Title: Phantasmagoria
Prompt: #349 / Alternate Universe
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist is sole property of Hiromu Arakawa, and its respective affiliates.
Series: FMA—All Media Types
Word Count: 3,007
Rating: M
Characters: Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Trisha Elric, Winry Rockbell, Sarah Rockbell, Urey Rockbell, Pinako Rockbell, Scar, Scar's Brother, Ishvalan OCs & Lust!Winry
Summary: Two years after Winry's tragic death, the Elric brothers decide to bring her back from the dead. They couldn't have predicted what she would become.
Warnings: So many warnings: TRIGGER WARNING #1 Implied rape of a minor. TRIGGER WARNING #2 Death of major character. TRIGGER WARNING #3 Blood and gore. WARNING #4 Some promiscuity.
A/N: This story was written for Prompt #349 of FMA Fic Contest at Live Journal. It tied first place with another submission. I was quite surprised by this because I wrote a crazy, chilling horror story. Anyway, I'm thankful for the appreciation. I would've posted this under FMA Fanfic Mashup (as Le Confidant) but I want to keep my main account free from dark stories.
I've already mentioned this on Tumblr but will mention it here too. This story was inspired by a true crime case, one that's close to me. Please be mindful of you comments because I will not tolerate any flames or trolls.
It was written in first person, for the extra punch. This story can easily trigger those who had suffered abuse. Please read the warnings before reading the story!
This story runs in the same vein as Insidious (currently under long hiatus) so expect vile, psychological horror. A good shower might help you feel better after reading this story, that or watching Disney Princess movies as it was suggested by one of my dear readers.
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I awoke to a blood-curling shrill, a girl's scream. At first, I assumed the awful sound was a vestige of a nightmare, but my oldest son's howling proved I was mistaken.
I spring out of bed and dart towards the boys' room. To my surprise (and to my horror) they were not there.
"Al—! Please Al!" Edward's desperate calls for his younger brother turn my blood to ice.
I run down the stairs, and look around the first floor, but cannot see my children anywhere. I go into the kitchen, the last place to look. As I step inside the tidy space, I see the door to the basement was ajar. The boys were most likely downstairs inside my husband's alchemy laboratory.
"Please stay with me—!" Edward's pleading reaches my ears.
The ominous comment sent shivers up my spine.
I push open the door, but I stop on my tracks the moment I step inside the stairway. A foreboding force keeps me glued in place. Somehow, I push past the fearful sentiment. With a firm hold on the handrail, I descent down the stairs.
Little did I know I was descending into hell.
::
I knew something had gone horribly wrong the moment I regained consciousness.
It took me a few seconds to recognize that I was in dad's lab. I've forgotten why I was in that room in the first place, but the bloodied mass of muscle, bone and hair sprawled a few feet in front of me quickly filled those blanks.
Alphonse and I had performed a human transmutation.
A weak moan slapped me out of my stupor.
I look down to see Alphonse curled into himself and laying on his side. The pool of blood expanding underneath him ripped a scream out me.
I quickly noticed a metallic ring entwined with my voice. As disconcerting as that was, I finding out that there was something wrong with my body proved to be more terrifying.
I see that my bent legs—they're steel! Not only they were steel, they were massive. I instinctively look at my hands only to encounter leather—and more steel—looking back at me. I believe I'm falling prey to panic but Alphonse's moans keep me from completely losing it.
My eyes settled on his figure. I notice that there's a poorly bandaged stump instead of his leg—how didn't I see this before? As I desperately try to understand what's going on, I come to a disturbing realization.
An alchemical rebound had occurred.
"No…" I say aloud, but the intense emotion that accompanies the sentiment wasn't there at all. It was as if I lost my ability to connect the two of them together.
"Brother…" Alphonse mumbles.
I notice his skin was starting to ashen. A sob rings out of me.
"Al—! Please Al!" I beg, sobbing even more.
If only dad wasn't away on a military mission, I think to myself. "He would know what to do!"
Alphonse's hazel eyes rolled to the back of his head just as his body goes limp.
My initial reaction is to shake him, and as I do, I remember his wound. I stifle a sob when I notice that his right arm was missing too.
"Please stay with me—!" I plea to God not to take my baby brother away from me.
The acrid smell of burnt hair sticks like tar to the back of my nose and throat. I swallowed down the nasty taste as I put a foot on the concrete flooring. There is a strange haze spread around the laboratory. I move around at a snail's pace, hating how my cerebellum (as Van refers to the reptilian brain) is overpowering my body.
The first thing I notice when I reach the center of the large space was a pair of cerulean irises staring at me.
"I know those eyes," I tell myself in disbelief. "Winry, is that you?"
To my surprise, I hear a wet garbled sound as an answer.
I keep staring at those beautiful eyes as I try to make sense of what was happening in my husband's lab. I was so caught up inside my head that I didn't notice the haze in the room started to fade. I wish it hadn't faded.
My scream resounded through every corner of the laboratory.
The cerulean eyes I thought were Winry's happened to be a pair of eyeballs attached to a deformed creature. It was more of a mass of limbs and gray flesh than an actual creature; this thing was an abomination.
Horror twisted my insides as I recognized that this thing was an alchemical creation. I snapped out of my shock and glanced around the room, fearing for my sons.
"Alphonse!" I scream at the top of my lungs when I see him laying down on the floor.
I run towards him, kneeling next to him the moment I reach his side.
I try to remain as a calm as I can, ignoring the wave of dread (and nausea) washing over me as my sage green eyes settle on his mangled body. Burning tears began lining across my lower eyelids, but I blinked them all away.
Now wasn't the time to fall apart, Alphonse needed me.
"I'm sorry."
The voice had come from the suit of armor sitting behind my baby boy.
"Please help him, mom."
My brow tenses. "Ed?"
Too many things were happening at the same time, making it hard for me to keep my emotions in check. Edward hiding inside the suit of armor, wasn't sitting well with me.
"Edward Van Hoenheim! Get out of that armor right now!"
I see the armor shaking, but other than that, Edward didn't make an effort to get out of it.
"Edward come out right now!" I growled. I couldn't help it, I was starting to lose my patience (and my mind).
"I can't, mom," he answers, sobbing.
"What do you mean you can't!" I grind out.
Can't he see that his baby brother is in serious danger?
Before I know it, anger blinds me. I lean forward, and rip the chest plate open.
Metallic sobs resound inside the empty shell, and all around me. My eyes widen with terror when it finally dawned on me that my oldest son was the suit of armor.
::
Outside, a woman is frantically calling my name.
I put my book down and walk towards the front door.
Recognizing Trisha's voice, I immediately release the bolt. The horror that awaited me behind the door shook me to the core. The last time I experienced such terrible feeling was the day I was told my baby girl was gone.
"Please help us!" Trisha begs as she lunges forward, placing her hands on each of my shoulders.
Trisha's hands were covered in blood, her nightgown was covered in blood.
"Please Uncle Urey!"
The voice came out from the huge suit of armor standing close to Trisha. This colossus was cradling Alphonse's unconscious form.
The poor boy was covered in blood—and bandages? His left leg was missing!
"It was an accident!" The suit of armor cries.
His voice, which had an eerie metallic ring, sounded far too young to belong to a grown man. What worried me is that it sounded familiar—
"Edward?" I gasp as my eyes widen in shock.
"There's no time to explain, Urey, Alphonse needs medical assistance." Trisha stressed.
"Urey, dear, who is it?"
I hear my wife approaching.
"Oh dear God!" She screams from behind.
I'm far too shocked with what was happening that I didn't react when Sarah pushes me out of the way so Trisha and the enormous suit of armor could enter our home.
"He has lost a lot of blood, Sarah," Trisha weeps.
"He'll need a blood transfusion then." Sarah responds in a calmly manner, treating the life-threatening situation as if it was a simple injury.
But I knew better.
Sarah's apparent serenity was the mask she wore to the world. Behind that mask lay a convoluted mass of anxiety exacerbated by deep grief.
Sarah took the loss of our daughter harder than any of us. Only the otherworldly comfort of hard drugs eases her pain.
I let her be, turning a blind eye at her passive self destruction—who am I to judge when I'm also with demons?
::
"Will he be alright?" Trisha asks me as the suit of armor lays Alphonse on the bed.
"We need to pump some blood into your boy now," I reply while I prep the surgery table with what's needed for a blood transfusion.
Trisha nods and sits down on the chair next to the bed. She rolls the sleeve of the night gown so I can insert the I.V. needle into one of her veins.
Alphonse was lucky he shared the same blood type as her mother otherwise he wouldn't have made it past a couple of hours.
"Will he be okay?" The suit of armor asks in what sounded like a trembling tone of voice.
"Let's see what happens, Ed."
Edward was shocked that I recognized him even tough he didn't look like a fifteen year old boy anymore. I'm a doctor, but I'm also an alchemist. I'm fairly certain that Edward's current state and Alphonse's mangled body had something to do with committing taboo.
"Okay Trish," I say as I finished prepping the tray. "Let's make sure that your son sees the light of day."
::
I was told by Auntie Sarah to stay outside the surgery room until Alphonse's condition was stable.
An overwhelming sense of grief overcomes me, but in my current state, I wasn't able to fully express it.
Sitting on the hallway floor gave me an opportunity to make sense of what had happened in the past few hours.
Our transmutation resulted in failure, and a rebound occurred. I remember blinding pain and the sensation of being engulfed by a white light. After that, I came to, only to find a hideous creature sprawled over our transmutation circle, and Alphonse bloodied body laying by my feet. His missing limbs meant that he used them as materials to keep me anchored to this world—it meant that the rebound transmutation took my body away.
"But how?" I scratch my head but feel nothing—heck—I can't even feel myself doing this in the first place.
I remember that I haven't looked at my reflection in the mirror yet. As I stare at the closed door, I vest myself with valor, so I can be brave enough to face the fruits of our sin.
It shocks me how much noise a simple task such as standing up can make now that I'm a part of this armor. Hopefully, the noise didn't distract mom and Auntie Sarah…and Alphonse.
I head down the hallway. Winry's room comes into view, and I hasten my pace. All the happy memories contained within the small space would make fall into despair if I've lingered.
Winry's room was a painful reminder that our efforts to bring her back to life had been all in vain.
I decide to enter Granny's room. I try to be as silent as possible even though I was told that nothing, not even the sound of a pin drop, would bring her out of her catatonic state. The thought of deep grief fills my mind knowing that the fire in Pinako Rockbell was snuffed the day her granddaughter was taken from her.
"I don't blame you, Granny." I whisper.
Something in all of us died the day we lost Winry.
That is why we decided to bring Winry back to life, I remind myself.
A bitter laugh rings inside the empty suit of armor that harbors my consciousness.
"We failed, Granny."
"There you are," Uncle Urey says as he enters the room.
I turn to look at him. I would've smile but I know I can't; he smiles for me instead.
"What happened?" Uncle Urey asks as he walks over to the chair placed next to Granny's bed.
As he sits, I see how his expression darkens. He wasn't angry at me, I could tell, he was angry at life itself, just like I was.
::
"What are we doing here, Brother?" I ask aloud as I rub my aching arm.
My right arm, my brother's arm, glows red as it mingles with the black ink of the tattoo. I hear his voice in my head telling me to go inside the rustic house.
I do as he says.
My brother guides me to the basement of the house. After a quick look, I see that the wide space was converted into an alchemy lab.
The stench of blood, flesh and burnt hair reaches my nostrils.
"This is why you brought me here, Brother?" I ask as I protect my nose from the foul odor.
But my brother didn't have to reply, I found the answer to my question in the center of the room.
There, laid a mass of flesh, bones and hair; underneath lied a massive transmutation circle.
I didn't need my brother to tell me what had happened.
I approach the mass to make sure that it had expired. I am mere inches away from the monstrosity when it snaps its eyes open.
Cerulean irises pierced through my soul.
"Help me…"
A female voice comes out of the mass, throaty and wet, and sounding much too young to belong to an adult woman.
The tattoo in my right arm painfully glows red.
She has the potential to become a homunculus. My brother transmits the though into my head.
Feed her. He orders, and before I knew it, my arm begins throbbing.
Rivulets of what looked like blood blossomed all over the skin. Crimson beads begin assembling themselves into large orbs, they roll down my arm and onto the floor.
The monster shrieks as it drags itself towards the red orbs. It is as if it knew what to do with them.
The abomination picks each orb using one of the many bony appendages in its body, and began feasting on them.
It shrieks in agonizing pain as its body restructures at a cellular level to resemble a humanoid form.
While it looks more human, it still had a long way to look normal.
The homunculus has full consciousness.
My brother whispers words that I know too well.
I follow his unspoken instructions, and kneel next to the newborn homunculus (whose female features are becoming more defined by the minute) and place my right hand on its head.
I close my eyes, and begin to see the final moments of the person it represents playing like moving pictures in the back of my mind.
"Where are the doctors, hag?"
"They're not here. Now go away before I call the police!"
"What did you just say?"
Gasp!
"Did you hear that?"
"Omer, go check it out."
The man opens the closet.
"Why you look at that! Hey fellas, look at this precious darlin'."
"Let her go!"
"Granny—!"
"Hey, Hector, doesn't this girl look like Mrs. Rockbell?"
"Heh—yeah! And just as pretty—"
"Don't touch me!"
"Aw…she's a fighter."
They all laugh.
"I think she will do. An eye for an eye, right fellas?"
"Sounds good! You in, Omer?"
"You know me, Raffy."
The vision becomes blurred by tears.
"You're not taking her anywhere!"
"Shut the old hag up before I put a bullet in her head!"
"Omer, take the girl with ya. We're having a party tonight!"
I retract my hand, disconcerted by the revelation.
"Ishvalans took you?"
"Mon-monsters!" The abomination shrieks.
One of its restructured limbs shoots forward and grabs my tattooed arm with brutal force.
"No—!"
"Shaddup you little cunt!"
"Hold her still!"
"NO!"
I try to free my arm from the homunculus' grasp, but can't.
"Murderer!" It hisses as it squeezes the arm tighter.
"Who said she could leave?"
"Raffy, we did it. We took our revenge on those Amestrian bastards—just set her free, please!"
"Okay, okay. I'll set her free."
A gun goes off—cold darkness.
"That wasn't me!" I bellow as I tug again. The homunculus chokes on a sob, and eventually lets go of my arm.
I fall back on my behind.
I find myself panting as I watch the abomination wail. Long minutes pass by before it calms down. I take a chance to talk with it.
"My kin had no right to do this to you…the war has corrupted so many. Know that it is the Amestrians who made monsters out of us." The hand of my right arm curls into a trembling fist as I add, "Cursed being, you are not longer human, but my brother and I can offer you salvation. Join us on our quest to rid the world from sinners and we assure you that you will get the justice you deserve."
My brother's arm glows, releasing more crimson beads. The homunculus salivates as it awaits for them to fall to the floor.
I can see, as it feasts on the orbs, how the hair on its head starts to brighten. Her long locks now resemble the color of yellow wheat. I pat the top of its head wondering what name should I give this newborn creature.
"I will call you Lust."
The homunculus stops eating and looks up. I notice her once blue eyes had turned purple.
"Never forget the sin that caused your demise," I add, and the homunculus grins wide.
"I won't," Lust replies before grabbing my right arm.
I notice her body had evolved again. She now resembles a teenage girl no older than thirteen.
Lust starts lapping up red residue off the tattoo.
She savors the taste on her lips before going back for more. This time around, her unnatural-looking eyes lock with mine as she licks the length of my arm with lascivious intention; it leaves me breathless.
I then wonder, did we make the right choice, brother?
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The End
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End Notes: I'm thinking of creating a multi-chapter story from this one shot. I won't start it yet though, first I need to finish Insidious (Part 1-3).