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Chapter four
Ed was just staring at the door as it swung shut behind Charles Hopkins and Anthony.
Then he swore.
Repeatedly.
"What the hell was that!?" he said, still staring at the door.
"I think that was our tormentor."
"Was he coming on to me?"
"I don't think so, luckily. He honestly seemed more like he wanted to display you on a shelf."
"Because that's such a comforting thought…"
"Fair enough. Are you alright?"
Ed looked away from the door, and his eyes rested instead upon the red stain that was slowly growing on his stomach. "Ah shit! The psychopath reopened my wound!"
Mustang quickly pushed the red button on the wall beside his bed.
Ed could only watch as the blood spread over his stomach. The handcuffs were still keeping him in place and his wound was burning with pain.
He looked over at Mustang, and saw that there was blood spreading on his back too.
"Colonel?"
"Yes?"
"Your back's bleeding."
"Fuck."
"What do we tell the nurses?"
"That someone from our investigation broke in and decided to torture us for a bit?"
"We can't tell them that!"
"How would you explain the handcuffs then?"
"Ah, shit, fine Colonel."
There were two gentle knocks upon the door, and then a nurse came in. She smiled at them and then her jaw fell as she took in the scene before her. "W-what happened here?!" She rushed forward towards Ed, obviously deeming his injury more severe. Ed couldn't blame her, there was a lot of blood, and though he hated to say it, his head was getting woozy.
"The criminal from our investigation broke in and attacked us," Mustang told the confused nurse as she opened Ed's hospital shirt and started pressing his covers against the soggy bandages.
As the nurse hadn't turned off the alarm in the nurse's station, another one soon entered the room. The first nurse quickly shouted out a couple of orders to the other, and a minute later, a team of two doctors and four nurses were inside the room, tending to the two patients.
Ed's wound was sown up again before a fresh set of bandages were applied. He was only released from his bed after fifteen minutes, when they finally agreed to let Mustang get up from his bed and gave him a piece of chalk to draw a transmutation circle with and he released Ed's automail arm so that he could clap his hands and free the other.
He had to get moved into a new bed, seeing as how the mattress and the sheets were stained with blood.
After changing into a new set of hospital clothes, he was finally given the thumbs up to get back into bed.
Which meant that he was just about ready to murder Charles Hopkins by the time all of this was done.
When they were finally left alone again, Ed had quite a few things he wanted to discuss.
"So he's not interested in killing me then."
"Not unless he's into taxidermy."
Ed turned faintly green at the thought. "Aah! Colonel! Don't say stuff like that! I don't even want to think about being hollowed out and then stuffed and put on display that psycho's shelf!"
"Just trying to lighten the mood."
"Well, it's not working!"
"Back to the point then, he said he'd be seeing us again soon. Question is if that is before "the game" resumes or not."
"Or if he only intends to be talking to me. He could have been speaking to both of us or just me."
Ed did not want to meet that guy again on his own. He had been freaked out by the way he had been stroking his hair. It was the same possessiveness he had felt from Grace Hopkins. Almost like he was a doll that one could make behave like one wanted. He couldn't repress a shiver.
"Are you alright?" Roy asked. He hadn't failed to notice his subordinate's strange behaviour.
"Yeah."
"Because you don't look like it."
"It's nothing."
Roy sighed. "Fullmetal, we're stuck in this together for god knows how long, it's easier if you just say it."
"I guess he just reminds me of his sister."
"In what way?"
"She too treated me like I was their possession. When she was torturing me she kept saying "my dear," while cupping my cheek in a caring fashion, and it creeped me out that's all."
Roy clenched his fists. He hadn't known about that. Of course Fullmetal would be reminded of the hell he'd been subjected to in Amsel. Roy was getting pissed off with these siblings. Amsel was supposed to be a once in a lifetime thing, and preferably not even that often. Roy was frankly surprised by Fullmetal's reaction to the event, most people would have to go through some sort of therapy after a thing like that, especially someone who was as young as Fullmetal was. Although it made things easier, practically speaking, it still saddened Roy a bit that the kid wasn't that traumatised by it, because he had such horrors in his pasts.
Roy hated this. He hated being forced to participate in this. He hated the way that man knew things so that they couldn't defend themselves, couldn't stop him from playing with them. He just wished he would be able to protect Fullmetal when he needed it. Because god knew it had been a fiasco in Amsel although they had stopped the killer. Maybe the Fuhrer saw it as a win, but Roy didn't as long as it involved one of his subordinates being tortured for thirty-six hours straight. Especially when the subordinate in question was a thirteen-year-old child.
No, Roy was going to have to stay close to Fullmetal until this was over and done with and Charles Hopkins was a charred corpse.
"Fullmetal?"
"Yes?"
"Promise that you won't go off on your own until that man is dead."
"Uh, okay?"
The kid was obviously confused by his concern, but it didn't matter. Roy wasn't going to let that man get his hands on his subordinate. Roy had of course also noticed the possessiveness in Charles Hopkins' voice, and it reminded him all too much of when he'd read Grace Hopkins' diary.
"When are we going to leave here?"
"I'd say we should return to my house after five days. That gives us some time should Charles decide to change his mind and begin things early."
"Sounds like a plan."
Roy couldn't help but notice the way the kid was avoiding the elephant in the room.
"Anthony looked like he was doing well, considering," Roy said and sighed.
"Yeah. He hasn't been hurt, and he seems to be getting enough food too."
"I guess he sees that we are more compliant when we know that he isn't being hurt. He doesn't want to torture you, after all."
"You, on the other hand, seems to be fair game."
"Yes, but he did still shoot you with an arrow."
"Yeah, cos that's really easy to forget," he said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, and then an idea seemed to come to him. "Hey, Colonel, the files on Grace Hopkins, did they say anything about her having a brother?"
"No. That's what's odd about this. Something's wrong about it all."
"Wouldn't it be easy for someone to remove a medical record stating someone's birth if you had access to them as a doctor?"
"I guess so. Are you thinking that Charles is working as a doctor?"
"It would make sense. That's the reason he could sneak in and out of the hospital without anybody thinking it was odd."
"Maybe, it could also explain how he has so much information. People trust doctors by nature."
"The problem is that even knowing that brings us no closer to saving Anthony!"
And so the next few days passed in growing annoyance and grumbling.
"Good morning, Mr. Elric. Time to wash your hair again!" a nurse said to him cheerfully, bringing a wheelchair into the room.
Ed gently got into the wheelchair. He hated having to be pushed around everywhere in that thing, but he accepted it, just to up his chances of leaving the hospital the day after.
"So, how are you feeling today?"
"I'm very fine, thank you." Ed was being disgusted by his own fake cheerfulness, but he wanted to make the nurses think that he was settling in in the hospital.
They reached the hallway outside of the shower room, when a nurse suddenly ran out, grabbing Ed's nurse by the hand.
"Molly, thank god! It's a nightmare, somebody has put something in the milk bottles in the kitchen and there's about fifteen people with serious stomach issues, and I need you to help me!"
"Oh my! Will you be okay with waiting here for a while, Mr. Elric?"
"Uh, sure." Ed had a bad feeling about this, but was at least thankful that he refused to drink his milk.
Five minutes later, someone came walking up behind him. Ed recognised him a second too late, and had a needle plunged into his neck. He felt his body grow limp, and he couldn't do much more than stare wide-eyed ahead of him as his body tilted sideways in his seat.
"Hello, Edward, dear. It's so good to see you again," a familiar voice told him. "I just had to check up on my golden boy, after all. Let's move somewhere more private."
He pushed Ed into a room, flicking the switch next to the door to make sure that the light above the door said that the room was occupied.
He then pulled a chair up right in front of Ed and sat down.
"Finally I am able to get a good look at you, dear boy." He grabbed Ed's shoulders, straightening him up, before he placed a hand under his chin, tilting his head from side to side, taking in each and every one of his features.
"Oh, I am looking so much forward to adding you to my collection Edward, you truly are special. But I just need to finish punishing you for contributing to my sister's death. So soon, Edward, soon you will be mine. My golden boy. Soon."
Ed was quite frankly panicking inside his numb body. Ed was completely at this maniac's mercy right now. He was frightened by that hungry look in his eyes. No, the Colonel was right, this man was not attracted to him, he was looking at him the way Ed would look if he suddenly found a Philosopher's Stone.
And he wants to add me to his "collection"? What the hell does that even mean?
The man was stroking his cheek, and Ed felt absolutely terrified. This man was insane, completely insane, and he wanted Ed. He suddenly understood the Colonel's concern from earlier. No, he would go with the "strength in numbers" alternative.
Ed could feel some of the numbness leaving his body, and Charles wheeled him out of the room.
As he tried to lift his head on his own, Charles gripped the outsides of his arms, righting him, before he leant down and whispered into his ear. "I'll be seeing you, Edward. Remember, the game recommences in three days."
Then he left him frozen in the wheelchair in the same hallway that the nurse had originally left him in, leaving no trace that he had ever been there.
Ed didn't do anything but smile understandingly as Molly returned apologising to him ten minutes later. She washed his hair thoroughly, brushed it and let it hang over his shoulders to dry.
The minute she left the room after Ed was back in bed, he turned towards Mustang.
"We need to talk."