Full Metal Alchemist - Haunted, Part 2
Just when I thought I couldn't get any worse, I encounter this fragment. I really despise the parts from Winry's point-of-view. The one from Al's point-of-view is passable, but Winry just sounds like an idiot. It's a good thing this story has been relegated to the scrap pile.
Title: Haunted
Fandom: Full Metal Alchemist
Summary: Someone is murdering people with alchemy. Alphonse suspects government corruption. Winry suspects ghosts. And Ed? He knows the answer, but can no longer communicate it.
Characters: Winry Rockbell, Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric, OCs
Genre: Supernatural, adventure
Warnings: None
Chapter 2: The First and Next Death
He could feel himself tingle with irrational glee. It was an exhilarating feeling, as if someone with fingers as cold as ice slid them along his spine. It made him want to shiver with anticipation. Oh, how would they react to this little case? He could hear the sound of laughter echoing in his ears. Was he the one laughing? Well, who wouldn’t want to laugh after finding out this little piece of information?
Those dogs. They were all the same. Give them a little pain, a little something to fear and they spill their guts out. Well, these gutless fools would keep betraying each other to his satisfaction, and he would use their betrayal until the very end.
He looked at the pool of blood surrounding the man, feeling a little remorseful. What a crime it was to defile that beautiful alchemy circle with blood. He sighed, staring forlornly at the alchemical equation. He hoped his brother would forgive him. He knew they both loved alchemy and saw it as something sacred, not to be used for vile purposes, but this was something that he absolutely had to do. Even if alchemy had to be tarnished while he did it, he still had to do it. After all, who else had the power to revive his brother?
He glared with disgust at the man lying in his own blood. He more than deserved his death. How many innocent lives had been saved when he killed that man? Perhaps many, perhaps none. It didn’t really matter to him. He had helped avenge his brother a little. That was all that mattered.
The man’s bloody fingers made him smile. Oh, yes. How truly entertaining that was. He had entered the mansion disguised as a golden armor sent as a gift to the master of the house. And that greedy pig had laid his filthy hands on his golden armor the moment he laid eyes on him. He loved gold, did he? Well, he had decided to give the man what he wanted.
Transmuting the gold from his armor to replace the man’s fingernails had been easy. A single clap had at first surprised the man, but soon that man was beside himself with joy as he looked at his golden fingernails. A smile crawled up his face as he remembered that that dog had even been so stupid as to call him a sign of good fortune soon to come. Well, unless that fool thought that fingernails dropping off from his fingers were a sign of good fortune, Alphonse would say that the man had been a little off by his description.
“You know,” he recalled himself saying, “gold is really heavy.” And then, the golden fingernails started to be pulled down by gravity. The look on that man’s face was priceless. That expression of sheer horror and terror was absolutely delicious. It made him feel in power, in control. And indeed, he was.
Fingernails ripping themselves off of that man’s fingers and diving towards the floor. That pathetic, high pitched scream of pain. And then, as the man writhed in pain on the floor, he had drawn that perfect circle…that circle that he had perfected after four hard, long years. The circle that held the possibility of bringing his brother back.
He had dragged the man to the center of the circle, even as he lay sobbing like a helpless child. If the man had thought that he had been finished with him, he had been dead wrong. He was only beginning.
“You love gold from the bottom of your heart, don’t you?” he had asked calmly and a little teasingly. The man had been afraid to answer him. “You may not have had a heart of gold when you were alive, but I’ll be sure to give you one in death.” Another clap, and the remaining gold on his armor peeled itself off from him, shooting through the man’s body and into his heart. Even as the man began to bleed with the numerous needle-sized holes through his body, Al concentrated his alchemy, willing the gold to surround the bottom of the man’s heart, forming an armor-like shell, even as he activated the alchemy circle on the floor. Combining inanimate objects with humans through alchemy was risky, but it wasn’t like he really cared for the well-being of that man. He only stood there, waiting for the show to start.
The man began to gurgle, choking on his own blood. Al had the grace to look a little sad. That look of pain as the heart had burst from the pressure was no where near the pain that his brother had felt when the train tore him to pieces. But that was all right. He would find the next target, and their collective pain should be enough to equal the pain his brother felt. A smile spread across his face once more. Oh, yes, the law of equivalent trade could be quite deadly.
He waited for a sign that his brother’s soul had been brought back, but it seemed that the alchemy circle once more had no effect. Well, he had expected as much. After all, these worthless souls could never hold as much value as the soul of his brother. Still, he had been a little hopeful. The law of equivalent trade could be such a pain sometimes.
At last the man had died, and Al had stretched himself, giving a brief glance over his handiwork. The man had been pathetic, just like all the others, but at least he had been entertained. Well, it was time for him to move on. After all, he couldn’t tire, and he didn’t need sleep. The only thing he could be was bored, and Al hated to feel bored. So it was time to find the next entertainer.
----
“Ok, whose idea was it to steal a uniform?” Winry asked herself angrily. She had snuck into the military building, hoping to snag a uniform before anyone noticed her, but things didn’t happen as smoothly as she had planned. The moment she had stepped into the building, some lady asked her if she was lost. Winry had struggled to come up with an intelligent reply, but in the end, she had simply fled. She hadn’t even known why she ran. She felt like smacking herself on the head. Where was she coming up with these harebrained ideas?
It was a good thing that the person who caught her after she started a ruckus was Lieutenant Hawkeye, otherwise she wouldn’t have known how to explain what she was doing without getting herself thrown in jail. The lieutenant had been stern with her, but she had not been without understanding. She knew that Winry had only been overly worried about Edward’s case, so after a brief lecture, she had let Winry go, telling her that if she barged into the military base again, she would not be so lenient next time.
Which left Winry at square one.
“Ah!” Winry screamed in frustration, pulling on her hair. It was a good thing Mrs. Hughes was preoccupied with Alicia, otherwise the woman would have run into the room, wondering what was going on. As it was, Winry was left with the comforting silence of her empty head. She really felt as if her brain had taken a vacation ever since she had left Edward’s side. Not that she couldn’t function without Edward or anything…
Discontinued
Title: Haunted
Fandom: Full Metal Alchemist
Summary: Someone is murdering people with alchemy. Alphonse suspects government corruption. Winry suspects ghosts. And Ed? He knows the answer, but can no longer communicate it.
Characters: Winry Rockbell, Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric, OCs
Genre: Supernatural, adventure
Warnings: None
Chapter 2: The First and Next Death
He could feel himself tingle with irrational glee. It was an exhilarating feeling, as if someone with fingers as cold as ice slid them along his spine. It made him want to shiver with anticipation. Oh, how would they react to this little case? He could hear the sound of laughter echoing in his ears. Was he the one laughing? Well, who wouldn’t want to laugh after finding out this little piece of information?
Those dogs. They were all the same. Give them a little pain, a little something to fear and they spill their guts out. Well, these gutless fools would keep betraying each other to his satisfaction, and he would use their betrayal until the very end.
He looked at the pool of blood surrounding the man, feeling a little remorseful. What a crime it was to defile that beautiful alchemy circle with blood. He sighed, staring forlornly at the alchemical equation. He hoped his brother would forgive him. He knew they both loved alchemy and saw it as something sacred, not to be used for vile purposes, but this was something that he absolutely had to do. Even if alchemy had to be tarnished while he did it, he still had to do it. After all, who else had the power to revive his brother?
He glared with disgust at the man lying in his own blood. He more than deserved his death. How many innocent lives had been saved when he killed that man? Perhaps many, perhaps none. It didn’t really matter to him. He had helped avenge his brother a little. That was all that mattered.
The man’s bloody fingers made him smile. Oh, yes. How truly entertaining that was. He had entered the mansion disguised as a golden armor sent as a gift to the master of the house. And that greedy pig had laid his filthy hands on his golden armor the moment he laid eyes on him. He loved gold, did he? Well, he had decided to give the man what he wanted.
Transmuting the gold from his armor to replace the man’s fingernails had been easy. A single clap had at first surprised the man, but soon that man was beside himself with joy as he looked at his golden fingernails. A smile crawled up his face as he remembered that that dog had even been so stupid as to call him a sign of good fortune soon to come. Well, unless that fool thought that fingernails dropping off from his fingers were a sign of good fortune, Alphonse would say that the man had been a little off by his description.
“You know,” he recalled himself saying, “gold is really heavy.” And then, the golden fingernails started to be pulled down by gravity. The look on that man’s face was priceless. That expression of sheer horror and terror was absolutely delicious. It made him feel in power, in control. And indeed, he was.
Fingernails ripping themselves off of that man’s fingers and diving towards the floor. That pathetic, high pitched scream of pain. And then, as the man writhed in pain on the floor, he had drawn that perfect circle…that circle that he had perfected after four hard, long years. The circle that held the possibility of bringing his brother back.
He had dragged the man to the center of the circle, even as he lay sobbing like a helpless child. If the man had thought that he had been finished with him, he had been dead wrong. He was only beginning.
“You love gold from the bottom of your heart, don’t you?” he had asked calmly and a little teasingly. The man had been afraid to answer him. “You may not have had a heart of gold when you were alive, but I’ll be sure to give you one in death.” Another clap, and the remaining gold on his armor peeled itself off from him, shooting through the man’s body and into his heart. Even as the man began to bleed with the numerous needle-sized holes through his body, Al concentrated his alchemy, willing the gold to surround the bottom of the man’s heart, forming an armor-like shell, even as he activated the alchemy circle on the floor. Combining inanimate objects with humans through alchemy was risky, but it wasn’t like he really cared for the well-being of that man. He only stood there, waiting for the show to start.
The man began to gurgle, choking on his own blood. Al had the grace to look a little sad. That look of pain as the heart had burst from the pressure was no where near the pain that his brother had felt when the train tore him to pieces. But that was all right. He would find the next target, and their collective pain should be enough to equal the pain his brother felt. A smile spread across his face once more. Oh, yes, the law of equivalent trade could be quite deadly.
He waited for a sign that his brother’s soul had been brought back, but it seemed that the alchemy circle once more had no effect. Well, he had expected as much. After all, these worthless souls could never hold as much value as the soul of his brother. Still, he had been a little hopeful. The law of equivalent trade could be such a pain sometimes.
At last the man had died, and Al had stretched himself, giving a brief glance over his handiwork. The man had been pathetic, just like all the others, but at least he had been entertained. Well, it was time for him to move on. After all, he couldn’t tire, and he didn’t need sleep. The only thing he could be was bored, and Al hated to feel bored. So it was time to find the next entertainer.
----
“Ok, whose idea was it to steal a uniform?” Winry asked herself angrily. She had snuck into the military building, hoping to snag a uniform before anyone noticed her, but things didn’t happen as smoothly as she had planned. The moment she had stepped into the building, some lady asked her if she was lost. Winry had struggled to come up with an intelligent reply, but in the end, she had simply fled. She hadn’t even known why she ran. She felt like smacking herself on the head. Where was she coming up with these harebrained ideas?
It was a good thing that the person who caught her after she started a ruckus was Lieutenant Hawkeye, otherwise she wouldn’t have known how to explain what she was doing without getting herself thrown in jail. The lieutenant had been stern with her, but she had not been without understanding. She knew that Winry had only been overly worried about Edward’s case, so after a brief lecture, she had let Winry go, telling her that if she barged into the military base again, she would not be so lenient next time.
Which left Winry at square one.
“Ah!” Winry screamed in frustration, pulling on her hair. It was a good thing Mrs. Hughes was preoccupied with Alicia, otherwise the woman would have run into the room, wondering what was going on. As it was, Winry was left with the comforting silence of her empty head. She really felt as if her brain had taken a vacation ever since she had left Edward’s side. Not that she couldn’t function without Edward or anything…
Discontinued