A Bitter Taste in the Mouth
The Butterfly-winged Rat

Chapter, the first,
Title, The Never ending Silence

These are the morbid tales of innocence lost to the sins known as the Homunculus.
Once you begin their tragedy, there's no erasing what's been done.

A homunculus never really dies.

Unfortunately for people like Edward Elric, when the body of a homunculus is destroyed, his soul is sent back to the gate where we will wait until the time comes for us to return. We collect everything we need in order to regenerate from the sacrifices alchemists make, or trades as you might call them. But when the time comes, we can go back.

It's not as if we know where exactly we are or who we're with when we're over there, but I'm glad now that I'm back.

I like that I'm not alone.

I have envy. And, though he might not be Sloth or Mommy, the truth is, I'd rather have Envy over anyone else.

---

Central may be the middle of everything here, but it hides a dirty little secret. Located in the darkest, most desolate corner of the city was what were referred to as the circles of Hell. Quite a fancy name, but they're nothing more then slums. A pitiful place where the lowest of low seek refuge, and Envy and I are no exception. This was where we found 'home'.

He chose this place even before we had seen in, and the minute we did, he was nowhere near disappointed. It was like he planned everything out from the beginning.

Our residence was something Envy insisted particularly on. It was a decrepit building, just like everything else around it, but it was where a group of thugs made their headquarters. I swear you can still smell the stench of their rotting corpses from under the floorboard. Envy keeps promising to clean them out, but ends up forgetting in the next ten minutes after he does.

Everyday here is more or less a repetition of the day before, and that suits us just fine. It's like Envy would say, it isn't that we can't move out… just, why would we want to?

---

As the sun began to sink behind gray lifeless clouds, a little girl of no more than eight ran out of her home, sneaking past her family in haste. She knew her parents would never agree to what she was about to do, but she was going to do it for her sake. She didn't want them to suffer, and if it meant lowering her worth as a person, she'd gladly do it. They couldn't reprimand her for that, could they?

She made her way through the streets and into a back alley somewhere, all the while hiding he face incase anyone were to recognize her.

"You're late."

The girl spun around, weary of everything around her. Envy loomed over her in a predatory manner, studying her hungrily with every inch he moved closer. She was obviously frightened, but didn't back away from him. Maybe she should have.

Taking her by the wrist, the Homunculus dragged her through a small door by the end of the alley and into a dark and dingy room which had nothing more than a bed and a couch in it. She wrinkled her nose. What was that putrid odor?

Forcing her onto the bed, Envy wasted no time getting to the point. "You know what you have to do." He said harshly, and she obeyed.

Kneeling in the center of the bed, she lifted her dress and began pulling down her underwear as Envy watched on, his face void of any emotion. For a moment, she hesitated, but she kept reminding herself why she was doing this. Her underwear came of and was tossed down onto the floor and forgotten. Trembling in fear, her heart raced faster and faster to the point that she thought it would explode any minute.

"Get on all fours." An amused Envy commanded. This was it…

Taking a deep breath, she did exactly as she was told and positioned herself exactly as Envy wanted. Closing her eyes, she braced herself for what was coming next. The bed creaked as weight was added to it. He was right behind her now. His hand moved against her thighs and then… it came.

She screamed. Something had gone wrong. Envy laughed with an unimaginable cruelty. Opening her eyes, her mind stopped when she saw just what envy had done. She had been stabbed.

Blood trickled down her legs and onto the bed, staining the sheets far beyond repair. Then, it hit her: the smell of blood. That was exactly what that pungent stench was.

Slow to react, she was unable to do anything when Envy suddenly cut her open until the stomach. Tears welled from her eyes as she shrieked and begged for mercy. Oh goodness, she was going to die. Her request was unanswered as Envy grabbed hold of her hair and began smothering her face into the bed with as much strength as he could exert. "Shut up." He hissed. "You're too noisy."

Flailing around in utter panic only annoyed envy more. He forcefully dragged the knife up to her chest and she slowly began weakening. She would be dead soon. However that way of ending it wasn't going to satisfy Envy. Fixing his hold on her head, He snapped her neck, pulling it from side to side until he was sure the bones connecting her head to her body were completely severed.

There was no more moving around, no more muffled noises. There was no more life in that girl's body.

Pulling his bloodied knife from her chest, he rolled her limp body to the side so she was facing him. There was blood that trailed down from her lips and down to the rest of her face. Maybe she could even be called beautiful this way. He licked the knife clean and proceeded to tear the skin of her neck. With a quick slicing of flesh, he successfully tore her head off of her lifeless body.

Envy held it by the hair and took one last look at it before throwing the severed body part in my direction. "Here, you like them young, don't you?" he confirmed as a merciless smirk played on his face.

I looked down at it with apathetic eyes. I had no remorse for this kind of scum. She was nothing more than another pawn in Envy's wicked games. "You don't even know her name, do you…" I commented off-handedly.

He shrugged as he walked closer to me, one of her legs in hand. "Who knows?" He stood in front of me, casually taking a bite of meat from the leg before handing it in my direction, making sure the bare flesh caressed my face and lips. Gesturing me to take it, he unceremoniously dropped it into my hands and leaned forward, kissing me with his blood-stained lips.

We lingered there for a while longer, dinner completely forgotten in my grasp. That was just too bad for Lindy.

---

Rina looked all over for her daughter, fearing the worst, but by the end of the day, she knew it was hopeless. Returning home, there was a bundle wrapped in cloth with a piece of paper underneath it.

"To Mama. I got us dinner!" It read, but Rina would never know just how exactly that meat came to be.

Maybe that was how it was meant to be.

---

What a pairing. I love them and hope they don't mind that I'm using them to practice writing murders. For those who didn't get it, Lindy is the little girl and this story is in Wrath's Point of View. (My first time to write first person in ages…)

There's no lemon in this baby! You can't keep me down! XD