The 8th Sin
-Crossroads-
Here we are the 12th chapter... one more step closer to the end. Are we prepared to part? No. Not yet.
To lightningstrxu : Where's chapter 12? I can't wait to read it! Hurry up and upload! X3
To tlpg : Chu:) I'm glad you're liking this story so far. Here's the beginning of the EnvyxOC everyone's been waiting for!
To Problematic: Girl, it doesn't matter if you don't review, I can tell if you're reading! (Although leaving a review would be sweet of you... Heheh…) Anyway, I can't wait for your latest chapter!
To sasuto: Thanks for all your support. This chapter wouldn't have been here if not for you and my other reviewers. :)
To everyone else: Thanks for reading this story! Don't worry, it doesn't end here. I have lots more to tell you. :) Stay tuned to the end for me? As I was saying...
There is still much to tell...
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I sat in one corner of that room. If light ever touched that wretched chamber, I would never know. For as long as I could remember, I have been locked up down here, bound by chains as pain pulsed through me every time my heart beats. If only I could see that thing that woman placed on the floor to corner me... the very object that is weakening me...
Darkness has consumed me. I've forgotten how it felt to be under the rays of the sun. The deafening silence was the only thing that accompanied me. Why was I here in the first place, if my destiny was to only be unable to move, unable to live my own life?
I hear sounds outside. I recognized it as what that woman called 'rain'. A loud crack of what I knew was 'thunder' made me shudder. It was cold... so cold... Using what strength I had in me, I managed to curl myself into a ball, my heart beating faster in fear as I wept by myself.
Then, somehow or rather, my surroundings changed. I was standing in a dimly-lit room with a woman standing across of me. She was smiling at me and something about her smile reminded me of the woman who locked me up for what I didn't know I did. She held one hand out for me to accept and there, in her palm, was a gemstone. As red as blood itself and only the size of a pebble, I recognized it as something that I needed.
I held it in my hand now, looking at the small stone. What did she call it? I couldn't remember. One thing's certain; I had the urge to eat it. Something flashed red as I brought the stone to my lips...
"If you're going to sleep all day, I'm leaving you behind," an impatient voice called. Freesia's eyes snapped open as she sat up, not even noticing that Greed had already left his seat and was now waiting for her, leaning against the doorframe of the cabin.
"I was asleep?" she asked, dumbfounded. She didn't remember dozing off, which was a rare thing and stood up, noticing a bag above her head, "Is this ours?"
Greed looked at the weather-beaten traveler's bag, "We didn't bring anything except for some money. What the heck's wrong with you? Short-term memory loss kicking in? All I wanna do is get out of here once we're done with whatever it is that you wanna do."
She wasn't listening. She pulled the bag down from the compartment above her and placed it on the chair. It opened easily as the bag had no locks and inside were just some clothes that looked enough to last someone for a few weeks of traveling. Unfortunately, they were all men's clothes. There was also a small book under some of the neatly-folded clothes and a pair of dark sunglasses that were too big for her.
'Alright! Now I think I can get my adopted father to work some magic!' she thought to herself gleefully and closed the bag, taking it with her, "Let's go!"
Her sudden hyper ness caught Greed off-guard, "Where?"
"To my house, silly! Come on!" she cried, a broad smile on her face as she grabbed Greed's wrist in one hand and the bag in the other, jogging off towards the exit as the train was mostly empty now.
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Her memory of Dublith was still fresh in her mind, so it didn't take her long to locate her adopted parents' house. She knocked on the door, pausing to catch her breath and called out, "Mom! Dad! It's Freesia! I'm home!"
The door opened with that familiar annoying creak and her adopted mother came out of the house, hugging her adopted daughter.
"Alright mom, I need to breathe too, you know..."
"I thought you'd never write!" her mother suddenly said, giving the pale-faced girl a playful slap on the shoulder. She laughed nervously as she rubbed the spot where her mother had hit her; her mother may be scrawny, but she sure packs a punch...
Her mother noticed Greed behind her and asked, "Who's this, dear?"
She looked at him over her shoulder and scratched the back of her head, "Uh... Mom? Is dad home? I need to explain something to you two," she put the bag in the house and pulled both Greed and her mother into the house, making sure to close the door behind her.
"I don't know what to expect, but I'll try my best not to snap," her mother sighed and called for her father, where the sound of multiple books falling on their owner could be heard before the fairly tall and thin man came down the stairs with a forming bump on his head.
"Welcome home, honey," he said with a warm smile. When Freesia giggled at him, he chuckled and said, "A bit of an accident upstairs. My new books don't like me much."
Shortly after that, all of them were seated at the dining table and Freesia started explaining what had happened since day one. (In our case, it's chapter 1. :))
"Both of you can use alchemy, right? I bet you two have heard of homunculi, right?"
"Dear, you mentioned that in your two letters," her mother said blandly, "It's no surprise. We have to apologize for not telling you what you really were."
Freesia beamed. Her parents had known and yet they treated her like a human. They have mentioned that in their letter but hearing it out of their own mouths made her feel a lot better, "Okay, anyway. My friend here is also a homunculus. Mom, don't even think of getting the rolling pin. Just hear me out for a minute."
"Did he do anything to you? You did say that you two had to share the same room in Central, right?" Her father questioned, leaning over the table to look straight in her eyes.
"Never mind him sharing the same room as you! Why were you in the same room anyway?" her mother countered, also leaning over the table and Freesia was starting to feel a bit scared. She can't just tell her parents about the fight between her, Envy and her chimera father. Moreover, she couldn't tell her parents that she liked Greed!
Reason? She hasn't even introduced Greed to her parents and already they disapprove her traveling with him. Plus, her father's suspicious of what they've been doing and he being suspicious wasn't a good thing... She glanced sideways at Greed, mouthing 'Help me!' to him. But he merely smirked at her and shook his head.
'Damn you, Greed...' she thought to herself as her parents lectured her further.
They were done with her not too long after that and she was glad that was over. Her ears felt like they were on fire now and she'd finally got the 'OK' from her parents that it was alright for her to go around with Greed. They didn't look very happy, although they did agree on it...
Not too long after that, Greed had borrowed Freesia's room and not surprisingly, had fallen asleep there. Freesia took this as a chance for her plan to run. Picking up the suitcase she'd stolen, she approached her father, "Dad, can you help me with something?
"What is it? I'm kind of busy right now actually..."
"Please? It won't take long!" she pleaded, placing the suitcase on the table.
Her father eyed the bag, "Freesia... you didn't..."
"We'll talk about that like, NEVER. Please, dad? It's been there since Greed and I got on the train. No one else was in our compartment. Anyway, what I need you to help me with is..." she opened the bag up and pulled out a black coat from inside the bag that looked like it would fit Shou Tucker then placed it on the table, "I need you to teach me alchemy."
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John's search made him stop 'conveniently' in front of a flower shop. It was closed, but a woman was inside, watching him with venomous green eyes. Her platinum-blonde hair fell to her shoulders, her long bangs held back by a single purple hairpin in the shape of a thorn. He didn't know her as a person but he did know that she was the newest State Alchemist in town.
As if reading his mind, she opened the door and greeted him, "What brings you out here in such a rush, Winrain? Is something bothering you?" she asked with a natural slur in her tone, her lips curled up in a smile. John towered over her by half a head and refused to answer her.
She snapped her fingers in realization and held one hand out in a handshake, "Teresa De Lis, Venom Alchemist. I was just recruited a week ago," John shook her hand slowly, surprised by how cold her alabaster hand was under his touch, "Did you lose something?"
"...Just two people," John muttered bitterly, recalling what he should have been doing.
Teresa giggled, "Oh, do you mean two people dressed in mostly black?"
"You've seen them?" John asked, facing the woman. For a moment, he thought she looked like a porcelain doll when she looked at him with those mysterious emerald eyes. She merely looked away, still smiling and said,
"What's in it for me if I do tell you? The girl I saw in particular doesn't look all too human, if you know what I mean... That red mark on her shoulder tells it all..." John frowned at her. She didn't look like the kind of person who'd give away information for free.
The Storm Front Alchemist sighed, "Name your price."
Her smile grew broader, "Jonathan, I'm afraid you're not speaking my language... I don't take money from my seniors. At least, not usually."
Now he was growing impatient, "Teresa, if you're not going to help me, why don't you just say so?"
"Ah... such harsh words from a handsome man such as yourself. Alright then, I'll tell you what you need to know. The catch is; you stop getting involved with those homunculi," she said in a hushed tone, running a pale, doll-like finger up the side of John's face. He didn't like that gesture at all. In fact, she was being friendly. Too friendly for his liking. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from him and replied,
"Who are you to tell me to stop doing that?"
"Jonathan Winrain, I've tampered with many kinds of people before. I can give a wild guess on how homunculi should be tampered with and I assure you, you won't want to go in any deeper than you already have with them," her overly calm façade was unnerving, but that didn't stop John from carrying on with what he's doing. She wrenched her wrist from his grip and turned away from him, attending to some geraniums instead.
Taking out a pair of scissors, she cut the stalk of one with an expert flick of her finger, then (1)tossed the flower to him. She giggled at the expression on his face, "Do we have an agreement?" well, after being provoked; Jonathan wasn't really going to agree with her.
He allowed the flower to slip between his fingers and it fell to the floor, where he proceeded to step on it, "I'll find someone else to help me."
Teresa smirked as she cut off another geranium, "Just so you know, I'm the only one who knows where they're headed to."
John froze at the doorway, where he was in the process of leaving the flower shop. Smirking to himself and shrugging, he stepped back into the shop and closed the door behind him, "Alright, talk."
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Melody's eyes grew wide at the note John had left on the dining table in Rin's house. She just came back from the hospital and she was supposed to switch shifts with the thunder alchemist, until she saw the wretched note. She fell to her knees, heaving an exasperated sigh as Marcus gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder,
"Marcus, why must everything go wrong...? First, Rin 'kicked' us out of the ward after I mentioned Freesia and her friend being a cute couple and now, they're eloping! What more can go wrong?" she whined to no one in particular, though Marcus was clearly there with her. He read through the note and grunted something to her, to which she replied, "Oh, they're not eloping? Okay. If they are, Rin's definitely going to snap..."
She picked herself up off the floor and decided that they should stay in Rin's house in case John decided to call them up and when she checked the fridge and found it almost empty, she sighed, "Gluttons live in this house..." she muttered and picked up her flimsy blue blouse, which went very well with her sky blue sundress and called over her shoulder,
"Marcus, I'm going out to buy some food, alright? You stay here in case John comes back! Oh, and don't even think of touching anything in Rin's room!" with a squeak from her younger brother, she was off, her purse in hand.
She was on her way to the cake shop she went to the other day to grab some cakes (my, don't we have a sweet tooth?) for her and her sibling when someone wearing a traveling cloak and approaching her from the other direction surprised her.
It was Envy, the very homunculus who assaulted Rin in his home last night.
She turned around; being unable to perform the alchemy she was proud of without Marcus or animals in sight and decided to try and find another route to the cake shop, hoping the homunculus didn't see her. Unfortunately, her actions were just to stiff not to notice. Without her noticing, he was walking side-by-side with her, his hands behind his back and he was looking straight ahead with a smug expression plastered onto his face.
Melody squeaked when she finally noticed him and backed up against a wall, accidentally bumping her head on the wall in the process. Oh, what a time to be a klutz, Melody... Envy chuckled at her reaction, "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"You...! What do you want? As you can see, I'm armless and I don't have any back-up-"she was going to ramble on when Envy touched her lips to shut her up,
"Chill out, will you? Even homunculi need a day off," he said with a sudden good-natured air about him. He smiled at her and for a split second, he actually looked adorable.
Melody was dumbstruck at what he just said, "...What?"
She yelped in surprise when he pat her on the head, "Really, you're gonna die of stress one of these days. I mean, I'm not thinking of fighting you while you're armless. Unless of course, you've got thunder-boy and bird-brain here."
Now, she felt a bit hurt after what he referred to Rin as, "Rin's not a bird-brain! He's got a name you know!"
"Well then, how do you explain the wings?" Melody couldn't answer that. She fell silent. He had a point, actually... Envy laughed at the worried look on her face, "Ah... I see... You've got the hots for your feathered friend!"
Melody blushed at this, "No I don't! We-We're just close friends!"
"Tell that to your face; you look like a tomato."
She had to cover her face at this point and Envy was certainly enjoying this form of torturing the poor alchemist. He looked at her mumble to herself in embarrassment and then said, "If you like him so much, why don't you just tell it to him straight away? You'll be crying once he's got his eyes on someone else."
Melody looked away from the homunculus. As a matter of fact, Rin does have someone in his sights; Freesia. Envy noticed this, "Oh, so he does huh? Too bad."
"What do you know about him?" she cried out in anger. However, that anger vanished as soon as it appeared when Rin was suddenly standing next to her in Envy's place. As quick as a flash, he'd held her by the shoulders and planted a kiss on her lips. All at once, her mind went blank and she couldn't do anything to stop him until she found the strength to push the homunculus away from her.
"What are you doing!" she cried out, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Envy had reverted back to his original form and licked his lips gleefully.
"You didn't like it? I thought you always wanted him to do that. Besides, I thought it would cheer you up..."
"SHUT UP!" she cried out, ignoring the looks on people's faces around her as she stormed off. What Envy saw surprised him. She was crying when she left.
And for some reason, having Melody cry had hurt him somewhere deep inside...
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Author's note:
(1) – Geraniums symbolize folly and stupidity. Obviously, Teresa just called John an idiot.
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Awwhh… Envy cares! Isn't that cute? X3
Okay, I think I may as well make my chapters longer from this point on because…
-There will be three events happening at once for the next few chapters.
-I have a lot of things I need to type down to keep the audience reading.
-I just feel that the number of words doesn't have to be butchered as severely if I just extend the number! X3
Okay, that's all I've got for this chapter! Until chapter 13, you all!
P/S: To all my loyal readers, yes, there are two homunculusxOC pairings in here, including some other pairings coming that may not be important... And!
P/S2: I may be doing a crossover with another author's story as I have just borrowed his character and that the story calls for some parts of his story. Otherwise, Jonathan will remain an unexplained character. XD
Signing off for now,
Your friend,
TyrantFlame.