Brief Commentary:
With nothing better to do besides homework, here's chapter twenty-five for ya'll. :) Couldn't wait for this one - so much damned action is coming soon...although whether not it is in this chapter or the next remains a mystery...until you read it. LOL. -hums Lux Æterna-
Reasons Not For Your Ears
Chapter Twenty-Five
"Ranfan, Winry-san seems to have forgotten her shoes," Ling remarked as he stood by the door, glancing curiously down at the beat up foot wear.
"It's just as well, Ling-senpai," she said in an agreeable tone, "Her shoes wouldn't have lasted much longer - although she's bound to injure her feet in those treacherous alley ways. Don't you agree Ling-senpai?"
"Of course, it's a risk for her unfortunate little feet," he picked up quickly on her emphasis. "I say we let a certain some one know so that he can make sure that she doesn't get any cuts from the glass that is bound to be there, littering the alleys everywhere...I swear, drunks have no sense of manners. Is it really so difficult to find a suitable garbage can? There are plenty of them, after all."
He sighed again.
"Well, let us make sure he's notified about Winry-san's...condition. I'm sure that after all the trouble he's kept her out of, he would hate for her feet to be so sore now."
"Agreed," was the reply. "Shall we ready ourselves first?"
"That would probably be necessary for this evening, I'm afraid. Much glass will be probably littering the streets everywhere we go."
"Should we bring it along? Our broom?"
"The more efficient one; more stability and contains a lot of thick bristles. Much more effective than your average broom."
"I see, then. I will make sure to get it on our way out. Our travel as per the usual?"
"Observing the moon closely? Certainly."
"Yes, Ling-senpai," Ranfan quickly bowed her head and exited the foyer of their condo, retreating to her room to dress properly for this occasion. Ling did the same, peeling off in the opposite direction to his own room.
"Much glass will litter the ground this evening, I am sure."
Winry was deeply regretting her decision - every small noise was much too suspicious, every minuscule movement seemed threatening, and every squeak she emitted when she stepped onto another piece of glass was much too loud. Her body and hands still shook; at one point she had even dropped the revolver and stepped back at least nine paces out of fear. There was also a small regret for so foolishly and blindly leaving her shoes behind, but she knew she would attempt to wriggle her way out of the situation some how if she went back to fetch them. For now she would have to grin and bear it. Perhaps not including the grin part, so much, seeing as she was on the verge of absolute terror, hunting down a mass-murderer who happened to be looking to kill her - not to mention he had already taken the lives of her parents.
She bit her lip hard when she noticed the swaying figure of another drunk moving down one of the alleys she passed, but he didn't seem to notice her and continued on, mumbling something incoherent to himself. Exhaling the breath she had not realized she was holding, Winry continued on, the barrel of the revolver leveled towards the cement ground. She would be ready to - dear God - shoot any one suspicious who approached her, if she deemed them a threat.
It was now that Winry began to especially pray that she would not run into Edward - who knew where he went at night? She couldn't be certain as to where she was in town, but she hoped that it was farther away than he usually ventured in. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she heard the loud clatter of tin on pavement - the top of a garbage can knocked off. She dared not breathe as the hulking figures of a band of three knocked the garbage can to the side and started rooting through its contents, as if searching for something. When they seemed not to find it, they moved on in the opposite direction from where she was currently headed.
Allowing herself a breath again, Winry carefully avoided a shattered beer bottle on the ground, hoping her foot would not manage to find any fragments she couldn't quite see. As she ventured ever more deeply into the alleyways, she felt her stomach lurch and her skin break out in a sweat as she glimpsed who she had been 'looking for.'
Scar.
He sat lazily against one of the alley's brick walls, twirling his handgun between his fingers. A loose bandage on his shoulder flapped in the late night breeze, billowing a few stray hairs onto his tanned, scarred forehead. He didn't seem to have noticed her...yet. Scar was busy entertaining himself by flicking the safety catch on and off, off and on, on and off...Winry couldn't stop the sharp inhale she made. He noticed it immediately, head whipping to face her, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
The red irises widened as Scar realized who she was, a dark smirk making its way onto his face. He noted the revolver shaking unsteadily in her hand and the smirk grew wider. Her fear began to climax as he opened his mouth to speak.
"I've been waiting for this day for five years," he told her, his voice menacingly calm and collected. Scar stood, the hand holding his handgun already outstretched and aiming for her forehead. Out of panic, Winry flicked the safety catch off and, using two hands to support the revolver, fired two shots, eyes wild as they cracked holes into the brick walls of the alleyway. He eyed the gun in her hand warily, a wry smile on his face.
"You've never used a gun before, have you?"
Winry didn't answer, face contorted into one of terror and madness. Her pupils dilated as she pulled the trigger a third time.
"I suppose so," he answered himself, smiling. He in turn fired at her, clicking his tongue when Winry managed to evade it at the last second. "Don't worry, no one will come looking to find who's shooting who. This kind of thing happens every day, I assure you."
Scar paused.
"With the exception that this time, the corpse found will be one of a fifteen year-old school girl."
"I-I'm s-sixteen," she corrected, index finger prepared to shoot at him again. She was too frightened, too 'insane' to say anything remotely coherent. He looked a bit taken aback by her interjection, but nodded.
"I'm sorry, sixteen. Either way, you will be dead."
Scar released another bullet, his face losing all semblance of humor as he narrowed his eyes to aim. Winry let out a yelp and hurled herself to the side, mouth agape as she panted. The scrapes she had earned on her knees and arms oozed a small amount of blood, her minor wounds stinging as her sweat pooled into them.
"Stop trying so hard," he hissed, "you'll only die faster - and I intend to carry this out for as long as possible."
After she failed to reply, Scar continued.
"Do you know why I am going to kill you, and smear your blood all over the walls of this alley? Do you?!"
Winry let out a stifled, desperate,
"No..."
"Your bastards for parents let my wife and son die! They did nothing! My son would've been one year older than you now if he was alive - one year!" His voice was borderline insanity as he kept screaming. "I killed them, those sons of bitches! I fucking killed them and I made them suffer, like my family did! They took away my wife, my child! Fuck, I wasn't even able to attend their funerals! If they can take them away, then I get to do the same! They're dead, the fuckers, and now I get to return the other favor and kill their beloved child!"
Winry's eyes were wide, face streaked with tears as she whimpered, crouching down behind a dented garbage can. Scar found her easily, firing again and again. She leapt out from her hiding place, forcing herself to the ground as he continued to shoot at her. With a shrill screech, she madly aimed several bullets at him, her eyes glazed over with grief and confusion, a desperate smile tugging at her lips as she realized she had managed to catch him in the arm. He stumbled to the ground, letting out multiple hisses of pain as skin was torn and the bullet in his arm dug further into his flesh.
"Fuck," he muttered, realizing said limb was now useless. He stood back up, a lethal glare raking her up and down.
He stood across from her, sweat and blood caking both his skin and hers...
Winry froze; he lifted his handgun up again to aim it, shooting again and again - from his injured arm, the bullets kept missing.
In her hand she held a trembling pistol, pointing it towards his chest, while he had a hand-gun aimed for her head. He let out a snarl and fired rapidly at her, smirking as he noticed every wince she made from each shot. Some how, no bullets buried themselves into her flesh, and she was left standing shakily with tears streaming down her cheeks...
She began to shake, the nightmare she had experienced the night before coming back to her. By mistake, she felt her fingers tug at the trigger again - the bullet missed. Scar snarled and did the same, Winry sinking to the pavement. The white noise in her brain alerted her that there was no pain and no, she was not dead.
No, no, no, she thought desperately, This can't possibly be happening...
She, in turn, fired at him, a sob escaping her lips as each bullet shot from the small barrel. She still had a lot of ammunition to go through, she realized bitterly. She flung herself to the hard cement ground as he returned the 'favor.' How much longer until he was out...?
She stood up, eyes red and warily observing Scar and darting to and fro around the dark corners of the alley. She tried shooting him again, but to no avail. A shape suddenly came into view, Winry's fingers going back to the revolver's trigger; a knee-jerk reaction.
Standing again, she tried to stop her trembling hands from missing as she shot at him - it narrowly missed the side of his skull, as he managed to duck out of the way at the last second. He stilled unexpectedly as another figure came into view. Terrified that it was another person who had arrived to kill her, she shot and shot at it until it slumped to the ground, apparently dead...
Winry couldn't stop the scream from clawing its way out of her throat as she aimed at the shape and fired once, twice, three times, tears streaking down her cheeks.
Oooh, cliffhanger thing o' doom...please don't kill me... Update if I have the time; I've actually got a small homework load this weekend. Yipee!
