I'm updating because my friend told me to do so. . . She can be scary . Anyway, I'm sorry if the characters are OOC.

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.

Chapter 1

The big Manor right outside the little village of Resembool was every girl's dream-house. With it's big and wonderful gardens, and beautiful decorated rooms.

Or at least it had been that way when Lady Trisha still had been alive. The house still beamed of light and glory, but not in the same way. The gardens were still wonderful, but only because the family's two sons didn't want one of their mother's favorite places to fade away.

Many of the rooms were no longer used, and only a few persons still lived in the house. The Elric-brothers, their Teacher, the teacher's husband and sometimes the boys' father. Everyone knew Van Hohenheim traveled much, and only showed up at the Manor two or three times in the year.

Not many people knew what was going on inside the house, either. One day, shortly after Trisha Elric's death, the oldest son, Edward, had stopped showing up in the village. He had started to come down there again almost a year later, always together with his younger brother. Someone said he had been very ill, other said he had been away, traveled the world just like his father, while yet others there again said he had been too depressed to come down to buy the things he needed. But one thing was for sure; since that time, the older of the two brothers had always been wearing gloves on his hands.

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At the moment, Edward was sitting around the table together with the three others inhabitants of the manor. His brother, Alphonse, had almost dragged him downstairs earlier that morning, even if the other boy had been awake for more hours than the youngest.

"Aren't you going to eat anything, Edward?" his teacher, Izumi Curtis, asked. The woman's dreadlocks were pulled back in a ponytail, while her dark eyes traveled all over Edward. The boy was glad his father had picked her as their teacher. Izumi was maybe very strict, but she was good. Very good. She knew her stuff better than most people.

Edward rested his eyes on the plate in front of him. He wasn't very hungry. That was new. Usual, he was hungry all the time. Maybe it was because of the dreams?

"Yeah," he answered.

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"Brother, are you sure you are okay?" Alphonse looked at his brother over the edge of the book he was reading. Edward was paler than usual, and thinner. It was like he didn't get enough sleep and food. When he thought about it, he hadn't seen his brother eat much in days, maybe weeks. It all had started that day. The day Edward had woken up screaming, yelling that they couldn't take her. At first they had thought he had been dreaming of his mother again, like he had so many times earlier, but there were parts that didn't fit that theory and Edward wouldn't talk about it when they got him to calm down.

Alphonse pulled his hand through his light brown hair. It wasn't his fault that his brother couldn't take care of himself. If somebody didn't tell Edward to come down to eat, he would go the entire day without food. Just sitting inside his room, or out in one of the gardens, reading all the books he got his hands on.

"Yes, Al, I'm okay," Edward said for the fourth time that day.

Before his brother got the change to answer, Edward rose from the chair he had been sitting in.

"I'm going down to the village, wanna come?" he said while heading toward the door.

"Nah, I'm staying here. Teacher said she needed some help with the dinner. Just be back by eight, okay?" Edward grinned as he disappeared out of the door.

"Will do," with that, the door closed, left Alphonse alone in their house's big library.

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Edward wandered down the old roads of Resembool. The village was old, but not too old. Since it lay as far away from any other cities or villages as it did, it had everything it needed.

Before he even knew where he was going, the boy stood outside of the graveyard. Without thinking, he stepped inside it and went toward his mother's grave.

When he reached it, he just stood there. The boy's golden eyes were locked on all the flowers that rested on the grave. He had no one to give at the moment, hadn't thought about stopping to buy some.

After some minutes, Edward turned around and walked away, toward the village once again. This time with his mother's face dancing behind his eyes.

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He walked until someone stopped him, an arm dragging his head under someone's arm.

"Hey, Chief, haven't seen you in a while," a voice said over him. The boy looked up, and found Jean Havoc standing over him. The man worked as a police-man in the little village.

Not that they really needed a police here, but it made people feel safer.

Edward knew most of people in the police for the village. They often came to the Manor to ask question and stuff, and Edward had made friends among them. Jean being one of them.

The boy showed the man's arm away, and stood as tall as he was.

"Haven't been able to leave the Manor before now," the boy answered. It was true; it had rained for almost a week, until it stopped last night. The weather had made his automail hurt, so he had decided to stay inside 'till it got better.

"Okay. But you have missed something big!"

"You got dumped again?"

"How's that big?!" It wasn't an unknown thing that Jean weren't able to keep a girlfriend for more than a day. His boss, Roy Mustang, usual took them away from him very soon after they had started to see each other.

How it was possible that it still was an undated girl in the entire village, was something Edward couldn't understand when he listened to who many those two had dated.

"No, I got a new girlfriend! And I have been dating her for a couple of days now!"

"Good for you. How long 'till Mustang finds it out?"

"He won't be able to take this girl! She really loves me!"

"It shouldn't happen to be that girl, should it?" Edward pointed at a girl that walked along with Roy Mustang. Jean's face dropped. He said a fast Farwell to Edward, and almost ran toward the two newcomers.

Edward just shook his head, and started to walk back to the Manor. The village was just too weird sometimes.

He had almost reached the front-door when a voice started to ring inside his head.

"Find me. You promised! You let me leave, and you promised to find me again! You have always kept your promises!" the girl's voice, he realized, before everything became black.

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When he opened his eyes again, Edward laid in his bed. It was dark outside, around midnight.

How had he gotten here? Someone must have found him outside and carried him in.

It didn't matter. He knew now what he had to do.

And while the night kept all of the people in Resembool trapped inside their dreams, a small shadow disappeared into the woods that surrounded the village.

The only thing that showed that someone had left the village was an open window in the Elric-Manor, a window with a rope that reached all the way to the ground.

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A/N: Hope you like it^^ Reviews makes updates faster.