Hello~ Yeah I know, it's probably annoying when I start new stories and still have so many ongoing ones. I decided I wanted to write a scary story and the plot to this gradually came to me yesterday. I wrote this at obscure hours in the morning and freaked myself out -laughs- It's probably creepier at night.

The rating for this is based mostly on language. This won't really have pairings so much as high school friendship. There will be some mild fanservice later in the story.

This story certainly won't be finished by Halloween but it is written for it, in the spirit of it I guess. Unfortunately this is mid-terms week for me so I won't be writing anything fun until it's over so this is the last thing you'll see from me until probably next week. So... Happy Halloween to everyone~!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or its characters!

Heart pounding violently, Alfred shook his head slowly. "No...oh god no...No please don't...please don't!"

His pleas went unheeded as the ghoulish creature closed in, face that of a half-rotted corpse. "No! Oh god no! Please stop!"

Two screams pierced the dark as the monster swooped in for the kill, one sharply cut off and the other fading into a whimper. Alfred fumbled with the remote and paused the movie, visually shaken from what he had just watched. Damn it, why did scary movies have to be so... scary?

Sweeping his hair off of his sweat soaked forehead, Alfred took deep breaths to calm himself. This movie was way too intense. Mattie was such a jerk for refusing to watch it with him and going out to spend the night at a friend's house. Since when did his brother have friends anyway? Probably getting sky high with that Cuban jerk while Alfred was left all alone to nearly die of a heart attack.

Alfred sighed at the paused screen, the pale blue light hurting his eyes in the dark. This kinda sucked. When his parents had said they would be gone through Halloween Alfred had thought it would be the best thing ever. There was still some potential; after all Halloween was sure to be a blast. But other than that all it had resulted in was him staying up to ungodly hours in the open rather than staying up to ungodly hours secretly in his bedroom. And of course eating a diet consisting of nothing other than school cafeteria food, soda, and pizza.

Well, maybe he should go get some of that pizza he hadn't eaten earlier. A calm stomach was the gateway to calm nerves, right? As Alfred reached the hallway he suddenly paused, swallowing hard. In his overambitious determination to watch the horror film by himself he had dared to turn all the lights off. Of course when he started the movie there was still a bit of sun left but now it was practically pitch black outside. His hand started to fumble for a light switch and he clenched his fist. No, Alfred F. Jones was no coward! He was going to do this... In the dark... alone... No one had died in this house, right?

Suppressing another whimper, Alfred started to shuffle towards the kitchen, body tensing at each little unidentified sound. Nothing had jumped out to eat him by the time he reached the fridge and he let out a relieved breath. Feeling a touch more confident he opened up the fridge door, the light splashing over him and casting shadows across the kitchen floor. He quickly ignored them and grabbed a piece of pizza, slamming the door shut.

Blinking away the bright circles that danced in his vision Alfred was filled once more with dread. The short burst of light had left him temporarily blinded. Clearing his throat loudly, Alfred started back towards the living room.

Fine, everything would be fine, there were not ghosts or monsters...but mostly no ghosts. Everything would be fine. Alfred took a bite of the cold pizza, chewing nervously as he felt his way along the hallway. The soft glow of the television finally came into view, giving the hall an eerie look.

Okay, on the count of three he was going to dash into the room, hide under his blanket, finish the movie, then turn on every single light in the house.

One.

Two.

Thre-

A shill scream sounded from behind him and the pizza fell to the floor as Alfred's heart jumped into his throat. He whirled around, wide eyes desperately trying to find the source of the sound. It came again and with a sheepish wave of relief he realized it was the phone. "Fuck that scared me!"

Grumbling to himself, Alfred fumbled towards the phone that he had passed and picked it up as it rang again. This had better be good, his pizza had been ruined. "Hello?"

There was a pause of silence then a sound like a woman murmuring something.

"...Hello, is anyone there?"

"...Jon...?"

A small frown tugged on Alfred's lips. Was there something wrong with the connection? "Um, yeah this is the Jones residence."

"Jo- ... Jona...thon?" The voice was wispy... Soft and sorrowful. Like the speaker might burst into tears in a moment's notice.

"Er...I'm sorry. There's no Jonathon here. You must have-"

"Oh Jonathon... Please come home. I miss you... Please...?"

Oookay this was starting to get a little awkward. Maybe she was drunk. "I'm really sorry but I'm telling you, you've got the wrong number."

"...I love you Jonathon. Please come home... Won't you please? I miss you... I've missed you for such a long time..."

An uncomfortable chill went down Alfred's back. "...I'm going to hang up now, I hope you reach whoever you're trying to get a hold of."

"I know it's you Jonathon." The voice took on a sharp tone that startled Alfred. "You will come back to me. I love you Jonathon. I love you to death."

Alfred slammed the phone down, thoroughly creeped out. What the hell? Crazy drunk woman. Probably calling her ex-boyfriend or husband or something. Just as he turned to walk away the phone rang again. Giving it a weary look he hesitated then picked up on the second ring. "...Hello?"

"Jonathon, why did you leave? Why did you leave me?" There was the faint sound of a sob. "I won't let you go... Come back to me. You can't get away from me Jonathon. Not ever."

Alfred slammed the receiver down again and crouched down quickly to unplug the phone. If someone had to call that night, screw them. Alfred was not dealing with that! Heart pounding again, Alfred sighed in relief to have that done with and started to walk over to the fallen pizza. He had just reached down to grab it when he heard a sound that made his blood freeze.

The phone was ringing.

Face going deathly pale, Alfred straightened up and stared at it in horror. It was impossible. He had unplugged the phone... He had unplugged it! The phone continued to ring, far longer than it should have even when it was plugged in. The answering machine should have picked up by now but it didn't. Mouth going horribly dry, Alfred found his feet moving towards it rather than away as he commanded them to. What force pulled him he did not know. Perhaps grim curiosity or sheer madness. It was impossible. It was impossible-

With shaking fingers he picked up the receiver and held it to his ear, not saying a word.

"I've been waiting for you Jonathon. For such a long, long time."

Still Alfred said nothing, glued to the spot in horror.

"Please... Where did you go? I'm so lonely... Jonathon..."

Words, detached and slow as if fighting through thick honey, escaped his lips. "I'm...not Jonathon."

There was a beat of pure silence. And then the woman on the other end let out an inhuman, blood curdling scream. Alfred toppled backwards landing hard on his ass. With all his strength he threw the phone away from himself and it skittered across the floor, stopping short of the end of the hall. Still he could hear it, the voice screaming and screaming.

Trying to find purchase on the wooden floor he scrambled backwards, trying to get away. Abruptly the screaming stopped. Blood pounding in his ears, Alfred took deep, shaky breaths as he stared at the phone with eyes the size of dinner plates. Heavy silence enveloped everything and he found himself frozen for a long time. Very gingerly he sat up further. What the hell-

The phone began to ring again.

Alfred felt his flesh crawl and a bubble of hysterical laughter died in his throat. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh-

The ringing stopped, and somehow, somehow despite the distance between them Alfred could hear the voice speaking crystal clear. As if it was being whispered into his ear.

"Come home Jonathon... It's been so long... I love you... I love you... Jonathon? I love you, Jonathon. I'm cold..."

The world seemed to start fading into black and tilted precariously as Alfred fell back, head cracking hard against the wood floor as he fainted.

~.

"I'm telling you, that's exactly what happened! I swear I'm amazed I didn't piss myself! It was so fucking terrifying!"

Gilbert shook his head. "Listen to the story you've made up and tell me it doesn't sound like total scheisse."

"Fuck you! I know what happened! You believe me don't you Kiku?" Alfred turned an imploring look on the Asian boy beside him.

For a moment Kiku looked apprehensively between Alfred and the two skeptical Germanic brothers. "I...believe that you believe that truly happened."

Once Alfred worked that out in his head he pouted. Kiku had been his first friend in this town and he expected support if for nothing else than loyalty's sake! "It did happen though, I swear!"

His twin started to walk past the table with a lunch tray and Alfred called him over loudly. "Hey, hey Matthew come here for a second!"

Hesitating, Matthew sighed and did as he was bidden. "Hey Alfred."

"Mattie, tell them! Tell them it's true what I told you! I mean just tell them how you found me this morning! This sweet angel face wouldn't lie to you!"

Matthew turned somewhat red and stared down at his tray. When he had dropped by that morning to pick up his backpack Alfred had ranted on about it so long they were both almost late. "W-well... When I came home this morning I did find you passed out in the hallway. I thought you might have a concussion or something." Maybe he did even now. "A-and the phone was all across the hallway and unplugged. Um... I also found that scary movie still paused on the TV. Why did you watch it Al? You know how you get... Your imagination tends to take over and-"

"Why won't anyone believe me? I'm telling you, it wasn't because of that movie! That movie was a comedy in comparison to this! I tell you, some crazy woman's voice kept calling me Jonathon and saying she loved me and asking why I left and telling me to come home and- Oh man it's freaking me out just thinking about it! The phone rang off the hook and unplugged! I swear!"

Gilbert laughed loudly. "Yeah right, it was probably some drunk chick. Or your delusional mind, right Ludwig?"

Before his brother could respond a voice spoke up from the table next to them. "It was Josephine Carter."

Everyone froze and looked over. A boy that Alfred recognized from the senior class (remembered solely for his crazy eyebrows) sat alone at the table beside them. His almost bored gaze wandered along all of them, finally resting on Alfred. "It's kind of an honor you know."

Alfred frowned, brows furrowing. "Who is Josephine Carter?"

"She's a bit of a local legend. Honestly I wouldn't expect your or your brother to know about it as you have lived in this town a little less than a year right? But I'd expect one of the other three to have at least considered it."

Kiku gave him a perplexed frown. "I am afraid I am not familiar with Josephine Carter..."

Gilbert and Ludwig looked at each other questioningly before something seemed to spark in Ludwig's eyes. "I remember what you're talking about. It's a story that gets told until everyone hits about thirteen and they realize that's all it is. A story."

Alfred looked from Ludwig to the other boy, confused beyond reason. He hated being out of the loop. "Who? Who is she?"

The boy raised an eyebrow at Ludwig. "Shall I tell the story or do you wish to?"

Ludwig snorted, as if he found the question insulting. "I will not spread such nonsense around."

"Very well, then I will tell it. A long time ago there was a couple that lived in the old abandoned house way up on Greenstead Road-"

Gilbert suddenly interrupted. "Oh, that story. Pft, are you kidding me? That's so-"

The boy continued on, bright green eyes daring any of them to interrupt him again. "There was nothing particularly odd about the couple, though it's said that Josephine tended to keep to herself. She was also said to be very pretty and from a well to do family. Jonathon was her husband, a rather successful young man with a lower class background. The lucky suitor out of many who had asked for Josephine's hand in marriage and actually received it. Supposedly her family wasn't too pleased about it but once again, that's just hearsay.

"The two seemed happy enough by everyone's standards, through they were inconspicuously without child even after five years of marriage. That's when things seemed to have unraveled altogether. The depression hit around then and things got hard for the young couple. I guess Jonathon didn't do too well. One night, without any warning whatsoever, he just disappeared. Some say he couldn't take the pressure of being a failure. Others say there was actually another woman involved. No matter what the truth was, no one from this town ever heard from him again.

"Apparently it drove his poor abandoned wife to madness. Her family tried its best to help her, offered to pay all of the debts off that Jonathon had acquired and hidden from everyone. Despite their best efforts she merely brushed them off and holed up inside the house. She was convinced that Jonathon would come back to her."

As he paused his audience seemed to hold their breath. Matthew stood transfixed, Kiku frowned, Ludwig and Gilbert had that look of anticipation on their faces that people get when they know how things will end, and Alfred felt more and more uneasy.

"Time passed and Josephine became more and more strange. Hysterical almost, they say. She was completely lost in her delusion. On the one year anniversary of Jonathon's disappearance she seems to have snapped completely. Her brother went to go check on her, knowing it was sure to be a rough time for her. She did not answer when he knocked. Concerned, he broke into the house and looked everywhere. Finally the only place to look was the attic."

The boy paused again then looked up and met Alfred's eyes. "She had hanged herself from one of the beams."

A shiver passed through Alfred as a pause followed. Gilbert finally shifted impatiently. "Well, go on. We know that's not the end of it Arthur."

Arthur, so that was his name? Alfred swallowed hard, not liking where this was heading. Arthur smiled a bit. "Of course. Well, that should be the end of it...but as Gilbert said, it's not. Apparently strange things happened in the house. Disturbing things that couldn't be explained. The family refused to sell the house and they still own it, but no one has lived there since Josephine died. Eventually they couldn't even hire people to maintain the place so it's quite the mess. No one can stand to be in there long. They say they get eerie feelings.

"And of course, the coup de grâce is that since that time there has been no less than five people over the years, now six apparently, that have claimed to have received cryptic phone calls from Josephine. Always younger men, blond, blue eyes. Always she says the same things, begging for them to come home to her, saying she loves them, saying she misses them... And she calls every one of them Jonathon. The calls always come close to All Hallows' Eve. Some receive more than one phone call, but it seems to be a theme they only receive the call when they are alone and it never persists after October thirty-first has passed. Once Halloween is over they never hear from her again."

Arthur's smile seemed to attain a creepy element. "Congratulations Alfred, it seems you are Josephine's Jonathon this year."

Another tense moment passed and then Gilbert started laughing. "Oh man, I forgot how hokey that story was... Come on Alfred, you've heard it before, right? And you're pulling our leg? Good one."

But Alfred was not smiling. Not one bit. In fact his face had turned slightly green as everything connected together. "Ghost... Josephine... the woman who called... is a...a ... g-ghost?"

Arthur leaned his chin on his fist. "Indeed she is."

Alfred let out a scream that startled all of them and threw his arms around Kiku. "Aaaah! Fuck, fuck that's so scary! Noooooo a ghost! I'm haunted, I'm going to die! Oh god!"

As he began to sob Matthew hurried over and allowed his brother to glomp onto him instead of the flustered Japanese youth, soothingly rubbing his back. "H-hey it's alright Alfred, you're fine."

Matthew frowned sharply at Arthur. "I wish you hadn't told him that!"

Gilbert stared in disbelief. "What the hell? You're acting like a total wuss Al!"

Alfred continued to hold onto his brother, not saying a word and merely sniffling. Matthew sighed. "He's terrified of ghosts. Always has been. The sadist likes to scare himself with them for some reason but he really can barely handle them. And now that you have him thinking that some...some ghost woman is after him-!"

Arthur shrugged. "I am merely saying what I know based on what he's said. Don't go blaming his being a blubbering git on me."

Alfred pulled away from Matthew abruptly. "I am not a blubbering...whatever you called me! Ah but what am I gonna do? Ghost woman! Mattie you aren't leaving my side for a second, I can't be alone!"

"Oh come on Al... and you don't really need to worry, Halloween is in a couple of days anyway right?"

Kiku patted Alfred's shoulder lightly. "I will make you a talisman to ward off spirits if you like."

Alfred took his friend's hand tightly in his own. "W-would you really Kiku? You're the best!"

Ludwig tsked loudly. "I can't believe you're actually all buying into this crap. It's nothing more than a story that children like to tell each other at sleepovers to scare each other silly!"

"Ja, I seem to remember terrifying you with it for ages," Gilbert teased maliciously.

A flush crossed Ludwig's cheeks. "G-Gil-! You...You did not, I wasn't actually afraid!"

"Sure you weren't, and the sky isn't blue!" Gilbert cackled and threw an arm around his younger brother.

Once more Arthur's voice cut through the chaos. "I want to perform a séance with you Alfred."

Everyone froze and stared at him in disbelief. Alfred's mouth fell open. "S-séance? W-with me? Why?"

"I'm curious and I've always wanted to try one. People have received calls from Josephine but that's all. I want to try and contact her and it seems you're the best bet as she has already initiated first contact. What do you say?"

Tears welled up in Alfred's eyes at the mere thought of it, lower lip trembling. Matthew spoke before he had a chance to start crying. "Absolutely not! You see the kind of reaction he has and you still want to torture him with more? Stop being a jerk!"

Alfred was actually a touch impressed. It wasn't often his brother was assertive. Arthur was not to be so easily deterred though. "What, are you afraid Alfred? Besides, you might be able to put her soul to rest. Who knows?"

Alfred chewed his bottom lip, becoming agitated. He was no coward even if he was a little freaked out by ghosts, and if he could be the hero and save the day... Matthew would have none of it though. "He's not doing it! If you want to do creepy things find someone else!"

Throwing an annoyed look at Matthew, Arthur stood with his tray. "Very well. But if you change your mind let me know before Halloween. We have until then to do it. Two days. Think about it."

They all stared as he walked away. Matthew rubbed his brother's back lightly. "Who was that guy anyway? He's odd."

Kiku pressed a finger thoughtfully to his lips. "Arthur Kirkland is a fellow senior to Gilbert and I. We share some classes. Usually he's not odd at all. A bit temperamental at times but quite intelligent."

"More like a know-it-all," Gilbert muttered. "It is weird though. Never would have expected eyebrows to be into such creepy shit."

Alfred continued to stare after Arthur. "Do you...really think it's Josephine that called me?"

Matthew scowled. "No Al, I really don't. Now come on and let it go. Don't worry about it okay?"

Alfred looked up at his brother and finally nodded. "O-okay..."

And yet the story... it fit so well... A shudder went through him.

~.

It had taken forever but Matthew had finally convinced Alfred that being in the same house constituted as not leaving him by himself. There was no way he was going to sleep in his bed like they were little kids again. Sometimes Alfred could be so immature about things... Well, it was kind of nice for him to actually spend time with Matthew voluntarily. Too bad it was for such a stupid reason.

Matthew walked by the house phone and paused despite himself. He had plugged it in again but it hadn't rung all day. He was pretty sure Alfred had broken it when he threw it. Their parents were sure to be angry. Especially when he tried to tell them it was because of a ghost call. As if.

Chuckling to himself as he imagined their reactions, he started for the kitchen to grab something to drink before working on his homework. As he reached the doorway of the kitchen the familiar shriek of the phone called out through the house. Matthew inhaled sharply and turned, a growing feeling of fear bubbling up. No... he was being silly. He forced himself to laugh it off. Seemed the phone wasn't broken after all.

Walking over to it, he watched it ring for a moment. Matthew reached out and put his hand on it. Swallowing hard he reluctantly answered. "H-hello?"

"..."

He chewed his bottom lip. "I-is anyone there?"

"...Jonathon."

Matthew's eyes widened. "Th-that's not...f-funny. Who's doing this?"

"Jonathon... I miss you..."

His entire body began to tremble as he let out a small squeak. This voice... it was one he didn't recognize at all.

"Why... Why did you leave me Jonathon? Oh Jonathon... I love you so much."

Matthew screamed and dropped the phone. As he started to run from the hall he crashed right into Alfred and screamed again. Alfred gave him a panicked look. "What is it, what's wrong?"

Silence was all Matthew could manage, mouth moving uselessly. They both jumped and clung to one another tightly as they heard Josephine's voice speak clearly from the receiver on the ground.

"Jonathon... Jonathon...? I've finally found you... Jonathon."