I'm sitting on the train, traveling through the country. As I stare out the window, I'm faced with a world I know all too well. A world that has been nothing but cruel to me for as long as I can remember.
I look out to the mountains, the mountains that stand so tall the clouds and fog cut off your view to their tops. I imagine climbing these mountains, getting away from this existence I call a life. I forget though that no matter how far I travel, my nightmares will follow. I will find no rest, no forgiveness and no redemption from even the so called Gods above.
I peer out the window of my train car, and I see old farmers in their rice patties, pushing their weeding devices, working hard and hoping for their attempts to be rewarded at the end of the season. But life is not always fare, and that's what keeps everyone going.
"Miss?" I look up to see a woman in a uniform. Not a military uniform, but not a uniform of the employees aboard the train either. She beautiful. Long red hair and deep brown eyes I imagine any man getting lost in. Her facial structure is smooth but I can see the roughness beyond her eyes, the roughness that I know my own eyes have.
"May I help you?" There's something clearly off about the woman. Her smile is clearly fake and it looks as if she's trying to hold herself back from either attacking me or yelling at me. I grab the handle of my bag, it's heavy but I could use it if I have to defend myself.
"The train is not going all the way to central today, there seems to be a malfunction with the engine and its stopping in a small city right on the outskirts of central, and it is still a day's horse ride away." Her information seemed farfetched. I've been riding this train from the East to Central for years. There has never been anything more than a delay.
"Is that so? I'll have to find accommodations when we reach our final destination then, thank you for the information." I make sure to keep a smile on my face as to not to alarm the woman.
"That's just it, I actually have somewhere for you to stay. Some friends of mine actually own an inn in Delani, where we are stopping. I saw that you were traveling alone and thought I'd offer." The woman's smile still does not look genuine.
"I would rather not put anyone out. I would prefer to find a place to stay on my own." I look at her and I see a flicker of annoyance before she replaces it with her generic smile.
The woman nods to someone behind me and when I look my eyes widen with the view of a face I never imagined I'd see again. I feel my muscles tense and the hair on the back of my neck raise. I stare into the eyes of the man that I thought loved me, the man that also killed my best friend.
His face is unreadable, as it always has been. I have to force my eyes to blink. My knuckles are turning white from holding onto my automail case far too tight. I loosen it and look from this beautiful woman next to me and back to him. I cannot read either of their faces except for that the woman seems clearly unhappy with whatever circumstance she has seemed to drag me into.
I see William nodded to the woman, I look up as she is indicating her hand towards him.
"The boss would like you to join him in the back of the car." Her voice is pleasant but her face is still indicating she'd rather not be speaking with me.
"Thank you, but I think I will stay where I am," I look back at William. "And I also think I'll be finding my own accommodations for the evening, I do appreciate the offer though." She stares me in the eyes and then she's drawing a transmutation circle on the seat next to me. And the reaction is faster than I imagined, the seat turns to bars around the one I'm now standing next to.
The bars go all the way around my seat and myself, encasing me next to the window I was just peering out of. She draws another transmutation circle and this time my guard is up. The window behind me burst, shattering into a million glass pieces, cutting at my back and arms because I had stood up.
I'm now fighting with the pressure trying to suck me outside as the train is still moving. I reach down for my case, pushing a button I built into the case myself and my sword flies out of the side and I catch it midair.
"What do you think you can do with that, you're already stuck." Her smile is now sinister. I look at her and smile. She obviously has no idea who she is dealing with.
"Kat, I told you not to make a fuss." I turn, hearing William speak for the first time in two years. My heartstrings tug at his voice, but he is looking at Kat, clearly annoyed and somewhat bored.
"We don't need her. She's weak and far too young for our group." She yells at him without looking away from me.
"You know nothing about me." Her face looks like she thinks she's tough shit, which makes me even more excited to kick her ass. "But you're about to." I do no wait for her to respond as I leave my case where it is, and jump out the window backwards, sword in hand.
I'm midair when I maneuver the blade of my sword between my teeth, and clap my hands. My transmutation starts on the train I just jumped from. A rope made of entwined threads and wire forms and I use the magnetic force around me to bring it closer. I grab the rope and use my pure strength to pull myself as hard as I can, I start flying forwards towards the train car with William and Kat inside.
I aim for the window opposite the one I was sitting at, hoping she's still standing there in awe at the fact that I jumped out a train window. I grab my sword as I fly towards the window. I grab the hilt and place my other hand on the back of the hilt to brace for impact.
The sword hits the window and it shatters. I had enough momentum to break it when I collided with it. Kat is still standing there where I left her but she's looking in William's direction. Her eyes grow wide when she sees me still midair, flying in through the window. She tries to reach for the next chair to make yet another transmutation circle. But I kick her in the gut and she falls. I pin her, the tip of my sword on her neck.
She's breathing heavy and I can see the pure astonishment in her eyes as she looks up at me.
"Sasha, that's enough." I tense when he says my name. My anger over takes me and I glare down at Kat, pushing my blade into her skin, just breaking the skin. She glares back at me. "You aren't going to kill her, and you know it." He pauses and I hate him for being right. "You and I both know it's true."
"Don't pretend to know me Will." But he is right.
"Put the sword down," he says, and clearly wanting to say more, I cut him off.
"I used alchemy didn't I? Despite my past, I could kill her, and I would feel no remorse." I'm still looking Kat in the eyes, and she's still staring back at me.
"You're a Rockbell, of course you would feel remorse." I hear him step closer. And when he puts his hand on my shoulder I turn my sword on him faster than he expected because he freezes. A bit of emotion shows through his eyes, a shimmer of surprise, but only for a moment and it's gone.
Kat tries to defend him but I snap my figures on my left hand, a small dagger transforms from my bracelet and in a second I'm grasping it in my left hand, pointed at her neck again. I'm in the middle, my sword pointed at William, and my dagger at Kat.
"You've gotten better." He has a smile on his face, and my heart melts a bit and he takes the chance at my vulnerability and hits the sword away from him. I lose balance and curse under my breath and am up against the train door. William encasing me in his muscular arms as he looks down into my eyes.
"Get away from me." I nearly yell, but I cannot look away from his eyes. I feel all the feelings I've pushed down for two years, feelings I felt I had lost
"I know you're going to find your sister." His face turns serious, and I've only ever seen it turn to stone like that once. I become speechless, and just stare into his eyes. "She's in danger, and I've come to help."