Chapter 4
"Did you hear?" handsome, blond-haired Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc asked, joining his coworkers and friend in the break room. "The Elric brothers are here with some friends and they're looking for a way to get rid of those monsters. They actually arrived four days ago."
Sergeant Major Kain Fuery looked up with interest, pushing his glasses higher up on his nose with one finger. "I did hear a rumor that they were back. Sounds like it's true. So where are they now?"
"In the public library, but if they don't find what they need there, I hear they'll be checking the military's library and records room."
Fuery's eyes went wide with fear, and the other two in the room - tall, silver-haired Warrant Officer Falman and stocky, tough- looking Second Lieutenant Breda - both looked up from the card game they were playing. "The r-records room? You mean the one at the back of the first floor, by the stairs to the basement!"
"Yeah... is something wrong with it?"
"Haven't you heard?" Fuery's voice lowered almost to a whisper. "Strange things have been happening down there. People who pass by say they hear noises... a tiny voice calling for help, followed by a low, rumbling growl. Also, books and things have been found knocked off of shelves, and some pages and sheets of loose paper have even been torn to shreds. It sounds like a poltergeist..."
"Aren't there rats down there?" Breda asked. "Maybe they are what's doing it."
"I thought of that too, so I set traps," Fuery answered, "but when I checked them this morning, it looked like they had all been set off. The weird thing is that they were all empty."
Havoc was growing nervous. "Did you actually go in and look around?"
"Well... no. I just peeked through the door. I was too scared to go in. That room is creepy even in the middle of the day!"
"We should probably go check it out," Havoc mused.
"Wait," said Falman, speaking up for the first time. "Maybe we should tell Lieutenant Mustang about this."
"Y-yeah," Havoc agreed. "He's the bravest of us. I'm sure he can find out what's going on."
It had taken them a while to get used to calling Roy Mustang Lieutenant instead of Colonel after he was demoted for killing the fuhrer. Subconsciously, they still thought of him as their colonel, but if, in a slip of the tongue, they ever called him that, he would glare at them with that one eye, making them notice distinctly the eye patch that covered the other one. He had earned that eye patch in his last with the fuhrer, King Bradley, who had -according to Mustang and the Elric brothers - really been the humunculus named Pride. In the end, the change in rank did not make that much of a difference. He was still their superior.
-
"You're telling me you think there's a ghost in the records room?" Mustang asked in disbelief, looking at each of the four superstitious officers in turn. "You do remember the last time you came to me with such a story, don't you? You still owe me for that, by the way."
"You mean the time we thought there was a thirteenth warehouse and it was haunted, but it turned out to be Lieutenant Hawkeye's dog?" Havoc asked, knowing that it was the right answer. "This is different, though! It's not just any ghost in the records room; it's a poltergeist!"
"I thought the dog was even scarier than a ghost," Breda muttered, but no one paid attention to him.
Roy sighed and stood up reluctantly. "I suppose you want me to help you solve this little ghost story? Fine, let's just get it over with. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, but you won't leave me alone until I find it, right? So let's go." The others looked guilty, but Roy was right. Until they were assured that there were no ghosts in their work place, they would be too nervous to get anything done, and Roy knew it.
The first thing they did was check the records room more thoroughly. As Fuery had said, the traps had all been activated, but each one was empty. In fact, they could not find hide nor hair of any rat, mouse, or other rodent, despite all the signs that something had been in the room recently.
Havoc picked p a shred of paper from the floor. "Take a look at this," he said quietly. "This edge looks like it might have been chewed on by a rat or something, but these look like claw marks here." He pointed to each mark and tear as he spoke. "I've never seen a rat with claws that far apart... Do you think it's the ghost of a giant, mutant rat?"
"Why does it have to be a ghost at all?" Roy questioned. "It could just be a particularly large, but otherwise normal rat. Honestly, I almost think you want it to be a ghost."
"No!" Fuery said vehemently, almost losing his ever-present cigarette. He caught it, though, and puffed on it frantically. "We just want to make sure it isn't one!" We're not taking any chances this time."
Roy put a hand to his forehead and sighed. "And how exactly do you plan on finding out?"
"Well, the noises are usually heard by the night staff between four and five in the morning," Fuery explained, "so I think we should come wait here at that time to see what happens. All of us together, of course," he added quickly. The last thing he wanted was to come here in the darkest hour of the night only to find himself alone.
"Sometimes I wonder what would be worse," Roy commented, "being haunted by a ghost or having to deal with you people for the rest of my life."
"Aw, we're not that bad, are we?" Havoc asked, as the others murmured similar complaints at the same time.
"All right," Breda said, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention, then regretting it when the sudden sound seemed to echo despite the low ceiling of the room. "Er, Until then, let's research any stories about people who have died here and might have reason to haunt the records room. Or anyone who would want to curse the place by summoning an evil spirit, for that matter. If we can find out why the spirit is here, we can find out how to help it move on."
Fuery started to say something, but then glanced unsurely at Mustang and stayed silent until Breda poked him in the ribs and asked what he was about to say. "Well, um... I just thought of some people who were connected to this place before they passed away, but..."
"Just say it, Fuery," Breda told him.
The boyish officer bowed his head meekly. "Well, it could be King Bradley, or Maes Hughes..." he looked up at Roy again, and flinched at the stern glare the lieutenant aimed at him.
"For one thing," Roy explained darkly, "Bradley was a humunculus, not a real human, so I don't think he could leave behind a ghost, even if such things existed. And as for Hughes... How dare you even suggest it. He was a great man and would never even think of doing something like that. As for your little plan, we are all still on duty. Do your real job now, and study ghosts on your own time... or I might just tell Hawkeye what you're up to."
There were shudders of fear all around. "You wouldn't!" Falman protested.
"I would and I will if you don't let me get back to work. Tomorrow morning I shall prove to you once again that there are no such things as ghosts." He stomped purposefully out of the room, making sure the others had all exited before he shut the door. He glared at them until they got the hint and hurried back to their offices.
-
Despite Roy's sternness, the four managed to get off work early and made the decision to join Edward's party at the library.
The group investigating the keyhole had worked out a system. One day was spent in the library making a list of possible locations, then, the next day, they visited each of those places that they could reach, in hopes that one would hold the keyhole. They were on their second day of list-making when Havoc, Fuery, Falman and Breda sat down at the table next to theirs. Al was the one who looked up first and recognized them. Then his brother noticed who had distracted him. "Hey," Edward called, disregarding the library's quiet rule, "it's you guys. Long time no see."
The officers waved and responded with softer greetings before returning to their books, but Ed wasn't through with them. "Did Mustang send you here to help us?" he asked, walking across to their table and glancing at their collection of books. "Why are you researching paranormal stuff?"
At that point, a stereotypical-looking old librarian tromped over and shushed Ed harshly. Startled, he sat down clumsily and blinked like an owl until the old lady drifted away, apparently satisfied that she had done her duty in silencing the deviant. The four men snickered lightly after the librarian had moved far enough away, but Ed silenced them with a sharp glare.
"Ahem," Havoc cleared his throat before replying in a whisper, "sorry, but we're doing research for something else. You should probably stay out of it. In fact, I really don't think you would want to be involved."
Ed raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged in disinterest. "Whatever. I have my own work to do, anyway," and he returned to his seat beside Winry and buried his nose in a book, remaining that way until the librarian came back to tell them that it was closing time.
The two groups bid each other brief farewells at the big double door of the library, and then went their separate ways. Edward's group returned to Mustang's house, of course, but the other four went off looking for something to do for the rest of the night. They were too excited to even consider sleep.
-
"So, did anyone find anything useful?" Havoc asked as the group seated themselves around a table in a cafe that stayed open late.
"I read a lot of basic information about spirits," Breda answered, "but not much that at least one of us hasn't heard already, I bet."
"It was the same for me," Fuery said, and Falman nodded his head. "We'll probably have more luck if we look in the records room itself."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" questioned Breda. "What if we anger the ghost?"
Havoc clenched his fists and put on a brave face. "It's our best option! Besides, we already went in once with Lieutenant Mustang, and before that, Fuery set those rat traps. If there's any sort of curse or haunting, it's probably already on us, so whatever we do now won't make much of a difference." He tried to keep his tone sturdy and resigned, but still there was a faint quiver of fear in it.
"But Havoc," Fuery said, "even if we go now, it will be dark by the time we get back to base. Do you really want to go into the records room at night when Mustang's not with us?"
Havoc attempted to look deflated, but was actually relieved. "Good point. I guess that's out of the question, then. We'll just have to wait and see what kind of ghost it is."
"Come on, men," Breda said supportingly, "let's go enjoy our last night of freedom before the curse sets in." His words were not as encouraging as he had meant them to be.
That night in Central, several establishments designed for various entertainments that stayed open late were graced by the patronage of four men from the military who seemed almost desperate to enjoy themselves. Not wanting to miss such a good chance to make money, the owners of said establishments encouraged their carpe diem mood and served them well, and did not even complain about the constant smoking of the taller blond-haired one.
-
At four o'clock in the morning, four rather tipsy figures huddled together on the steps of the military office building of Central, under a pitch black sky accented only by the tiny, white specks of stars. There was a chill, damp breeze from the northwest, foreshadowing the coming of a thunderstorm, but it was too dark to make out any clouds in the distance. It was unusually quiet for such a large city. The only sounds were the wind rustling in the leaves of trees, and the haunting lullaby of a lone nightingale. The four men gathered on the steps did not find this to be a very peaceful night, however. All of them were tense and nervous, despite their mild intoxication, and continuously jumping at shadows. The arrival of the fifth person was an especially great fright.
Breda was holding their lantern, but facing the building, so when Roy came up behind him, the stocky man's shadow turned Roy into a featureless black figure. Breda froze, Fuery gasped, and Havoc shrieked like a little girl. Their reaction startled Roy in turn, and it took several moments to get everyone reasonably calmed down.
"You idiots," Mustang growled. "Why didn't you just hold the lantern where it would light your surroundings? Not that I want to encourage your silly paranoia, but anyone could sneak up on you like that."
"W-we didn't want to attract attention," said Fuery, "but when you put it that way..."
"Let's just go," Roy sighed, stepping past them and unlocking the door, and hoping that the faint scent of alcohol as he passed them was just his imagination. He closed and relocked the door once they were all inside.
The building was silent and empty. The night staff must have all left early. There was an unspoken but mutual agreement amongst the five not to turn on any lights. While it may be comforting, it could also discourage the 'ghost' from showing up.
Roy stayed relaxed and acted normally, whereas the other four were trying to stay as quiet as possible, and wincing every time Roy's footsteps echoed in the wide corridor. They made it to the records room - having carefully skirted around the entrance to the basement, just because basements were also classic places for hauntings - and paused at the door. Roy was still trying to stay calm, but the rest were giving off almost tangible waves of fear, and they were starting to effect the Flame Alchemist. Becoming aware of this, he clamped down on those feelings resolutely. This little expedition would turn out exactly like the warehouse thirteen fiasco. He was sure of it.
He opened the door to the supposedly haunted room and ushered the others inside. They hesitated, of course, and in the end, he had to physically push them to make them move. This irritated him, and that annoyance covered any instinctual uneasiness caused by their fear. "Come on, you are not going to chicken out now. We are going to sit in there until a big rat or some other destructive but perfectly ordinary animal reveals itself to be your so-called poltergeist, got it?"
The others nodded reluctantly and sat down in a circle in the middle of the room, with their backs to the lantern in the center so that they could see everything around them. They stayed still and silent, not wanting to alert their quarry, though they knew not whether it would retreat if startled, or attack.
The little flame inside their lantern flickered on its own, making their giant shadows shrink, grow, and tremble eerily. Sitting so still yet so nervously alert within the silent darkness allowed their senses of sight, hearing and touch to grow hypersensitive. A few specks of dust that had probably been sent into the air when they sat down now went up Havoc's left nostril, forcing him to raise his hand to his nose to keep from sneezing. His hand brushed Fuery's on the way, making both of them quiver. Fuery's shadow contorted as it was spread over both the wall and one of the shelves, and Falman jerked his head to the other side to spare himself from the monstrous apparition. His sudden movement made Breda jump, bumping into Roy, who's eye widened in surprise. Roy however, would not allow himself to be frightened by such little things. He glared at Falman, then turned the look on the others, trying to express how obnoxious and annoying he thought they all were without actually saying anything. Meekly, the four settled back down to wait, each one trying to calm his pounding heart.
Time seemed to stretch on forever, every second an eternity of high-strung terror. Eventually, Roy twisted around to use the lantern light to read the time on his State Alchemist pocket watch, and was surprised to find that they had only been their for ten minutes. It had seemed at least three times that long.
Without warning, a box of files fell from a shelf near the ceiling and crashed on the hard floor, papers scattering everywhere. All five of them jumped, and all but Roy let out yelps of surprise. They huddled together in fear - all but Roy, of course - and watched as a dark shape darted out from the place where the box had been, flitted across the room - drawing gasps and squeaks from the cowardly group in the process - and then leaped in one fluid, boneless motion up the shelves on the opposite wall and appeared to vanish into thin air. Even Roy was staring wide-eyed at the place where the apparition had disappeared. The others were pressed together behind him, quaking in terror. Before anything else could happen, the group scrambled to their feet and backed up against the door, flattening themselves against it until Roy reached behind himself and turned the doorknob, causing them to stumble backwards out of the room. Even Roy barely had the presence of mind to dart back in and retrieve the lantern before slamming the door shut, separating them from whatever was inside.
As the others tried to stare at him and the door at the same time, Roy cleared his throat and brushed imaginary dirt off of his clothes, trying to look as if he had never lost his composure. "I still don't think it's a ghost," he said, somehow managing to keep his voice even, "but it could be one of those Heartless the Elric brothers are dealing with. In fact, that seems likely. If that is the case, I should seal off this room until I can get one of the boys with the keyblade weapons to come down here and take care of it. Even if there is only one, it's still too dangerous to risk someone coming in here and being attacked."
"Y-yeah," Havoc agreed rather desperately. "That must be what it is." He drew a hand across his sweating brow. "Those shadow monsters are scary, but not as scary as a ghost. But, um... let's get out of here now." he was clinging to Roy's shirt, and thus dragged him along as he made his way hurriedly to the exit. The rest followed close behind.
-
"Where have you been?" Riza asked when Roy came back home. Waking up before dawn was a habit for her. It gave her time to get some extra work done before the day officially started, and besides, she was a morning person.
Roy gave a weary sigh. "You really don't want to know."
"Yes I do," she persisted, keeping her voice low so that she would nor disturb the sleeping guests.
"Havoc and the others insisted that I help them with some silly extra bit of work that needed to be done at night. Please don't ask further."
She smiled thinly. "Those guys sure are obnoxious. I'll just have to question them about it later, and tell them not to make my fiance go out at all hours of the night unless it's very important. No, better leave off that last part. They have a skewed perspective of what is and what is not important. Do you you think that will help?"
Roy laughed softly and thanked her with a light kiss. "Definitely. They're more terrified of you than they are of any ghost."
"Ghost? What ghost?"
Roy laughed again, this time a little nervously. "Never mind, honey. It's just something they said earlier, that's all."
-
Later that morning, Roy stopped on his way to the main door of the office building and peered around the corner. The four from that night were standing at the far end of the building, where the currently inactive air conditioner sat against the wall. Fuery saw Roy out of the corner of his eye and waved him over excitedly. "Look at this!" he exclaimed, pointing to an opening above the air conditioner box. It was a large vent that was supposed to have a closable grate to keep the cold air from escaping through it during the hot summer, but the grate had fallen off. It was mostly blocked off, however, by a shelf full of books and files. "This leads into the records room, right to the spot where that creature vanished! That explains how it's been getting inside!"
"You know," said Havoc, thinking about the warehouse incident and wondering just how similar it was to this one, "with that big air conditioner there, I bet even something like a dog could jump through the vent. That thing we saw moved like it had four legs, and I'm pretty sure it had a tail, too. Do you think...?" he trailed off, following something in the distance with his eyes. Roy turned around to see Black Hayate trotting in their direction, fluffy tail held high. Breda edged back against the wall as the dog neared them, but the others moved forward to greet him with cheerful voices and pats on the head. All but Breda had grown to love Hawkeye's pet dog.
Fuery looked at the vent, then back down to the dog and frowned. "He sure has grown... You know, I don't think he could fit through that vent, especially with the shelf there..."
The others, who had also been starting to hope that this mystery would have the same solution as the last one, lost their happy, relieved expressions and eyed the vent uneasily.
"Maybe it was a shadow monster after all," said Falman.
"Or even a ghost," Havoc added, but before last night's terror could return, something else captured their attention.
Behind the building was a fence, and along that fence was a line of bushes. The shrub at the nearest end of the line rustled, and then a small shape extracted itself from the leafy cover. The group watched in dumbfounded silence as a small, gray tabby cat padded nonchalantly towards them. It paused to touch noses with Black Hayate, then proceeded to jump smoothly onto the air conditioner and through the open vent. After a pause, the group heard a frightened squeak, the faint sound of small paws scampering across the room, then the disturbingly wet snap of tiny bones being crushed, followed by contented purring. Hesitantly, Havoc peaked through the vent, and then quickly backed off. The cat crouched on the floor, purring as he happily devoured the bloody corpse of a rat. Each of the others took turns looking, then stood around dumbly for a few moments. Roy had the most interestingly mixed expression of surprise and annoyance. "I should have known it all along..." he said dejectedly. "The squeaky cries for help, the empty traps, and the growing, or rather, purring..." He covered his face with a hand and explained, "that cat belongs to Alphonse Elric, and is supposed to be staying at my house right now. When the brothers first arrived, they brought him up to my office with them. He must have smelled the rats and memorized the way here so he could come back and hunt. It was so obvious..."
And so the mystery of the haunted records room was solved, but only after Lucifer had enjoyed many tasty rats.
