"Where am I?"

Rose couldn't recall anything that had happened after she thought she saw Cain. Her body felt cold all over. Her burns still stung, but they weren't hurting as bad as they used to.

"If this is the afterlife then where is he? He should be here, shouldn't he? Maybe this isn't paradise… maybe this is Hell… wait…"

If Rose was dead, then how could her body still feel pain? Why did she even still have a body?

"No… no… no… no!"

Rose opened her eyes. This wasn't the afterlife. She was floating in what appeared to be a pool full of ice water in what appeared to be hollowed out room in the ground. Sitting a few feet away from her was a man dressed head to toe in black. He was wearing a trench coat, a mask that covered his whole face, and a cowboy hat.

"You're finally awake. You're lucky I just happened to be passing by when I did, otherwise you probably wouldn't have woken up at all."

His voice was deep and distorted, but Rose didn't care.

"You bastard!"

Rose got out of the pool and punched the stranger in his mask, but she immediately regretted it. Her hand felt like she had just tried to punch an iron wall.

"I strongly advise you not to do that again."

"What the hell is that thing made of?"

"I'm dressed head to toe in body armor, it's necessary for someone in my line of work."

As Rose looked down at her hand, she remembered that she was naked. She frantically looked around and grabbed a towel, as she made her way to grab it she felt her burns sting.

"What is a young woman like you doing naked in the middle of the desert? Since you don't have any injuries apart from your burns I think it's safe to assume you weren't raped. The state of your feet leads me to believe that you've been on foot for awhile. It gives the impression that you have a death wish."

Rose was speechless. All she wanted to do was die in peace, but here she was soaking wet, covered in severe sunburns and wearing nothing but a towel with a creepy man dressed in black looking at her."

"Was it about finances or was there a man in it?"

"What?"

"Like I just said, no one would go strolling through the desert in their birthday suit unless they wanted to die. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this has something to do with a man."

"Shut up… you don't know anything about me. And who the hell are you anyway?"

"Someone who cares that you just tried to throw your life away."

"What I do with my life is none of your concern! I lost the only man I ever loved"

"We all lose people, that's part of life."

"Well I don't want to live!"

"Then you and I have a very big problem."

Rose started to run, but just then something struck her arms and legs and they became very heavy. Moments later she fell face first into the sand. She looked up to see that her limbs were covered in thick blocks of ice.

"Now while you're just lying there, I think we should do something about those burns."

Before Rose could protest she felt the man's bare hands against her body. His fingers were coated with a thick gelatin-like balm that felt like freezing ice against her skin. She cried and gasped whenever he touched her, but then little by little the burns began to subside, this relief caused her to moan.

"Don't touch me there!"

"Are you saying you'd rather walk around with sunburn on your legs and backside?"

"I wouldn't have to worry about burns if it weren't for you!"

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, or do you not know where suicides end up?"

Now Rose was actually starting to cry. This was so humiliating. All she wanted to do was die in peace, but here she was lying naked and helpless on the ground with a masked man touching her in places where he fiancé hadn't even touched her.

"Okay, now for the other side."

It was impossible to tell how this person felt about looking at Rose's bare breasts; his mask even covered his eyes.

"Don't make that face; you're the one who walked naked into the desert in the first place. There are much easier and less painful ways to kill yourself; but since you didn't choose one of those options I'm guessing you couldn't find the guts to actually pull a trigger or tie your own noose. You're just very lucky that the first person to find you hadn't been a real pervert, I shudder to think what would have happened then."

So far he had only seemed to touch Rose out of necessity, if he was enjoying it too much then he wasn't showing it.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I've already told you, I'm someone who cares."

"And just who the hell are you?"

"I don't reveal my true identity to anyone; otherwise I'd never be able to get any sleep at night. But I am known throughout Amestris as The Masked Alchemist."

(To be continued)