Legend Of The Ice Alchemist
Track 7: Haunted
Crystal slammed her bedroom door shut and rested against it. She took fast shallow breaths and sweat beaded down her face, ruining her makeup but she didn't care. Her face was pale and her feet were bare. As soon as that beautiful woman disappeared into thin air, Lilly kicked off her highheals and ran for it. She know that the others fallowed suit, and none of the girls gave a rats where their shoes landed. Crystal rested her hand gently on her heart as it beated like a humming bird's while she hummed to herself. Her body slowly relaxed while her mind calmed and she removed her hand. She moved away from the door as there was a knock, making her jump.
"Crystal? Are you okay?" asked Dashin from the other side. Crystal let out the breath of air she took in sharply and opened the door. Dashin was in a simular state as her, minus the paleness of his face. He let a crooked smile cross his face and said "I didn't know you could run so fast."
"Only when I need to." she answered, giving a soft smile of her own. "Do you want to come in?"
"If that's okay." Crystal stepped aside and closed the door after him. the percussionist of the band sat down at the small round table next to the hotel room's large window while the pop star walked into the kitchen. She pulled out two cans of soda with red lables from the squat refridgerator and tossed one. Dashin caught it with one hand and popped it open with a satisfying hiss.
"Is Koshu and the other's okay?" Crystal asked after she sat down across from him.
"Koshu and ther body guards are. They went to check on Gita and Fukai. Motojime is talking with the inkeeper right now to see what the hell it was we saw." Crystal opened her can with another hiss and took a long sip. She looked out the window into the darkness of the streets, her eyes catching the small amounts of light generated from the few streetlamps and said "On the way here, I did some research on this place after my homework."
"What did you find?" asked Dashin, remotely interested.
"I found that locals belive that this hotel and the street is haunted by it's first inkeeper." Dashin let out a dry laugh and said "Haunted? Is that what you think is what we saw? a ghost?"
"I don't know." a sharp gust of wind shook the window, creating an errie rumble sound and the two bandmates jumped from their seats. The two took a few steps back as another gust of wind hit the window, shattering it.
Ed and Al heard it from Gita's room. Crystal and Dashin screaming in horror. The two of them plus Gita stood up and ran to her hotel room's door. Ed nealy ripped it off it's hindges as he flung it open and leaned out into the hallway. He saw Koshu and Fukai do the same directly across from him as the door down the hall rattled loudly.
"That's Crystal's room!" said Gita, bitting her fingernails.
"Brother..." said Al but Ed was already moving.
"Gita, Fukai, Koshu, stay there." Ed ordered, clapping his hands together. he slid his human arm over his metal one, turning it into the sharp knife point with a bright ivory light. he grabbed the door's knob with his other hand and repeated the same opening as he did with Gita's door. there was a crack as it hit the oposite wall and both Elrics gasped out loud. The large window directly from the opening was shattered, broken glass sprinkling the gray carpet and lage jagged pieces of it still stuck to the frame. A few drops of red blood splatered the carpet a few feet away and a piece of denim clung to a piece of window still int the frame.
"Crystal!" called Al, stepping into the room first. "Dashin!"
"They're not here." said Ed, morphing his arm back into his arm. "What happened?" Edward picke dup a piece of glass with his metal hand and examened it. a splatch of red was on the tip, showing that it had cut someone. Hasty footsteps echoed down the hallway and Mr. Motojime ran into the room, sweat createing large blobs on his dress shirt. He looked around the room quietly before he said "Damn!"
"Motojime," asked Koshu as him and the other bandmates walked in the room. they all saw the condition of the room and gasped. "What happened?"
"Where's Crystal?" asked Fukai.
"And Dashin?" asked Gita.
"Gone." said a woman's voice from behind. The group turned around and looked down to see the short old inkeeper. She was about three, maybe four feet tall with worn leatherly skin and snow white hair piled onto the top of her head. "Those two are gone, just like the others."
"Others?" asked Edward, resting his hands on his hips, a trick he learned from Crystal. "what others? Are you going senile lady?" she jumped up into the air and whacked him hard on the head before she said "Your singer and percussionist are not the first to be taken by Nalissa."
"Nalissa?" asked Alphonse. The old woman sighed with annoyance and said "Let me explain this in simple terms since you are new to Kantori. Fallow me." The group fallowed the old woman down the now silent hallway and into a large room with a squat japanese style table in the center. The old woman sat on a pillow at the head while the others walked in and sat down as well. Motojime sat down next to the inkeeper, not saying a word and in depressed mode as the old woman said "Two hundred years ago, this inn used to be a school building in a small village. The teacher, who was named Nalissa was as beautiful as the sunset and as sweet as your mother's homemade apple pie. One day she fell in love with a young man named Daniel, who was traveling though the village with a group of muscians. He seemed to love her for some time, until the musicians let a young woman join. She was just as pretty as Nalissa with a voice of a song bird. Daniel's heart quickly fell for
this new girl and when the group left, Nalissa was left alone. In her sorrow and anger she decided to kill the singer and get Daniel back. However she accidently killed her lover as well and commited suicide."
"What doest this have to do with Crystal and Dashin being kidnapped?" asked Koshu. The woman jumped over the table and whacked him on the head similar to Ed before she landed back on her pink pillow.
"Let me finish youngster. Nalissa's soul didn't go to heaven, hell, or even limbo. instead, she has been here all of this time, in the form of a travels along the road nearby and through this inn to find someone to replace Daniel for her in the afterlife, and will kill any singers that come though Kantori. That is why I warned Mr. Motojime to never leave her alone and always have a bodyguard around her." Motojime looked down at his hands, worry clearly on his face.
"I thought..." he started, his voice cracking slightly. "I thought she would be okay. I didn't believe that story anyway." The old woman took a turn at whacking the manager on his head and said "every story you hear in this country is REAL."
"So what are we going to do then?" asked Fukai, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder. Everyone remained silent and thought as the inkeeper said "Whenever Nalissa kidnapps someone, she takes them to the lake outside of town. There she will drown them at sunrise." Gita checked her watch and said "It's almost one o'clock." Edward slammed his metal palm on the table, nearly breaking it and stood up.
"Old lady, where's the lake?" he asked, looking at the door while talking.
"Are you seriously thinking of going to save them? there is nothing you can do." said the old woman. Ed didn't say anything, creating a silence from everyone. After a moment the woman sighed roughly.
"It's south of town. Take Bleeker road until you reach the large tree. Then just fallow the dirt path until you reach the water."
"Thank you. Al, are you comming with me?" The large suit stood up and said "of course brother."
"We're comming to." said Koshu, standing up. Edward looked at him with a sharp glare, forcing the drummer to sit down before they walked out of the door.
"Welcome Jake, Michel! what news do I have from Haden today?" asked a general in a red military uniform with black accents. He was tall and round, with a handlebar mustasch and blond hair with traces of gray. His office was small for the oversized man and his desk stacked full of papers and whatnot. A window took up the wall behind the desk, showing Haden's lackeys a green field with a group of people wearing cat ears playing. Jake cleared his throat, preparing to be the spokesman and said "Our message is simple General Hues: He said to prepare Operation KAT for the incoming singing group Tiger Lilly." The wide smile quickly disappeared from the happy general and his gentle gray eyes turned dark.
"Is Haden sure about this?" he asked. His tone had quickly changed from the happy-go-lucky man he was to this. Michel and Jake suddenly had an inner shiver. This is the reason why he became general. Once he turned to the dark General Hues, they feared for their lives.
"He..." started Jake but found he couldn't finish the sentence.
"He is sure Sir. Crystal, or Tiger Lilly has been put under penalty of death under the major and General Haden."
"I see." Hues turned to look out the window, his arms crossed behind his back and silent. After a minute of watching the children play, he turned back to the visitors, his eyes still showing the darkness and said "Tenshi!" a man in a red military uniform with white details ran in, his cat ears matching the dark purple hair that laid flat on his head. He bowed with his right hand over his heart and said "Yes General Hues?"
"Prepare operation KAT at once please. And give our guests a free room to stay at. I'm sure you two would like to see the show?"
"Yes sir." said all three of them in unison. Tenshi stood up sharply like the drinking bird and marched out of the general's office while Jake and Michel looked at each other. What had the general meant when he said "show?"
Darkness. That was all the two Elric brothers could see. Nothing outside of their small beam of light from the flashlight Al carried. The street lamps had helped until they were in the forest, where even the moonlight was blocked by the thick trees. The old woman told them before they left that the sun rose at 3 am in Kantori, due to the fact that it stetted around 4 in the afternoon. both Ed and Al knew this now, and were walking as fast as their legs could carry them in the darkness. two's feet made soft pats against the the dirt road and the themselves remained silent. Al wanted to talk, to tell his brother how afraid he was of this, of what would happen if they didn't get there in time. He wanted to, but knew he shouldn't. They needed the silence for a surprise if it came down to a fight or if something would be coming up on them instead. The sound of water hitting rocks slowly filled in the silence and the two felt themselves relax a little.
however, they tensed right back up when they reached a break in the trees. They looked up at the sky and saw it turning gray.
"Brother-" said Al but Edward shushed him. their walk turned into a jog as they crossed the last few feet to the lake's edge. Ed and Al stopped when their toes were about to go into the water and saw a boat floating about a hundred feet in. The lake wasn't that big, compared to others, but it was obvious at how deep it was when they saw how dark the water was. Standing in the boat was Crystal and Dashin. Their clothes were ripped and torn from what they could see.
"Crystal!" called Al, cupping his hands around where his mouth would be. "Dashin!" the two didn't turn to look at him, but as a big ball of orange started to rise into the sky, Crystal stood up on top of the boat's starboard side.
"Oh crap!" said Ed, already knowing what was going to happen. he took off his red jacket and ran into the lake while Al shouted "brother!"
"Stay there!" the older brother ordered, standing waist deep in the water. Alphonse just nodded and watched as Ed started to swim towards the boat, going as fast as he could. The walking suit turned his attention back to the boat and watched as Crystal stepped off. She didn't move to dive, or to swim, just stepped off like she would a stair, but missed it. Her body plummeted downwards into the water and bubbles rose out of the water. He watched and waited, fear filling him completely until he saw Ed and Crystal's heads pop out of the water. Ed grabbed the side of the dingy boat and lifted her back into it before he vaulted inside it himself. The blond Elric brother took a few deep breaths and whipped the water from his eyes before he said "What the heck were you thinking Crys?" He looked at her and bit his lip. It was obvious that neither of them were going to talk back to them for a while. Crystal and Dashin's eyes were glazed over like someone put frosted glass on their eyes and their faces looked blank and expressionless. He sighed to himself and grabbed the oars for the boat. He sat down on the small seat with Dashin sitting on the bottom of the boat between his knees and started rowing back towards the shore. Wind started to blow wildly around him, forcing Edward to grip the oars tightly for fear of loosing them.
"Why are you taking them away?" said an Erie voice from no where in particular. the wind turned into a small tornado on the lake's surface and the ghost appeared. Her lips didn't move but the voice still appeared. "Why are you taking my Daniel away from me? and why are you saving that wretch singer girl?"
"Nalissa, they need to come back with me, that's why." said Ed bluntly. He started to row faster, but the tornado continued to spin around him, it's speed picking up. Ed pushed the two band mates's head's down to keep them from blowing away while he himself held on for dear life.
"Than you shall die with them. No one will leave this lake alive today." He felt the wind start to pick up even more before the boat started to turn.
"STOP!" Al shouted from the shore. the wind stopped suddenly, the boat slapping against the water sharply. Nalissa looked at him and said "Why do you stop me?"
"Because you don't need to kill anyone!" Al answered back. "Dashin is not your long lost love, and Crystal is no wretch. She is one of the nicest people I know! And brother doesn't deserve to die because he's trying to help his friends."
"But I am so lonely. I need someone to help make that go away."
"Daniel can. You just have to go to him. It's all right for you to leave now. I'm sure he will be waiting for you on the other side Nalissa." The ghost remained silent, floating in the air. the two Elric brother's watched in stillness as Nalissa quickly burst out crying. 'well, who knew that ghosts could cry.' thought Ed to himself as the ghost said "thank you, Mr. tin suit. I will. Thank you!" the ghost slowly started to disappear, the wind around her dying as well. Soon, everything was quiet. Ed slowly paddled the boat to the shore as Nalissa said "Your friends will wake up soon. Take care my friends!"
Next Track: Money Money Money.
