'L - I - K - A'
'Lika?'
'Yep, Lika'
'It's kind of a nickname that only a few people call me'
'Like whom? The guys that you-'
'Dead people..'
The man looks so confused.
'What the hell? Don't tell me you can see dead people... That's f***ing creepy... Holy ****..'
'O-Oh.. n-no! I mean... The people who used to call me that, are all dead... They are all in heaven now'
Even though Phil can hide his emotions well, Zack can see that he's quite pained while smiling. Zack doesn't know how to comfort people, he doesn't even know what it feels like....
'You have to cut it twice'
'You don't cut it trice, you only need to cut it twice'
Phil saw how much Zack was struggling to get the job done. He keeps cutting it three times. Zack keeps doing the wrong thing over and over again. Phil had to stop him because if he does, then they will run out of materials.
Phil focused on working on it, he kept a straight face and got the job done easily. 'Wow, Lika... I have to admit, you've done a pretty good job' Zack doesn't want to admit that he's wrong so he just keeps on praising Philip/Lika. 'Hey, I gotta ask.. where did you learn this?' Zack squints his eyes, feeling quite puzzled and alarmed. It's quite a sight to see a prey successfully do this in one go. Zack learned this from his father's soldiers. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about only needing to cut the materials twice.
Phil took a time to respond. He doesn't seem to be quite willing to share this information. 'It's fine if you don't want to talk about it... I understand...' Zack scratches his head to ease the awkwardness a bit.
'I watched my father do it once... It's very helpful so I never forgot. It's easy to forget how to do this, but if you repeatedly do this, you will never forget how to make this...'
Phil said it with a straight face, he frowned slightly.
'Well? What are we waiting for? Let's set it up!' Phil said with a "bright smile"
'So that's how you are...' Zack says in his mind while he smiles a bit.
'But you can't fake smiles forever' Zack says in his mind before going to help Philip.
'Oi, Lika, let me help you. You're like a twig standing. You will only break a bone'
July 13, 2021