Thanks for the reviews again. :)
I hope I can keep up my work to your likings and not let it turn out a little boring seeing my voacbulary isn't the richest.
Anyways, enjoy!
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The blonde man remained silent for another while. "I will go then." Her silence felt almost oppressive.
"Amanda. I know there is more than you would tell me." She twitched at his words and pulled her legs close curling up. "If you wish, though, to inform me about it, do not hesitate to send me a letter."
He was about to leave the room as the wisp lying in the bed spoke "There was a man. I met him at the gas station. He was friendly. His fragile appareance should not have fooled me. He was the one causing the accident. I remember him telling me 'It is the the cuicifix my friend yearned for.' I did not understand what he meant by that though." She weeped.
"Crucifix, you say?" Hohenheim paused. "What happened to this man?" he asked gently taking his seat again.
"He." She hesitated. "He stopped his car in the middle of the crossing causing thousands to bump into him. Inlcuding me." Her words were heavy and dull, interrupted by sobbing every now and then.
"Was there anything else he might have said?" the blonde man sitting by her bed asked placidly.
"You know, it was weird." She began sobbing heavily. "He said something like a rhyme. A weird rhyme."
"What was the rhyme like?" the other retorted placidly again closing his eyes.
"Don't think of as being a crazy woman that is suffering from post-shock." She paused catching her breath "I heard him mumble something along the lines of 'praying to the crucifix' and 'then they were only six.' Those were the words I understood. Weird, eh?"
The blonde man nodded his head thoughtfully.
"Thanks Amanda. I shall return to visit you tomorrow. Until then, get some rest and sleep well." He gently brushed his hand over her arm and left the room. He strode to the main entrance and ran outside into the cold air. Oppressively it hit his face. He reached into the inside of this brown leather jacket and drew out a piece of paper. Carefully he unfolded it and read: "7 Alchemists praying to the crucifix, one wanted to play god though, then they were only six."
"So the one causing the accident… It was suicide."
Instantaneous he rushed back home. "Where the next hint then? Might this man even have survived? This might just aggravate it."
Back home Hohenheim threw his coat next to the coat stand, strode his boots off and collapsed on the couch. It was a tiresome day. Since ever Trisha was captured his days seemed to rush by so fast. Every day seemed like the other, chasing from hint to hint. "What would happen if I just ignore them? This or that way, the continue to murder, continue with the rhyme. But how would I ever reach my beloved wife again, if I don't go to the end? What awaits me when I reach it? Are they just going to wait there for me and tell me? Or will there just be another quiz?" he thought.
"Stupid old man." Edward leant onto the doorframe in his boxers.
"Did I say all this out loud? Sorry. Wasn't my intention." He grunted in a tired voice.
"You told me it is their game. Just go be a good boy and play it. You can always stop but never start it again." Ed mumbeled slightly annoyed.
His son's words ran through his mind. "That's what I believe." Ed added indifferently and turned round to leave the room.
"Know what, Edward?" He arranged himself into a sitting position to be able to face his son.
"You are old enough to go with me. I have a plan. I want to sneak into the morgue and get a look at the man's body that commited suicide. The accident Mrs. Huber was involved with." Hohenheim rested his face in his palms.
"I would like to go with you. But." He stretched out and yawned heartily. "I need to get some rest. Winry and Rose wore me out with their questions about physics. And I suck so bad at Physics." He tousled his hair and went back upstairs.
Hohenheim remained in his pose for another half hour thinking hard about the past incidents. Was there possibly any connection he did not see? Any hints that were not as obvious as the letters?
The sun rose like every morning. Everyone sat at the table eating breakfast. Hohenheim devotingly played the father-role and served good breakfast. His guise strode out of the kitchen again.
In a few minutes time he returned with thermometer to take Al's temperature. To Ed this scene seemed familiar, just that instead of the well-curved and dapper brown haired woman with a gentle smile a blonde haired, rather disinclined man to any housework shifted his feet over the ground.
Today Edward had no school, much to the boy's comfort. He had never been in a morgue, but he was looking forward to it.
The father and the elder son left the house. Hohenheim had brought his old white coats looking like a doctor's. In fact, they were old ones from the times he spent in the laboratory. His plan was to sneak into the morgue with those and fake admission-passports pretending to be doctor's ordered the examine the body. He was sure, that if the man that had once been working there a couple of years ago was still there, he would have it easy sneaking in. The guise of a smudgy young black-haired man with big glasses appeared in front of his inner eye. This man still had a favor to return to him. He pulled the car up close to the morgue, beaming.
"Good morning, Mr Giles." Hohenheim cheered and waved Hello to the man standing behind the counter. The computer screen covered his face. Instantaneous he jumped off the chair and faced the two visitors. "How's it going?" Hohenheim cheered once again. Judging by the other's puzzeled facehe could have affirmed he was not happy to see the blonde man's face again.
"Mr. Elric!" He suddenly cried in joy and hugged him warmly. "Oh I am great."
"What means as much as boring yourself to death here, huh?" Edward commented taking a look around.
"Good old Mr. Giles, can I as you for a favor?"
"Oh call me John, like in old times. No need to be so formal." The other replied placidly and patted Hohenheim's back.
"I would like you to let me have a look at the young man brought in here. He was the cause for the mass-accident yesterday. I forgot the name, though."
"Oh, that man." John's voice grew serious. "Yes yes he was brought here. I have yet not taken a look at him. But dear, he looks bad. I've heard he has a couple of really strange tatoos. People assume he belongs to some sect. Are you sure you really want to have a look at him?"
"Yes. Don't worry. I just need to take a quick look." Hohenheim affirmed.
"Ok then, follow me please." John went behind the counter and opened a big grey iron drawer. His fingers ran through a couple of files provded with letters. "There it is." He pulled out a long yellowish file. "Box number 5, alright. Come with me."
The younger and the older Elric followed the tall young man to a heavy thick door to their left. Two small windows allowed insight into the room lying behind. As they entered the room a cold wave punched their faces. Edward shivered. Not only because it was cold inside here but at the sight of all those metal "beds". Bowls hung from the ceiling and things looking like a scale to weigh the organs with hung next to each of those beds. On the right side it looked like a bunch of lockers next to each other. Each of them had their own little handle. Ed knew though, that those were not lockers like you knew them from school, rather lockers to store a human body in.
"Ok here we are." John opened one of those lockers and pulled a man on some kind of tray out. In order to move the body to one of the metal beds they saw before he got himself an incredibly big tray with wheels and shifted the body.
Ed's stomach cramped a little at the sight of a fully naked male covered in tatoos and various bruises.
"I will leave you along here now. Come outside to my counter again when you are done. You can leave him here as he is when you leave. It's not like the dad run away." He trilled exiting the room.
The creaking of the doors echoed from the walls until they came to a rest. Edward gulped and leaned closer to the dead body.
Hohenheim, calm as if there was nothing to it and started opening the human's abdomen and moved upwards to his chest.
Edward looked away concentrating on something else, but what was there to concenatrate on seeing all those instruments. How could someone possibly choose roaming througha human's organs as a job?
"Oh, how interesting. See what I found." Hohenheim chuckeled and held up something bloody. Edward fighting against the urge of throwing up decided to nod looking somewhere else. "Yeah, nice."
"You didn't even look, you wimp. The hints are getting harder to obtain."
"So what exactly did you find?" twitched Ed.
"A condom inside this man's stomach. And a piece of paper inside. Obviously this would be hard for him to digest." He chuckeled once again. "Idid not expect them to make it this hard."
"A con-?" Ed stammered.
"Don't choke on such a simple word." He patted his sons shoulder. "Come on. We are heading out of here."
They left the room again stepping into the caressing warmth. "We are done john. Thanks again." He smiled and handed the black haired man his file again.
"Oh Anytime my friend. If you need anything else, feel free to come back whenever you want." Both men shook hands while Edward sneaked away from this creepy place. He sat in the car already as his dad opened the door to join his son. "You did not like it in there, I suppose?"
"Nevermind." Ed grunted shifting around in his seat nervously. "Let's just get home."