Not As It Seems

Chapter One - Cowboy Hats

Country music; the perfect music to be late to school to.

Liechtenstein, hitching a ride in a family friend's Jeep, was considering jumping out of the open window just to avoid another round of "Freedom Was a Highway" blasting out of the speakers. His head, already pounding from a mixture of lack of sleep and the wind which was trying to pull the skin off of his face, risked falling right off of his shoulders if he didn't get out of the car soon.

Plus, he was late for school.

He honestly had no reason to be late; he'd gotten up quite early, packed his bags with hours to spare, and then had promptly fallen asleep and woken up at 6:50; 10 minutes before the late bell rang. And so here he was, in all his pissed off, sleep-deprived glory, stuck in the back of a run-down Jeep owned by a crazy hillbilly.

When the Jeep finally rattled to a stop in front of the school, Liech up and ran to his first class, managing to get there about a minute early at the cost of breathing properly.

A second after he sat down, a note in Egypt's familiar, scribbly handwriting was tossed onto his desk.

"you're late. stuck with Mr America's jeep again?"

Liech groaned; how had they guessed? Maybe the window was open or something. He barely had time to write his response ("yep >:[") and flick it back before the teacher bustled in with a caw of "attention, students!!".

The rest of the class went by in a blur, ending two minutes early. Liech ran to his groups usual meet up spot, determined to complain to the rest of them about Mr. America's music taste.

So far, so normal.

Egypt bustled in after him, plopping down next to where Liech was sitting on the table, both forgoing chairs.

"You want to wait for everyone else to get here to complain, or...?"

Liech snorts.

"It doesn't make sense to not; I'm sure they'd be so crushed that they missed my very valuable complaints about why you shouldn't wear a cowboy hat in a car."

As if on cue, Finland and the Netherlands wander in, both glancing up from a paper held in Fin's hands to wave at the pair on the table. Netherlands immediately glances back down with a distressed noise at the look on Liechs face; a mixture of "I want to kill someone" and "you better listen to me".

Egypt laughs.

"Don't worry, it's not you that he wants to kill. What's that paper for?"

Neth looks up again, carefully taking the paper from Finland and showing Egypt the front. Egypt goes silent.

Liech scoots across the table to them, trying his hardest to see over Finland's shoulder with an annoyed grunt.

"That face makes me think it's bad. What is it, your report card?"

Egypt speaks up, finally.

"It's...not her report card, I'll tell you that much. Fin, can you move?"

Finally able to see it, Liech stares for a bit, trying to put together why Fin brought it in.

It's a missing poster with a black-and-white depiction of a country on it, partnered with the words "MISSING - LAST SEEN AT 1776 BROWNING LANE".

It clicks.

"You want us- an amateur detective group- to look for a missing country."

Fin nods.

This isn't normal.

586 words

end chap 1

....

(A hallway, like that of an early castle. The bricks are worn and cracked, and the ceiling is rotting, letting in greying light. Even so, you know there is no way out.

On the walls, moss and cobwebs decorate ancient portraits of dictators and royalties, but your eyes are drawn to a specific one. It's clean, with a shaft of sunlight lighting up the pigmentation like it was painted yesterday and the frame glittering like it's made of gold. 

It stars a girl with sky-blue eyes and milky skin, her golden hair done up in a complicated knot and set with fiery, lustrous jewels. Her dress is also ocherous; reds and yellows twist to create an almost flame-like effect. She is in a relaxed position, but unlike the other portraits, she is looking straight at the painter; straight at you.

The inscription on the plaque under the portrait reads "the Us3r".)