Note: Look, it's actually been a week between updates! I'm so proud!
Everyone, thank you so, so much for your kind words last week. I hope this update finds you all well!
Warning! As I'm sure you were all expecting, this chapter picks up where the last one left off, which means... there will be blood. The aftermath of violence. And all the ugly emotions that follow.
Noah's eyes widen.
What… What has she done?
She yanks her hand back and drops the object- a blood-stained pair of scissors- to the floor.
Her hands...
She looks at her hand, spotted red with blood, and she feels physically ill.
"I…" She tries and fails to find the words to say something.
Winry staggers back, eyes wide with shock and fixed on Noah.
Her hand is clamped to her side. Already, blood is seeping between her fingers, staining her white night dress.
Tears blur Noah's vision. She reaches a hand out, but then her knees gives out and she crumples back against the dresser.
Winry has already collapsed to the floor. Her face is a mask of pain and she curls around herself.
"I didn't mean to," Noah manages to get out and her voice is choked, but she's not sure who she's trying to convince.
Winry? Or herself?
Winry doesn't seem to hear her.
Noah can't take her eyes off the blood staining her side.
She drops her eyes back down to her hands. The blood stands out accusingly.
The voices get louder. Footsteps are already pounding up the stairs.
Noah's head snaps up and she looks to the door. A small whimper builds in her throat.
Ed.
But when the door bursts open, it's Alphonse standing there, not Edward.
It takes him two seconds to assess the scene and two more seconds for him to be at Winry's side.
"Winry!"
The younger Elric brother gives her a look that wars between disbelief and accusation.
"What have you done?"
Noah shrinks back.
Don't look at me. Don't look at me. I didn't…
But she did.
The blood on her hands is damning.
She did it.
"Winry?" Al's voice reaches her through the haze of pain.
Her side… her side is on fire.
And Noah…
She can't help the whine that emerges.
The whine turns into a strangled cry when strong arms lift her gently off the floor.
The pain flares until it feels like it's eating her up from the inside. She's burning alive.
"Oh, gosh, Winry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
It's okay, she wants to tell him. It's okay.
But the words won't come. It's hard enough to breathe.
"Winry, just breathe, okay? Just breathe. Please. Just breathe."
Al sounds afraid.
Winry wants to reach up, to tell him not to worry. That everything will be alright.
But everything hurts. Her voice doesn't seem to be working and, when she tries to, she can't manage it.
For once, she's not sure it's going to be alright.
"Let me see her."
Mei kneels beside Alphonse. She's kicked the scissors away, unwilling to touch them, but unwilling to leave them where they are.
She's unsure if Noah still poses a threat, though she doesn't think so, but she isn't going to take a chance and leave them within easy reach.
After that, she's barely spared Noah a second glance.
Noah is cowering in the corner, knees pulled to her chest. Her eyes have never left her blood-stained hands.
Alphonse holds Winry cradled in his arms. Blood has already stained his own sleeves.
Mei reaches out and touches his arm.
"Alphonse," she says softly.
He looks at her. His mouth opens.
Before he can speak, a new figure in the doorway catches her eye.
Ed stands frozen in the doorway, face pale and eyes wide.
Mei works the muscles in her throat.
"Ed…"
There's a moment that passes where Ed can't move. He can't even breathe.
His eyes are glued to the bloodstained figure cradled in his brother's arm. The blonde head and pale face resting in the crook of his elbow.
"Winry?" He doesn't recognize his own voice. "No."
Al looks stricken. "Brother…"
He crosses the room and drops to his knees.
She looks so still. Too much blood stains her side.
"Winry?"
Trembling hands reach out to take his brother's burden.
Al holds her a little tighter, looking pained.
"Brother…"
Ed looks pleadingly at his brother.
"Al, please…"
He needs to hold her.
"Maybe we shouldn't move her…"
"But you already have! Alphonse, you have to…!"
His voice is shaking.
"Edward." Mei's voice cuts in.
When Ed doesn't respond, eyes glued to his brother, to Winry, Mei grabs his shoulder.
"Edward, look at me!"
He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to take his eyes away from Winry even for a second.
Reluctantly, he looks at her.
Her eyes are bright with sympathy.
"She's alive," she says. "I can help her."
"Alkahestry."
Mei nods and Ed backs away from Winry, allowing Mei to take his place.
"How…?" he starts, but doesn't finish.
Bloodied scissors… Blood smeared across the floor...
Ed turns his head to the figure huddled against the wall. She had barely registered in the back of his mind when he had rushed in the room.
If he hadn't already been certain, then the blood that still stains her hands would have been damning enough.
The pieces are connecting in his mind and, once they do, disbelief is replaced by cold, hard anger.
Winry has been stabbed.
When he had been woken up by the clatter upstairs, what he had heard had been Winry fighting for her life.
Noah had tried to kill her and Ed can't fathom why. Winry has done nothing to her.
Nothing.
"Ed…" Al seems to realize where his mind is going, but Ed ignores him.
He climbs to his feet and stalks toward her.
Noah raises her head and there's a dull fear present in her eyes.
Her mouth drops open, but she says nothing.
He stands over her, fists clenched by his side.
Noah stares up at him, but she makes no move to stand. There are tear tracks standing out on her cheeks, but Ed feels no pity for her.
He feels sick.
"Ed!" Al sounds a little more forceful now.
"It's okay, Al," Ed says, quietly. "I just have to report an attempted murder."
Noah yelps as she's dragged to her feet, but she doesn't make another sound as Ed pulls her from the room.
In the hallway, she comes to and, with a growl from between clenched teeth, she claws at his arm.
"Let go of me!" she hisses.
Ed's reaction is instantaneous. He spins around, slamming her against the wall by her shoulders.
"Don't you dare!" he snaps, eyes blazing.
Noah has never seen him this angry before and now, as she shrinks back against the wall, she realizes that she's afraid of him.
"After what you did… I have no time for any of this crap from you, Noah. Do you have any idea…?"
"You don't understand!" Noah almost shrieks at him.
Ed must be surprised by her outburst because his hands fall away from her shoulders and he takes a step back.
Sobs wrack her body and she tugs at her hair, digging her fingers into her scalp.
"You don't understand," she whimpers pathetically. "You don't…"
Ed regards her unsympathetically.
"What don't I understand, Noah?" he asks coldly. "You attacked Winry. You tried to kill her! And you think I don't understand? You think I give a damn about understanding right now?"
He has her pinned up against the wall again before she can cringe away.
She's startled to see tears shining in his own eyes.
"She did nothing to you. For the love of...You stabbed her!"
Noah turns her head away, shoulders shaking.
Her chest heaves and she shakes her head.
"I didn't…" It's becoming hard for her to breathe.
I didn't mean to!
She wants to scream at him, but there's a voice ringing in her ears. A reminder that this would all be so much easier if Winry was gone and she knows… she knows why she did it.
You did. You did. You did.
"You don't…"
Ed just looks at her. Something twists across his face, like the sight of her makes him physically ill.
It's maddening. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
"No, Noah," he says and it's like the fire has been drained out of him, leaving nothing behind but cold, empty disgust. "You don't understand. You're jealous. That's it, isn't it?"
"N-no," Noah stammers. She falls to her knees and Ed steps back.
"You don't understand what love is."
