Halloween Fic - Taste for Flesh
Title --Taste for Flesh
Author-- cornerofmadness
Fandom -- Fullmetal Alchemist
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns all
Rating -- teen
Characters/Pairing -- Ed, Hughes
Word Count -- 1,015
Warning -- cannibalism
Summary -- Hughes and Ed have to investigate a mass murder on an orphan train.
Author’s Note -- This was written for the spook_me Halloween 2013 round for the prompts of ‘cannibal’ and this lovely tarot card.
Also this will be part of my 203/2014 fmabigbang posted with permission and the understanding I’ll be responsible for going 1,000 words over the challenge word count to make up for it. It’s also worth noting this is in my Sorrow series so this is a 2003 anime/manga mash up. You do not need to read those to understand this.
XXX
“Breathe through your mouth,” Hughes said as Edward climbed into the train car behind him.
“I know,” Ed growled. He wasn’t a little kid any more. Hell this Hughes had never seen him as a kid, not really, not after the horror they’d seen in Germany before making it back to Amestris. Ed had accepted his temporary duty assignment to Investigations with eyes wide open. He knew they’d have to investigate death. After all, Maes Hughes’s death had been investigated by the very branch he worked with. Of course, now, the world thought that death had been faked, and that Earth’s Meinhard Hughes was Maes. Both men coddled him sometimes and Hughes’s admonishment to breathe through his mouth was just one example of it.
The moment he actually got on the train, Ed wanted off. Hughes’s advice wasn’t even very helpful. The metallic, minerally scent of blood slammed into his nasal passages as hard as if driven in by the train itself. Accompanying it was an odor akin to the days Pitt’s grandfather mucked out the barns back home.
No one should have to look at something like this. Edward knew he had seen horrific things - too damned many of them in his short life - but this topped the list. Something had picked through this orphan train with an eye to generating lifelong nightmares. Children, orphans from Central and its surrounding feeder cities, headed to the country and hopefully a better life on trains like this. These children met a death Ed couldn’t even imagine.
A girl lay at his feet, torn in two, and yet no entrails dangled from the rent torso. He didn’t even want to know why not. Several more, it was hard to tell how many because there were so many parts strewn over the seats and into the aisle, draped over the train seats. The windows were nothing but smears of blood. Hughes knelt next to one seat, studying the dead child. Ed couldn’t move to do the same. He, Al and Winry had been orphans - well, maybe not technically in his and Al’s case, but their bastard father had been gone so long they might as well have been. If not for Granny and Izumi, this could have been Al and him on a train like this, not even knowing if they would be together by the end of the ride. That fear had been supplanted by something more terrible on this train.
Ed shook himself, his automail clattering slightly. “Hughes, do you see something?”
Hughes beckoned him forward. Apparently Ed’s rebuffing Hughes’s attempts to shield him, translated into ‘if you want to do this job, then do it.’ “I think something has eaten them.”
Ed did not want to know that. He didn’t want to see how Hughes figured it out, but this was his job and he wasn’t a child any longer. Ed leaned over the back of the seat so he could see. The fabric felt tacky, gluing his fingers down. He refused to look at how much blood was seeping against his skin. “How can you tell?”
Hughes used a pencil to push back a flap of rent flesh and pointed at an exposed rib. “These look like teeth marks to me.”
Ed shut his eyes. For a moment, he saw his own severed leg spurting blood, the hot, sticky wetness of it as he tried to stem the flow. He pushed off the seat, opening his eyes again. At least he had been spared seeing his brother looking like these children. Al had been unspooled, as if a special effect at the movies, terrifying yet bloodless. It had reminded him of that scientist who mixed his body up with that of a fly.
“Edward, are you all right?”
“Are you?” he shot back, pulling himself together. No one was going to see him be weak. Hughes didn’t answer, just studied him from behind his glasses. “I’ll check the next one.”
He didn’t want to, but he went to the closest child, who had merely lost a leg. She was paler than a doll from Xing, bled out. He could see the gnawed end of femur. “Definitely bit off. This couldn’t have been a dog, could it? Not even a pack.”
“Maybe a well-trained pack. There had to be a human to let them in.” Hughes moved to another child, reaching down. He came up with a tuft of hair. He held it out for inspection. It was short, tawny with a hint of a spot on it. “Or mountain cat, but it would still need a human.”
A chill raced through Ed as the past ran him over like a thundering herd. Nina, Douchet, Martel; him washing the snake-chimera’s blood out of Al’s armor. “Hughes, I think I know what it was. A chimera.”
Hughes’s face pinched. “Ed, I know we got here from a Greek god’s altar, but you can’t seriously think a Greek mythological monster came to life.”
Ed waved his hand. “No, not myth. Alchemy.” He sighed, shuddering. “We’re going to need to get Alphonse and the bastard. Mustang might know if they came across a mountain cat experiment after they dismantled the things Bradley did.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but alchemy’s your field. I’ll send someone to get them here now. We should probably stop until they arrive. We could go get warm,” Hughes said. “And you can explain what a chimera is.”
Ed nodded, unable to picture where warmth would come from for two soldiers smeared with the blood of children. How could he explain that some alchemists had taken Tucker’s work and expanded it beyond Tucker’s own sick experiments and turned men and women into monstrous soldiers? Who knew if Roa, Douchet,Martel and their ilk were the only ones out there? Ed bet they weren’t alone. The evident was spattered all around the bus. The chimera was out there. A chimera with a taste for children’s flesh. To stop something like that, Ed would do anything, even work with Roy Mustang without complaining about it.
Author-- cornerofmadness
Fandom -- Fullmetal Alchemist
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns all
Rating -- teen
Characters/Pairing -- Ed, Hughes
Word Count -- 1,015
Warning -- cannibalism
Summary -- Hughes and Ed have to investigate a mass murder on an orphan train.
Author’s Note -- This was written for the spook_me Halloween 2013 round for the prompts of ‘cannibal’ and this lovely tarot card.
Also this will be part of my 203/2014 fmabigbang posted with permission and the understanding I’ll be responsible for going 1,000 words over the challenge word count to make up for it. It’s also worth noting this is in my Sorrow series so this is a 2003 anime/manga mash up. You do not need to read those to understand this.
XXX
“Breathe through your mouth,” Hughes said as Edward climbed into the train car behind him.
“I know,” Ed growled. He wasn’t a little kid any more. Hell this Hughes had never seen him as a kid, not really, not after the horror they’d seen in Germany before making it back to Amestris. Ed had accepted his temporary duty assignment to Investigations with eyes wide open. He knew they’d have to investigate death. After all, Maes Hughes’s death had been investigated by the very branch he worked with. Of course, now, the world thought that death had been faked, and that Earth’s Meinhard Hughes was Maes. Both men coddled him sometimes and Hughes’s admonishment to breathe through his mouth was just one example of it.
The moment he actually got on the train, Ed wanted off. Hughes’s advice wasn’t even very helpful. The metallic, minerally scent of blood slammed into his nasal passages as hard as if driven in by the train itself. Accompanying it was an odor akin to the days Pitt’s grandfather mucked out the barns back home.
No one should have to look at something like this. Edward knew he had seen horrific things - too damned many of them in his short life - but this topped the list. Something had picked through this orphan train with an eye to generating lifelong nightmares. Children, orphans from Central and its surrounding feeder cities, headed to the country and hopefully a better life on trains like this. These children met a death Ed couldn’t even imagine.
A girl lay at his feet, torn in two, and yet no entrails dangled from the rent torso. He didn’t even want to know why not. Several more, it was hard to tell how many because there were so many parts strewn over the seats and into the aisle, draped over the train seats. The windows were nothing but smears of blood. Hughes knelt next to one seat, studying the dead child. Ed couldn’t move to do the same. He, Al and Winry had been orphans - well, maybe not technically in his and Al’s case, but their bastard father had been gone so long they might as well have been. If not for Granny and Izumi, this could have been Al and him on a train like this, not even knowing if they would be together by the end of the ride. That fear had been supplanted by something more terrible on this train.
Ed shook himself, his automail clattering slightly. “Hughes, do you see something?”
Hughes beckoned him forward. Apparently Ed’s rebuffing Hughes’s attempts to shield him, translated into ‘if you want to do this job, then do it.’ “I think something has eaten them.”
Ed did not want to know that. He didn’t want to see how Hughes figured it out, but this was his job and he wasn’t a child any longer. Ed leaned over the back of the seat so he could see. The fabric felt tacky, gluing his fingers down. He refused to look at how much blood was seeping against his skin. “How can you tell?”
Hughes used a pencil to push back a flap of rent flesh and pointed at an exposed rib. “These look like teeth marks to me.”
Ed shut his eyes. For a moment, he saw his own severed leg spurting blood, the hot, sticky wetness of it as he tried to stem the flow. He pushed off the seat, opening his eyes again. At least he had been spared seeing his brother looking like these children. Al had been unspooled, as if a special effect at the movies, terrifying yet bloodless. It had reminded him of that scientist who mixed his body up with that of a fly.
“Edward, are you all right?”
“Are you?” he shot back, pulling himself together. No one was going to see him be weak. Hughes didn’t answer, just studied him from behind his glasses. “I’ll check the next one.”
He didn’t want to, but he went to the closest child, who had merely lost a leg. She was paler than a doll from Xing, bled out. He could see the gnawed end of femur. “Definitely bit off. This couldn’t have been a dog, could it? Not even a pack.”
“Maybe a well-trained pack. There had to be a human to let them in.” Hughes moved to another child, reaching down. He came up with a tuft of hair. He held it out for inspection. It was short, tawny with a hint of a spot on it. “Or mountain cat, but it would still need a human.”
A chill raced through Ed as the past ran him over like a thundering herd. Nina, Douchet, Martel; him washing the snake-chimera’s blood out of Al’s armor. “Hughes, I think I know what it was. A chimera.”
Hughes’s face pinched. “Ed, I know we got here from a Greek god’s altar, but you can’t seriously think a Greek mythological monster came to life.”
Ed waved his hand. “No, not myth. Alchemy.” He sighed, shuddering. “We’re going to need to get Alphonse and the bastard. Mustang might know if they came across a mountain cat experiment after they dismantled the things Bradley did.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but alchemy’s your field. I’ll send someone to get them here now. We should probably stop until they arrive. We could go get warm,” Hughes said. “And you can explain what a chimera is.”
Ed nodded, unable to picture where warmth would come from for two soldiers smeared with the blood of children. How could he explain that some alchemists had taken Tucker’s work and expanded it beyond Tucker’s own sick experiments and turned men and women into monstrous soldiers? Who knew if Roa, Douchet,Martel and their ilk were the only ones out there? Ed bet they weren’t alone. The evident was spattered all around the bus. The chimera was out there. A chimera with a taste for children’s flesh. To stop something like that, Ed would do anything, even work with Roy Mustang without complaining about it.