When Ed awoke the next morning Alex was gone, he had a faint memory of waking up after the attack and seeing her leave. He sighed his body was exhausted, these attacks were starting to take their toll. They were like bee stings, each time he had one they would get slightly worse.
"No good, got to get up" he said to himself, dragging his body out of bed and getting ready for work.
Despite everything everyone had said the previous day Alex was down stairs and ready to go too, Ed eyed her suspiciously as she sat one the kitchen unit reading the back of the newspaper while swinging her legs.
Ed went into the fridge and pulled out a carton "Apple juice?" he offered her.
"No thanks" she didn't look up
"You know I never see you drinking this, it's good for you"
"So is milk" Ed pulled a face at her as she looked at him over the paper, eyes twinkling, knowing that the mere mention of the word makes him shiver.
"You know it's not healthy for me" he said watching her as she jumped off the side moving to the fridge and pulling out the milk.
"Same scenario with me and apples" she winked. Ed blinked how could he forget that she was allergic to apples, it wasn't exactly a common allergy…wait a second…Alex is allergic to apples.
Suddenly Ed's memory went back to weeks ago when he had pulled the wrong bottle out of the fridge. Luckily Juliet had stopped him before he gulped down milk; otherwise the circumstances would have been dreadful. But they would have been the same if Alex had picked up his drink. And with Roy's OCD about having things in order it was strange that they would be the wrong way round.
"Alex" he said weakly she looked at him from the corners of her eye "be careful today alright"
She smiled at him weakly and nodded.
At work Ed felt trapped, his sister was in trouble and he knew it. He didn't know why, or from whom and there was no one who could help him.
He stayed with her as much as he could, afraid that the moment she was out of sight something would happen to her. The day was drawing to an end and he thought he had survived another day. But life's not that fair for our little hero though, is it.
The explosion occurred just as they were about to walk out of the building, it knocked them to the ground; Alex lay there withering in pain from the sound of the blast. It was too loud and it had sent her alchemy ears on over time. Ed lay next to her dazed for a few moments before jump starting back into action.
"Alex come on we need to get out of here!" He tried to pick her up but her eyes suddenly widened as her ears finally picked something up.
"Ed the pillar it's gonna fall!" and sure enough a decorative pillar on the outside of the doorway had been damaged and was now falling towards them. Ed pushed Alex out of the way and went to jump himself, one of the lose stones from the pillar clipped his arm sending him to the ground. Alex ran to his side.
"When I find these bastards that are after you…I'm gonna kill them for all the pain they put me through" he said through gritted teeth.
"Well if you stop getting in the way then maybe it wouldn't hurt so much" Both turned round to see a strange man walking towards them. Neither had ever seen him before but there was something about him that seemed so familiar, maybe it was his face, or eyes or strange tattoos over his body.
"Who the hell are you?" Ed yelled trying to get in front of Alex but being slowed down by the pain of his arm and the blackness in his eyes as another attack threatened to make an entrance.
"Listen and I will tell you" he sneered as his tattoos began to glow, suddenly the air around them seemed crushing and it was the best Ed could do not to pass out there and then.
Alex drew an intake of breath, unable to think straight or form any kind of sentence other than "My god".
This made him sneer even more; he drew near to her ear and whispered
"That's right Alexa, we are".
A/N You guys are getting good with the reviews i'm finding it hard to keep up lol :) The competetion still stands, no one had the right answer yet but this chapter has given all the clues. The identity of this new guy will be reveled in the next chapter. Not too long to go now till the end. 40 reviews and you can have the next. See you then Karin.
