AN: Hehehe... yeah, hi everybody. You can all kill me now for my horrible update speed. Yeah, this should be my last major authors note for the rest of this story. Yep, I've decided to do a sequel, which means lots more lovely notes from me, YAY! XD JK, but still I'll try to keep my notes to a minimum.
So, here's my final shout outs for this story to all of the people who reviewed, favorited, or put this story on watch. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for all of your support! XD
L is for Love (I love ur name btw, but thank you so much for all of your reviews. I swear that people could probably hear me squealing for miles around when I saw the reviews. Not even joking. Oh, and you were right about the sequel, I'm already started on it, so hope that I can actually get working on it.) Arden Anam (Thank you so mcuh, cause I think that you are the one person who has been with the story since it first came out. And yeah, sorry if it seemed a little OOC, but I'd been planning that scene for a while but I have to agree, it was a little OOC.) Marshpelt (Yep, Ed is a little bit of an idiot, but we luv him anyway! XD) Mewlover13542 (Hehe, yeah I have horrible updating speed. But I'm glad that you like Coldplay, I was a little unsure with the band choice cause some people don't like them, but I'm glad that I went with them anyway. Oh, and please hurry up with your story, I can't wait to read it!) Damarikomu (Yeah, I honestly didn't think that Al and Mo were setting them up, but now that you mention it, that is something that the real person who Monique is based off of would do. *cough cough* MOMO! *cough* And I'm glad that you like the twist, cause I personally don't think that Ed is over Winry in any way at all. XD poor Molly) Redneck16 (thank you so much for favoriting and watching my story. You have made one author verrry happy!) Gaara'sGal (Thank you so much for the fav on my story! :)) EclipseRibbon (Thankies for the fave. YAY!!) HayakkaDogLover (LOL, I loved your reaction. Anyways, glad that I could tell you bout the new season. Can't wait till April! Oh, and poor Ed, I'm not sure if he'd like China, but you'd never know. Oh, and happy Act Like A Valley Girl Day! LOL XD) VampireLover17 (Thank you so much for the fav on the story! :D) SadisticShadowCat (Thank you for your review, I have to say that it really got my reviewing speed going, so YAY! So here's the update for you. :D) AND, my wonderful ahmazingful full of awsome sauce beta reader Thegirlinred93, who I worship the ground that she walks upon (how's that for some serious butt kissin? For putting up with me and all my craziness for 2 weeks and still talking to me, you deserve some serious award for that. LOL, and yes ur sketchbook is a gazillion times worse then mine.)
OMG, that was alot of thanks, but I need to thank everyone, and I am so sorry if I missed anyone. So anyways, please enjoy!
Chapter 13
"No…please don't." A voice pleaded, though whether or not it was me, I don't know because all I could focus on was the figure advancing on me, flames swirling around his face. I struggled against the heat to try and make out who he was, even though I knew that I should be running.
I forced myself to look at my surroundings, ignoring every part of my instincts that screamed run. The scene that surrounded me disgusted me. I was surrounded by a destroyed city completely engulfed in flames. I spied a small group of refugees, huddled together, trying to escape the relentless flames.
I looked back at the man, able to make out a blue uniform for the first time. Sensing me, he turned and looked at me and for the first time. I let out an audible gasp, and he grinned smugly, as if he approved my reaction. He then turned and with a single clap, the ground around me erupted in flames and screams. The horrible stench of burning flesh reached me nose and bile rose in my throat. As I fought to keep it down, the picture of the terrified eyes burned into my eyes and I felt the ground rush up to meet me.
How could he?
The man continued to walk forward, that terrifying smile plastered on his face as he eyed me kneeling on the ground. He bent down, his golden hair falling in front of his face, and tilted his head, as if he expected me to tell him a secret.
I looked up at him, horror filling my entire being at his changed entity. "Why?" I croaked out. The embers and ashes were burning and choking my entire body, yet I had to know, how could he have fallen so far?
His smile faltered momentarily, as if truly trying to find a reason for the death and destruction around him. Then his smile grew back, and the crazed look returned to his golden eyes, and with a clap, the world was gone.
I woke up with a gasp. The world of fire that had seemed so real to me had melted away, allowing me to find that I was in my bed and the burning flames from my dream was actually just the harmless sunlight streaming in through my window. Huh, so I guess the fire was just a dream. Was that Ed just a dream? The horrible images of Ed's eerily blank eyes and sadistic smile flashed into my mind. Yeah, it was just a dream. I could feel my breathing return back to normal as I forced the dream out of my mind. My mind then conjured up another image of Ed and I… I let my mind drift off. Was that just a dream too? No. I answered myself as I let the events of last night replay in my head.
"Molly? Are you ok?" Monique's voice interrupted my thoughts. (OK, it was really only one thought of what the hell just happened?) She then handed me my cup of Dr. Pepper.
"Thanks." I mumbled as I took the pop from her.
"Hey. What happened to Ed? We saw him on the way back here, and well… he didn't look too happy." I remained silent, refusing to answer Monique's question, because honestly I didn't know what happened to Ed. In fact, I didn't really know what happened to me. When Ed returned 15 minutes later, he refused to talk, much like me.
Then rest of the concert went by in a blur, ok more of a fog and the ride back home was silent, other then Monique and Al talking about things that I obviously can't remember. After dropping Mo off at her house, the rest of the night was silent and I went to bed with the question still ringing in my head, what the hell happened?
I groaned as I got out of bed, reluctant to do anything other then lie in bed and sleep. That's when I saw the calendar out of the corner of my eye. Circled in bright red was today's date with my illegible handwriting saying, Mom comes home.
Mom. Oh crap. Through all of the excitement I had forgotten that she was coming home today, which meant that I was leaving today. That thought itself brought a whole deluge of thoughts. I quickly tried to push all of the thoughts out of my head as I went out to the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of cereal.
"So, is Monique coming with us?" Al asked. I jerked my head up, completely caught off guard.
"What?" I asked.
"Well, is Monique coming with us?" Al repeated again.
I couldn't resist. "Why do you want to know?" I said with a teasing tone in my voice.
Al turned a light shade of red. "Well…um…I was just wondering."
"Uh huh." I decided to let it drop however. "Anyway, if Monique wants to come or not, that's her decision, not mine. "
"Good morning Brother." Al said suddenly as Ed entered the room. I looked up and our eyes met for the shortest amount of time. However, Ed broke our gaze and sat on the other side of the table, refusing to meet my eyes.
"I'm gonna go pack, ok Al?" I said swiftly left the table, making a conscious effort not to look at Ed. Once I was out pf the room, I let out a breath that I wasn't aware that I had been holding. God, awkward much?
I went into my room, desperate to get my mind on another subject. Hum, now what do you pack when going to another, previously fictional, dimension? I laughed at the sheer absurdity of the thought and grabbed the nearest backpack I could find. In it I threw the usuals; clothes, money, toothbrush, toothpaste, ect.
"You really shouldn't be coming." I looked up to see Ed eyeing me moodily from the doorway as I packed.
"Yeah, well it's really not your decision, now is it?" I replied angrily as I stuffed another sweater into my backpack.
"If it was, you wouldn't be coming."
"Well, it's not." I mumbled.
"Don't you understand?!" Ed yelled as he marched angrily across the room. "What I'm doing is a basically a human transmutation! I will be offering all of us, mind, body and soul, to the Gate! I can only hope that the Gate will drop us off on the other side. I don't even know if this will work, yet here you are, only wanting to go because it seems like fun!" Ed was now yelling in my face, shaking in pure anger.
I was stunned, never realizing that he was this upset about me coming with. I had thought that I would just be "hitchhiking" with them, never realizing that it was so dangerous. Do you still want to do this? I thought to myself, yes. This isn't just about Ed or Al. I'm only going to see something that I will never have a chance to see again. I will never forgive myself if I pass up this opportunity. I don't care about the risks, after all, you need to give something to receive something.
I softly grabbed Ed's arm and he sat down on the bed. "Ed, I trust you." He looked up at me. "I know that you're worried, but I trust you. And nothing, I mean nothing is going to go wrong."
Ed stared at me. "How do you know?"
Good question. "I don't. But nothing is going to stop me from going, so I might as well think positively."
Ed stared at me. "I just don't want anyone else to be hurt because of me." He whispered softly.
Then why the hell did you kiss me?! "Ed… nobody will." I said softly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to finish packing, so you'll have to leave."
Ed walked over to the door, but then paused in the doorway. "Molly, I really hope that you're right." I looked up at him, only to see him turn and walk down the hallway.
An hour later I had finished packing when the doorbell rang. I started to panic, thinking that my mom had returned early, when I realized that my mom wouldn't ring the bell, instead she'd just walk on in. Curious, I went over to the door and answered it.
"Monique?"
"Hey Molly." Monique croaked. I quickly let her in and took in her appearance.
"Monique are you ok?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." She said as she wiped her tearstained face of some of her older tears as she set down her backpack.
"Why are you here?" I asked, trying my best not to sound rude and make her feel worse then she already was.
"Gee thanks, I feel so loved." She said sarcastically. "Anyways, I'm coming with."
"What?" Al asked from the top of the stairs.
"Yeah, I'm coming with. Molly's right, I would hate myself if I didn't take this opportunity. It… it was just a little hard saying goodbye to my parents. But, I'm going."
I bent down and picked up Mo's backpack and brought it to the top of the stairs, where I watched Ed angrily stomp back downstairs and winced as he slammed the door behind him.
"What's up with him?" Mo asked.
"He's not too into the idea of us coming with." I said simply.
"I'm sorry about my brother. He just doesn't want anybody to get hurt."
"It's ok Al. It's not your job to apologize for Ed." Monique said with a small smile.
The sound of wheels pulling up in our driveway broke our conversation. Mom.
"Ok guys. My mom's here." I said. "Is everything ready to go?" I directed the last question to Al.
"Yeah, I think so. Are you sure that you want to do this Molly?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Hey Mo, can you take my backpack with you to the basement?" I asked.
"Sure." She said, and took both of our bags and went downstairs, shutting the door behind her and Al. It was silent now, besides the softly ticking clock in the kitchen and the quite whining of the dogs as they waited in anxious anticipation by the door. It's now or never. I pushed the dogs back and opened the door.
"Jesus Molly, you scared me!" My mom exclaimed, as she struggled with her suitcase.
"Sorry…" I mumbled, yet my mother had already moved on to complaining about her flight.
"Man, my flight was late to leave and somebody took my seat, so I was stuck sitting next to some sweaty guy and a little bratty kid behind me kept kicking my chair, and then the airlines…" I listened as my mom rambled on and on about her horrible day. Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to leave my mom? All my mom does is take care of me, and how do I repay her? I run away to have my own fun. Ed and Al would've given almost anything to have their mom back, yet here I am abandoning her. I continued to watch my mom as she struggled with her bags.
"Molly, what's wrong?" My mom asked as she stopped halfway to the kitchen.
"Nothing, why?" I asked, my watery voice betraying me.
"Molls, don't lie to me. Now what happened?" She asked more forcefully.
I tried to strengthen my voice before speaking again. "I told you mom, nothing happened. I just really missed you." My stupid eyes started to water as I realized that not only was this the truth, but that when I left, I would only miss her more.
My moms face softened as she noticed the tears in my eyes. "Molly… I missed you too kiddo. Now come here, I haven't had my kiss yet." I smiled and walked over as she enveloped me in a hug. "Now come on Molly, do you want me to give you your birthday gift or not?"
I smiled, feeling better. "Yeah."
BANG! "ED, YOU IDIOT! YOU DID WHAT?!" Monique's voice floated upstairs, soon followed by Al's.
"BROTHER!" I froze as a feeling of horror spread throughout my body.
"Molly, what was that?" My mom said slowly, turning to face the basement door, now looking suddenly ominous. Crap.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Mo and I had a summer project that we have to work on with some kids for school. We wanted to get an early start on it, but I thought that we'd be done with it by now. I'll just go tell them to keep it down." I said and ran downstairs before my mom could stop me.
As the door slammed behind me, I raced down the stairs, taking two at a time. At the bottom of the rickety old wooden stairs was the plain concrete basement, with only an old musty couch and a banged up television to show that we had even attempted to try and make it useful. The couch had been pushed against the wall next to the TV. to make room for the large transmutation circle that had been alchemically etched into the floor.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I yelled as ran into my spot in the circle.
"Sorry." Mo sheepishly mumbled.
"Well, my mom should be coming any second now, so Al, Ed, it's now or never."
"Ready Brother?" Al asked, looking over to Ed.
"Ready." Ed said, and the iconic clapping sound filled the room right as the door to the basement was slammed open.
"I love you mom." I whispered as an amazing feeling of warmth and electricity enveloped me in the brightest turquoise blue that I had ever seen.