Not to brag or anything, but I'm super happy with how this turned out. Let me know what parts left an impression on you!
"Shit! Fullmetal!" Roy nearly ran over across the unstable floor, but Hawkeye's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Sir, the entire floor will give way!"
"Where the hell did he go!?" What's down there!?"
"Take it easy! The maps are old and water damaged, there's notes about a basement, but not much information..." Hughes admitted.
"Well there has to be another entrance!"
He landed below with a splash, and nearly fell on his face. It was dark here- the inky darkness clung, and it took several moments for his eyes to adjust to the utter abscence of light.
Slowly, he straightened himself out, looking around.
The water was up to his knees- stagnant and rancid, it looked like he was in a flooded basement of some sort.
There were islands of dirt, garbage and debris.
To his left was a wall- cold, wet cement- and he felt along it with his hands, metal and flesh, until he saw something of interest.
There was a trash island to his left, and he could see brown eyes staring at him. The small boy was laying on the ground, looking over at him but note bothering to lift his cheek off where it laid on the ground.
"Hey- you alright over there?" Ed asked quietly.
The boy said nothing, and Ed stepped closer to him, feeling unease start to crawl up the base of his spine. He was expecting to see the boy's body laying sideways... except... it was only a head.
He could see the ivory glint of spine peering out form the base of the boy's neck.
"Oh- you're gone."
There was silence. Ed took a breath, before he was moving away from the wall, splashing though the stagnant knee-high water towards what he thought was the center of the basement.
There was the sound of metal chains clinking- Ed blinked, standing still and listening.
There was more movement- chains clinking, and a small gasp, almost inaudible. Rats scurried over the trash islands in the darkness, and for a moment he thought he'd just imagined it.
"Is... is someone there? It's okay, I'm here to help, I promise..."
He didn't know what he was expecting. The ghost of the boy whose head he'd just found?
He moved closer to the sound, despite his hammering heart.
He hadn't expected to see find a girl- no older than six years old, with wavy brown hair and silver eyes. She was dressed in what looked to have been a pillow case with holes cut in it- the fabric was dirty, her face filthy and smudged with mud and dirt.
But what struck him most was her silver eyes- as she looked at him- like she was staring right through him...
She was chained to a large metal stake driven into the ground of the small trash island, and when she moved, the shackle clamped to her ankle jingled.
Ed swallowed, trying to find his voice.
"Are you... are you real?" he wasn't sure if she was a ghost or not.
The girl blinked, looking at him sadly. And did something none of the other hallucinations had done- she spoke to him.
"He's behind you."
"What?"
Ed blinked, turning around only to get clipped on the cheek with a dull knife that split open his cheek, sending blood dripping down his face.
He came face to face with a grinning face only six inches taller than himself, and a sneering face with bared teeth.
"Oh damn, I almost got your throat!" the other teenager beamed.
Ed blinked- in the dull light, all he could make out was a shaved head and dark eyes, and the light was flashing off the kid's yellowed teeth.
"Wha- who are you!? Why are you trying to kill me?"
The kid turned, throwing a punch at Ed that he ducked, but he stumbled back in the water- he was having a harder time moving about and keeping his balance in the knee-high water, which was slowing him down.
The kid paused, bringing the dull knife to his lips and licking Ed's blood from the blade.
"Oh- allow me to introduce myself!" the kid beamed. "I'm Wren Trist- and I'm the apprentice around here. I'm going to cut you up into little pieces-" the teenager beamed, smiling at Ed as he stepped closer. "Or maybe I'll knock you out and bring you upstairs. Master Kenuro might like to have you in bed- you are quite good looking. It'd be nice to have a bit of a change of pace."
Ed blinked- "I... you... what!?"
"That's right! I'm the protégé around here! I started out just like these kids- I was one of Master's first toys. But then he realized- I started to like it. He made me more than a piece of art- he made me a lover. And we've been side-by-side ever since! Maybe he'll make you my seventeenth birthday present!"
"It's over! Your master is a psychopath, and he's dead. Put down your weapons and give up. That psycho victimized you too, they can help you..."
The boy blinked, his eyes, which had been bright with ambition, like a cat toying with a mouse, hardened.
"He- he's dead?" And fuck, the kid actually looked upset that the serial killer who'd held him captive all this time and brutalized him was dead...
"Yes. He's dead. Shot by the military."
The boy's eyes were on fire, and he stepped forward, pointing his knife at Ed. "I have nothing to go back to! So I'll avenge his death, starting by killing you! Oh god, you're going to look so good when I cut you up!"
He lunged forward, slashing wildly.
Ed blinked, stumbling backwards and nearly falling in the water, off balance and tired.
He really, really wasn't feeling like he could handle a fight right now- he probably had enough energy left for one transmutation, whether it be to turn his arm into a blade or something else, but he was so tired, his attacks wouldn't be as precise, and he had no idea how to get out of this.
The other teen stumbled forward, grinning- his punch knocked Ed off balance, and he fell to the side on one of the trash islands and scrambled to his feet, jogging away from the other boy on the solid ground, dripping and desperate to escape his frantic pursuits.
"Why are you doing this!? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I must carry on the mission! It's what Master would've wanted!" the boy shouted right back.
Ed kicked out with his automail leg- his attack was slower than he'd have liked, but it met his mark, and the his foot hit the teen's hand, sending his dull knife flying off into the darkness and oblivion with a muffled splash.
"Oh- so you do have some fight left into you. Maybe this won't be a pointless work after all."
"Shut up!" Ed growled, managing to slug the man in the face and send him stumbling back to the edge of the trash island. "Shut up! It's over, just give up..."
"Never!"
The teen charged forward, tackling Ed at the waist, and they both fell at off the trash island and into the rancid water with a splash.
Ed was weighed down with his automail and smaller, and ended up on the bottom of the pile of writhing limbs as they wrestled about.
Which meant he was under water.
His chest cried out for air as a hand grabbed his face, pushing him below the water. Air, he needed air- he was flailing, fighting, struggling, but every struggle made his lungs scream more violently for air, and gray started to creep into the edges of his vision...
Right when he was at the point of passing out, his head was yanked above the water again. The other teen held him beneath the chin, and he was gasping, choking roughly and trying to get air.
Over the sound of static roaring in his ears, he could make out voices...
"That was fun. God, I love to see the look on their faces when they squirm! Unfortunately, it's best to kill you now, then have my fun with making your body into a work of art for your friends to find... Hope there isn't anyone waiting for you to come back home."
Ed's eyes widened. Al...
The teen was rambling on now, about how he'd sodomize his corpse and string him up in this dark hellhole...
"And I'll make the newest little plaything over there watch. Hell, maybe I'll even make her help cut you up- that seemed to be the quickest way to make her cry last time." The short-haired teen pointed at the girl chained on the trash island- she was crying, head down.
"Don't give up! Please, let him go!" she cried.
Ed blinked. I have enough energy left for one transmutation. One. How am I going to get out of this one?
"Anyways, enough speculating- I'll figure out how you look best once I've made you into a corpse. They're always easiest to mold when they're corpses. Like fresh clay..."
That was the last thing he heard before his head was being pushed back beneath the brackish water. He could only see vague outlines- the shadow of the teen's face as he held him down from above, muffled laughter...
His heart was starting to race, and he was running out of oxygen, fast.
I can't die like this- Al.. All needs me...
It was like dragging himself through the mud, but he brought his hands together under the water, flesh hand surging up to grab his attacker's face.
A stream of bubbles- the last of his air- left his mouth, and only one thought flashed across his mind...
Deconstruct!
Blue sparks flew- the force holding him down became dead weight, and he surged upwards with the last of his consciousness, breaking the surface of the filthy water and gasping, choking for breath, and pushing the corpse off of him.
Did I... kill him?
The corpse of the other teen let out a final, rattling breath- his eyes were open, he was bleeding from the mouth and nose profusely, and Ed turned to the side and vomited, horrified.
He dragged himself onto the nearest trash island, finishing dry heaving and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, trying to stop the way he was shaking...
He could hear muffled crying in the distance, and it bounced and echoed around the cellar in a chilling way.
"Please- please say something! Are you okay?" she asked around her tears.
"I... I'm okay..." Ed stood, wincing, and staggered over to the girl, trudging through the water.
Movement came out of the corner of his eyes, and he looked in the corner to see a boy of nine with brown hair and eyes looking at him.
The girl followed her gaze, shaking her head. "That's just Jake. It's okay- he's friendly."
The image of Jake shimmered for a moment, before it was gone, and Ed gasped.
"You... you can see them too?"
"Yeah. Jake died down here awhile ago. But he promised he wouldn't leave me, and he hasn't..."
Ed sat down heavily on the small trash island, looking at the shackle on the girl's bruised leg and taking a shuttering breath. He felt so drained...
"Right... I can... transmute this off, just... I need a minute to gather my energy. Is there... is there another way out of here?" Ed asked hopefully.
The girl nodded. "There's a ladder somewhere on the far wall. That's how they brought me down here..."
"Right. Okay..." Ed swallowed, reaching down to transmute the chain away on the girl's leg and offering her a hand, pulling her to her feet.
Ed glanced at her- he still wasn't sure if she was real or not. She'd spoken to him, like none of the other ghosts had, and they'd said the latest victim might still be alive- but his mind was in shambles, his nerves shot, and he honestly couldn't tell if she was a real person or another spirit only he could interact with.
But if she was a ghost, she was having an awful hard time stumbling through the water- it was up to his knees, but went to just below her thighs, and she struggled- finally, Ed gave up, picking her up piggy back style and half-listening to hurt murmured directions as they stumbled on through the dark.
He ran into the other cement wall of the basement eventually, and felt along it- until after thirty feet of blind stumbling, he found a rusty ladder.
"This is the way out?" he asked hopefully.
The girl nodded.
"Hold on tight, then."
And he started to climb.
At the top of the ladder there was a metal cover, a manhole of sorts, and Ed threw it to the side, emerging and finding they were at the far corner of the factory, past all the dead machines, where the floor was too unstable for the military go to.
Ed's back had started to ache, and he wordlessly switched to carrying the small girl bridal style, stepping carefully on the rotting floor as he stumbled back towards where he could hear soldiers frantically working...
"Mustang?"
Ed seemed to materialize from the darkness around the edges of the warehouse- he was a sopping mess of red and black, clutching a child dressed in rags close to his chest...
"Fullmetal! Are you alright!?" Roy rushed over to the edge of the stable portion of the factory, looking at Ed with a mixture of concern and horror. "Where did you get hurt? Where's all that blood coming from?"
"D-don't worry. It's not mine." Ed stuttered. "I need... your help, with something." Ed admitted.
"Sit down before you fall over. You look like shit. Somebody get a medic over here..."
"I found this kid." Ed motioned to the small girl in his arms. "And I'm not sure if she's real or not. Can you... can you see her too?" he offered the kid to Mustang, trying not to look too hopeful.
Mustang blinked, but nodded, taking the girl from his arms. It was unnerving to hear Ed still couldn't differentiate the living from the dead.
"Yes- she's real."
The little girl blinked at Roy, nodding. "He saved me."
"Saved you from what?" Hawkeye piped up, looking confused.
"There was more... more than one killer." Ed muttered.
The factory floor- formerly filled with the sounds of soldiers bustling- went silent.
"There... what!?" Atkins sounded horrified.
"Where are they now, Fullmetal? Who was it? How badly did he hurt you?" Mustang was handing the girl off to Hughes, dropping to his knees beside Ed and trying to pull the boy's saturated red coat off to check for injuries.
"I forgot what he said his name was. But I think I killed him."
"You think!? Describe him for me..." Atkins was on Ed's other side with his notepad, and Ed swallowed. "Male, teenager- bigger than me. Fucking crazy. Said he was gonna rape my corpse and make the kid watch... I tried to tell him it was over, that his partner was dead, I really did. He wouldn't... he tried to kill me anyway." Ed said, giving Mustang a look that begged to be understood.
"You did what you have to do, Ed." Mustang placed both hands on his shoulders- honestly, Mustang was pretty much the only thing holding him upright. "You found our survivor. That's more than anyone could've asked of you..."
Someone was standing behind Mustang. Ed blinked- over the man's shoulder, he could see the little girl of about four from upstairs, smell the formaldehyde- it dripped off her long black hair and made a puddle at her feet...
"No..." Ed groaned.
"What's wrong, Ed? Did he hurt you?"
Hughes was a few feet away, holing the silver-eyed girl to his chest, and Ed looked over at her, blinking. "Can you.. can you see them to?" he asked.
They were gathered at the catwalks- at least half a dozen children peering over the railings down at them from above, some on the factory floor below...
The girl said nothing, but she nodded.
Ed groaned. "What do they want?"
"What are you seeing, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked.
Is he gone?
Is he dead?
Is it safe to come out now?
Will he hurt us anymore?
What about his mean friend, is he dead too?
Voices echoed off Ed's skull, whisperers circles around him, and form somewhere, a cold breeze blew into the factory, making Ed shiver.
"They're dead! They're both dead! He can't hurt you anymore!" He shouted it upwards at the kids standing on the catwalks, getting to his feet and brushin himself of. "I think... I think his is finally over." Ed said, looking over at the little girl.
But what if it's not?
A male voice, deep and scratchy, sent him stumbling.
He's back!
He's here!
Run!
Hide!
I thought he couldn't hurt us anymore!
The children took off running, scattering and dissolving, and Ed swallowed, eyes going wide. "God... please, no..."
The little girl in Hughes arms let out a scream- Ed looked up to see the man from earlier, the man whose corpse was currently laying at the bottom of the stairs, had her by the leg and had pulled her from Hughes' grasp, and was dragging her across the factory floor.
"Let her go you BASTARD!" Ed screamed, sprinting over and throwing a punch. But the man's specter dissolved into mist the moment his fist made contact, and the girl grabbed onto Ed's legs, chest heaving, as Ed stood, hackles and fists raised, nose dripping blood onto the floor below him...
"What the hell just happened!?" Hughes demanded.
"Fullmetal, what was that!?" Mustang ordered, eyes wide, looking like he'd seen a ghost. And maybe he had, because everyone in the factory had seen a little girl getting dragged across the floor by her legs while she screamed and clawed at the floor, with nothing dragging her.
"Why aren't the soldiers helping us!?" The little girl demanded, clinging to Ed's legs tighter.
"Because they can't see these things, only we can!" Ed said seriously.
"Fullmetal, what's happening!? Answer me, that was an order!" Roy shouted.
But just then, one of the metal chains from above gave out, and the girl who'd been hanging by the neck came crashing down three stories. Her body hit the ground with a sickening slap twenty feet from everyone else.
"What the hell... did anyone touch that chain? I told you not to try and take them down yet!" Atkins roared, turning to his men furiously.
"Nobody's up there Sir, we're all down here!" one of Atkins men replied, looking pale.
Laughter- deep, maniac laughter, rang out through the room.
The little girl at Ed's feet screamed and covered her ears, bursting into tears, and even though Ed couldn't see him, he could hear the sound of heavy boots starting to climb the metal catwalks.
"Even death can't separate me from my dear children..." the voice spoke, and the windows that were still intact on the factory walls exploded inward, raining broken glass down on them all, though there was no reason for it to happen, nothing else...
"Fullmetal- what's going on!?" Mustang crossed the room in three brisk strides, looking rattled.
Ed swallowed. The room was ten degrees colder now, and he'd started to shake.
Other soldiers could feel it too- the raw fear in he room, when dead spirits realize their tormenter had joined them on the same spiritual plane...
One of Atkins men turned to the side and vomited, falling to his knees...
"He's back." Ed said shakily.
"Who is back!?" Atkins shouted, eyes wide like a frightened horse.
"The killer! He figured out how to come back as a spirit, he's here..."
Metal cables snapped, and the hanging body of the second girl came crashing to the ground, landing with the sound of dry bones snapping, like a wicker basket too brittle collapsing to dust...
One of the female soldiers screamed.
A lamp that was still hanging down started to flicker on and off, and everyone stared. There was no way a factory this long could have power...
And then the lamp came crashing down too, shattering into a million pieces...
"Major Elric, what do we do!?" Atkins was in his face, so pale and aggressive Ed stepped back.
The girl wrapped around his legs was still sobbing.
"What do we do, Major Elric!? You're the supernatural specialist here, how do we stop this!?"
"I don't... I don't know." Ed admitted shakily.
A female scream rang out form upstairs- and judging by the way everyone's heads snapped up, they could all hear it, this time...
Help us.
Help us!
He's here! Don't let him hurt us!
He already killed us, don't let him torture us in death too!
"Major Elric, I need ORDERS!" Atkins shouted in his face.
Ed reared back and sucker punched the man in the jaw with his automail fist.
Another set of screams rang out, soldiers were covering their ears, and Atkins was out cold on the floor in front of him.
Ed crouched down, disentangling the girl form his legs. "I have to finish this. Close your eyes and cover your ears, and don't open them until I come back for you, understand?"
The little girl nodded, and Ed stepped forward, nudging Atkin's unconscious body with the toe of his boot and moving the man's arm to his side, retrieving the man's silver revolver from his shoulder holster.
"Fullmetal- what are you doing?" Mustang asked, eying the gun in Ed's hands in alarm. Ed had never even touched a gun before...
Ed swallowed, taking a breath. "I have to finish this."
"Edward, put the gun down!" Hawkeye ordered, voice sharp with fear.
But Ed didn't even hear her, turning and striding across the room.
How do you kill a ghost? Damn Patrick, I wish you were here...
His thoughts raced around his head like minnows in a pond, darting this way and that. I haven't seen Patrick since they moved his body. Maybe... if I destroy this guy's body, he won't be able to manifest spiritually either? What was it Patrick said? Spirits... they use my energy to manifest around me?
He was three steps away from the serial killer's corpse now.
He stepped through the congealed puddle of red that'd grown on the ground around the corpse, and raised the gun.
"I don't know who you are, you sick fuck, but this ends now!"
He straightened his arms, aimed the gun at the man's corpse, and pulled the trigger. The sound was satisfying- so satisfying, when he emptied all six shots into the body's skull.
"I don't know what's keeping you here! But if it's your brain, I took care of that! You asshole!" he turned, throwing the empty gun twenty feet away, and turned to where the man's discarded axe had fallen. "But if it's your heart, well- I'm going to be taking care of that too!"
His first swing didn't do it. His second and third only managed to spatter blood on him. But his fourth cracked the man's chest open like a walnut, and there was a satisfying squish and a gush of blood like the stream of a drinking fountain for a split second that let him know he'd indeed managed to get the man's heart.
Ed leaned heavily on the blood stained axe, panting from his efforts.
"So anyways... like I was saying, you sick, child-raping fuck- are not welcome here! I'm going to destroy your body, if I haven't made that clear already, and you are NOT going to use my energy, or the energy of anybody in here to manifest in this place or torture the spirits left here any longer!"
Ed stood, hefting the blood-stained axe onto his shoulder. "I don't know if this is actually gonna do anything or not, but I'm going to bash your skull in now. Consider it your final send off. Enjoy hell, you waste of breath." Ed snarled, before he brought the axe down a dozen more times- destroying the man's face- his corpse had already been photographed, gas mask removed, and soon the man's skull looked like a melon that'd been run over by a truck, oozing juice and fluids...
Ed fell to his knees in rapidly expanding puddle of red at his feet, panting.
The silver eyed little girl ran to him, wrapping her arms around him, not even caring she was barefoot in a puddle of still-warm blood, and Ed held her close.
"Is it over, kid? Can you tell?" Ed couldn't. But this girl- she could see the ghosts too, maybe she knew...
Because it was quiet. But that fear in the air- the pervasive sense of wrong that made his skin itch and his stomach do summersaults was gone, and slowly, a sense of calm was creeping back in.
"I don't know." the girl said honestly, burying her face in Ed's blood-drenched shirt.
The room was quiet enough you could hear a pin drop- soldiers and investigators alike were staring, slack-jawed, at the two children standing beside a mutilated corpse, holding one another tightly, as the puddle of blood at their feet got larger.
Ed's nose was bleeding again, dripping steadily into the crimson ocean at his feet, but he didn't seem to notice. He was still drinking in the room- the oppressive weight of everything seemed to be gone, but he wasn't sure yet, he couldn't be sure...
Is it over?
Is he gone?
Are we safe now?
Voices and whispers whipped by him, and he straightened up, shouting as loud as he could "It's over! You guys can come out now! It's okay- I swear- I finished it for you!"
And so they did. There was the rumbling- the sound of bare feet on the metal catwalk, and Mustang and the investigations team looked on in alarm as the sound filled the room, small feet running downstairs...
The little girl of about four was first, running over to Ed, her feet sending ripples through the puddle of blood as she hugged his legs. "Thank you!"
"Thank you!"
"You found us."
"He's finally gone!"
Ed looked around, overwhelmed at the number of kids he was looking at.
He wordlessly picked up the four year old at his feet. "You're so young..." he said sadly. "There's so many of you."
And there was.
The little girl of four with her eternally wet hair, smelling of formaldehyde. The black haired eight year old and blonde thirteen year old who'd been hung from the ceiling- they stood a stone's throw away from their mangled corpses, but they looked perfectly fine, dressed in white nightgowns. An eight year old boy- Ed thought he recognized the face, but it was hard to reconcile the smiling face before him with that of the twisted expression of a corpse nailed to the wall.
And more were still coming, he could hear their feet on the stairs- the older ones guided the younger, who looked to be nervous, eyes darting about the factory, like they weren't used to moving so freely.
The fifteen year old girl form upstairs moved rather slowly- she walked beside an eleven year old boy with mousey hair in a white shirt and trousers, holding a daisy in her one hand and holding hands with Stanley, who was grinning, with the other.
Ed carefully watched the boy whose decapitated head he'd found ascend from the manhole downstairs and make his way over.
"Look!" the girl who he'd pulled form the very same basement stopped hugging his legs, pointing excitedly as the boy made his way over. "It's Jake!"
And so Ed did look. And so did everyone else. But Ed had a feeling from the baffled looks they were given that the other adults couldn't see the children. Not like he could, and not like the little girl he'd found.
The boy and girl who'd been made into corpse mannequins of sorts were the last to come running from the fourth floor, the girl is a pristine white gown that stopped just above her knees and the boy in white shirt and trousers. They were holding hands as they made there way over to the ground congregated around Ed.
"My god, there's so many of you..."
"What now?"
Ed blinked, looking down at the little girl of four in his arms, who looked up at him happily. "Can we go home now?"
"I want to go home!"
"Let's go home!" the younger children echoed and chirped excitedly, but the older ones remained quiet, as though their mouths were sealed shut. Maybe they understood- like Ed was coming to understand- that these kids, they would never really return home.
Ed blinked, wiping at his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But... you can't... you guys can't go home..."
"What!?"
"Why not!"
"Don't be mean!"
"But I want to see mommy!"
The younger children erupted into protests, and some started to wail- it was such a sudden shock it sent Ed to his knees.
"Be quiet! Hush, stop it!"
"You're hurting him! He's trying to help us, you must calm down!"
The older children managed to hush the younger ones, who were still crying and looking saddened- the fifteen year old had picked up a younger boy to comfort him, and she bounced him on her hip as she looked at Ed.
"Are we stuck here now? All of us?"
Ed swallowed thickly. "I don't... I don't know..." he admitted.
"What the hell is going on?" Lieutenant Atkins groaned, getting to his feet, a hand on his head.
"Atkins, shut up." Mustang ordered.
The investigations team had gathered in a small huddle of about fourteen adults- others hadn't been able to take it and had fled the factory in terror, and were probably out in the clearing of the woods before the factory.
"What's happening?" Atkins asked.
"Well, Sir- Fullmetal knocked you out, stole your revolver, and put six bullets into the corpse's head. Then he... proceeded to take an axe to it."
"But what about... the paranormal things? They were happening, Ed said the killer came back..." Atkin's eyes roved the room nervously.
"Yes, well, those all seemed to stop once Ed finished taking an axe to the body." Hughes admitted, sounding horrified and a little impressed.
""So... what's he doing now?" Atkins peered over to see Ed standing in the puddle of blood with the sole survivor of the basement, talking to the empty air around him.
"He's negotiating." Mustang said simply.
"Negotiating with what?" Atkins asked, looking perplexed.
"The spirits that remained here. The children, I think..." Hawkeye said simply.
"You were unconscious, but we heard them- we all heard their footsteps on the stairs." Sergeant Chase from investigations admitted.
Atkins heaved a sigh, holding his head. "Right. And... we got photographs of the killers face before Fullmetal rearranged it?"
"Yes Sir, we did."
"Right. Well- now what, Mustang?" Atkins looked over to Mustang, who shrugged.
"Let Ed handle it. He's... I think they're trying to figure something out, some sort of compromise..."
One of he older boys who looked to be about fourteen faced Ed and stepped forward. "We know you can't bring us back... but we don't want to stay here." he admitted.
"We hate it here!"
"We wanna leave!"
"Burn it to the ground!" the four year old in Ed's arms cheered enthusiastically.
"Could we... leave? We've been tied here for so long..." the oldest girl spoke up. "I think it has something to do with our bodies being here..."
"You won't be here that much longer. Your bodies... they're going to be collected by the recovery team, I think, they're going to bring you to the hospital and let your families have ceremonies and say goodbye..."
"We get to leave!?"
"We get to see our families again!"
The oldest girl smiled and brushed tears from the corners of her eyes, looking relieved. "Oh, thank you... but how do we go? How do we follow our bodies? We've been here so long, we don't know the way out..."
Ed's mouth had gone dry, and he was finding it hard to swallow. "I don't... I'm not..."
"Red!"
Stanley shouted, and there, in the doorway to the factory, stood Red, in one piece and dressed in his dazzling white clothes, green eyes and copper hair shining in the autumn sunlight.
"Stanley!" Red hugged his friend and took hi hand, smiling as he strode over to the huddle around Ed.
"Hey buddy. Long time no see." Red said cheerily, as though he were still alive.
Ed set down the girl he'd been holding and threw his arms around his friend, choking back tears. "I's so good... to see you again..." he admitted. "I'm so glad you're here..."
"You came through in the end, man. I always knew I could count on you." Red gave him a smile, looking at Stanley and the other kids.
"I've been stuck in the woods for awhile, but I... I know the way out. You guys can follow me, if you want, we'll all go together." Red offered.
There were cheers and whoops from the children at Ed's feet, and Red nodded, giving Ed a sad look. "I think... I think this is the last time I'm gonna see you, Ed." he admitted sadly.
Ed nodded. He could feel it too, deep within his soul... This was the last time.
"Look out for my sister for me, will ya? I know I've asked a lot of you already, Ed, but it would really mean a lot..." Red admitted, looking nervous.
"You know I will." Ed choked out.
Red nodded. "Yeah. I know." He stepped forward, giving Ed one last hug, and Ed stiffened before he returned it, the thought that he was never going to see Red again echoing through his mind.
"Alright everyone- follow me!" Red turned, leading the procession of children.
"Are we sure he hasn't had a mental break?" One of the investigators spoke up. "He's been through a lot, this situation was stressful..."
"Shut up. Something's happening." Mustang ordered.
Everyone looked up-Where Ed had been animatedly chattering at the air earlier- he was now standing and watching the empty space by the factory door, hand raised in a wave goodbye.
"Oh. My. God."
The hairs on the backs of everyone's necks stood up- because while they couldn't see any people, the pool of blood Ed was standing in rippled, and a dozen bloody footprints were moving across the factory floor and towards the door.
One of the female investigators fell to her knees and began to pray, and another man passed out cold.
Others just watched in pure amazement and awe- team Mustang included- as those bloody footprints of different sizes finally reached the doorway and stopped, leaving the factory forever.
"Wait for me!" the little girl of six who Ed had pulled form the basement was running through the footprints as well, towards the door, but Ed ran and caught her by the shoulders.
"We can't follow them." he said simply.
"But why not? They're my friends." the little girl looked at Ed sadly.
Ed gave her a sad smile- his nose was still dripping blood. "Because."
"Because why!? I don't understand." the girl looked at him silver eyes brimming with tears.
Ed sighed. "Because they're dead, and we're not dead yet."
Saying that seemed to trigger something within him- or maybe it was just that he ran out of adrenaline- because as soon as he said that, he fell to his knees, clutching his head.
"Fullmetal!" Roy rushed over and managed to grab the kid before he was out cold.
Well? What was unexpected, and what surprised you, in a good or bad way?