Ed was afraid of the dark.
He wasn't afraid of anything that may happen in the dark, as most people were. He could deal with burglars and killers easily, no problem. No, he was afraid of the dark itself. The overwhelming darkness, pressing in on him from all sides, isolating him from others. He couldn't see further than his own hand, and it terrified him. Things had happened in the dark, and they could happen again, and Ed would be powerless to it. His hearing, quite sharp in the daytime, was as strong as a bat's in the dark, picking up on every single floorboard creak, every rustle of the leaves outside, and a shiver ran down his spine every time Al got up to simply go to the toilet.
At night, Ed found it excruciatingly difficult to fall asleep. His eyelids would droop, and he would feel sleepy, yet even the quietest sound startled him, making it impossible to sleep for the next ten minutes or so. His eyes would see things weren't there; blood dripping from the ceiling, splattering his face, dark silhouettes of enemies outside the window, eyes with purple irises swarming around his bed, terrorising him. As a result, he only fell asleep when dawn had kicked in, and he could laugh those terrors away in the light. Everyone at the military was concerned about him, even the Colonel, who had brought Ed into his office one day and asked him about the dark circles under his eyes. But Ed wasn't about to tell anyone about his achluophobia, not even Al. He was the Fullmetal Alchemist, the Hero of the People! Not some little kid, snivelling in the dark, afraid of the big, bad monsters... Right?
Yet he couldn't help feeling like a little kid whenever he lay in bed at night, wanting nothing more than to run into the loving arms of his mother and cry. But Trisha Elric was dead, and she wouldn't come back. Ed couldn't cry into anyone's arms- he had to stay strong and be brave.
But he fell apart in the dark.
The dark brought out all his fears, when the light pushed them away. He saw things in the dense darkness; Al's body, bloody and lifeless, followed by Winry, Hawkeye, Mustang... And nothing happy he tried to think about could push away those images, for they had as much possibility of being true as they had for being false. Hawkeye and Mustang were soldiers and close to the Elrics, so they had quite a high chance of being killed. Winry was friends with the brothers, and could be used as a hostage, or killed as a warning. And Al... Al was directly connected to the enemy, and he was Ed's brother... All of these people could very well have a death sentence upon their heads, could very well have died at that moment, and Ed would be none the wiser, blind to all in the overpowering darkness.
The Homunculi weren't his enemy, however sinister they were. Throw them into the light, and Ed could defeat them before they knew what was happening. Give them darkness, and Ed would freeze, petrified, unable to fight back.
No, the darkness was his true enemy.
But then, where was his saviour?
Where was the light?
A/N- Hello, people! Yeah... I have Writer's Block. So I'll probably be writing a gazillion oneshots...
On a happier note, I turned 13 this week! :D I'm now as old as everyone else in my class! And STILL short! I flew a plane, got a manga (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney- You really should play it!) and got an Ed plushie! I'm waiting for my Ed bag to arrive through the post. I should turn 13 next year too!
And... In my weird mind, Ed acquired a fear of the dark.
Until next time, folks!