Alright. This is my first Pride!Ed fiction. I realize most of these are based soley off of BBI's distinction, but i haven't played it or watched summaries yet. This Pride!Ed is based soley on the idea of Ed's death, return, and him turning on his brother. Rest assured this fic will contain Angst and Violence, as well as graphic adult scenes. If you are squeemish, please! Do not read this.
The Title to this story is an allusion to "The Marque of the Red Death" By Edgar Allan Poe. There are eight rooms. Seven represent the seven sins, whilst the last represents death. At the end of the story, Red Death and the prince end up in the last room, where they fight, and death ends up winning. If you've never read the story, it's amazing and i reccomend it :)
lol now that I've bored you with that, please enjoy. Keep in mind I've never done this Type of fiction before, and don't be scared to tell me you hate it ^-^
The Eighth Room
Chapter 1
Enter: My Perfect Son
If I ever lose myself... Do the wrong things... You'll stop me, won't you?'
Al paced himself as he walked, taking the time to look out at the river. It was dusk, and the sunset sparkled against the water in serene golden light. It reminded him so much of...
His hands hurt, they were clenched so tightly. He turned away, only to have the wind blow blond hair into his face. His own hair, but it looked like...
Al sighed. Days like these, he saw no reason to walk home, eat, sleep, and get up the next morning. Was there any reason to get up the next morning? Four years ago, the only thing that had mattered was...
His brother, Edward.
They did everything, went everywhere together. But after... that night. Things changed... Edward died. They had found nothing but a pool of blood, and a red jacket flung over the rail beside it. A monument in itself, or... one could suppose it was a grave. Perhaps the marker to the grave? It looked purposeful, and God only knew if the one who had done it meant it as a joke.
Al sniffled, and only then realized he was crying. It wasn't anything new, he just didn't like when it came about randomly. Maybe if he hadn't been wallowing in such morbid thoughts, he wouldn't be fighting not to break down on the street. It was cruel, to leave him like that. Sometimes he truly hated his brother for dying. But mostly, he just missed him, and desperately wanted him back.
Al sighed upon reaching his door. This was routine, what he did everyday. Every morning he woke up and went into the kitchen, made coffee and some breakfast, got dressed, and headed to work.
work.
That's right, he was in the military now. The Soul alchemist, ironic, right? He still worked under General Roy Mustang, in his brother's place... It felt as if he was a perminant replacement. But somewhere, where they couldn't see, Ed was there.
And he would come home.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Of course I will, brother. I'm always here for you...
"Yo, O'Chibi-san!"
Pride looked up from his book, hair falling into his dead golden eyes. He stared at Envy for a moment before sighing.
Why do you call me that?" He asked monotonously. "My name is, and always has been; Pride." He closed his book and stood, smiling innocently. Envy smirked.
"I think the name suits you, Chibi."
Pride pouted, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm not small, Envy! I'm just... not very vertically inclined." Envy smirked, about to retort, but Pride skipped that one step forward and flung his arms around the other sin's neck, kissing him softly. Envy leaned in, but Pride pulled away, giggling. "O, c'mon, Chibi! That's-
"Excuse me, boys."
They turned, Pride still hanging off Envy's neck, the turn causing his legs to dangle comically as they both stared at Lust blankly.
"Go away."
"We're busy."
Lust smiled, crossing her arms. "Father wants to see you two. Now hurry up, before something... bad happens." And with that, she turned and sauntered out, and Pride, unable to ignore childish urges, stuck his tongue out at her. Envy just smiled and grabbed his legs, carrying him bridal style, making the younge sin blush.
"Envy, I have two perfect legs, i can walk on my own."
"It's much more fun carrying you."
So they, well, Envy walked down the corridors, down the blue-carpeted halls and to a grand white door. He sighed, and Pride snuggled deeper into his chest. Envy lifted his foot and gently nudged the door open, walking through with Pride still in his arms. Tehy announced their presence with a 'Hn' and a whimper, and Father looked up, smiling.
"Ah, yes. Pride, my perfect son, come here."
Envy released the younger sin, and Pride walked forward gracefully, knealing down, completely submissive. There was no sign of the innocent little boy who had been carried here. Only a loyal servant, at his master's... Father's beck and call.
"Yes, Father?"
The old man smiled softly, and placed his hand on Pride's head, looking up at Envy.
"I have a job for you two."
Envy stood, and he stared, arms crossed and passive. He stared at Pride, who's golden hair was slick with blood. He loosely held a sythe in his right hand, blood dripping down the handle... off the tip. His golden eyes were blank and uncaring, and blood stood out on his skin as vibrant as his ouroboros.
"Are you ready to leave, Pride?"
He shook his head, turning back to Envy with a confused look.
"He said to kill... everyone who screamed." He turned back to the bloodshed, in which was a small girl, holding her dead mother's hand. She was shaking... and crying, but... "This one didn't scream."
Pride turned to Envy, who was just staring. "Do I kill her too?"
Envy looked at him blankly, before lowering his head and sighing. When he looked back up he smirked. "You don't have to Pride... Why don't we go get something sweet, ne?" Pride's dead eyes immediately lit up, and he giggled, once again becoming the innocent little boy.
"Is Envy paying for Pride?" He asked, looking as cute as possible. Envy blushed, and grinned. "No way, Chibi, you can pay for yourself."
With that, he turned and started walking. Pride looked back at the little girl once more. The human looked up at him, still crying. "M-Mr-?
With a lash of his sythe, the girl lay dead on the floor, Pride watching passivley as her blood mixxed with other's.
"Pride!"
He smiled, turning back and running.
"Coming!"
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
The door closed with a defined click, and Al turned to Mustang. The man stared at him as he walked to the front of his desk and saluted.
"Sir!"
Mustang smiled for a moment, before it faultered, and was turned into a frown. "I'm sorry Al, it seems... we have homonculi in our midst." Al's eyes widened, then hardened. "Sir-
"I know Al. I'm assigning you to this case. Find out who's murdering these people... Find out who would chop up a little girl." Al's eyes widened again, and he gasped. "H-How old was she?"
"Three."
Al brought his hand up to stop the bile. How could someone do that... to a little girl? Before he could think too much about it, Mustang smiled and stood, putting a hand on Al's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Al. We'll stop this person." Al nodded, and gave a flat smile, before grabbing the assignment folder and turning to leave. As his hand reached up for the door knob, he couldn't help but bite back a sigh. Someone was clearly demented...
He walked along the streets, hugging his jacket close to him. It was freezing, go figure. He was headed toward the house the men were murdered in. Apparently everyone was cut with something... really sharp. There were lacerations everywhere on each victim.
(A/N: Rofl this part was SOOOO hard to write! Mainly because I was listening to Vic Mignogna sing the DBZ them song, and kept getting up to dance and sing/scream along with eht :D)
He stopped, looking. There it was. The house itself wasn't very big, only two stories. But looking up at it, Al could only picture the family that was slaughtered. How heartless and cold did one have to be to... He thought back about what the General had said. Three years old. He truly hope whoever had done this was suffering. Sighing, he stepped up onto the porch, and reached for the handle.
A light flash of Golden claimed his attention.
"...Hey, Al."
Alright, so elaboration on the title (I'm sure everyone wants to hear this, right? lol) There are eight rooms: Blue-Pride, Purple-Lust, Green-Envy, Orange-Wrath, White-Greed, Violet-Gluttony, and Black-Sloth. The eighth room is Scarlet for Death. The order signifies progression of blue to black, day to night, life and death. The rooms go in this order from east to west, indicating sunrise and sunset, Begining and End, Birth and Death. In the eighth room, the scarlet one, there is a black clock that chimes every hour until midnight, indicating the passage and extinction of time, another means of end/Death. The Prince wants to evade and escape death, so he seals himself inside this hall, and near these rooms, to block out the world. He has brought with him jesters and ladies and beautiful people. He throws a ball one night, and a figure shows up with blood splattered robes and a funeral shroud, along with a mask that greatly ressemble a corpse. The prince grows angry and orders the figure captured, but no one will touch it, allowing it to pass through seven rooms, he stops at the eighth. Outraged, the prince draws his dagger and lunges at the figure, only to have it turn and kill him. The revelers press on, removing the mask only to find there is no face underneath. The figure is assumed to be Red Death itself, and each reveler succumbs to the disease, bleeding from every orphas and opening until they die. The clock chimes 11 times and breaks, indicating Time will no longer passs, and in turn, symbolizing death. After reading the story, these are the conclusions i came to ^-^
The reason I chose this story as an allusion is because
1. It has a certain poetic smbolism that i couldn't resist
2. The overall theme: "And Darkness and Death held illiminitive dominion over them all."
3. It IS pretty nifty ;)
PLEASE REVIEW! I really needs some feedback T~T