November 6th, 1984
"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness."
Four wired teenagers sit in the basement of the Elric residence, a game of DD laid out on the table before them.
"What is it?" Al's amber eyes are fixed on Edward. He fiddles anxiously with the end of his sweater.
Meanwhile, Ling 'Fatass' Yao (courtesy of Edward Elric) shovels a handful of salted popcorn into his mouth, "what if it's the Demogorgon? Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon!" he cried through a mouthful as he leaned over the table, knocking over Paninya's drink. All three ignored the string of angry exclamations and profanities that followed. After returning from the kitchen with a cloth to wipe herself down Paninya flumps back into her seat with a sigh. "It's not the Demogorgon," she insists, and Edward continues.
"An army of Troglodytes charge into the chamber!" he suddenly slams a game piece onto the board. From the looks on their faces Edward could glean that everyone was most likely underwhelmed or relieved by this revelation.
"Troglodytes?" Ling asks flatly.
Paninya smiles gloatingly and shoves a forefinger at him, "told ya!" everyone laughs, but Edward is silent.
"Wait a minute..." his eyebrows furrow in mock confusion. The acting isn't convincing, in fact it isn't remotely good, but when you were this invested in the game it apparently didn't matter. "Do you hear that? That... that sound? Boom... boom... BOOM!" the three listeners jerk back as Edward smacks his palms against the table. The game pieces nearly fall over and Paninya has to grab her replenished drink to stop it from spilling again. "That didn't come from the Troglodytes, no, that– that came from something else," Edward gave them all a serious look, nodding his head. There was a long moment of silence, the air eerie and suffocating. (Anyone else would've scoffed and shook their head at the unnecessary exaggeration). Alphonse, Paninya and Ling spare each other worried glances.
(What was it?)
Edward drew a breath, and in one swift movement put down another game piece. The table shakes. This piece is a dragonesque creature with two heads sprouting from two snake-like necks, it's arms ending in long tentacles and it's thick tail forking off into two pointed ends.
"The Demogorgon!"
"We're in deep shit," Ling threw his hands up in hopeless defeat and leaned back in his chair. Alphonse nervously drummed his fingers on the table, brow creased thoughtfully as he assessed his next move, and Paninya simply shook her head in disbelief.
Edward whips around to look at his brother, "Al, your action?!"
"I don't know!"
"Fireball him!" yells Paninya.
Alphonse looks uncertain, "I'd have to roll a thirteen or higher!"
"No–! Too risky! Cast a protection spell," Ling says and Paninya rolls her eyes, nettled.
"Don't be a pussy. Fireball him!"
"Cast protection!"
"Enough!" Edward struck the tabletop with his fists, "the Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you. . . boom!"
"Fireball him!"
"– Another stomp. Boom!"
"Cast protection!"
" – He roars in anger!"
"Ahh... umm..." it was impossible for Alphonse to hear his thoughts over the loud and frenetic demands to 'cast this' or 'use that' so he briefly thinks 'screw it', picks up two die, shakes them in his hands and rolls, "fireball!" he yells, and the pair of cubes fly off of the table. All four of them leapt from their seats and began to search frantically on their hands and knees.
"Oh, shit!"
"Where'd it go?"
"Where is it?"
"I don't know!"
"Is it a thirteen?"
"I don't know!"
Edward had started to search by the bottom of the staircase. At the sound of a door opening he looked up and saw the figure of his mother in the doorway. "Ed, Al, it's late! Your friends need to go home!" she calls, and before her son can protest she's gone again. Ed glanced at the three of them, quite torn, before he scampers up to the second floor, placing his hands on the stairs for extra balance along the way.
"Just give us twenty more minutes."
Edward's mother was at the kitchen counter, making tomorrow's school lunch; even with her back turned to him the severity in her voice was palpable. Trisha was a force to be reckoned with when she wanted to be. "It's a school night, Edward. You can finish next weekend."
"But that'll ruin the flow!"
"Edward."
"I'm serious, mom! The campaign took two weeks to plan," he suddenly wilted, "...how was I supposed to know it was gonna take ten hours?"
Trisha finally turned around, eyebrows raised incredulously. "You've been playing for ten hours?"
"I– yeah, but... twenty more minutes! ... Please?" Edward never got an answer, but the way Trisha drew her lips in a tight line and crossed her arms said enough. Tell your friends to go home and get yourself to bed before I ground you.
The blonde sighed and went back to the basement without another word, Trisha smiled sweetly and returned to the lunches. "Did you find them?" he asked on the way down. Alphonse nodded his head, dispirited.
"It got me... the Demogorgon. I rolled a seven."
"Shit," Edward groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. He then turned to Ling and Paninya, pointing behind him with his thumb, "alright losers, time to go. Mom's orders."
"Yeah, yeah," Paninya stretched her arms above her head and sighed happily at the sound of joints popping. What a long campaign that had been. "See you at school," she pulled on her raincoat and backpack – she only ever wore one strap on her shoulder, Edward had noticed a long time ago; it looked cool – and quickly ascended the stairs. Everyone waved goodbye. Ling did the same, with the addition of putting on his baseball cap and quickly picking up the pizza box that was left on the couch. "Anyone want the last slice?" he asked, but knowing Ling he would eat it regardless.
"Nah," Edward waved dismissively and Alphonse shook his head, seemingly disinterested. Edward knew better; he was thinking. About what, he didn't know. The brothers followed Ling up the stairs and went to the front of the house, where Paninya was waiting on her bike. Ling, with the pizza box tucked securely underneath his arm, put up the kickstand of his own bike with the heel of his shoe and pedalled off into the night with her.
"See ya!"
"Bye!"
"You still haven't given me your X–Men 134!"
"I'll bring it tomorrow, Pipsqueak!"
"Shut the fuck up, fatass!"
Alphonse shook his head, arms wrapped around his shoulders to try and protect himself from the intensity of the biting air. "I'm going to bed," he mumbled, stifling a yawn and shuffling back inside. Edward followed.
"Yeah, me too," he closed the door behind him and headed for the staircase. Somehow he'd managed to say 'goodnight, mom' in perfect unison with Al – eliciting an 'aww' from his mother – and that was embarrassing so he was already gone before Trisha could fit in another word. After promptly slamming his bedroom door, Edward stripped down until he was only in boxers and odd socks (Trisha would've nearly killed him for that one if she had noticed), and then quite happily fell into bed. There was no feeling better in the world, Edward had decided, than being able to lay down after a long, tiring day. Your bones ached and your eyelids felt heavy and sometimes you just felt too hot or too cold but the bedsheets and soft pillows beneath your head made a great assuagement for your discomfort.
Edward smiled happily to himself and switched off his lamp, about to roll onto his side and drift off into a much needed sleep before he heard the staticky voice of Alphonse through his walkie–talkie.
"Brother?"
Edward murmured something unintelligible. Grudgingly he took the walkie–talkie from his nightstand, bringing it up to his face and pressing down on the PTT (push–to–talk) button. "Mm, what is it?" he asked tiredly and released the button, waiting for a response.
"... Goodnight, I love you." That reply had taken a little too long in Edward's opinion. It felt like Al wanted to say something else. And, even if he was the sweetest kid Edward knew, he didn't usually say 'I love you' before bed.
"Uhm, yeah– goodnight, love you too..." he frowned, "are you okay?"
Another pause.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Something was wrong, but Edward chose not to press for details. Alphonse wasn't usually ashamed to show his wounds, so he would let his brother bring it up when he felt comfortable enough. A bad idea, the older one would later realise.
"... Kay, see you tomorrow." He put the walkie–talkie down and finally tucked himself underneath the sheets, falling asleep instantly.
It was six in the morning when Edward was gently shook awake.
It was six in the morning when Edward, bleary–eyed and delirious from other–worldly dreams, noticed that his mother had been crying.
It was six in the morning when he sat up in bed and saw the Police Chief, Roy Mustang (bastard), stood in the doorway with a solemn look.
(What the hell was going on?)
It was six in the morning when Edward had learned that Alphonse was missing.
If you haven't noticed, yes, this was originally going to be a Stranger Things AU, hence the beginning of this chapter basically copying the ST script word for word. I have no idea how DD works and I didn't want to get anything inaccurate, which is why I chose to do that. Usually I don't copy scripts when writing AUs and this was probably the only exception. Obviously, this isn't a Stranger Things AU anymore, I've decided to wing it with the plot but I have a good understanding of how I'll wrap this all up. There's going to be a lot of Stranger Things–inspired elements though, since the show was the original motive of this story.
I don't like putting OCs in fan–fictions but they're simply there to fill the gaps – I won't make them major characters unless absolutely necessary.
Another thing: reviews are going to make me update a hell of a lot quicker. Juuust saying.