A slightly shorter chapter than last time, for which I apologise to those of you who like long chapters, but I find it much easier to write when I break the episodes up into three chapters. Anyways, just a couple of things to say this time... I've made a slight edit to chapter four (Graveyards and Parties) which you may have noticed come up in your story notifications, nothing major, I literally just swapped Denny Brosh for Heymans Breda for the host of the party, the reason why will become clear in MUCH later chapters. Also, this could possibly be the last update for a while, as next Friday, the 25th I am flying to New Zealand for a year. I would like to get the next chapter up before I go (I'm starting work on it NOW) and if you're lucky you might well have it by next Thursday. After that, however, updates will be very sporadic, as I won't have much free time to devote to writing this. Do not fear though because I WILL NOT abandon this story, it's far too much fun to ditch, and even if you have to wait another year for an update I WILL CONTINUE this story. If I do manage to get any work done on this I will post snippets on my tumblr (my name is eholaura) where I will also be posting photography from my trip, and if you're interested in my travels please do have a look at my travel journal on TravelPod dot com (my name there is billoco and my journal will be entitled Billman's Great New Zealand Adventure). Anyways... on with the story!

Chapter Thirteen

Prisoner

Consciousness returned to Edward along with the pain. This time though it wasn't just his throat that burned; his very blood was on fire, burning through his veins as it carried the poison around his body. Edward slowly opened his eyes to discover that he was lying on the cold stone floor of his own basement cellar. Wincing slightly, Edward gradually and painfully managed to bring his hand to his forehead in a feeble attempt to relieve his throbbing headache. That was when he noticed his ring was missing from his hand, his anger and confusion raising, but even that caused him more pain.

"Where the hell is my ring?" Edward croaked through dry lips.

"You won't need it anymore." Edward shuddered at the coldness in that familiar voice.

Coughing slightly, Edward tried to raise himself on one elbow, but found that even that small task was beyond him. His golden eyes scanned the cellar to find out what the hell had happened to him, although he had a pretty good idea. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw rows and rows of vervain plants on trestle tables under propagation lights, their very presence in the room causing him pain in his weakened state, and standing beside them was Alphonse.

"How long have I been down here?" Edward choked.

"Three days."

"What the hell are you doing, Al?"

Alphonse sighed and knelt beside Edward.

"During the dark ages when a vampire's actions threatened to expose or bring harm upon our race, they would face judgement. They sought to re-educate rather than punish."

"You know what will happen if I don't... feed on blood." Edward took several deep breaths, just saying that one sentence expending energy he didn't have.

"You'll grow weaker and weaker, eventually you won't be able to move or even speak." Alphonse answered nonchalantly. "In about a week your skin will desiccate and you'll mummify. A living corpse. Unable to hurt anyone, ever."

"So you're just going to keep me in the basement forever?"

Alphonse shook his head. "I've injected you with enough vervain to keep you weak. Once your circulation stops I'll move you to the family crypt, and then in say, fifty years, we can re-evaluate."

"I suppose I should've guessed you'd have a stash of vervain somewhere, as a backup, but I never thought you'd have the nerve to keep it here!" Edward coughed heavily.

"What better place to keep it?" Alphonse replied. "I knew you'd want to stay as far away from Risembool, and this house, as you could. You wouldn't come back here lightly, and if you did, it would be more than likely that I would need the vervain to stop whatever nefarious plans you had."

"Well it's nice to know that blood runs thicker than water, Alphonse."

"When you're related to a monster like you, family loyalty doesn't mean as much as it should. You would have done the same if it were me."

Alphonse stood up and walked over to the door; he looked back at his brother when he heard him whisper.

"I'm stronger than you think, Al."

"You always have been, Ed," Alphonse smiled sadly. "But we both know you're not stronger than the vervain."

Alphonse walked out of the cellar and closed the heavy wooden door behind him, locking it for good measure.

"I'm sorry," Alphonse apologised through the barred window. "It didn't have to be this way."

Alphonse turned from the door and made his way back up into the house. Emerging into the kitchen, he closed the door behind him and locked it, in order to prevent anyone getting down to the basement and becoming a life-saving meal for Edward. He might have been weak, but Alphonse had no idea how dangerous his brother could be; if anything he would be more of a danger as he would likely to do anything to escape his basement prison. And he would want revenge.

Alphonse looked at the clock on the wall and cursed as he realised he was going to be late for his alchemy lecture. Grabbing his bag from the table he made his way out of the house, again locking the door behind him. Once Alphonse was out in the fresh air he breathed in deeply, letting the daylight take away his tensions about Edward, but only reminding him of his other problems. He had come back to Risembool to try and lead as normal a life as he could, and now that he was going to college he would have to face Winry and explain to her why he had been avoiding her and dodging her calls for the last few days. He hated ignoring her, and he hated lying to her even more, he wasn't good at lying, but he knew that he couldn't tell Winry the truth. Winry certainly suspected him of hiding something from her and she seemed determined to find out the truth, but he knew that telling her would only put her in danger, and so he would have to feed her more lies just to keep her safe. Besides, Alphonse thought, she was hardly like to believe that he was a 164 year old vampire who had returned to his hometown after over fifty years of living on the run just because she looked like his long dead lover. Hell, Alphonse hardly believed that himself.

Morning sunlight streamed through Winry's curtains, slowly awakening her from pleasant dreams where Alphonse hadn't been ignoring her for three days. Groaning she unwound herself from her duvet and groggily hauled herself out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown and automatically made her way to the bathroom. She was shocked fully awake, however, by the sight of a stranger cleaning their teeth in her bathroom.

"Oh!" cried Rose, startled. "I'm sorry, Winry, I'm almost done."

Winry just stared at Rose for a moment before remembering her manners. "No, it's OK. Take your time."

Winry closed the bathroom door behind her and shaking her head at the brazenness of her brother made her way downstairs. Rose meanwhile was trying hard not to laugh as she finished in the bathroom and returned to Ling's room.

"I think you might be in trouble," Rose chuckled as she flopped down on the bed next to Ling.

"Why? What did you?" Ling asked suspiciously.

"Winry saw me."

Ling scoffed. "I'm a drug using delinquent. A girl in bed is nothing."

They both burst into laughter at that but it was soon muffled as Ling rolled onto Rose, kissing her deeply as they resumed what they had begun the previous night.

Desperately trying to not to think about what Ling may or may not be doing with Rose at that precise moment Winry walked into the kitchen to find Riza sitting at the table, munching her way through a bowl of cereal as she read the morning paper.

"Riza, are you aware of what's going on upstairs?" Winry asked her aunt angrily.

"Uh-huh." Riza replied, not even looking up from the paper.

Winry looked at her aunt, slightly shocked. "And you have no objection?"

"He doesn't have to be so obvious about it, but they're both legal so who am I to judge?" Riza shrugged. "Oh, by the way, I won't be home for dinner tonight. Will you be alright to cook for yourself?"

"Sure," Winry smiled, already planning her take away order. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sitting down next to her aunt Winry helped herself to cereal. "So you're actually going to go to dinner with Kain?"

"Well, I'm going to show up and torture him," Riza smiled. Winry shuddered at the sincere look in her aunt's dark amber eyes; she knew that given half a chance, Riza would actually torture him. "Have you heard from Alphonse yet?"

"Not since that very vague message three days ago," Winry shook her head, and then cleared her throat as she put on a very poor imitation of Alphonse. "Hi, um, Winry, I, um, have something I have to do. I'll, uh, explain in a few days."

"Haven't you called him?" Riza asked with concern.

"No, and I'm not going to either."

"And you're OK with everything?"

"No. I'm not OK with any of it, but I'm not going to cry about it either. I was about to write in my diary last night and then I thought, what am I going to write? Because I'm not going to be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy."

"Alright then." Riza smiled at Winry kindly.

"I'll be fine, Riza. I didn't even want a relationship right now anyway, so... maybe this is a good thing."

At college early for once Elicia was trying to forget about the events of the Ball and concentrate on organising the charity car wash that she had been put in charge of. However whilst she was busying herself by putting up posters to advertise the car wash, Paninya was trying to pry every detail from her.

"I can remember the Ball clearly, up until Edward took me outside." Elicia cursed as she caught her thumb on a drawing pin. "Everything from then seems hazy, but I remember Edward holding me, and he was kissing my neck, or maybe biting my neck. Then I passed out. But it's like there's lots of holes in my memory lately, it's weird. I don't know, maybe I let Edward bite me."

"Why would you do that?" Paninya laughed nervously.

"Can we not talk about it, Paninya? I don't want to talk about Edward; I don't want to talk about any of it. I just want to go back to normal."

"Alright, we'll say no more. Where'd you get that necklace?" Paninya nodded to the amber pendant that Elicia wore around her neck.

"Oh, this?" Elicia held up the necklace so Paninya could see it better. "Edward gave it to me, or he was going to."

"Why are you wearing a necklace he gave you if you want to forget him? It's ugly anyway."

"Get your paws off it then! I like it, and anyway, it was gift, therefore I didn't pay for it, so why shouldn't I wear it? I don't have to remember that Edward gave it to me."

Later that morning Winry met Elicia and Paninya just before history, and as Elicia wasn't going to be in class with Winry, she began to brief her on the plans for the car wash.

"The sexy suds car wash is tomorrow, I expect you there," Elicia said in an adequate impression of a sergeant major. "The rugby team have committed, and the band have signed up. Although I don't think I'll be letting all of them do the actual car washing, only the ones who can pull off a bikini. I want, in your face, sexy." Elicia handed Winry some posters to distribute before moving down the hallway to find a piece of wall that she hadn't already covered.

Winry gawped at Elicia open mouthed, disbelief written all over face.

"Unbelievable," she said to Paninya. "It's like nothing happened."

"Lies and denial," Paninya shook her head.

While the girls had been watching Elicia leave, they hadn't noticed Alphonse arrive. Paninya was the first to spot him, and sensing trouble between him and Winry she quickly bolted into the history room. Winry stared at Alphonse, arms folded, with hurt in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry I haven't called," Alphonse apologised immediately.

Winry shrugged. "No worries, I'll live."

"I was dealing with Edward."

"And did you deal with Edward?"

"Yeah," Alphonse nodded, though not enthusiastically.

"For three days?"

Apologising hadn't worked, so Alphonse was forced to beg.

"Look, Winry, you have every right to be upset with me, but can I explain it all to you? Please."

Winry looked at him dubiously, unsure whether she should give him the opportunity to explain. Looking at his puppy dog eyes though, she melted. She had been asking him to tell her more, and now here he was offering information. Perhaps she should give him a chance.

"Sure," she said eventually. "When?"

Alphonse let out a silent sigh of relief, having earned his reprieve, if only for a little while.

"The Bistro? Four o'clock?"

"Alright."

"Thank you, Winry." Alphonse was about to open the classroom door for her when he was stopped in his tracks by a squealing voice halfway up the corridor.

"Alphonse! Hold up a minute!" Elicia screeched at him. "Where is Edward? He has some serious apologising to do."

"He's gone, Elicia," Alphonse answered, somewhat relieved she wasn't asking him to take part in the car wash.

"Well, when is he coming back?" Elicia asked, so flustered she was dropping posters and didn't seem to realise.

Alphonse bent down to retrieve the runaway posters for her. "He's not coming back, I'm sorry."

"This is a good thing, Elicia," Winry said, noticing the look of disappoint on her face.

"I know that," Elicia said quietly as she took the posters from Alphonse.

Winry doubted that Elicia meant what she said.

At four o'clock on the dot Winry arrived at the Risembool Bistro, and after scanning the restaurant and finding no evidence of Alphonse anywhere, she instead made her away over to a friendly face by the pool table.

"Hey, Russell, have you seen Alphonse?"

"I haven't, sorry," Russell apologised. "We could shoot some pool if you wanted to kill some time?"

"I don't know... I'm supposed to meet Alphonse at four..."

Russell cut her off, and smiling, he handed her a pool cue.

"Come on, Win. We haven't played in ages. I'll let you brick."

Winry smiled back. "Alright, I hope you're ready to get your arse kicked."

Winry took the break, and began sinking the balls without even letting Russell take a single shot.

"Have you been secretly practising or something, Win?" Russell stared in disbelief as Winry potted the 8 ball.

"Just a little." Winry smiled innocently as Russell set the table up for a second match, one that hopefully this time he would get a chance to play.

They played another two games; Winry every so often subtly checked the time as Alphonse still failed to show.

"So how late is he?" Russell asked, Winry's "subtle" clock checks not lost on him.

Winry sighed, partly angry at Alphonse, partly angry at herself for looking so desperate.

"Hitting the hour mark. But I am not talking boy problems with you." Winry said firmly as she noticed the look of concern on Russell's face.

"Why would you? It's not like we're best friends or anything." Russell said sarcastically.

Winry sighed in defeat; she should have known she couldn't have kept anything from Russell.

"It's just... I don't know. What do you think of Alphonse? Is he a good guy?"

"Why? What's he done?"

"It's not any one thing; he's just so secretive all the time. I there's something that he doesn't want me to know, which makes me want to know all the more."

"Secret like what?" Russell chuckled. "Like that he's a serial killer and he keeps a suit of armour in his trunk?"

"No, of course not," Winry said in annoyance. "But what do we actually know about him, Russ?"

Russell shrugged. "He's great at rugby, a little bit of a loner. And as much as I hate to say it, he might be a nice guy."

"So you think I'm being paranoid?"

"No," Russell shook his head and looked Winry in the eye. "I think you should talk to him."

"Talk to who?" Alphonse said a moment later as he walked over to them at the pool table. "I'm so sorry that I'm late."

"What happened?" Winry wondered, as well as how he heard her and Russell talking when he wasn't within earshot.

"I got held up." Alphonse smiled apologetically.

"Is everything OK?"

"There was just something I had to do."

"And you didn't think to just call or text me to say that you were going to be an hour late?"

"Well, I'm clearly not needed here anymore." Russell said as Winry shot him a this-is-what-I-mean look. "You two have fun."

"Thanks for the game Russ, and the talk."

"No worries." Russell said as he hugged her goodbye, then said his farewells to Alphonse before heading for the bar where he could keep an eye on Winry and intervene, not in case Winry needed rescuing, but in case Alphonse needed saving from her wrench.

"I'm really sorry Winry, it was unavoidable." Alphonse apologised again.

"What was unavoidable?" Winry asked, her eyes begging Alphonse for the truth, or even a coherent answer. Instead he just looked away from her, wanting so desperately to tell Winry the truth but unable to think of any feasible excuse.

"OK," Winry said quietly in defeat as Alphonse failed to answer her, and, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, she walked away.

"No, Winry, please..." Alphonse begged as he grabbed her arm.

"No Alphonse!" Winry shouted as she pushed him away. "Don't you get it? Every question I ask you gets a vague non-answer. What is so awful that you're afraid to tell me?"

Winry turned and marched toward the door, and Alphonse began to follow her but she soon stopped as she bumped into an elderly man.

"I'm so sorry!" Winry apologised helping the man steady himself, but he was staring at Alphonse in shock.

"I know you. My god..." the old man breathed.

"I'm sorry?" Alphonse said, confused.

"I know you. How can it be?"

"I think you have me mistaken for someone else, sir."

"No. It must be you. You haven't aged a day..."

Alphonse's golden eyes widened in shock, while Winry looked between them in confusion.

"I'm sorry, sir, excuse me," Alphonse apologised to the man as he quickly ushered Winry away. The man's eyes followed Alphonse all the way to the door. He couldn't be certain of many things these days, but he was certain he had just seen a boy he hadn't seen in over fifty years, a boy who should have been the same age as he, but looking no older than the last time he had seen him.

Outside, Winry had swiftly begun to make her way home while Alphonse tried to keep up with her.

"Winry, please. Can I take you home and we can talk about things?"

Winry stopped dead in her tracks. "Why wait until we're at my house? Let's talk now. What was that little incident back there about?"

"I... I don't know," Alphonse said, unable to look Winry in the eye. "It was... nothing."

"Right. Nothing." Winry took a deep breath, not wanting to leave but knowing she couldn't stay. "Look, I've got to Alphonse, I'll see you around maybe."

"Winry, wait!" Alphonse called after her, but she paid him no heed. All Alphonse could do was watch her walk away from him, and listen to her almost silent sobs as she tried to hold back tears.

Later that evening Kain Fuery was at the bar of the Risembool Bistro, nervously awaiting his dinner with Riza, and was trying to arm himself with a little Dutch courage. He knew that one false move tonight and Riza would never forgive him; he wouldn't put it past her to put a cap in his ass if he so much as looked at her the wrong way. As he was starting his fourth vodka tonic he noticed Sheriff Hughes enter the Bistro, who upon seeing Kain joined him at the bar.

"Evening Sheriff," Kain said politely, then lowered his voice. "Any news?"

Hughes spoke in the same hushed tones, fearful of being overheard. While in years gone by every resident of Risembool had been aware of vampires, nowadays they were just a legend, and the Sheriff intended to keep things that way.

"We went over the entire west side of the lake, all the caverns by the falls were clean, no signs of habitation."

"Perhaps they're staying town?," Kain pondered.

Hughes shook his head. "We canvassed all abandoned buildings and warehouses."

"There has to be a private residence then."

"And that will much harder to locate, if not impossible." Hughes sighed and took off his glasses to polish them. "These creatures are smart; they know how to go undetected."

Kain nodded in agreement. "Although someone who only comes out at night should become obvious pretty soon."

Hughes pushed his glasses back onto his nose. "What about the watch?"

"I'm working on it." Kain drained his glass.

"I knew the Rockbells; that watch is passed down through the men in that family. I'd start with Ling."

Just then Riza arrived, and had been so wrapped up in her thoughts of how she could empty Kain's wallet that night hadn't heard any of the conversation between the two men.

"Hello, Kain," she said deadpan, though she spoke to Hughes in a much warmer voice. "Good evening, Sheriff Hughes."

"Good evening, Riza. Well, I'd best be on my way, I have a patrol to organise." Hughes left, and as Riza was busy ordering several drinks on Kain's tab, he shot Kain a look that said don't screw up this chance to get the watch.

"I can't believe you really came," Kain said turning back to Riza and blanching slightly at the sight of the number of shots she had already drunk.

"You have an hour. Make it count." Riza said bluntly.

After making it home without crying, the pressure had finally become too much for Winry and she sobbed as she ran up to her room. After crying for what seemed like hours she had calmed down enough to clean herself up, and then, without realising it she was reaching under her bed, pulling out the old shoebox with her diary inside and began to write.

"I tried. I want so much to make things right, but every instinct in my body is telling me to be careful. What you don't know can hurt you."

Anyone spot the gratuitous reference to the anime? Reviews greatly appreciated! :)