This chapter is all violent and shit :D! If you don't like violence, too bad!
"You little bitch!"
Hazel went flying against the wall, hitting it and falling to the ground like a rag doll.
"I'm sorry father." She said in the calmest voice that she could. She was shaking all over and her head was starting to bleed again. "I know I shouldn't have gone out, and I did. I deserve to be punished."
"Exactly. But that's not the only reason why I am punishing you. Do you know the other reason?" Michael asked.
"Because I'm a no good, heartless murderer. I killed my mother the day I was born and deserve to rot in hell." Hazel muttered.
"I didn't hear that last part." Michael told her, standing over her menacingly.
"I deserve to rot in hell." She said a little louder.
"I still can't hear you."
"I DESERVE TO ROT IN HELL!" the girl finally shouted. Over the years she had been taught to say that even though she didn't mean it. She'd only say it to hopefully get a less painful beating.
"That's right." Michael dragged her up by the scruff of her neck. "You deserve to rot in hell for what you did." He then hit her across the face, closed fist. She now had a bloody nose as well as a bloody forehead and an eye was starting to swell up. Not to mention the multiple bruises forming on her arms from him grabbing her.
"So what did you do out there anyway? Play with your alchemist friend? What did you tell him?" He demanded.
"I told him nothing." Hazel said simply, avoiding his eyes.
"Look at me and tell me that!" He shouted, his spit misting her face. She brought her eyes to meet his and didn't like the feeling that came with it.
"I told him nothing." She repeated.
"Don't lie to me bitch!" He shouted, hitting her again. "You know that if he finds out about our little secret, he'll go tell everyone back at his headquarters and we'll lose all of our money."
"Yes father, I know." Hazel said, looking down again.
"Look at me whore!" He shouted, wrapping his hands around her neck and slamming her against the wall. She closed her eyes tightly from the pain. "I said look at me!" He slammed her against the wall again. Tears were starting to fall from her eyes. "Oh, now you're crying! What do you have to cry about? A little pain? This is nothing!"
"Father... I can't breathe..." she choked, hot tears running down her cheeks.
"Good! Now you know how your mother felt when you killed her!" He hollered in her face, slamming her against the wall a few more times.
"I didn't kill her!" Hazel cried hoarsely. Her stepfather's eyes widened and he released her neck. She fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, shaking all over.
"Are you telling me that you didn't kill her?" He asked, complete shock in his voice.
"Yes, I am." Hazel said, wiping the blood oozing out of her nose. "My mother died because she couldn't go through childbirth for some reason. It wasn't me."
"You evil little-" He didn't finish his sentence but started kicking her anywhere he could. A few kicks in the face, a few more in the stomach, once in a spot that made Hazel glad that she wasn't male, and again in the stomach until she threw up.
"That is absolutely disgusting. As a punishment, I want you to eat it." Hazel looked up at her stepfather with a you-must-be-joking face. "Go on. It was just in your stomach, it can go back." He encouraged, although his voice was cold.
Hazel snarled at her father and spit on his shoes.
"THAT'S IT!" He hollered, yanking her up by her hair. "All these years I've been kind enough to house and give you every kind of luxury and this is how you repay me! Well that's it! No more!" He drew a knife out of his pocket and held it to her cheek. "First, I'm just going to show you just what true pain is." He slowly moved it half an inch down her face, and she winced at the pain and sight of blood. Michael removed the knife. "You see, I'm going to that a few more times before I move to your neck." He described, a wicked smile on his face. He started to move his knife towards Hazel's other cheek when May came in.
"You have a guest sir." She announced rather timidly.
"Tell them I'm busy at the moment." Michael commanded.
"But sir, he's a state alchemist. And he has a large suit of armor with him. He says that he wants to speak with Miss Hazel." May explained.
Edward! Hazel thought, hope filling her.
"Dammit. Send them in." Michael ordered. May bowed and left as he put away his knife. "You stay here. And don't try to escape this time. I'll know." He told Hazel.
Once he left, Hazel sat against the wall, relieved that Ed had just saved her. She could hear voices coming from downstairs. Mostly her stepfather's booming laugh and occasionally Ed's light one. Once she heard Ed yell from a short joke and Al's armor clanking as he grabbed his older brother to keep him from beating Michael's head in. She wished Al hadn't held him back though.
Then they stopped talking loud enough for her to hear from upstairs, so she lay down and pressed her ear to the floor.
"Is something wrong with her?" She could make out Ed saying.
"Well, n-no. Of course not! Nothing's wrong!" Michael was saying nervously.
"Well then, why can't I see her?" Ed demanded.
"Y-you see, she's had, um, a very hard day today and she's resting at the moment. You know she got shot in the head and all." Michael made up. Hazel smirked at his discomfort.
"It'll only take a second. We just want to see how she's doing. If she's asleep, we promise we won't wake her." She could barely hear Al say. Curse the boy's soft voice.
"No!" She heard Michael bark. "I-I mean, you really shouldn't."
"Why? There isn't anything that you're trying to hide from us, is there?" Ed said in a suspicious voice.
"O-oh, of course not!" came Michael's voice. Hazel had heard him lie to guests before when it came to her, but never had she ever heard such nervousness in his voice. Maybe it was because he was actually going to kill her this time. Or maybe it was because he had never been forced to lie to someone as important as a state alchemist.
"Well then certainly you wouldn't mind if we just went to her room to see how she's doing." Edward said. She heard the clanks of Ed's automail leg and Al's armor as they made their way toward the stairs.
"Her room's upstairs, correct?" Ed asked. Hazel heard Michael's footsteps scurrying up to the brothers multiple times as he tried to think up some excuse to make them leave, but Ed brushed him off. Finally, they approached her door.
"No! You can't go in there!" Michael shouted, just outside the door. "I-it's, um, really messy in there. R-really, she doesn't pick up after herself, the floor is, erm, covered, you see. A-and I can't have a guest such as yourself see my daughter's sloppiness." Hazel snickered at her stepfather's patheticness.
"Surely it can't be that bad. I've seen my brother make much larger messes, I'm sure." Al laughed.
Hazel could tell Michael was about to try to make up another ridiculous excuse so she stood up as straight as she could and opened the door.
"You shouldn't talk about people behind their back." She pretended to scold.
Ed stared at her, gaping. He took a step forward but Michael beat him to it. He reached the girl and punched her hard in the face.
"Hazel!" Al gasped in shock.
"I told you to stay out of the way!" Michael shouted, hitting her again.
"No you didn't." Hazel protested, more courageous now that Ed and Al could see them.
"Smartass bitch!" another hit across the face.
"You bastard! Leave her alone!" Ed shouted, running up to the older man and trying to hold him back. His size made it futile though, so Al came up and held Michael for him.
"I really should report you, you know." Ed told the older man menacingly.
"I don't give a shit. What can they do?" Michael told the boy, smirking.
"Anything that you deserve."(A/N: horrible wording!) Ed spat.
"I mean," Michael pulled a gun out of another pocket, "what can they do if you're dead and can't tell them?"
"Even if I die, Al will still report you." Ed told him.
"Not if I kill him as well." Michael said menacingly.
"Good luck with that." Al said. "I have no body."
"But you have a seal, correct? How else could your soul reside in an empty suit of armor?" Michael was smiling like a madman now.
"But... How did you know?" Al asked, nearly losing his grip on him.
"I used to be an alchemist myself. Until I met Hazel's mother. I gave it up for her. She was scared of it, so I stopped. Alchemy was my passion, but I gave it up for her. Then that-" He pointed at his gun at Hazel, "came along and killed her." Michael pulled the trigger. The girl covered her head.
A clang of metal on metal sounded and Hazel looked up to see Ed holding onto her with his flesh arm and protecting them both with his automail one. A smoldering hole in his sleeve showed where the bullet landed.
"Ed..." Hazel whispered, eyes filled with tears of fear and gratitude.
Michael chuckled. Soon, his shoulders started shaking and he burst out laughing hysterically. He fought out of Al's grasp while the boy was off guard and knocked of his helmet and put his gun to the seal.
"Good luck diverting this bullet." He sneered as Al gasped in fear.
"AL!" Ed shouted, letting go of Hazel and reaching out to stop Michael from shooting his brother.
"Halt or I'll shoot." The man threatened. Ed stopped in his tracks.
"Please…" Ed pleaded, not taking his eyes off of the two.
"You'll have to comply with me on a few things." Michael said, his face had gone from maniacal to dead serious.
"What do you want?" Ed asked, hanging his head in defeat, but still looking up with his eyes.
"I want you to leave this town and never come back. This whole day never happened to the two of you, got it? Your superiors are to know nothing of what has happened." Michael told him. Ed nodded. Hazel's eyes widened.
Just outside Hazel's room, May lurked in the shadows. If one had been passing by at the moment, they would notice that she was smirking almost evilly before she turned to go into the room.
"SIR!" May shouted, suddenly appearing in the doorway. Michael looked in her direction for a moment and was distracted just long enough to move the gun off of Al's seal. Ed ran up and latched onto the man's arm.
"Hey! What the-? Let go you little-" He tried jerking his arm in an attempt to get the short teenager to let go, but it didn't work. He tried pulling the trigger a few times, but all it did was put holes in the ceiling. Finally, in a last attempt to get the boy off, Michael jerked his arm particularly hard and both Ed and the gun went flying. The man lost his balance and fell to the floor. Al groped around to find his helmet and eventually did. May dived for the gun and grabbed it.
"Miss Hazel!" she shouted as she threw the gun at the girl. Hazel caught it and pointed it at her stepfather.
"Looks like the tables have been turned father." The last word oozed venom. "How does it feel when you're the one staring down the barrel of the gun?"
"Y-you wouldn't." He said, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Wouldn't I? You were about to do this to me." Her face was emotionless.
"O-okay, okay. I-I'll do anything you want." He stuttered.
"All I ask is that the moment I walk out of this room, you will have no part in my life whatsoever from then on." She told him.
"Y-yes. Of course." He agreed, just the tiniest bit of fear showing in his eyes.
"Good." Hazel pocketed the gun and started walking out, motioning for the brothers and May to follow her. The other three got out the door and Hazel was at the doorway when she felt the point of a knife against the back of her neck.
"You gullible bitch." She heard Michael laugh behind her. "As if I would actually agree to what you tell me."
Hazel ducked and turned around, grabbing the knife blade with both hands. There was a flash of alchemical light and the blade became twisted and gnarled, now unable to cut anything. Michael dropped it in shock.
"I noticed the alchemy circle on it just after you cut my face. Why on earth would someone put an alchemy circle on a knife? I don't know. But knowing you, it was meant for something lethal." Hazel said. She then turned on her heel and left the room, leaving her stepfather still staring at the knife in shock.
Moments later, Hazel and the Elric brothers were outside the mansion, making their way back to town.
"What was with that?" Al asked timidly.
"What was with what?" The girl asked innocently.
"You went completely psycho." Ed told her bluntly, peering around Al to look at her.
"Oh that? I was just trying to sound threatening." Hazel laughed. The brothers looked at her as if she had grown an extra nose and then scooted ever so slightly away from her.
The lightheartedness didn't last long however, as they heard something behind them.
"Hazel... I'm sorry." A familiar voice said as they heard a gun cock.
Another evil cliffy! Ya know, this chapter got kind of cheesy at times too.
NOTICE! There is only going to be one more chapter after the next one! If you want me to make a sequel, please let me know in your reviews! Thank you!