Okay, we are back with the story, hopefully it will be longer than the very short chapter before it :p Also I'd like to clear up any confusion. This story takes place after Ed and Al get their bodies back, but somehow the homunculus didn't die and Edward didn't loose his ability to transmute. I'm doing this because if I didn't , the story would be very different… x'D
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, or any of the characters in FMA. I do, however, own my story and my characters.
The pounding in Sin's head was unbearable. The darkness had finally risen, although it didn't mean she woke. She could still feel the pounding from hitting her head, she knew she had done that. She looked around, noticing the gray area surrounding her. Is this a… dream? It seems so familiar, Sin stayed almost perfectly still, besides her shaking and her ragged breathing. Laughing could just barely be heard from the distance, seeming to be coming from all directions. It was an evil laugh, something that you'd hear in a horror movie. The gray surrounding the girl suddenly started to flicker white, and then a picture of a boy's face flashed into her eyes… Then she awoke with a gasp, sitting up from the floor. Another tiny gasp emitted from her mouth, followed by a groan as she went to grasp the back of her head with her hand. She looked around, wincing from the movement. It was still fairly dark, but light slowly seemed to be emitting from the shop windows up front. She glanced up to see what she'd touched prior to her fall. Sin's face immediately lit up with alarm as she first saw the teen-looking man's legs hanging off the counter, slowly moving her gaze up to where his face was. He was wearing what looked to be a skirt with shorts underneath it, and a shirt that only covered part of his chest. He wore a headband, and had a strange marking on his thigh. A smirk was glued to his face, it seemed like it'd never come off. "Well, didn't take you long to wake up from that," His voice spoke; it was the same spiky haired man from before. "Come to think, why did a human girl like you," He spat the word out like it was poison, "manage to even wake up from that? Any normal human would have died instantly." Sin stayed where she was, the fear in her eyes and on her face were clearly showing, as he kept talking. "Maybe it was luck, maybe I should kill you for not dying like you should have." He laughed at that thought. Sin did not move, still. "Are you still listening to me, worm? Surely anyone would have run by now, if they had even woken up from that counter hit." He hopped off the counter. The girl's fear grew. His smirk disappeared, "Consider yourself lucky, Sin Extravagance." He spit her word out of his now frowning mouth like it was poison, just as he'd done before while mentioning her, and walked out of the now-open door. He slammed the door behind him, leaving Sin in a daze.
She sat there for a good minute, trying to cope with what just happened. How did he know my name? She thought, very confused, and shaken up. Her eyes widened when she remembered his face, and the face from her dream. The piercing purple eyes, the smirk, the pure evil look on his face… It was exactly the same! Shaking her head, she got up, wincing as the back of her head pounded, still. Forgetting about the face, the girl walked over to what was behind the counters and searched for a good outfit to wear, and found a neon-blue t-shirt with a black cat face on it. She also picked out some blue pants with extra pockets down the side, and quickly took them up to the second floor, where a bathroom was. She closed the door, feeling dirty. Since it was the bathroom, Sin took a quick shower, and after changed into the new clothes. They fit nicely, and she went back downstairs and placed money for the clothes in the cash register. Sighing, she looked over to the clock in behind the counter. It read 4 AM… It was still quite dark out, and the clouds outside didn't help. Now that Sin was safe, her next problem was sleep, as exhaustion took over and caused her to go to an all-too-familiar chair in the corner of the back of the store. She plopped down, not caring anymore about the pain in the back of her head, and almost immediately closed her eyes, sleep washing over her.
A loud yell made the small sleeping form jump. Eyes flying open, her eyes almost filled with alarm at once. Her gaze met with the close face of a boy. His curly brown hair fell over his face as he laughed. "You're so easy to scare, Sin!" "Brandon, how many times have I told you not to do that!" The irritation in her voice had a hint of amusement. He moved away and studied her. "What happened?" The skinny boy's hands fell onto his hips as he stared down at her. She looked away. "Tell me," The worry in his voice was unbearable. Sin gave in pretty quickly to it, "I-…," Her voice shaky, she took in a deep breath. "I was walking back and some drunken fools… They-They tried to…," She didn't finish , looking at her hands on her lap. Brandon sighed. "Did they actually…?" She shook her head. "Do you need a hug?" "N-no, I'm-," She had no time to refuse as the boy wrapped his arms around her for a moment, held still, and then stood back up. "Stay strong, Sin," He said, "Don't go back to the…. Well, you know. Now come on," He grabbed her hand, pulling her up, "We need to pull out more clothes from the back and place them nicely upfront." Sin nodded , and followed him to the back, and starting on the work. "Is it 7 right now?" She asked after a moment of silence. "Yea, the door was unlocked when I went to unlock it. Leave it to you to fall asleep in the corner and forget to lock it again." Sin opened her mouth to protest, to say she had remembered… But then she remembered the teen that had slammed the door shut last. Not wanting him to worry, she kept that to herself. "If you don't mind me asking… How did you get away from those men?" His voice was hesitant. "Some guy started to beat up the men before they really got to me…" Sin replied in a quiet voice. Once she'd picked up the amounts of shirts in the back, at least as much as she could carry, she hurried out to the front without waiting for Brandon, and placed them in the correct order they were to go in on the shelves and racks. As she hurried to the back again, she noticed Brandon wasn't there, but assumed he went to the front. She shrugged and went back to collecting clothing. Once she'd finished collecting, she headed back out to the front, something caught her eye. At the front viewing window, a figure dashed away as soon as she'd come from the back. Sin watched where it disappeared, curious. "what was that?" She muttered to herself, it wasn't meant to be said out loud. "What was what?" The voice made her jump, as Brandon jumped up from behind her, smiling. Shrugging, Sin set out the clothing where they were supposed to be and looked at Brandon. "Why are you so set on scaring me today?" She asked. He laughed, "I'm not, you're just so jumpy today." "I wonder why." She responded in a quiet voice. He shrugged. "Sorry," He apologized.
As a few hours passed with someone coming in once in a while, Brandon finally spoke. "Why don't you go wander around for a while? I'm sure you're hungry, why don't you take some money and buy some lunch? I can watch the store while you're gone." Sin looked at Brandon in surprise. "Are-Are you sure?" She stuttered. Normally she would just bring a lunch and eat while working, but apparently he'd noticed that she had no lunch today… "Yea, go ahead, but if you eat out remember to bring me a sandwich!" Nodding, she hesitantly grabbed her keys that were on the counter, and checked her pockets. Just enough money for some food. Good. Setting out, she heard the boy saying bye as she walked out the door. Once she was away from people, her heart seemed to almost stop. The depression inside it made her body shake. She took a few deep breaths, trying to get ahold of herself. It took a few minutes, but she calmed down… a little bit, anyways. The back of her mind still kept the worthless and hopeless thoughts going. How she was useless, she had no reason to live, which is why those men tried to violate her, how ugly and stupid she was… How could she possibly face anyone? Like most people told her, she was a strange girl, she didn't belong…
Walking down the street, Sin's eyes averted anyone's gaze as she watched the lines of the sidewalk pass her as she headed down to a local café. She walked inside, ignoring the hush sounds and giggling as people pointed at her and quietly snickered to their friends… Of course the "popular" girl crew was here today. Shrugging it off, she silently walked to the counter. It was hard not to hear them talk about her, "Look at her, she's all messy," One muttered. "What did you expect? She's so creepy, it's obvious she likes looking like a creep too," Trying to block out their conversation, she asked nicely for two sandwiches, and waited a moment before leaving after getting them. Sighing, Sin stopped for a moment out of the door, glancing back in through the window. "At least they didn't confront me today," She said under her breath, and walked down the street, opposite of the way to the clothing store. Finding a good little alleyway, an all too familiar one at that, she walked straight down to the end and leaned against the back wall. It wasn't much of an alleyway really, just a small area between two shops. The bag crumpled as she pulled it up to her chest to reach her other hand into it and pull out a box. With some difficulty, and almost dropping the box as well, she got it open and ended up dropping the box back in the bag. She pulled the sandwich up to her face and took a bite, slowly chewing as she stared blankly at the dirty ground. She tried as much as she could to keep such depressing thoughts back, and instead started to think about what had happened the night before. Although that wasn't much better, it was better than hearing depression creep into her mind until she cut again…
The more she thought about what had happened, she peiced together why what happened happened…
Okay so this is the end of this chapter, I hope it's not too short for everyone! Next chapter we're going to start off with a flashback, and again sorry if this is a short chapter… I'd appreciate any reviews as well!