Hey guys, here's the next chapter. This one has a bit of a time lapse and some drama! Dun dun dun!

Me own nothing. Well, okay, I own a box.


My Misadventures in Alchemy II: Waking the Gate

Chapter 11: Nightmare of You

The weeks since Freddy and I told Winry and Terry's secrets flew by in a blur. The last days of summer were spent trying to soak up the sun, sprawled out on the beach or walking the streets late into the night. Twilight marked the sky earlier and the leaves were beginning to turn in the most colourful manner I'd ever seen. Soon September had arrived, Freddy and Seth were forced to return to school and, with much debate, I was forced to join them.

Now, don't get me wrong, this didn't last. It was over before it even started.

Having never heard of anything to do with this world other than what I'd learned during the summer and what Freddy had told me, I was completely hopeless. I didn't know any of the languages offered other than English, and even in that course I struggled! Who was Edgar Allan Poe? Why would anyone want 'to kill a mockingbird?' And just what was the instructor implying by calling me an oxymoron?

History wasn't entirely bad. I noticed that there were some parallels between these things they called the World Wars and the various rebellions in Amestris. The names of places and events were different, but their causes and results were the same. I did okay in P.E., as long as I kept my arm and leg hidden. I had to take an elective, so I chose shop, thanking my lucky stars that I occasionally paid attention when Winry blathered on about gears and screws. But naturally I excelled in chemistry, math and physics.

Until I punched one of the other students for being stupid enough to try mixing ammonia and bleach. I got expelled for that.

Mrs. Radcliff was not impressed. I think she may be more terrifying than Teacher!

I explained that maybe school wasn't the best place for me and after some debate I was allowed not to attend, although I was forced to fill my time doing something productive. I chose tutoring some of the kids from the local middle school, offering my only area of expertise; chemistry. This was a lot easier than working with people my age, because a few of them reminded me of Al and that made it easier not to smack them when they got it wrong.

Freddy had taken me down to the DMV and I took my driver's test. At first I thought I wasn't going to be allowed to get my license ("Amestris?" "It's a really small country in… Africa."), but after a few lies I was approved. A quick road test and a bad photo ID later, I was behind the wheel of the Radcliff's minivan. Freddy still claims I make her nauseous every time I take a corner.

When I wasn't tutoring, or researching with Freddy, I'd drive down to Aunt Judy's to pass the time. Often I'd help out with costumers or the heavy lifting she couldn't do herself. Aunt Judy couldn't afford to pay me, but I didn't mind. It was the company I staid for, anyways.

The wall of ice, while slightly melted, still kept Freddy and I apart. We weren't snapping at each other, but we weren't cheery and laughing like we used to be either. I could occasionally take her hand for a few minutes. Every now and then I was lucky enough to get a hug! Her mother hadn't a clue what was happening. Seth could sense something was wrong and took it upon himself to glare me down every time Freddy and I were in the same room or talking. The only truly safe subjects I could approach Freddy with were Amestris, Winry and Terry, and my dreams.

The sessions of hypnosis had helped bring a few things forward, my dreams changing after each session. I found that I could fight the cretins off the closer I was to the edge of the circle. I realised that Al was staring at something lingering in the open doorway and eventually that something became a shadow. At first I couldn't pick up a feeling about the shadow, but after a few more sessions I realised it was dark and menacing, walking forward and circling my brother and I. I didn't know who it was. Yet.

I woke up from my latest hypnosis, calmly breathing in deeply and blinking at the bright light. I glanced around the room, sighing in frustration. I glanced around the room, spotting Terry sitting across from me and Freddy kneeling next to the bed. I knit my brow and clenched my jaw, Freddy giving me a small squeeze of the shoulder. She was about to say something when her phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket.

"It's Seth, be right back."

I nodded and sat up, watching as she walked out of the room, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she went. My breath caught the way it always does when she does that and I look down at the floor with a blush. Terry and I never really talked when we were alone and the familiar uncomfortable silence fell on us again. I could tell that she was staring at me, probably trying to figure out why my cheeks resembled cherries, and I tried my best to pretend that the plain white carpet was fascinating.

"What's up between you two, anyways?"

Screw the carpet. I looked up at her with wide eyes. She was fiddling with the small digital camera we had been using to record my hypnosis so that we could play it back if we thought we'd missed anything. She was fiddling with the playback button, but her eyes were set on me with a mischievous glint. That same expression Winry uses when she knows I'm hiding something. I blinked and cleared my throat.

"Nothing."

"Liar!"

I looked back up at her with a blush and she laughed. I huffed and crossed my arms, earning me another round of laughter. When she'd finished, she tilted her head to the side, preparing to say something. Here it goes, another third degree.

"Don't worry, I think it's great! Freddy could use a nice guy like you!"

I felt my jaw drop and I stared. She wanted me to be Freddy's boyfriend?! She thought I could be good for her? Someone was finally agreeing with me? I felt like I'd entered the Land of No Bloody Way and I shook my head to clear it. I blinked and finally choked out a response.

"What do you mean?"

Terry leaned back in her chair, folding her arms. Her smile faded as she thought about how to approach the subject and I bit my lip. Her response was not as excited as her initial statement.

"She's got a heart problem, as you probably know, so she's kind of limited to what she can do and where she can go. She doesn't exactly go out on a whim, party it up and meet people."

I couldn't really see Freddy going wild anyway. Terry kept talking.

"She's had a few crushes, innocent little things that never amounted to anything. She either got over them quickly or found out they were jerks who wouldn't go out with a girl who could drop dead at a moment's notice. Last May, she had a really bad episode that landed her up in hospital."

I swallowed hard. I knew where this was going. I remembered that night better than anyone here would ever know, including Freddy. I shifted uncomfortably.

"She was weird and spontaneous and outright happy before it happened. When she got out of hospital, she was quiet, didn't talk to anyone, cooped herself up in the house. She was a completely different person. It was like her heart didn't just stop, it broke."

So I wasn't the only one who noticed her changes. I clenched my jaw and looked to the side, spotting a picture on Terry's desk. It was her and Freddy, making goofy faces to the camera, covered in what looked like finger paint. I smiled at the sight of her, eyes nearly shut with a big grin across her face and blue paint on the tip of her nose. I remembered how she acted before that night in Amestris, that night here. So witty, funny, sarcastic and sweet.

"And then you arrived, Edward."

I didn't realize Terry had taken my picture until the flash nearly seared my retinas. I blinked several times, willing to the spots dancing in front of my eyes to go away, when I realized what Terry had said. What did she mean, 'then I arrived?' Did something change because of me? I was about to ask her when she sighed and flicked the camera back to record, motioning for me to lay down. I did as I was told and within a few minutes I was under again.

It was dark, there was wind all around me and I could hear the crackling of the transmutation. I took a few deep breaths, mentally preparing myself for yet another session of trying to escape my dream. After a few moments, I opened my eyes, thinking I was ready.

I wasn't.

This wasn't my dream. It was my nightmare.

I was in the middle of the restricted section of the library in Central, bathed in the red light of a rebound. There was furniture pushed against the dusty book shelves to create a clearing in the middle. In the center was a chalk outline of Al's blood seal, a transmutation circle that had been coming up a lot prior to this night. Past the darkness and the crackles of red from the rebound, there was a girl standing in the middle of the circle, wind whipping her red hair and my coat around her.

Freddy.

Oh please, don't make me relive this night! Not this night, one of the worst along with the night we failed to bring back Mom or when Nina or Hughes died or Lab 5! Not one of the worst nights of my life! Please, anything but this!

Freddy lets out a scream of pain, one that makes my hair stand on end and my toes curl. I realise I still have my hands on the circle and I pull them away, watching as the red light dies down and the wind stops. Freddy stares at me, eyes wide and still crying out in pain. I stand and rush into the circle to her as she fall to her knees. I reach out and catch her arms to keep her from falling onto her face, voice cracking as I call to her.

"Freddy? Freddy! Say something!"

She stares at me and I know she can see me, but she can't hear me. Somehow the fact doesn't fully comprehend in my mind and I still shout to her. She doesn't move, and when I slide my hands to her arms, they are like ice. I rub them, trying to coax blood into them, trying to make Freddy say something other than sobbing and my name. I see the circle written on her chest is still glowing white and I try to wipe it off.

But she collapses onto me and I quickly lay her down, watching as tears I didn't know I was crying fall onto her paling cheeks. She isn't screaming or crying or even whimpering. Her eyes stare up at me, slowly turning glassy and she is shivering now, chest no longer rising. I bend low, listening for some sign of breath. When a minute passes and I can't hear anything beyond my own sobs, I turn and press my lips to hers, pushing my breath into her. When her chest rises, I stop and wait a few seconds before doing it again, all the while trying to make her hear me.

"No Freddy! You can't die! You just promised me! You just promised you wouldn't die!"

Soon the color is leaving her again and I press my ear to her chest, my heart beating faster when I find that hers isn't beating at all. I curse, pressing my hands into her sternum, counting what I think is a reasonable rhythm for a heartbeat and pressing my lips to hers to give her breath. And I'm begging now.

"Please! Please, Freddy! Winnifred, don't die, please! You can't die, please!"

But she's getting colder under my hands as I press and her tears have stopped. I'm sobbing like a child now because I know it's no good. She had just promised she wouldn't die, yet here she was, still and frozen. I lift her up into my lap, running my flesh hand through her hair and leaning my forehead against hers as the last little bit of light in her eyes fades. I hold her tighter, shutting my eyes tight and kissing her lips gently.

"Please! Winnifred, you broke your promise!"

I press my face into her neck, still sobbing when I feel warmth spread through her. I think that maybe she is coming back to me and I look up. I don't see her eyes light up, but rather the soft glow of the circle on her chest brighten. The heat of her increases until it's burning me but I don't let her go. The light is spreading, so bright that it's almost blinding. She's becoming lighter, so light that I can barely feel her and then all at once with a last flash of light, she is gone, leaving me grasping nothing but my coat.

"Winnifred…"

I stare, eyes wide at where she was a moment ago, my arms still outstretched from holding her. I feel tears stream my face in a river, but all I can think is she left. She died. She broke her promise. Winnifred was dead. I close my eyes, chest tight and painful and I cry out one word through clenched teeth.

"Winnifred!"

When I open my eyes, I am not in the library in Central. I am laying on the bed in Terry's bedroom, gasping for breath and tears streaming down my face. I sit up, heaving for moment before sobs overtake me. My shoulders shake and my throat hurts from the force of it all, but I can't stop, even though I can't breathe.

I feel hands grasp my shoulders and I open my eyes briefly to see Terry sit next to me, holding me up to keep from falling to the floor. She doesn't say anything, but she stares at me wide eyed and horrified. I shiver and a noise makes me look up.

Freddy is standing at the door, staring at me with a mix of many things I can't make out at this point. It stuns me into silent sobs and I watch as she shakes her head, looking as if she herself is about to sob. And then, she did something I thought was as painful as the nightmare. She didn't die, she didn't fade away.

She ran.


I really wanted to do one of Ed's POV of the night Freddy died. Drama Llama!