This chapter has now been revised, so i think it's free of errors. If you still find any, feel free to let me know.

Chapter 1

Roy Mustang was in trouble. He fervently fought against the ropes that were keeping his hands tight behind his back.

"How the hell did I get in this mess again." He mumbled under his breath.

He could see near to nothing, but by the dimness of his voice, he could guess the room wasn't more than 5 by 10 feet large.
'How the hell did I get here in the first place. I can't remember.'
That was strange though, he didn't feel like someone had hit him over the head.

Granted he barely felt his feet either, from sitting tied in the same position for what felt like hours.

Suddenly something gave and he felt the ties fall loosely around his raw wrists.
'Yes, I'm out of here.' He thought. Fumbling around in the dark, noticing his earlier estimation was correct, until he found the door handle.

Very cautiously he opened the door just a crack. He suddenly became very conscious by the lack of his familiar snapping gloves. He could cough up some other alchemy circles if his life depended on it, but with the lack of anything to draw with he was left to his physical strength.

He didn't even know where he was, let alone how many guys were actually involved in this.
Roy peeked left and right, but the hallway seemed to go endless in either direction. Which meant it didn't really mattered which one he took.

He was about to run along the right side when a scream filled the hall. It sounded so familiar that Roy's heart did a little jump.
He immediately whipped around and started running towards the sound.
He had to reach her.

The piecing scream of his subordinate filled his ears again, and Roy tried to run even harder, if that was humanly possible. His feet really felt the toll now.
But he knew something was terribly wrong. His lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye would never make such sounds if she wasn't in absolute, life-threatening danger . Or pain. Somehow that sounded even worse.

This hallway was getting ridiculous now, it had seemed like it went on forever, but now that was actually true. The harder he ran, the louder the scream became and how longer the hallway before him seemed the stretch.

It was like a scene out of Roy's worse nightmare, except of course this was not one.

He was getting out of breath, puffing down the hallway.

Then something else reached his ear. Again it was Riza, but this time her voice sounded farther away than a minute before. It was yelling his name. She wanted his help.

"Colonel!" it called over and over.

Minutes passed, Roy kept walking trough the endless hallway, taking turns here and there, but never reaching any splits or doors.
'Who the hell built this place anyway.' He though skeptically.

"Colonel! Colonel, please!" It was much louder now.
Finally he saw a door at the end of the hallway straight ahead. He almost sprinted the rest of the way. He felt weird, his head felt like it had been stuffed with tissues for some reason.

He ignored it in favor of reaching for the door.

In one moment he pulled it open so quickly he stumbled back.

A disgusting scent of blood washed over him, together with the awful redness of the new revealed room, this couldn't mean anything good.
"Colonel!" the voice said loudly, he felt a pull on his shoulder before he could see anymore of who or what was inside that room.

Next thing Roy knew, he shot up straight in his desk.

Riza was standing over him with a look that was caught somewhere between worry and anger.
Like she wasn't really sure to scold him or ask if something was wrong.
Then she saw the red imprint on his face, from sleeping on his hand, and she opted for the former.

"Colonel, this isn't the time to be napping. There is more than enough paperwork this time of year."
As to underline that fact she dropped a stack of it on the front of his desk.

Roy straightened, not wanting her to notice he was extremely unsettled by his dream.
'Yes, just a dream…' he reassured himself.

"… And make sure to finish it before the end of the day, because I need this." She tapped the papers with an angry finger.
Without waiting for an answer she turned to walk away, shooting him a look on the way out that seemed more like concern.

She had barely left the room or Havoc entered, casually keeping an unlit cigarette between his lips.
Normally Roy would have scolded him for it, but now he was looking down, rubbing his wrists absentmindedly. They hurt, the 'cut-by-a-rope' kind of hurt, like in his dream.

It was all so puzzling, had seemed too real to be fake. The screams, the tiredness when running down the hallway for minutes, the damn smell of the blood.

"Are you sure you shouldn't go home early, boss?"
The voice of Havoc suddenly reached him, and he looked up, trying his best not to look as uncomfortable as he was.
"I'm fine…. Was there something you wanted, 2de lieutenant." He asked, sounding a little more pissed than he wanted too.

"Uh yeah… Edward called, he and Alphonse will be coming back to Central tomorrow. The lead was fake yet again."
"Fullmetal?" Roy rubbed his neck. He was tired, hadn't slept properly in weeks. He really hoped he didn't have to deal with the teen tomorrow.
"He said to let you now he was truly pissed… just so you know." Havoc grinned, this was way too funny to ignore.

'Whatever, let's just deal with these papers for today, get home, take a shower and hope tonight would be better than all the previous ones.'
Roy dismissed the 2de lieutenant with a hand gesture.

The blond hadn't been gone for 5 minutes when another head popped around the corner.
Roy groaned, couldn't people give him a break. Why was he so damn popular today.

"Heya, Roy. Check this out." Maes Hughes may have been Roy's best friend, he was also damn annoying, not to mention obsessed with his family.

"If it's another photo of Alicia, know that I will kill you on the spot." Roy growled.

"Somebody is not doing so good today? Got out on the wrong side of the bed, huh?"
The older man adjusted his glasses. His grin hadn't faded one bit, but he studied Roy with his eyes.

"But no, it are not photo's. It's a file case. There have been some people missing lately and the case is getting weirder and weirder."
He took a moment to breath, signaling there was a long story coming.
"The fun fact is, these were originally separated cases, cause they do not connect, or so we thought. The areas vary all around Central. Nothing matches considering age, sex, occupation, looks. Nothing. The only thing they do have in common is that it presumably happened at night. But even that is a wild guess… What do you think?"

"I think it was stupid of you to make it one big case than…" Roy shrugged. He wasn't really sure where his friend was going with this.

"Well, it wasn't me. Someone from higher-up did it.. I think they just want it off of their hands." Maes gave the files in his hand an angry look.

Roy raised a brow. "And you're telling me this because?"

"Because I felt like it.." The black haired man shook his head. "But you obviously have your own problems. You look like crap. You should go to bed."

"Yeah.. can't do that." Roy gestured towards the pile of paperwork he still had to finish and made a dirty face.

Maes' grin widened even further, if possible, and pulled out a picture of his daughter. He eyed the door sneakingly.
"Want me to bail you out?" He asked in a serious tone.

Roy just smiled and laid a hand on his friends shoulder. "I owe you one." He simply said, then got ready to sneak out as he heard Maes telling Riza about all the new adorable picture he had made.

Thanks for reading, please be so nice as to leave a review. Those are my actual sustenance, you know.