A/N: This is a weird poem, even by my standards. Oh well..
Behind Curtain Number Two
There is blue…then red.
The brief euphoria vanishes.
As if the rain came
And swept it down the drains –
And indeed,
In the silence following the cries of horror,
I hear the thundering outdoors
Beneath the hammering of my own heart.
(Wrong.
There was something wrong.)
The blue faded – vanished.
I held by breath
With eyes poised –
(Did I dare?
Yes.
I had to know.)
The curtain swung back
In the black gloom
To unveil a figure
Sprawled.
– human?
– not human.
Red eyes glowed.
(Failed.
We had failed.
I had failed.)
There was a creak –
A cry of pain –
As the broken doll twitched
Like the spider caught under a child's heel,
Those glowing red eyes tilting back,
Mouth agape –
(It wasn't human at all!)
She…it –
Broken, incomplete, inhuman –
Soaked with a liquid I could not define:
Blood? No, not blood. Her blood
Was moist and dense with toll:
The sickness that had seized her from limb to limb,
The pain, the wait,
The coughs that had wracked
Her pale and beautiful form…
(Not human.
What had we done?)
Eyes frozen
Wide in horror.
She…it…
Looked at me
Once
Then became still to another scream –
One of the past –
And my heart stopped.
(Alphonse.
Where was Alphonse?)
Al was gone…
Mum was gone…
No! It couldn't –
My mistake –
My baby brother –
Blood dragged across the floor
From a stump:
My stump.
I had no leg to stand upon;
I crawled
To the armor that could hold him,
Keep him safe,
Protect him, me…us.
Circles formed,
Rings bound –
A clap!
Cold metal, warm blood…
Soul. His soul.
My heart, my body, my mind…
We all begged that fateful night.
(Please! Give him back!
He's my little brother!
He's all I have!)
Red eyes…
Always those red eyes…
("Brother?")
My mother,
My brother,
My sins –
And that little bandaid…
("Brother? Are you okay?")
That held this –
Our, my, life together
Within.
("Just memories, Al.")