The Longest Night
I.
- Once upon an evening dreary –
A priori:
- characters not mine
- beware bad grammar and strange expressions
That said, please grab some chocolate, sit back and enjoy this product of my overactive imagination.
A scream; shrill and fearful.
"They're here!" Breda yelled, twisting around with unexpected agility, running down the staircase leading into the mansion's cellar. Boots stomping, armour clunking – all droned out by the frantic pleading of my heart.
"Let them be alright, please, let them…"
But nothing could dispel the gruesome pictures my mind supplied me with – images of brother lying face-down in an ever-growing pool of blood or worse…
Corridors should never stretch that far, should never be that dark or worn-down.
Falman, already hot our heels, unchecked his gun. "Careful! They've got hostages!"
Oh, like any of us could ever forget THAT.
"Dear God, what is to come, I hope, I wish, just this once, even if…"
Worry in Havok's eyes, sweat on Fury's face. Heart beating a mile a second, exhaustion tearing on tense nerves. Anticipation clouded my judgement, only desperation, sheer desperation to find out, what was awaiting us further down.
If hope or nightmares prevailed…
Two days ago, Lieutenant Hawkeye had mysteriously disappeared.
One day later, Ni-san hadn't come home in the evening.
Today, Colonel Mustang hadn't turned up in the office, only given a ring, relayed an address and hung up hurriedly.
He'd sounded shaken up, Fury had said. Badly so.
And whatever could faze someone as calm as the Colonel inevitably scared me. Not only me, though. Everyone had looked so fearfully pale, standing motionlessly in an empty office and feeling frighteningly displaced with the lack of familiar faces – a lack of people confident enough to take charge; seemed as if somebody suddenly had pulled the ground out from underneath our feet and left us hanging in limbo - hardly daring to draw a breath.
What should we do – the question nobody dared to voice.
Logically, yes, there were a lot of things we ought to have done. Contacted Mustang's superior officers, filed missing person reports for Hawkeye and Ed – yet in my eyes this was unhelpful bureaucracy.
Wouldn't calm my mind, wouldn't smother the worries, wouldn't quell the rumours.
Lieutenant Hawkeye had been working on a case concerning the sudden appearance of chimera carcasses – illegal transmutations by some mad alchemist, disgusting but not too disturbing to the outsider…
Far too disturbing for anyone who had been involved with the Tucker case. Anyone who'd seen Nina's tragic fate, had noted General Gran's degree of involvement…
It hadn't been a surprise, really, how serious Hawkeye took that case. How deeply even the Colonel and my brother became involved – until their disappearances, that is.
Had I had a body, I'd have been shivering.
It had been Lieutenant Havok who levelled a careless glance at the grey skies outward, frowned and said, acting unconcerned:
"Looks like it's going to rain. Colonel will be useless then – guess we should better give him a hand…"
We all followed. No commanding officers were informed, no back-up required.
Not even the entire army united behind my back could have provided relief. No matter how powerful their weapons, how vast their numbers… Not, when Mustang had sounded so scared on the phone. When the strongest people I knew had all gone missing without a trace, when I had such a bad feeling about this.
Stormy autumn skies greeted us outside, bleak landscapes and the door behind me fell shut with an odd sense of finality.
Another scream cut through the broken-down building, echoing through empty halls and well worn rooms lacking every trace of furniture or human inhabitants.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Shrill with desperation, frantic and sounding so awfully young. Edward's voice, and my heart faltered. Fear cursed through me, slowing my steps; and in horror, Breda too, did gasp.
"That's…"
" STOOOOOOOOP THAT! STOP! STOP! PLEASE STOP THIS!!!"
Completely horrified I was reminded of the only other time when brother's voice had been that frantic; reduced to begging and screaming…
"GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER!"
NO. Nononononono… DON'T!
Blood across my mind's eye, darkness and smoke intruding in my vision; memories refusing to be suppressed, wrapping themselves around my consciousness, rendering me almost immobile.
Dear god, please! Please let ni-san be alright, please let this be just a nightmare, please let me wake up, wake up, wake up, please…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Chalk-white, Falman brushed past me, gun raised and next thing I knew, the door exploded inwards. A wall of smoke and a rain of wood splinters, a cacophony of voices assaulting my ears, pictures playing in my head, mocking me with horrible scenarios, suggesting moving shapes in the smoke, a tilting of the ground and I felt dizzy.
"Colonel!" Fury yelled and I turned, frightened by the shock in his voice, yet unable to quench a spark of hope at the familiar term.
Laughter from another end of the room, somebody roared, yet I had no ears or eyes for anything; frantically searching for my brother…
A clang and the Lieutenant sank to his knees besides an unmoving lump in blood-stained rags, hardly a trace of clear blue visible anymore. Liquid squeaked under Fury's soles and with growing horror I beheld the spreading pool of blood underneath the still body. Calm, unfazed Colonel Mustang had been reduced to some grotesque parody of a broken doll, motionless, white-faced but for those dripping red streaks, not even a reaction to the hand gently shaking his shoulder.
If Mustang was like this, my brother…
Darkness surged up.
"It's done! DONE! DONE!"
Yelling in the background, echoing wildly, spinning; hollow and insane.
I felt as if I was falling, a huge, bottomless pit opened up within me, blackness, blackness and nothing more, the picture blurring in front of my eyes, until a hoarse voice summoned me back more brutally than any slap could ever have done.
"I won't …"
Ni-san.
Barely standing upright, shoulders hunched and his back turned to us.
I doubted he had even noticed the door being blown of his hinges, but my heart froze as I saw him swaying, raising a blood-stained hand away from where it had been pressed against his side.
Red liquid coloured the floor beneath him, too, and I had almost missed the white chalk lines, invisible beneath rubble and liquid.
A transmutation circle.
My nonexistent heart stopped beating.
An insane maniac, laughing his head of in face of all the destruction, and another… no, what…
"….never be undone! AHAHAHAHA!"
A gasp I never should have heard caught my attention, freezing my blood with silence and dreadful foreboding.
Falman shuddered, losing composure all of a sudden. Eyes widening drastically, tears of incredulousness mixed with sheer horror shining in his eyes.
"Riza…?"
What….?
Fearfully, horrified, I turned my head, slowly, painfully slow, already afraid of whatever sight would meet my eyes; nonexistent heart shuddering to a painful stop.
Darkness there, darkness, smoke; rubble and blood and chalk on the ground; and something was moving.
"What…?" Fury had turned, too. Glasses askew on his nose, shivering, clinging to his gun.
"YOU CAN'T!" Background noises, all that inane yelling; unimportant when I tried so hard to discern what was hidden by fog and rubble, terrified beyond imagination, not even daring to think on it.
Reality could surpass every nightmare; a situation this cruel shouldn't exist, shouldn't come to pass, shouldn't…
Havoc took a step forward.
"Riza?"
And whatever that thing was, it rose its head, soulful eyes glancing in our direction. Fair hair, four legs and a tail.
A chimera.
Dear God, the rumours had been true.
Falman dropped his gun, I heard a choked scream from Havok, malicious laughter swelling, the world spinning.
Denial and disbelief rushed through my veins, deafening my thoughts, freezing my heart. Couldn't, shouldn't be true; not possible; only a dream, a nightmare; I had to be sleeping. Had to, no other possibility, no other rational explanation; this would never happen in reality; not to Lieutenant Hawkeye, not, never, no….
But, dear God, it did.
It did and it's real, and oh my God, we can't undo this, can't turn it back, can't help, we're too late, can't safe her; not after everything she's done for us and we can't; too stupid, too late, too…
Just once, can't I wake up, now, just for once let this really be a nightmare, just this once?
Sad, intelligent eyes gazing into our direction, head bowed in regret and a soft voice whispered:
"Kill me, please."
And suddenly Edward was there, screeching: "I WON'T!!!"
Clapped his hands and slammed them on the ground.
That's it for today…
Hope you enjoyed reading!