I do not own the Fullmetal Alchemist

Unclear images swam in front of Ed. Wait-what that his name? Or what it...Charlie! That's the one! He had been called Charlie for two weeks.

'Another one.' Male voice.

'This is our family, sweetheart!' Female voice. Lovey-dovey.

If Ed could stuck his tongue out, he would've. Except for the fact he was gagged and tied up. Sitting on a chair of some sort. Both hands tied behind his back.

Ed blinked away the blurry images and shapes sharpened themselves. He was in some attic-looking room. Wait-the floor was stone; he wasn't in an attic. He was in a basement. Dusty boxes surrounded the place. The only clean things in the room was a makeup table with makeup supplies scattered on it. In front of him was...no one.

Ed coughed. His mouth was as dry as sand. 'Who are you?' he croaked, mustering up as much fierceness in his voice as possible. 'Show yourself!'

There was silence until a cackle. It was the woman's voice. 'Why, aren't you feisty? What do you think, sweetheart? Should we keep him?'

The male's voice chuckled. 'Oh, he isn't sweet. Not the right image. Perhaps we wait, do you agree?'

Ed tugged at the ropes binding him. His clothes were still on, so his automail limbs were still concealed. His wrists tugged further as he tried to note down everything. The voices were coming from behind him. But when he turned around, there was no one there.

'Ah!'

Ed whipped around at the sudden yell of what sounded like a young woman's cry of pain or surprise. It wasn't the same female's voice he'd heard first, but another one's.

The second woman yelled again. This time Ed could hear it was out of fear. Her screams matched his the night his limbs were ripped off. Ed scanned the basement desperately, searching for some clue as to figure out what was happing to the woman.

'Hello?' Ed called. 'Can you hear me?'

The woman's screams bounced off the walls before breaking into sobbing. Ed wanted to squeeze his eyes shut at her pleads for someone to stop. There was the faint cry of some animal and the woman's screams were cut off.

Ed froze. There was something dripping down his neck. His wide eyes slowly shifted to look at...nothing.

There was nothing behind him. Ed took a deep breath before scowling. 'What're you doing? Playing hide and seek?'

The man and first woman's voices laughed. They sounded so familial that Ed could've easily missed the maniac tone. He growled. 'Where are you hiding?'

The hiss of gas answered his question. As sweet-smelling smoke flooded Ed's lungs, causing his thoughts to become fuzzy and blurry. Just as he passed out, the silhouette of a man walking up to him was the last thing he saw.

'You lost him?'

Mustang did his best to not cringe at Hawkeye's glare. He resisted putting his hands up to gesture either surrender or peace. Or both. 'I got the cat but she was moving. Then there was this weird noise like a possum moving around and that's all I heard.'

'You lost him!'

'I'm sorry, okay?'

Hawkeye glowered at him again before saying, 'He was right in front of where you were standing.'

What-oh.

Mustang opened his mouth, but no words came out. 'Oh,' he finally said.

Hawkeye nodded as if that was what she had been expecting. She grabbed her darker clothes, pulling them on. 'Come on, we need to find him before the killer strikes. Remember? That woman Marceline Evannahs was killed not too long ago. She had blonde hair, remember Ed's?'

Mustang snapped into action. In less than five minutes, they had set out onto the streets again to find Ed.

Dahlia licked her claws, washing away Mustang's blood.

The man stood over Ed's unconscious body. He rubbed a lock of golden hair between his fingers and smiled.

Thanks for reading!