Other notes: Written for DA's Snapped Canada comm prompt 'Aftermath of Halloween'

Belarus believed the moon changed him; Canada knew better. The darkness that ruled him had nothing to do with the shifting of tides, magnetic pull or positions of the moon. It had everything to do with buried emotions, violent urges and his need to break free.

She was sleeping now, her head resting neatly on his lap while pale blonde hair cascaded over his thighs and knees. Her finely crafted knives were covered with dried blood and held tight in her grip. Belarus's Halloween costume-Alice in Wonderland she had explained with a smirk-was now tattered and torn. Canada's own costume-a Team Canada hockey jersey was also covered in blood and dirt. The goalie mask that once covered his face now sat on top of his head while his bloodied hockey stick laid by his side. The razors he had painstakingly slipped into the hockey stick's fibreglass blade had more than proven their worth.

Strewn about behind them were the lifeless forms of a variety of countries. Amongst them were a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan, his cowardly friend, along with Canada's obnoxious brother and their surrogate mother.

In a few hours, the dead countries would reanimate; by then their perpetrators would be long gone.

Across from them sat Belarus's older brother, Russia. Snoring softly with a bag of candy in one hand and an empty bottle of vodka in the other, the giant of a man still looked threatening, in spite of being clad in his now destroyed sunflower costume.

Upon seeing, the oversized Russian sunflower Canada had laughed until his sides hurt. Adorable was not the first word that came to mind. The brawl that followed was expected and Canada had been ready for it. He enjoyed the fight; the feel of bone crashing into bone always left him feeling alive in ways he could not explain; Canada knew that Russia felt the same way. Camaraderie was something the two men only experienced on nights like tonight.

It was also on nights like tonight that brought Canada and Belarus together. The camaraderie they shared was similar, yet very different from the one they had with Russia.
By morning the three would part ways, never to be seen together again until another night such this one came.

With one hand gently resting her shoulder and the other fishing through a bag of stolen candy Canada watched as the flames of their once colossal bonfire became nothing more than burning embers. The sun was already beginning to rise and Canada wondered if this time the memories of the night's events would remain; he doubted it.

By morning, it would all be forgotten. The goalie mask and his deadly hockey stick would become nothing more than a lost memory. Gone too would be the thrill of the hunt, the feel of Belarus's passionate kisses and the joy experienced as he snuffed out the lives of his victims. Canada would return to being the quiet, placid and entirely forgotten country everyone knew him to be, while the night's events would add to the ongoing mystery that no country had yet been able to solve.

Life would continue as it always did and the darkness within Matthew would remain hidden; buried deep within his subconscious, biding its time until his need to live would bring him forth once more.

Canada's curse of invisibility had become his saving grace.